The year 2008 is shaping up nicely for nuclear power in the U.S. Since September 2007, when NRG Energy and the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. filed the first complete U.S. nuclear plant license application in 29 years with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a dozen more companies and consortia have followed suit. And […]

News items of interest to power industry professionals. Mitsubishi to supply gas turbines to Endesa. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) said in September it had received a full turnkey order for two sets of liquefied natural gas – fired gas turbine combined- cycle (GTCC) power generation systems from Endesa Generacion S.A., an electricity generation company […]

Do you have enough women working in your power plant? Forget for a moment equal opportunity laws. More important is the knowledge that the programs and culture changes that would make women more likely to consider a plant career are the same ones that would make it more attractive to many younger men.

This summary of power generation projects is a web-only supplement to the November 2008 special report titled “Whistling in the dark: Inside South Africa’s power crisis.”

Advanced computer design tools have merged with high-definition laser camera scan data to produce integrated images that are particularly useful for outage and maintenance planning.

As an alternative to titanium, consider highly alloyed stainless steels for your next tubing project.

In 2005, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio – based FirstEnergy Corp., initiated a project to identify protection system improvements that could be made to proactively combat wind- and lightning-related weather events that create sustained power outages (Figure 2). JCP&L determined that these changes had the potential to improve the […]

Bernard Welding Equipment has introduced a new Metal Inert Gas (MIG) gun Neck Grip and Neck Coupler to improve operator comfort and access to difficult-to-reach joints. Made of a high-temperature silicone rubber tube that slides onto all Bernard Q-Gun and S-Gun necks, the new Neck Grip reduces fatigue and increases operator control for those welders […]

Karl Storz’s new 6-mm videoscope combines measurement capabilities with ease-of-use features in an advanced multipoint measuring system. Quartz glass limits the risk of scratching the lens while significantly brighter optics enhance image quality. The videoscope’s multiple interchangeable tip adaptors allow for near and far focus, and — at the same time, without changing tips — […]

In the 1980s, Houston wildcatter George Mitchell drilled the first well into the Barnett Shale formation that stretches through north and central Texas. He tapped into what would turn out to be one of the most prolific and valuable onshore natural gas reserves in the United States.

In-house testing of the new Hydraulic Vise Column with patented swivel coupling from Jergens Inc. achieved up to a 50% reduction in production time when compared to the manual version performing the same tooling operation. The swivel coupling eliminates the need to disconnect and reconnect the two hydraulic hoses as the column rotates, and each […]

Top Plant: Nuclear plant owners understand the economic importance of squeezing every last megawatt-hour from their power generation assets and minimizing outage durations. When First Energy assumed operating responsibility for Beaver Valley, the plant’s operating record was unspectacular, but today the plant has established itself as a routine top-quartile performer, thanks in part to its Full Potential Program.

This August, Aquatech International Corp. announced it had expanded its WATERTRAK pre-engineered water treatment components to include six new L-series products. These include multi-media filters, activated carbon filters, reverse osmosis systems (shown here), and water softeners. The new products are designed as cost-effective options for industries that are dependent on external water supplies. Featuring Aquatech’s […]

Eskom’s cautionary tale should remind those involved in the power industry anywhere in the world that past performance is not a guarantee of future success.

Power and automation company Schneider Electric this September launched the Square D PowerLogic Branch Circuit Power Meter (BCPM), an advanced metering product designed to assist data center managers, engineers, and operators in delivering reliable power to critical applications. The PowerLogic BCPM monitors the power and energy usage of up to 84 branch circuits, as well […]

Top Plant: The team that handled this reactor vessel head and steam generator replacement project set a new industry standard for integrating a highly complex maintenance outage.

VIBXPERT EX, the new two-channel FFT data collector and signal analyzer from LUDECA Inc. monitors and diagnoses machine conditions for potentially hazardous environments that require explosion-proof systems. The VIBXPERT EX features 102,400 lines of resolution, simple joystick operation, acceptance measurements, run-up/coast-down analysis, time waveform analysis, enveloping, bearing data, 1- or 2-plane balancing, and much more. […]

Courtesy: Platts Data source: Platts Energy Advantage and POWERmap. All rights reserved.

An integrated matrix of 10 high-power flywheels built and tested by Beacon Power Corp. earlier this year successfully absorbed and supplied a full megawatt of electricity, the energy storage technology company said in September. The achievement could mean that grid regulation using efficient energy storage is close to commercial deployment. The flywheel system, called the […]

For busy staff in the field, nothing is more frustrating than having laptop computers or smart phones crash due to lost connections when those devices lose wireless coverage. Often, important data is obliterated and workers have to waste precious time reentering the lost information. The irony is that wireless data connections, which are increasingly being […]

A detailed analysis of power plants in China by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) debunks the widespread notion that outmoded energy technology or the utter absence of government regulation is to blame for that country’s notorious air-pollution problems. The real issue, the study found, involves complicated interactions among new market forces, new […]

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) last week announced plans to allow geothermal drilling in more than 190 million acres of federal land, spanning 12 Western states. Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the interior, said that the proposed initiative could increase geothermal power production in the U.S. tenfold. “Geothermal energy will play a key role […]

Dynegy Inc. must disclose timely and relevant information to investors about the financial risks that climate change may pose under an agreement the national energy company signed with New York’s attorney general on Thursday. Dynegy is the second of five companies to agree to make climate change disclosures. Xcel Energy was the first, signing a […]

French nuclear engineering firm AREVA and global defense and technology company Northrop Grumman Corp. plan to jointly build a new facility in Newport News, Va., to engineer and manufacture heavy components for AREVA’s U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR). The companies expect that the new facility will boost the U.S. nuclear resurgence. The companies said Thursday […]

Italy’s largest power company, Enel, and its biggest oil and gas company, Eni, will partner to create the country’s first project to capture carbon dioxide from a coal-fired plant and store it underground. The companies’ chief executives signed a strategic agreement last week at Italy’s Ministry of Environment headquarters to join forces and develop an […]

Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW) announced last week that a recalibration of the international standard by which solar cells are measured revealed that they had created the first silicon solar cell to achieve the “magic” efficiency milestone of 25%. Physics dictates that the theoretical maximum efficiency for first-generation silicon photovoltaic cells will be […]

The impact of environmental initiatives and the need for transmission infrastructure are among the most important issues facing electric reliability in North America over the coming 10 years, the quasi-public agency North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) said last week in its 2008 Long-Term Reliability Assessment (PDF). Though the total miles of transmission additions have […]

By Kennedy Maize Can termites lead the way to energy independence? A new study from the University of Florida in Gainsville says the tiny wood chompers and the bacteria in their gut could help turn non-edible plant parts into energetic ethanol. In a paper to be published in the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, Florida […]

Exelon has proposed the purchase of all the outstanding shares of NRG’s common stock for $6.2 billion. The combination of Exelon and NRG would form a utility with a generating capacity of about 47,000 MW and create the largest utility in the U.S., dwarfing both American Electric Power with 36,000 MW and Duke Energy with […]

Europe’s first EPR nuclear power plant, the Olkiluoto 3 in Finland, is now three years behind schedule and will not come on-line until 2012, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) admitted last week. The delay is the fourth announced for the 1,600-MW plant, which has been plagued with faulty materials and planning problems since construction […]