POWER

Nevada Senators Harry Reid (D) and John Ensign (R) last week introduced a bill to create a national commission to study long-term alternatives to Yucca Mountain for managing nuclear waste in the U.S.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday proposed the first rule that mandates reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from large sources in the U.S.—including electricity-generating facilities.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley last week introduced to the state Legislature a blueprint that would partially reregulate the state’s energy markets and reverse a deregulation law that has been widely thought a failure.

Alliant Corp. last week shelved plans to construct its proposed $1.8 billion coal-biomass hybrid power plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, while LS Power “indefinitely postponed” construction of the 1,590-MW White Pine Energy Station near Ely, Nev. Both companies cited a combination of factors—including the economic climate, and environmental, legislative, and regulatory uncertainties—as the reason for their decisions.

Geothermal power projects in the U.S. continue to gain steam, a new report from the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) shows. Between August 2008 and March 2009, the number of new projects jumped 25% while overall production potential surged 35%.

In response to last year’s massive coal ash spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) facility in Kingston, Tenn., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week ordered electric utilities with surface impoundments containing coal combustion residuals to review the structural integrity of those units and respond to agency questions about their condition.

Upgrades to the UK power grid to accommodate 45 GW of new power generation by 2020 will require an investment of about £4.7 billion ($6.51 billion), according to a report released last week by the Electricity Networks Strategy Group (ENSG).

The U.S. has signed an accord with Jordan to help the kingdom construct a modern facility to store radioactive waste for a nuclear plant the country is planning to build by 2015 and additional plants by 2030.

When it comes to future electricity supply, the Obama administration is engaged in an implicit con game. Whether the president knows this, which I doubt, there must be smart people in his circle who understand that the promises he makes about renewable energy simply don’t stand up to the delusions they create. Those people are […]

So far, U.S. electricity generators have managed to survive the current credit slump and financial collapse, but their viability could suffer if the economy continues to deteriorate and credit markets remain tight.

Market watchers predict that uranium prices will remain low in the short term. But low prices don’t necessarily mean that the fuel’s sales will increase.

Originally seen as promising deep and widespread access to the Internet service provider market, broadband over power line (BPL) technology has failed to deliver. Today’s options for deploying BPL are more numerous but, to date, they involve niche markets.

No utility can fully prepare for power outages caused by severe weather, but there are things that power generators could do to prevent severe disruptions to power supplies that could easily result from a flu pandemic.

Power plant managers are familiar with selective catalytic reduction (SCR), a technology to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides from fossil-fueled generating plants. Starting in 2010, SCR technology, using a urea reagent, will also be required on new diesel-powered vehicles in utility fleets, ranging from light-duty pickups to 18-wheelers.

Layoffs in the wake of the economic crash dive have begun to hit the power business. Here are some links to announcements related to layoffs that directly affect the people who make, distribute, and buy electricity:

I’m a George Orwell fanatic. I own, and display proudly in my office, every book he wrote (Homage to Catalonia is the best), every Orwell (1903-1950) biography, and every critical study of his work. I also have the four-volume edited collection of his works, compiled by his widow, Sonia Orwell, and their friend and collaborator […]

By Kennedy Maize When it comes to access for transmission lines to bring renewable power from where it is located to folks who can use it, who poses the biggest obstacles? In the West, according to Pedro J. Pizarro, Southern California Edison’s vice president of power operations, a chief villain is Uncle Sam. Federal land […]

The UK government has reportedly delayed its decision on an application by German power generation giant E.ON to build a 1,600-MW clean coal power station at Kingsnorth, in Kent, until after the summer.

China’s State Grid Corp., the national transmission and distribution body that commercially deployed a 1,000-kV ultra-high-voltage (UHV) AC demonstration project 640 kilometers long in January, has reportedly said it will now build 17,600 km of UHV lines by 2012.

The Kansas House on Friday passed by a 79-44 vote a bill that could resurrect two coal-burning power plants proposed for western Kansas, but it was five votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to overturn a veto by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) team of regional partners has begun injecting 50,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into a Michigan geologic formation believed to be capable of storing hundreds of years’ worth of the greenhouse gas. This attempt follows an initial project at that site, which entailed the injection of 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

The Georgia House approved a bill last week that authorizes Georgia Power to collect in advance some of the cost to expand a nuclear power facility at its Plant Vogtle site in Burke County, Ga. Meanwhile, a Kentucky House committee approved a bill to lift a 25-year moratorium on nuclear power plants.

POWER magazine’s parent company, Access Intelligence LLC, on Monday announced the purchase of two conference-based tradeshow events from Technology Systems Corp.: Offshore Communications, a conference dedicated to the business of providing communications services and technology to the ocean industry, and EnergyOcean, focusing on the activities offshore to develop sustainable energy sources for the future of civilization.

Along with a focus on the development of a clean energy economy, President Barack Obama’s proposed $3.55 trillion budget for 2010 factors in a carbon cap-and-trade system to fund investments in clean energy, and it slashes funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

The first loan guarantees issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) could reportedly be announced within the next two weeks, with awards likely going to solar and energy efficiency technologies.

Building new transmission lines indicates support for the development of a national grid, but doing so would ultimately stifle entrepreneurship and innovation, a campaign focused on the creation of a “perfect” consumer-focused electric energy system has warned.

Barely a month after the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licensed the nation’s first commercial hydrokinetic power station, Houston-based Hydro Green Energy in January completed installation of the first of two turbines at an existing run-of-river hydropower plant on the Mississippi River for the Minnesota city of Hastings. When the second turbine is installed later this spring, the two hydrokinetic turbines will constitute a floating array that will sit on top of a barge at the Army Corps of Engineers’ Lock & Dam No. 2.

Formed suction intake designs have been used in many large vertical pump stations in flood control projects. Space limitations at the Oak Creek Power Plant Expansion Project near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, created a unique opportunity to apply this technology to an 800,000-gpm cooling water system upgrade for the entire Oak Creek Power Plant.

Like the airline industry, power generators all over the world have been seeking alternative fuels with which to produce electricity, and the blends are bound to get stranger. One company is looking to make liquid fuels from chicken fat, beef tallow, and pork lard, for example. Here’s a list of innovative fuels that generators could use in the near future.

Tuning power plant controls takes nerves of steel and an intimate knowledge of plant systems gained only by experience. Tuning controls also requires equal parts art and science, which probably is why there are so few tuning experts in the power industry. In Part I of a two-part series, we explore a mix of the theoretical and practical aspects of tuning boiler controls.