POWER

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in late December approved—for the ninth time since October 2010—a solar power project to be built on federal lands.

John Deere Power Systems (JDPS) introduced extended generator drive emergency stationary power ratings for its PowerTech E 6.8L diesel engine—the first John Deere engine to carry both U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 3 Emergency Stationary and European Union Stage III A certification, with dual frequency ratings of 1,800 and 1,500 rpm. The 212-kW rating at […]

San Miguel Electric Cooperative selected and installed an automatic sootblowing system for its Unit 1 to minimize clinkers in the boiler that caused semi-annual unscheduled outages. New boiler surface-cleaning equipment and intelligent cleaning software eliminated these expensive outages.

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), the tiny landlocked country in Southeast Asia of just 6.3 million people, in December inaugurated the 1,070-MW Nam Theun 2 Power Station, a hydropower project in Khammouane Province.

Spirax Sarco launched the TD120M Thermo-dynamic Steam Trap, a product engineered for pressure ratings of up to 3,190 psig that is ideal for draining saturated and superheated steam mains. The steam trap has a maintainable disc and seat, which means it can be serviced in-line—a considerable benefit to customers with welded installations. The trap has […]

President Obama’s Jan. 25th State of the Union address proposed that the nation commit itself to developing "clean energy" sources of electricity over the next two decades. A critical assessment of his proposal finds that it’s just a rehash of previously rejected legislative proposals. In fact, to me, it sounds like Waxman-Markey all over again. I have a better idea.

In early January, Verdant Power—a decade-old company based in New York—made headlines for filing an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a project that could allow it to install up to 30 new tidal power turbines in the East Channel of the East River in New York City.

Rittal’s newly developed TopTherm fan-and-filter units use diagonal technology—an intelligent synthesis of radial and axial ventilation. When installed, it ensures far better air throughput for improved ventilation in enclosures and housings. The new fan technology is characterized by the fact that the air outlet direction is not, as it was previously, in the fan’s axial […]

Duke Energy and Progress Energy announced January 10 that they are combining to create the nation’s biggest electric utility. The $13.7 billion deal is likely to draw tough scrutiny from federal and state regulators—and some protests from big power buyers—given the companies’ overwhelming market dominance in North Carolina and more modest operational overlap in South Carolina.

The Ukraine will on April 26 mark 25 years after explosions at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) resulted in a fire that sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive area.

KROHNE Inc. has added the OPTISOUND VU3X Series continuous ultrasonic level transmitter to its extensive measurement product line to meet the specific level or open channel flow measurement needs of the North American industrial and municipal markets. The OPTISOUND VU30 ultrasonic transmitter provides a reliable, repeatable, and highly accurate (0.15%) continuous level measurement of liquids. […]

In a decision blasted by the coal industry as making the state "dangerously reliant" on natural gas, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has approved an emissions-reduction plan for Xcel Energy that further expands the utility’s already extensive shutdown of coal-fired power plants in favor of gas-fueled generation.

If your facility has recently seen an upsurge in bearing failures on boiler feedwater (BFW) pumps, you are not the only plant experiencing these unnecessary and costly failures. The failure causes are often elusive, which is why plants have so many unresolved repeat failures.

Arizona Public Service’s (APS) plan to close three older coal-fueled units at the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico and buy out Southern California Edison’s 48% share of the two remaining units is a creative means of surviving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) committed action against coal-fueled generation.

Ringing what may be the death knell for the $3.5 billion Taylorville IGCC project, the Illinois Senate voted 33-18 in early January against authorizing construction of a coal gasification and power generating plant proposed in the state by Tenaska.

Designing large package boilers rated at over 400,000 lb/h steam production is a challenge because of shipping limitations within the U.S. and Canada.

All of our legal column writers have this issue off (they’ll be back in the March issue), so we are using this opportunity to invite readers to share their legal and regulatory (L&R) concerns.

Coal mining, and related industries that consume coal, have attracted quite a bit of attention from the federal government as of late. Most of that attention has focused on how to further, or "better," regulate the industry. The EPA is now moving to regulate downstream conductivity of surface mining runoff.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., January 28, 2011 – The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the 112th Congress won’t be your father’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (and certainly not Lisa Murkowski’s father’s committee). With a slew of newcomers – mostly Republican – and none of them particularly attuned to the way […]

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama set a new goal for the nation: To obtain 80% of its electricity from “clean energy” by 2035. But his definition of “clean energy” included “nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas” as well as “wind and solar.”

A federal district court judge on Thursday sided with environmental groups in a suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and gave the Obama administration only 30 extra days to issue Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rules for large and small boilers, and solid waste and sewage sludge incinerators—not a year, as the agency had sought.

The New Mexico Supreme Court today ruled unanimously that freshly elected Republican Gov. Susana Martinez violated the state constitution when she halted publication of cap-and-trade rules that were adopted by the state’s Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) last year.

The European Union (EU) on Tuesday said it was waiting for member countries to confirm that minimum-security requirements had been installed in their emissions registries before reactivating its emissions trading scheme (ETS). The European Commission halted spot carbon trading last week for at least seven days after hackers stole emission permits from accounts in the Czech Republic and Austria.

Massachusetts–based Beacon Power Corp. on Monday said it had energized and grid-interconnected the first 8 MW of flywheel energy storage at its 20-MW frequency regulation plant in Stephentown, N.Y., bringing in the first commercial revenue for the company.

NRG Energy last week received a $967 million federal loan guarantee for its 290-MW Agua Caliente thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar project. When the Yuma County, Ariz., project, which began construction in 2010, is complete in 2014, NRG says it will be the largest PV generation facility in the world.

The fourth unit of India’s Kaiga Generating Station, a 220-MW indigenous reactor that achieved first criticality on Nov. 27, 2010, was synchronized to the grid last week. The unit now brings India’s nuclear power capacity to 4,780 MW with 20 reactors in operation, state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) said.

The U.S. Departments of Energy and Commerce on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate further on renewable energy modeling and weather forecasting to help the renewable sector more effectively use the nation’s resources.

Uncertainty about U.S. climate policy direction means that Canada may need proceed with its own measures to mitigate climate change—including a carbon cap-and-trade system—a government-appointed advisory panel has recommended.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., January 24, 2011 — While many of us have fixated on electric approaches to vehicle propulsion, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been working on another technology that may turn out to be a killer ap for conventional gasoline cars. Earlier this month, with little fanfare or hoopla, Chrysler announced […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed smart grid cybersecurity guidelines as tasked by Congress, but major gaps still need to be addressed; furthermore, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has failed to develop a coordinated approach for monitoring if and how the standards are being followed by industry, a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.