I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of occupational fatalities resulting from exposure to electricity has decreased steadily during the past 10 years (Figure 1). The bad news is that 141 people died on the job in the […]

Two of the most important elements in any construction or upgrade project are safety and speed of completion. While one way to increase safety is to eliminate hot work whenever possible, the reality is that welding is necessary for many tasks around a power plant. However, one area where welding may not always be required […]

Courtesy: SaskPower There was no debate among our editorial team when it came to selecting the most interesting and worthy project worldwide for this year’s top award. Boundary Dam Power Station Unit 3 is the world’s first operating coal-fired power plant to implement a full-scale post-combustion carbon capture and storage system. It did so more […]

Courtesy: Colorado Energy Nations, GDF SUEZ Energy NA, and Behrent Engineering POWER’s 2015 Reinvention Award (formerly known as the Marmaduke Award) goes to an industrial cogeneration plant that reinvented its largest unit for greater fuel and operating flexibility. This project is exemplary for the owner’s foresight, maximizing local engineering resources, a stellar safety record, and […]

It’s not often that a power plant upgrade improves both the environment and the bottom line. Needing to come up with a new source of cooling water for Polk Power Station, and faced with mostly expensive, environmentally questionable options, Tampa Electric came up with a solution that both secured the plant’s water supply for the […]

Looking to ensure reliable power for a critical facility—as well as move the needle on microgrid technology—Texas’s largest transmission company went all-in on a state-of-the-art demonstration project that sets a new standard for future smart grid deployments. Having a 100% uninterruptible power supply for a commercial facility is far from a unique requirement. Traditionally, meeting […]

Despite wind power’s going “mainstream,” original equipment manufacturers and end users struggle to pin down quality standards for ever-evolving wind turbine component technologies. As more utilities embrace wind power, the U.S. wind turbine market has expanded tremendously over the years. It has proliferated into numerous facilities that specialize in the roughly 8,000 component parts that […]

Social media is changing the role of public participation (PP) in the planning, permitting, and licensing process (PPL) for every energy project in the U.S. From the Keystone XL pipeline project to Cape Wind, social media is organizing opposition faster and elevating the community engagement part of the process to a new, unprecedented level. Energy […]

Standards and regulations may change, but the danger associated with arc flash hazards remains. Analyzing potential incident energy correctly and understanding what personal protection equipment is required can help workers stay safe and avoid painful, or even life-threatening, injuries. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) have both […]

  What motivates you? Is it mostly the paycheck you earn from your work in the power industry? Friendships with your coworkers? How about winning awards? I’m very proud of our small but savvy and productive editorial staff, which includes two associate editors (Sonal Patel and Tom Overton) who, over the past two years, have […]

Is the sky falling? No, but are there lessons we can learn from Chicken Little? Absolutely. False alarms and fear mongering consume energy we can ill afford to waste, but should some sort of alarm be sounding

Verona, PA (July 10, 2015) In February 2015, the Nuclear Procurement Issues Committee (NUPIC) audited Conco’s Eddy Current Testing Division’s Quality Assurance Program in order to qualify them as a supplier. NUPIC is an organization that was formed in 1989 to evaluate suppliers furnishing safety-related components and services and commercial-grade items to nuclear utilities. It […]

Today in Rome, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Ansaldo Energia, 44.8% owned by Fondo Strategico Italiano, represented by CEO Giuseppe Zampini, and the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company, represented by Mustafa Gaber Dessouki, with top government representatives from both countries in attendance. The MoU covers the conversion from simple to combined cycle of […]

Rockaway, NJ – 7/15/15  The underground is the most complex environment in construction, and coal ash ponds are no exception. By now, everyone is aware of the recent CCR ruling, which provided technical requirements for CCR landfills and surface impoundment closures. The ruling also created an additional challenge to pond closures – a fixed deadline […]

Learn about the advantages and pitfalls of being an early mover, recent legal challenges to regulations and what they mean to your operations, and the legal implications of compliance with the latest new regulations, including the Clean Power Plan. Hear from and network with the experts during POWER’s conference, December 7 in Las Vegas. Please […]

Ansaldo Energia awarded three major contracts in Egypt worth over EUR 240 million  Ansaldo Energia, 44.8% owned by Fondo Strategico Italiano, has been awarded three major contracts in Egypt worth over EUR 240 million. The first two, Al Shabab and West Damietta, cover the conversion to combined cycles of two power plants owned by Egyptian […]

Voters in Colorado and stakeholders in Minnesota forced through unique managed generation transformation plans that paved the way for aggressive state renewable and clean energy standards—inadvertently pushing their utilities out in front of proposed and now actual federal policies. As the power industry struggles with rising costs of adaptation, many beleaguered executives are anxiously focusing […]

This is an online supplement to the feature story “The  Need for Alternate PM2.5 Emission Factors for Gas-Fired Combustion Units” in the July 2015 issue of POWER. The history of in-stack PM measurement methods began in 1971 with promulgation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Reference Method 5, following on the heels of promulgation […]

The electric power generation industry relies heavily on demineralized and deionized water during process operations. Managing the water supply is critical not only under normal operating conditions, but also during outages. When scheduled or unscheduled outages occur, many boiler and pre-boiler systems are drained. After the outage, they are refilled with water that has been […]

Of the three ways to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for particulate matter (PM) measurement, using an optical PM continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS) also delivers valuable side benefits, especially for units using wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD).  Editor’s Note: This issue was published before the June 29, 2015, ruling by the […]

As the Chinese government lowers the particulate matter (PM2.5) limits to 5 mg/Nm3 or less in coal-fired power plants, wet electrostatic precipitators are one of the key environmental components utilities select to meet this requirement. Optimization of continuous water washing of electrodes allows lower-cost alloys to be used, reducing capital expenditures.  Wet electrostatic precipitators (WESPs) […]

Developing a compliance approach for a new regulation sometimes means overlooking unintended consequences of the chosen compliance method. Preparing for compliance with the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on coal combustion residuals (CCR Rule), published in the Federal Register on April 17, 2015, is causing many power producers to make significant changes to […]

Costs for the Akademik Lomonosov, Russia’s flagship floating nuclear power plant, have reportedly mushroomed to 37 billion rubles ($700 million), an increase of more than 300% from the original 2006 estimate of nine billion rubles ($170 million). The project has also been plagued by delays owing to a shipyard switch. Originally slated for delivery in […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s emission factor resource, AP-42, is not your only option for developing particulate matter (PM) emission rates. Results of a prominent PM emissions measurement research program for gas-fired plants have been successfully used to support development and application of alternate PM2.5 emission factors by both regulatory agencies and permit applicants The regulatory […]

Beacon Power to Supply Flywheels for Hybrid Alaska Energy Storage Project. Beacon Power on May 26 said it will supply flywheels for a hybrid energy storage project in Anchorage, Alaska, as part of an agreement

The International Energy Agency predicts that nearly 200 reactors will be decommissioned during the next 25 years. Industry best practices and new technology can help make the process go more smoothly. It may not come as a surprise, but the average age of operating reactors in the U.S. is greater than 35 years. There hasn’t […]

Nigeria brought 1.5 GW of natural gas–fired generation from three brand new power plants online in May, adding much-needed capacity to the grid. But because the West African country that is Africa’s biggest economy doesn’t have the means of transporting its abundant gas resources to its power plants, its crippling power shortages are expected to […]

What separates investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and public power companies these days? Less than you might imagine. In early June, while the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the trade association for IOUs, was holding its annual meeting in New Orleans, I was in Minneapolis at the annual conference of the American Public Power Association (APPA), which represents […]

Despite its apparent environmental benefits and strong government backing, generating power from landfill gas hasn’t gained traction for a variety of reasons in the U.S. Will the Clean Power Plan bolster this “dirty” renewable power source?  For the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the only clean thing about landfills—those engineered dumps that entomb America’s infinite […]

The 1,240-MW coal-fired Mong Duong 2 power plant in Vietnam—the country’s first new private sector power plant to be commissioned in the past 10 years—began commercial operations on May 11, six months ahead of schedule (Figure 6). AES Corp. built the plant on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. It has a 25-year power purchase agreement with […]