While other countries move to reduce or eliminate nuclear generation, China has been rapidly expanding it. With 27 reactors under construction, its installed nuclear capacity is expected to more than double by 2020. The Hongyanhe facility is one example of nuclear’s growth in China and represents multiple firsts. China is powering up. The country’s generation […]

What do a power plant, a hospital, a police station, and a remote mine have in common? They all have essential assets requiring uninterruptible power, commonly powered by an engine generator as primary or backup power. Engine generators, often termed “gensets,” combine an electrical generator and an engine. They supply electrical power where normal utility […]

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has teamed with Purolite Corp. to begin the commercial manufacture of a new resin for removing radioactive elements from the internal water streams of nuclear power plants. The resin, called CoSeq, increases the amount and efficiency of cobalt (Co) removal compared to conventional resins. In-plant demonstrations have shown that […]

A number of recent developments suggest that continued use of a plentiful and relatively affordable fuel may have a future worldwide that is brighter than it now seems. That’s because, after at least a decade of rhetoric about “clean coal,” cleaner coal is slowly becoming a reality. Though many may see these developments as baby […]

Sweden is reconsidering phasing out nuclear power in favor of a 100% renewables power mix. The country’s 10 operating nuclear power plants produce about 40% of the Scandinavian country’s power. The remainder mostly comes from hydropower, depending on the season. The fourth-largest country in the European Union, Sweden’s electricity consumption has been gradually rising. Sweden […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) serves as the gatekeeper to wholesale power markets in interstate commerce. The process to obtain and retain authority to sell into these markets at market-based rates (MBR) can be onerous. Any failure to fully comply with FERC’s regulations could result in participation restrictions and civil penalties of up to […]

This August, in a bid to bolster its latent geothermal energy industry, Indonesia passed new laws that allow geothermal exploration in protected areas such as forests. Located in the Ring of Fire—a string of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin—the archipelago has estimated potential geothermal resources of up to 29 GW. State power […]

Quick, the grid is down—what do you do? If your procedures are like most, you rely on a combination of static restoration plans, emergency management system protocols, and operator experience and intuition. But today’s grid is increasingly complex and is subject to new vulnerabilities. Physical security is a critical concern, especially in the wake of […]

A lack of rainfall is hitting the power industry especially hard in parts of Brazil. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the country depends on hydroelectricity for more than 75% of its electric power supply (Figure 2). But with reservoir levels at historic lows in some places, more electricity has been required from […]

Finland Rejects Permit Extension for Olkiluoto Reactor. Finland’s government on Sept. 25 rejected an application from utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) to extend a permit for its proposed Olkiluoto 4 reactor for five years. TVO requested the extension in light of delays from its Olkiluoto 3 EPR project, which is being built by an AREVA-Siemens […]

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in September issued a proposal to vastly increase the county’s reliance on solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, taking installed capacity from its current 2.6 GW to more than 20 GW over the next five years. Following on the nation’s ambitious-but-troubled ultra-mega coal plant build-out—only one has come online, […]

After building three 1,000-MW dual-fuel simple cycle plants, each with eight combustion turbines, Mass Global Holding Ltd. recently repowered the Erbil Gas Power Station, located in Iraqi Kurdistan, using vertical heat recovery steam generators, adding 500 MW of capacity to the local grid.   Iraqi Kurdistan, located in the northeast corner of Iraq, is nation […]

Just as POWER predicted in its May issue (see “The Year Energy Storage Hit Its Stride”), energy storage is starting to gain traction, not only in the U.S., but around the globe. Europe’s largest commercial battery power plant was connected to the German grid in mid-September. With a power rating of 5 MW and an […]

Improving efficiency at existing coal-fired power plants anywhere in the world is a path of no regret: A more efficient power plant uses less coal, has lower emissions, and experiences lower variable costs. Great River Energy’s Coal Creek Station has demonstrated that by recycling low-grade waste heat with DryFining, it can reduce emissions, including CO2, […]

The first full-scale commercial post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project at an operating coal-fired power plant is now online in Estevan, Saskatchewan, roughly 10 miles north of the U.S. border. The heart of the C$1.4 billion project at Boundary Dam Power Station is the rebuilt 110-MW Unit 3, originally commissioned in 1970. The project, […]

With rapidly growing electricity demand from North Dakota’s booming shale oil industry, Basin Electric Power Cooperative needed flexible peaking generation in a hurry. Two stations equipped with LM6000 turbines and clutches are providing both peaking and reactive power. U.S. electricity production has been flat for the past decade, hovering between 3.9 billion MWh and 4.1 […]

Vietnam won’t begin work on its first of eight planned nuclear power plants until at least 2020 or 2022 to ensure safety, the country’s Trade Ministry announced in September. Russia’s state-owned nuclear company Rosatom was expected to begin construction of the first two-reactor plant in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan at the end of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recent “waste confidence” ruling, which declares storage of spent fuel at reactor sites safe indefinitely, could fundamentally undercut the decades-long U.S. policy of seeking an off-site, permanent burial site for high-level nuclear waste. A five-decades-old goal of the U.S. nuclear power industry, its regulators, and the Department of Energy (DOE)—permanent, off-site […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced five awards to a total of five companies that are designed to help advance key nuclear energy research and development projects supporting advanced reactor technologies. The awards were framed as being part of the administration’s Climate Action Plan and are part of a DOE program launched in […]

William D. Magwood, IV, formerly head of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and commissioner at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and current director-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), spoke with POWER Editor Gail Reitenbach on October 16 at the World Nuclear Exhibition outside […]

The clearcurrent® PRO gas turbine inlet filter surpasses 300 installations worldwide The revolutionary filter introduced in 2012 now installed on turbines worldwide Operators are snapping up the filter known for delivering predictable, reliable output (PRO) OVERLAND PARK, KAN.—October 28, 2014—CLARCOR Industrial Air today announced that the number of gas turbines using clearcurrent® PRO inlet filters has reached […]

 Augsburg, 10/28/2014 – The new CEO of MAN Diesel & Turbo SE comes from within the company. With effect from 1 January 2015 Dr. Uwe Lauber will assume the function as CEO of the globally operating technology company located in Augsburg. The 47-year-old Lauber had been Head of the Business Unit Oil & Gas before and […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: Rapid Cycling: The Human Factor Careers in POWER Featured Article: CIP 10-28-14 … READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS IN POWER GENERATION Power Plant Manager – City of TallahasseeTallahassee, Florida  Electrical Engineer – Eastman Chemical CompanyKingsport, Tennessee  Supervisor-Supply Chain Management (Power Generation) – Dominion Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania Decision Support and Analytics Solution…… READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: Rapid Cycling: The Human Factor Careers in POWER Featured Article: CIP 10-21-14 … READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS IN POWER GENERATION Maintenance Specialist – Turbine & Generator – Georgia Power CompanyCartersville, Georgia  Engineering Associate 2 – CPS EnergySan Antonio, Texas  Project Manager – Eaton Chicago, Illinois Technical Instructors Power Engineering – Deutsche RecruitingSaudi…… READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS […]

Extension to thermal utility features MAN 28/32S engines Augsburg, Oct. 15th , 2014 – The Mexican energy company, Aldener ADM S.A. de C.V., placed this year an order with MAN Diesel & Turbo for two MAN 18V28/32S generating sets. The engines will help to expand an existing power plant– Guerrero Negro – located in El […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: Rapid Cycling: The Human Factor Careers in POWER Featured Article: CIP 10-14-14 … READ MORE »   > FRESH JOBS IN POWER GENERATION Production Leader – City of GainesvilleGainesville, Florida  Power Plant Operator Senior – University of Wisconsin – ParksideKenosha, Wisconsin  Marketing Communications Leader – Power Generation Services – GE Power &…… READ MORE »   > FRESH […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: Rapid Cycling: The Human Factor Careers in POWER Featured Article: Auto Draft … READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS IN POWER GENERATION Senior Engineer, Operations & Maintenance – ORE CatapultUnited Kingdom  District Operator – Con Edison, IncNew York, New York  Engineer/Maintenance Specialist – Boiler System Owner – Alabama Power Company Parrish, Alabama…… READ MORE »   FRESH JOBS […]

The first full-scale commercial post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project at an operating coal-fired power plant is now online in Estevan, Saskatchewan, roughly 10 miles north of the U.S. border. The heart of the $1.4 billion project at Boundary Dam Power Station is the rebuilt 110-MW Unit 3, originally commissioned in 1970. The project, […]

Bad weather, unforeseen setbacks, and even natural disasters are far from unheard of during power plant construction. But there may be no plant that experienced the sort of construction hardships that Tokyo

Although industrial lubricants typically account for only 1% of plant operational costs (Figure 1), the lack of proper lubrication products, techniques, or applications can have a much more severe effect on