Business

In 2005, Xcel Energy fully implemented its unique Utility Innovations initiative to encourage its IT vendors to work together. One pilot project completed under the UI umbrella confirmed that tighter integration of predictive and analytical systems and data can optimize preventive maintenance intervals, reducing costs and downtime while increasing profits and productivity.

The first megawatt-class sodium sulfur (NaS) battery placed in service in North America was installed this June in Charleston, W.Va. The 1.2-MW system—comprising the battery and a bidirectional inverter—can be discharged during the day to provide 7.2 MWh of on-demand power for shaving peak loads and be recharged at night. It’s no longer true that electricity can’t be stored, except in small quantities.

The length of term allowed for power sales contracts is a critical determinant of the ability of states to meet their increasingly ambitious renewable power targets. Many utilities advocate limiting terms to 10 or perhaps 15 years for renewable energy contracts, emphasizing the "flexibility" that shorter terms offer. In contrast, contract terms of 20 or […]

Performance testing after initial start-up has value well beyond the short-term goal of validating equipment guarantees—it’s your only opportunity to establish the baseline performance of the overall plant and many of its major systems. Corporate bean counters may be interested in short-term results, but a good plant engineer understands that a thorough performance test will be useful for many years. Here’s your guide to each facet of a performance test—plus pitfalls to avoid.

Complying with permitted emissions limits may be the most significant operations risk for a power plant. As limits are slowly ratcheted downward, understanding the accuracy and variation of measured pollutant levels becomes even more important. To avoid misunderstandings, regulators and plant owners should factor measurement uncertainty into air quality permit numbers both as the permit is formulated and preceding any subsequent modifications.

An extremely reliable North American bulk power system—one that consistently delivers uninterrupted power to every user—is not a dream that must be made reality. To a large extent, that is what we have today. With the exception of infrequent (and therefore, newsworthy) outages, the system has never been more dependable. Nevertheless, with the great northeast blackout of August 14, 2003, still fresh in memory, Congress saw fit to include electric reliability measures in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Russia’s new nuclear navy;Russia’s old nuclear navy; First LMS100 fired up by Basin Electric;More Jenbacher gensets to Hungary; A baseload-size wind farm?; EEI bestows Edison Awards; POWERnotes
 

The latest benchmarking study by the EUCG examines the engineering and technical staffing of 62 plants, 92% of which burn coal. If you benchmark your units, plants, or fleet, the results may raise some eyebrows. But they also may help justify your plea for more intellectual capital during the upcoming budgeting cycle. Though the detailed results of the study are proprietary to EUCG member companies that participated in it, POWER was given access to the complete findings. If you want details at the plant/unit level, you’ll have to join the EUCG and participate in the study, which is ongoing.

This year’s main course, as usual, was instrumentation and controls. Side dishes of digital nuclear plant controls, plant controller and IT security, corrosion monitoring, and model predictive control added their own distinctive flavors. There was something for every taste, from the theoretical to the practical.

The sale or merger of any company takes its toll on employees. Though it’s merely a hassle adapting to a different T&E form, the sudden uncertainty about health-care coverage and pension can be truly stressful. For plant managers, the impact is even greater—adapting to a new budgeting process and reporting requirements, not to mention answering hundreds of subordinates’ questions about the future, even before the deal closes. However, plant managers may actually end up better off as a result of a merger or acquisition.

The Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades near Philadelphia has been training power plant operations professionals for 112 years, and its graduates hold top positions at many major gencos, refineries, equipment suppliers, and design and construction companies. Testimonials indicate that it provides one of the best models for training tomorrow’s plant operators.

Participants in the CEO Roundtable at Electric Power 2006 raised a plethora of issues affecting decisions on future electric power generation. Representing a cross section of power producers, the industry leaders made clear that, although globalization has lost its luster in the power generation sector, its impact on the domestic industry remains profound. Ten years […]

Today’s utility business models re-emphasize utilities’ traditional mission—producing and delivering reliable, affordable power. Tracking how well that mission is executed is the raison d’être of modern plant performance benchmarking.

With the 2006 hurricane season about to begin, climatologists are predicting that the Atlantic Ocean will spawn 17 “named” storms this summer and fall, with 9 categorized as hurricanes and 5 expected to be “intense.” Whether or not your plant lies in a vulnerable coastal area, you’d do well to learn a few lessons from Entergy’s unique experience last year.

      Steven F. Greenwald and Christopher A. Hilen Utility regulators in California and other states have begun subjecting power plants to extensive oversight of their O&M activities. These oversight programs are a response to allegations that generators purposely shut operational plants down to drive electricity prices up during the 2000–2001 energy crisis. These state initiatives […]

An essential ingredient in the success of any business endeavor is thorough planning. We’ve all heard the axiom "proper prior planning prevents poor performance" or a variation on that theme. Why the need for peak performance? Competition within the industry has never been as intense, with utilities combining in search of economies of scale. The […]

Age is wreaking havoc on the U.S. generation industry, especially the coal-fired sector. Industry conferences are replete with hand-wringing over the "brain drain," the lack of skilled personnel, the meager number of students pursuing engineering degrees, and the accelerated retirement of the older workers who make up the industry’s experience base. On top of this, […]

Global Monitor

Competition in power generation fosters technical innovation, cleaner power plants, and downward pressure on prices. Before the 1980s, such competition was almost nonexistent: vertically integrated utilities built and operated the vast majority of U.S. plants with oversight by state regulators. The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 and the Energy Policy Act of 1992 […]

The long-awaited 41st edition of Babcock & Wilcox Co.’s (B&W’s) Steam: Its Generation and Use (Figure 5) is now available for ordering on the company’s web site, www.babcock.com. The release of the book is worth noting by power plant engineers for two reasons: The tome is the world’s longest continually published (since 1875) engineering text, […]

In "U.S. utilities driving for a license" (November/December 2005), we wrote that Bechtel Corp. is part of the UniStar consortium. Bechtel Corp. is not a member but is working for UniStar as a contractor.

As an alternative to purchasing new catalyst, technological and economic advantages make a compelling case for regenerating rather than replacing the metal or ceramic that enables selective catalytic reduction systems to capture NO_x.

The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City was the site of the 2005 Platts Global Energy Awards (GEA). The seventh annual black-tie soiree was the most global ever. Some 400 top executives from more than two dozen countries on five continents gathered at the Roosevelt on December 1, 2005, to honor the energy industry’s "Best […]

The reliability of service to millions of electricity consumers from Puget Sound to Portland improved significantly with the completion of the 84-mile-long, 500-kV Grand Coulee–Bell transmission line (Figure 4). The new path removes a major bottleneck between Spokane and Grand Coulee Dam and points west.   4. Breaking the bottleneck. The Bonneville Power Administration’s 84-mile, […]

In early December 2004, the Portrero substation received an early Christmas present. It was a shiny new static VAR compensator (SVC) from ABB (Raleigh, N.C.) that will improve the stability of the grid serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The SVC, which was commissioned on December 10, will help stabilize the grid’s voltage during peak […]

In our January/February 2005 story "The 2004 Global Energy Awards" we incorrectly identified the award received by Constellation Energy. The correct caption follows. The 2004 Energy Company of the Year Award went to Constellation Energy. Constellation is one of the largest wholesalers of electricity in the U.S. and a leading supplier of power to large […]