Gas

A bill approved by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday could prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from finalizing new rules that cost more than $1 billion if the Energy Department determines they will hurt the economy.

Three Hawaiian power companies plan to deactivate a total of 226 MW of oil-fired generating units, convert remaining baseload plants to cycling duty, and substantially ramp up use of renewables by 2016.

German energy giant E.ON in late April narrowly averted idling its Irsching 4 and 5 units in Bavaria, Germany—its most technologically advanced gas-fired generating units that began operations just three years ago at a cost of €400 million.

The transformative increases in current and expected future domestic natural gas production have spawned yet another energy debate: Should the U.S. should export natural gas?

Drought and competing uses for water continue to challenge power plant operators worldwide. In response, innovative approaches for reducing water use are being explored from South Africa to China.

Even though it enjoys sizeable coal and natural gas reserves, Indonesia struggles to provide electricity to its growing economy. Geography is its most obvious challenge. Others include evolving international markets and an energy sector that remains highly politicized.

Panelists at the ELECTRIC POWER 2013 Keynote and Roundtable Discussion in Chicago in May were consumed by the need to ensure future reliability by more closely integrating the gas and electricity markets. Acknowledged less directly were distortions created by renewable energy subsidies and mandates, onerous regulations affecting coal, and “irreversible” demand destruction caused by the success of energy efficiency and demand management programs. The elephant in the room was the continued demise of electricity markets.

With ever-increasing demands for fast ramping and flexibility, natural gas–fired plants are grabbing a bigger share of the generation pie. But uncertainty about future prices and concerns about overreliance on a single fuel are dampening enthusiasm during what may be the most exciting time for gas ever. Natural gas is hot—but will generators and the market get burned?

With the country awash in natural gas and new construction dominated by gas-fired plants, one would think that integrating these plants into the grid would be simple. Like politics, integration problems appear to be local.

President Obama’s highly anticipated Climate Action Plan (CAP) released today outlines a wide variety of executive actions founded on three pillars: slashing U.S. carbon pollution through stringent rules for new and existing power plants while doubling renewables deployment and promoting fuel switching from coal to natural gas; preparing the U.S. for impacts of climate change; and leading international efforts to combat global climate change.

President Barack Obama’s landmark speech on Tuesday outlining executive actions to combat and prepare for climate change backed the growth of natural gas and renewable power in lieu of carbon-heavy coal power, but he mentioned nuclear power only once—and only in the context of energy security.

Amid the deluge of reactions to President Obama’s June 25 speech announcing wide-ranging executive actions to curb carbon emissions and prepare for climate change effects were some unexpected statements.

Driven by the booming growth of generation from hydro, wind, and solar photovoltaics (PV), generation from renewables on a terawatt-hour basis is set to surpass that from natural gas and double nuclear’s share by 2016, becoming the world’s second-most important global electricity source after coal, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The Supreme Court today granted a petition by health and environmental groups, 15 states, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and agreed to review the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), a Bush-era rule that a federal appeals court had previously vacated.

The fiscal year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill released by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee this week slashes $1.4 billion in funding to Department of Energy renewable energy and scientific research programs, including an 80% spending cut on the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday advanced a set of four bills that it said would "improve" environmental regulations and increase state authority, including legislation that would task states—not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—with the responsibility to set up coal ash disposal rules.

An airfoil manufacturing technology that could improve the performance of a wide range of next-generation natural gas turbines has been commercialized through research sponsored by the Department of Energy.

A report recently released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) identifies policy goals—and their fundamental differences—identified in the 2012 presidential election and as highlighted in recent energy-related legislation. Among the nation’s energy priorities are to stabilize oil and gas markets, create natural gas pipeline infrastructure, dispose of nuclear radioactive waste, and replace conventional energy resources with renewables.

A much greater coal power burn is expected this summer in reaction to an anticipated rebound in natural gas prices, suggests a recent reliability assessment from staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Among other key aspects of the new report is that while electric reliability for the rest of the nation will be adequate, Texas could see a significant chance of an energy emergency.

New England’s big push toward gas-fired power collided hard with its historical pipeline constraints this past winter, leaving multiple generators unable to respond to start-up requests from ISO-New England during a major storm. In the wake of the episode, the region is looking for some long-term solutions.

The LM6000 is the most widely used aeroderivative combustion turbine (CT) in the world, with more than 1,000 installations. As with all CTs, power output and heat rate degrade markedly during warm weather. The ARCTIC (Absorption Refrigeration Cycle Turbine Inlet Conditioning) system eliminates this deficiency.

Modern heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) design must balance operating response with the reduction in life of components caused by daily cycling and fast starts. Advanced modeling techniques demonstrate HRSG startup ramp rates can be accelerated without compromising equipment life.

URS recently performed a combined cycle repowering study to determine the feasibility and economics of repowering an existing steam turbine that went into service in the 1950s. The competing option was building a new combined cycle unit. The results of the study provide insight for others considering the same alternatives.

An updated fracking rule proposed by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) last week maintains a number of requirements from a previous draft—including that well operators should disclose all chemicals used in fracturing activities on public lands—but it will improve integration with state and tribal standards and increase compliance flexibility, the agency said.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), in a special reliability assessment released on Wednesday, called for a number of changes to address the increased reliance on natural gas for power generation, among them incorporating gas availability and gas supply issues into electric reliability assessments.

Freeport LNG Expansion LP and FLNG Liquefaction LLC received conditional authorization on May 17 to export U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Freeport LNG Terminal on Quintana Island, Texas, making it the second project to receive federal approval. Meanwhile, Canada is considering a proposed LNG export terminal in British Columbia.

Plans to build an 873-MW natural gas peaking facility at FirstEnergy’s Eastlake Plant in Ohio have been frozen on uncertainties that affect project financing—including the federal "sequester"—its developers FirstEnergy and American Municipal Power (AMP) said last week.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced on May 9 that it will hold a commission meeting on May 16 to address the difficulties posed by inadequate alignment between how natural gas and electricity markets operate.

President Barack Obama said in a speech that the U.S. is likely to be a net exporter of natural gas by 2020, the Financial Times newspaper reported May 6. The newspaper said the president’s remarks, which were made in Costa Rica, are the strongest signal yet that the administration is leaning toward supporting export ventures.

Panelists at a House hearing today refuted varied claims concerning if and how increased natural gas and renewables generation pose widespread challenges to the reliability of the electric grid. Some pointed to ineffective rules in the restructured wholesale power market and the failure of conventional power plants as being more of a threat to grid reliability.