POWER

As senior members of Congress lay the groundwork for a new legislative debate on climate change next year, a new proposal making the rounds of Capitol Hill offices would replace the cap-and-trade approach now in vogue with one in which all carbon permits are auctioned and all auction revenues are returned to consumers.

Roger Feldman
Proposed U.S. legislation appears likely to use carbon offsets or credits, although the details remain unclear. I wonder if these schemes adequately support the goal of global greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, just released its report on the status of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology and its view of the technology’s future development challenges. In general, the GAO concludes that the technology faces grave technological, regulatory, economic, and legal barriers that will not be easily overcome.

It’s entirely predictable. Once a new president is elected, the most popular topic in Washington becomes “the name game.” Who’s in, who’s out, who will get the political plum jobs. Indeed, there is an official government publication, called The Plum Book, that lists the 7,000 or so political jobs that an incoming administration can appoint […]

Ministers at the UK House of Commons last week approved, by a clear majority, a climate change bill that would commit that country to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. If the bill passes scrutiny by the parliament’s upper house and receives Royal Assent—as is expected later […]

Six New England states and New York last week asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic coal plants to clean up their smokestack mercury emissions. The seven states—Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont—have claimed that mercury pollution from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Michigan, […]

T. Boone Pickens will “scale back” a multibillion-dollar project to build the world’s biggest wind farm in Texas because of the capital market crunch. The Texas oilman’s Mesa Power LLP had announced plans for a four-phase project to add 4,000 MW of wind power to the Texas grid last year. The Pampa Wind Project was […]

Canada’s only private nuclear generating company, Bruce Power, said Friday that it is considering building two new nuclear reactors in Nanticoke, Ontario, the site of North America’s largest coal-fired plant that is slated to shut down by 2014. The plans have met strong opposition from the provincial government. The company said it would launch an […]

The North Carolina Utilities Commission last week approved Progress Energy Carolinas’ selected route for a 64-mile, 230-kV electric transmission line between Richmond and Cumberland counties in the North Carolina Sandhills. The transmission line, announced in 2007, is part of a project that includes a 600-MW natural gas–fueled power plant to be built at the company’s […]

Germany’s Siemens Energy and RWE Energy said Friday that the first virtual power plant operated by the companies had come on-line. The pilot project, which linked nine small hydroelectric facilities with a total capacity of about 8.6 MW, would demonstrate the technical and economic viability of virtual power plants and accumulate findings for further possible […]

GE Energy and the University of Wyoming (UW) reached agreement last week on a proposed development plan for the High Plains Gasification Advanced Technology Center. This facility, consisting of a small-scale gasification system, would enable researchers from both GE and UW to develop advanced gasification and “cleaner” coal solutions for Powder River Basin and other […]

More science to stir the pot on the hurricane-global warming issue appears in last Thursday’s issue of Science magazine. Three researchers fundamentally question the conventional wisdom that there is “a causal connection between warming tropical sea surface temperatures and Atlantic hurricane activity.” While many scientists – and even more environmentalists – believe global warming and […]

On Sept. 12, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and California Energy Commission (CEC) took the next step in the implementation of Assembly Bill (AB) 32, California’s ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – reduction initiative, with the release of a 300-page proposed decision on GHG regulatory strategies.

Scotland is strategically placed at the widening funnel in which the churning waters of the North Sea meet those of the Norwegian Sea. The region is thought to have 25% of Europe’s tidal power resources and 10% of its wave power potential. Recently, the Crown Estate, which owns the UK seabed and controls the rights […]

Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman spoke at the recent 2008 Nuclear Energy Summit that was convened to discuss the importance of nuclear power to a healthy U.S. economy.

On Sept. 9, Sweden’s Vattenfall inaugurated the world’s first demonstration plant that connects carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in a full-chain working system. The inauguration of the pilot plant at Schwarze Pumpe in Germany, which underwent 10 years of testing, was a milestone that marked its move from the laboratory to reality, Vattenfall said. […]

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.