In This Issue
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Legal & RegulatoryA Brief History of U.S. Coal Ash Since the Kingston Spill
The disposal of coal ash, a combustion byproduct from coal-fired power plants, was propelled into the national conversation on December 22, 2008, when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston power plant suffered one of the largest coal ash spills in history. Calls for regulatory action shifted pitch again after the Duke Energy Dan River spill […]
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HistoryNotable Coal Ash Spills [Slideshow]
The coal ash spill in December 2008 at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal-fired Kingston power plant may have triggered regulatory action, but it wasn’t the first or the most devastating disaster in the coal industry’s history. Coal Ash Spills at Power Facilities [gss name=”example1″ link=”none” ids=”85886,85788,85786,85790,85778,85888,85794,85784,85776″] Other Notable Coal Ash Spills [gss name=”example2″ link=”none” ids=”85772,85780,85782″] —Sonal […]
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Legal & RegulatoryZero-Discharge Pozzolanic Brine Solidification: Another Option for Treating FGD Wastewater
In late 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published new regulations governing wastewater discharge from steam electric power plants. These new regulations, or effluent limitation guidelines
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O&MMonitoring and Treatment of Closed-Loop Cooling Water Systems
There may be multiple closed-loop cooling systems at your power plant. Chances are good that they cool or control temperature on some very critical components. The two that are most likely to exist are the
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RenewablesXcel Energy: Committed to Renewables, but Going Its Own Way
Utility holding company Xcel Energy, headquartered in Minneapolis and with large electric and gas operations in eight states in the upper Midwest, the Rocky Mountain West, and Texas, has ambitions to be the
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Technology
Beyond the Firewall: Best Practices for Cybersecurity Risk Management
Generating companies wondering if concerns about cybersecurity are overblown got some rude wake-up calls this winter. The first call came when Ukrainian media reported that a December 23 blackout that left
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CoalWill Tomorrow’s Power Plants Have Enough Water?
In a growing number of regions, power plants are competing with many other users for scarce freshwater supplies, and the situation is likely to get worse. The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently
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GasNew Metering Solution Controls Condensate in HRSG Systems
Many combined cycle and cogeneration plants with heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) were originally intended as baseload power sources or steam producers. In recent years, however, some have been
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International
POWER Digest
Exelon Completes Peach Bottom Reactor Uprate. An extended power uprate (EPU), begun in 2009 to increase the output from the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station by 270 MW, was completed in January, said the
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Energy StorageResearchers Find a New Energy Role for Desert Sand
Desert sand from the United Arab Emirates could be used in concentrating solar power (CSP) facilities to store thermal energy up to 1,000C. And replacing the typical heat storage materials used in thermal
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PowerWhy the Clean Power Plan Needs a Dynamic Reliability Safety Valve
John J. Novak The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan is arguably the most ambitious and far-reaching regulation in the agency’s history. America’s electric cooperatives
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NuclearChina Is Readying a 60-MW Floating Nuclear Power Plant
China, which is seeing a nuclear plant boom with 30 reactors already in operation and 24 under construction, is accelerating development of its first 60-MWe (200-MWt) floating nuclear reactor. China General
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O&MUsing Steam Turbine Warming Blankets to Reduce Startup Time and Rotor Stress
Steam turbines have to be warmed slowly to avoid excessive differential expansion of the various components, rotor stress, and potentially reduced service life. For that reason, startup times must be extended
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Legal & RegulatoryBelo Monte Hydro Plant Stunned, Revived Again
Legal battles to stall the 11-GW Belo Monte hydroelectric dam—being built on the Xingu River in Amazon forest for one of the world’s largest power plants—are raging on in Brazil (Figure 1). In January
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Coal
Lower Coal Utilization in China Pegged in Part to Massive Coal Power Glut
Tremors in China’s economy rattled its power sector last year. For the first time since the Cultural Revolution in 1968, the country’s power generation dropped from the previous year—modestly, by 0.2%
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Legal & Regulatory
Coal Ash Hits the Big Time
Regulatory attention is rarely welcome in the best of times. When the attention is focused on a practice that has been standard operating procedure for more than a century—especially a practice that has left
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GasSiemens, GE, MHPSA Advance Gas Power Efficiency
Gas power technologies set new benchmarks over the past few months as gas turbine “gorillas” Siemens, General Electric (GE), and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA) all reported new
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NuclearSouth Korean Grid Connects World’s First APR1400 Nuclear Reactor
The world’s first 1,400-MW Advanced Pressurized Reactor (APR1400), a South Korean Generation III design, has now been connected to the grid. Nearly eight years since construction kicked off in October
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GasDesalination Expands, but Energy Challenges Remain
At the ballyhooed Paris climate conference last December, a little-noticed event occurred that could lead to important developments for electric generators. At the Paris meeting, some 80
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Legal & RegulatoryGermany’s Energiewende at a New Turning Point
Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition) was adopted as policy beginning in September 2010, some six months before the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, and full legislative support was
