News

Oregon and Washington failed to pass bills before the end of their legislative sessions that would implement the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). That leaves only two U.S. states and three Canadian provinces to participate in the regional greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program when it begins in 2012.

Turkey will reportedly start privatizing power generation plants by the end of this month or in early September. Some of the first few plants up for sale include the Hamitabat power station, a 1,120-MW thermal plant that produces 7% of the country’s total electricity output.

The Department of Energy, the state of Illinois, and parties affiliated with FutureGen 2.0 on Thursday outlined plans for the revamped Illinois carbon capture and storage project.

A rule proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday would certify that 13 states lack the authority to apply Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permits to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under their State Implementation Plans. A second rulemaking action, also issued last week, proposes a federal implementation plan (FIP) under which the EPA would assume the authority to issue PSD permits for GHG emissions in states that lack the authority to do so.

An interagency task force on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) established by President Obama this February delivered a series of recommendations  on overcoming barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment of CCS within 10 years.

FirstEnergy Corp. last week said it would cut back operations or idle 1,620-MW of coal-fired capacity in Ohio for up to a year to reduce operating costs, while Xcel Energy announced plans to shut down nearly 900-MW of coal-fired capacity to generate a savings of nearly $225 million. Reasons for the cutbacks included the continued slow economy, lower demand in electricity, and uncertainty related to proposed new federal environmental regulations.

The Shaw Group on Monday announced it has signed an initial contract for two new AP1000 units at the Xianning nuclear power plant project in Hubei province with a subsidiary of China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. (SNPTC).

French company GDF Suez formally announced last week it will merge its international business with UK company International Power. The new firm, New International Power, is expected to have over 66 GW in gross operation capacity and 22 GW in the pipeline.

Houston-based Dynegy is to be acquired by an affiliate of private equity firm Blackstone Group in a $542 million deal that includes billions in debt assumption. Under a separate agreement between Blackstone and NRG Energy, NRG Energy could acquire four natural gas-fired assets owned by Dynegy for about $1.36 billion.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Thursday announced it would award $1 billion in Recovery Act funds to a revamped FutureGen proposal. The so-called “FutureGen 2.0” project contemplates repowering of an existing Ameren 200-MW coal unit in Meredosia, Ill., using oxyfuel technology—not construction of an integrated gasification combined-cycle facility at Mattoon, Ill., as originally envisioned. The new project still calls for use of the original Mattoon geologic storage site

to sequester carbon dioxide—however, the city of Mattoon has declined participation

in the project.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Thursday cited three construction companies and 14 site contractors for 371 alleged workplace safety violations, and issued a total of $16.6 million in penalties. The fines follow an investigation into the causes of February’s deadly natural gas explosion at the Kleen Energy power plant construction site in Middletown, Conn. The explosion killed six workers and injured 50 others.

An Indiana state agency representing utility ratepayer interests in cases before regulatory commissions said it has “serious concerns” regarding cost overruns at Duke Energy’s 618-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) facility at Edwardsport.

Xcel Energy claims that preliminary tests of a 1-MW battery-storage technology system shows the technology works. The company announced on August 3 that its wind-to-battery project showed it was possible to reduce the need to compensate for the variability of wind generation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed suit against Michigan’s largest energy company, DTE Energy, for alleged violations of the federal Clean Air Act at that company’s  coal-fired Monroe Power Plant in Michigan.

California-based BrightSource Energy in the past week received two key approvals for its 392-MW Ivanpah concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the Mojave Desert. The California Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) siting committee issued a proposed decision recommending approval, and on Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the project.

A massive increase in organized “attacks” on the distribution power network in central England has resulted in more than a dozen downed wooden poles and thousands of customers without power in a week, E.ON UK said last week.

Constellation Energy on Monday said it had signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire Boston Generating’s 2,950-MW fleet, consisting of mainly natural gas–fired plants, for about $1.1 billion, or roughly $372/kW.

New York state and Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) plan to sue Homer City Station, a 1,884-MW coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania, for its alleged contributions of the region’s sulfur dioxide emissions.

The Department of Energy last week finalized a $117 million loan guarantee for a 30-MW Hawaiian wind power plant, and this week it said it would offer a $17.1 million loan guarantee to support construction of a 20-MW energy storage system using lithium-ion batteries.

California, New Mexico, and three Canadian provinces—partners of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI)—last week released a detailed plan for a regional cap-and-trade program to curb greenhouse gases (GHG) starting in January 2012. If the plan reaches fruition, it would be three times larger than a program under way in 10 eastern states.

Only 700 MW of wind power were added in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2010—a drop of 57% and 71% when compared to second quarter numbers from 2008 and 2009, respectively, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported last week.

LUDECA has introduced VIBXPERT II, the latest addition to its PRUEFTECHNIK family of portable route-based vibration data collectors. VIBXPERT II is rugged and lightweight and combines the advantages of a rapid processor with an energy-efficient color VGA display. Enhanced with an Fmax of 51KHz and up to 102,400 lines of resolution, all machinery problems can […]

Heise precision pressure instruments provide the high-accuracy measurements required for critical test, calibration, and process applications. The unique blend of product configurations includes the Heise 0.1% precision dial pressure gauge, the modular PTE-1 handheld calibrator, and high-accuracy digital pressure indicators and transducers. With ranges from 0.25 inches of water to 100,000 psi and accuracies to […]

In “Dry Injection of Trona for SO3 Control” (May 2010), NH4HSO4 is ammonium bisulfite. In the June “Focus on O&M,” the engines shown in Figure 6 each have eight cylinders. June’s “Competition for Offshore Turbine Market Heats Up” stated that drive or gearless turbines accounted for 14% of the world’s installed offshore capacity in 2009. […]

The cover of the July 5 special History Issue of TIME magazine features Thomas Edison holding a glowing bulb. A series of articles celebrate Edison’s many inventions and closes with this: “Edison’s laboratories were the forerunners of the interactive technological think tanks of Apple, Google, and Microsoft.” Though the sentiment lauds Edison, I think it’s an overstatement.

Sweden Reverses Ban, Approves Nuclear Reactor Replacements Sweden’s parliament on June 18 reversed an earlier decision and passed the center-right coalition government’s landmark proposal, made last year, that allows for the replacement of the country’s nuclear reactors at the end of their life span. The country had voted in 1980 to phase out its 12 […]

A national R&D program has been under way to develop materials technology for constructing boilers and turbines capable of operating at advanced ultrasupercritical steam conditions in pulverized coal plants. The large-scale, multiyear, joint government/industry project seeks to increase the efficiency of power plants by increasing their steam conditions up to 1,400F (760C) at 5,000 psi (35 MPa). The ongoing project has already identified the materials and processes for successful operation at these higher steam conditions.

ABB’s new 266 series is an optimized pressure transmitter family that combines modern electronic pressure measurement with the company’s unique human machine interface (HMI) in one common product series, providing base accuracy from ±0.025% to ±0.06%. The series offers the industry’s best draft range, ABB claims. For combustion airflows, this means exceptional resolution with tighter […]

HD Electric Co.’s Phase Rotation Meter (PRM) is used to determine the leading phase of any two phases in a three-phase conductor system. The PRM is a dual-range 0 to 5 kV and 0 to 15 kV device that can be used as high as 45 kV when optional resistor sticks are added. It consists of two […]

The SEL-734P Portable PQ Meter is a new metering solution from Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) that addresses the need for complete and portable power quality monitoring. In addition to the meter, the kit includes three-phase voltage and current inputs, voltage leads, and split-core CTs, all secured in a ruggedized case. ACSELerator QuickSet SEL-5030 software, included […]