Plant Design

When a gas turbine goes down, recovery can be an expensive, time-consuming process. Knowing what can go wrong and how to anticipate turbine failures can help you avoid a difficult unplanned outage. Gas-fired power is hot and getting hotter. The Energy Information Administration estimates that 2016 will be the first year ever that the U.S. […]

In a widely expected move, the Japanese government finally killed the ill-fated Monju breeder reactor project on September 21, but reasserted its faith in breeder reactor technology as a component of the nation’s future power mix. The Monju plant was an ambitious project that never came close to meeting its backers’ expectations. Launched in 1980, […]

Asset data is crucial in the power generation industry. Without it, utilities are forced to speculate about how long their assets will last, when they will need repair, and which strategies will maximize plant efficiency. With it, plant owners have the tools to drive down operational and maintenance costs while ensuring highly reliable power delivery. […]

As combined cycle gas turbine plants are called upon to play a larger and more flexible role in the generation mix, it’s important to schedule a comprehensive assessment of major components at key intervals to ensure reliable operation. Just like humans, power plants can benefit from regularly scheduled condition assessments, which are sometimes called “health […]

Effectively managing time, budget, and resources has always been the goal of companies involved in constructing power generation projects, but today the challenges in meeting those goals can be greater than ever. Any power generation company involved in new construction or an upgrade or retrofit project hopes it will see completion safely, without exceeding schedule […]

Electrical cable and conduit offers a reliable and proven way to get power where it needs to go, but that doesn’t mean it is always the best method. Busway can save space, while offering a less-expensive, more-flexible power distribution solution for applications where change and adaptation are important. As is the case in many other […]

Düsseldorf’s new “Block Fortuna” at the Lausward Power Plant, owned by municipal utility Stadtwerke Düsseldorf, is setting records and giving Germany’s coal-fired power plants some much-needed competition for backing up the nation’s large percentage of variable renewable power. Germany’s Energiewende (literally, “energy turn”) functions as something of a living laboratory, where innovation equals survival, because […]

We’ve all probably purchased a “lemon”—an item that didn’t work as advertised—but when that lemon is a $2.1 billion power plant, you can’t just return it. For Longview Power’s management team, taking a “belts-and-suspenders” approach to problem-solving allowed them to identify root causes, make changes, and convert their lemon into “lemonade.” Most people expect a […]

To satisfy China’s more stringent water use and air pollution rules, developers of the new 1.3-GW ultrasupercritical coal-fired Changxing Power Plant used a novel forward osmosis–based brine concentration

Plant wastewater treatment is not what it once was, and changes in the Environmental Protection Agency’s effluent limitations guidelines (ELG) have added a host of new wrinkles. A panel of power plant experts discussed what plant managers are planning and doing to keep things running smoothly within the new rules. For more than three decades, […]

Fortum Värme, a company jointly owned by Finnish energy firm Fortum and the city of Stockholm on May 9 inaugurated a new biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the shores of Värtan, a strait in Sweden’s capital city. The Värtan CHP8 (130 MWe, 280 MWth), which began construction in 2013, will begin commercial […]

Fuel cells are a rapidly expanding option for distributed generation, with fuel cell–based power plants now being deployed in capacities into tens of megawatts (see “59-MW Fuel Cell Park Opening Heralds

China’s CAP1400—a reactor design based on Westinghouse’s AP1000 pressurized water reactor—has successfully passed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) Generic Reactor Safety Review. The milestone is significant for China, which plans to deploy the advanced reactor design in large numbers (Figure 4) as well as export the technology. 4. On the nuclear horizon. An artist’s […]

When gas-fired plants are required to cycle more than they were designed for, added stress on plant components isn’t the only consequence. You also need to pay closer attention to turbine catalyst systems. Traditionally, many combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant units were designed and permitted for a baseload or similar operating profile. Startups […]

When owners of the Big Stone Plant researched air quality control system technology, they considered all available options and eventually settled on a design that was not in widespread use. Now that the

Is waste-to-energy the best greenhouse gas fighter among electric generating technologies? Or do trash burners spew dangerous air emissions? The answer may be a surprise. What electricity-generating technology results in net greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, not just zero new emissions? According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it’s not nuclear, not wind, not solar. […]

Although it’s not widely publicized, a majority of the energy used to generate electricity is wasted in the form of heat discharged to the environment. For better or worse, that’s just the way a typical thermal power plant works. Fuel, such as coal, biomass, natural gas, or uranium (in the case of nuclear plants), is […]

Power generators have always had to make afetyome changes as each new generation enters the sector, but today’s new workers are bringing with them attitudes and skills that challenge traditional plant management, for good and ill. Here’s what some companies and plants are doing to make the best use of younger workers while getting them […]

An industry rooted in tradition is facing unprecedented changes and challenges, and meeting them requires “thinking big” and embracing disruptive technologies that will change how we think about electricity generation and delivery. That was the message from the keynote session at ELECTRIC POWER 2016.  Two senior power sector executives opened the 2016 ELECTRIC POWER Conference […]

The nuclear industry has been expecting big things from small modular reactors (SMRs) for a long time, but to date, no SMRs have reached commercial construction phase. That may change soon. Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems has a plan to deploy NuScale Power’s Integral Pressurized Water Reactor at a site in Idaho. Will others follow […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) is ready to end its involvement with the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP), a carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) facility under development in west Texas, a move that would effectively shut the project down, according to its backers. Along with FutureGen, Hydrogen Energy California (HECA), and NRG’s Petra Nova […]

Fuel cells powered by natural gas, biogas, and hydrogen are a rapidly expanding option for distributed generation, with fuel cell­­–based power plants being deployed in capacities into tens of megawatts. But as the technology improves and costs begin to scale, opportunities for other applications are being explored. One such application may even go beyond power […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is conducting a formal investigation concerning costs and delays plaguing Mississippi Power’s Kemper integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant. Southern Co., Mississippi Power’s parent company, revealed the investigation in a recent 10-Q financial filing. The company said that while it is fully cooperating with the SEC, it believes the […]

A new tool that can be used to help ensure the proper positioning of core shroud head bolt assemblies in boiling water reactors (BWRs) was recently invented by Jason Cocke, engineering, tooling, and logistics

A small modular reactor (SMR) system that uses a supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) Brayton cycle instead of the steam Rankine cycle is under development at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and

When management decided to purchase and install a new, vented lead-acid battery system at the Dogwood power plant, decision-makers also investigated the benefits of adding a continuous battery-monitoring

Keeping a power plant’s surface condenser in proper working order requires paying attention to balance-of-plant systems as well. Failure to monitor and maintain cooling towers and vacuum pumps in particular can lead to performance penalties or worse. The surface condenser at a power plant has a significant effect on power generation—specifically, the efficiency with which […]

Two senior power sector executives opened the 2016 ELECTRIC POWER Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans April 19 with a message that generators need to “think big” and embrace possibilities of disruptive technologies—or risk being run over on the road to the future. Leo Denault, chairman and CEO of Entergy Corp., delivered the opening keynote […]

In April’s editorial, “When Technology Tails Wag Power Dogs,” Editor Gail Reitenbach mused about whether the use of captured carbon dioxide (CO2) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) represents a viable way forward for carbon capture, use, and sequestration (CCUS). This is a subject both of us have covered in various ways over the past few […]

In what has become a regular occurrence with the Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle power plant, Mississippi Power announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1 that costs have risen from the most recent projections and further delays in its in-service date are possible. Though the $18 million in […]