Completing a power plant's start-up and commissioning usually means pushing the prime contractor to wrap up the remaining punch list items and getting the new operators trained. Staffers are tired…
O&M
Technical articles on all aspects of power plant operation, preventive and predictive maintenance, planned and unplanned outages
Design techniques and operating experience with Powder River Basin (PRB) coals have advanced significantly over the past 35 years for boilers that were originally designed for this fuel. Today, boiler…
The University of Iowa (UI) Biomass Fuel Project has produced significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, regulated boiler stack emissions, and purchased energy costs. The project utilizes a renewable, biomass…
Asheville Power Station’s Unit 1 in Arden, North Carolina, was the first coal-fired unit to be modified with a flue gas desulphurization (FGD) system and placed in service to meet…
A coal-fired power plant operating in the western U.S. was experiencing short gearbox life in its coal-pulverizing operation. After an annual gearbox inspection, oil analysis results indicated that the AGMA…
Reliant Energy Commits $350 Million for Environmental Upgrades at Two Key Facilities Reliant Energy has announced plans to install state-of-the-art emission control systems at two Pennsylvania power plants, a major…
New flue gas desulfurization (FGD) units are being installed at utilities in many parts of the U.S. and a large percentage of the new scrubbers are of the wet limestone…
The well-received coal-fired plant operator staffing benchmarking study published in POWER in September 2004 by the EUCG was recently joined by two additional studies: one of plant-level engineering and technical…
NUCLEAR MAINTENANCE Safer, "virtual" reactor walkdowns In an industry where safety comes first, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) has found a way to minimize a major concern of nuclear…
Electric utility mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are forged in the boardroom and fueled by Wall Street. But their success or failure is determined at power plants and depends largely on…