In This Issue
-
O&MDoing More with Less: New Solutions Help Address Power Plant O&M Staffing Difficulties
Studies and surveys have predicted a future shortage of skilled workers in the power industry for many years. Unfortunately, the future is here. When qualified workers are difficult to locate, some companies are finding that technology and service contracts allow them to do more with less. It’s no secret that the traditional power industry workforce […]
-
Legal & RegulatoryThe State of U.S. Mercury Control in Response to MATS
As this month marks the compliance date for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), it’s a good time to take a step back from the many months of concern and consideration of options to see how coal-fired power plants are actually responding to the new rule. It’s also a good time to acknowledge that […]
-
O&MWind Power Projects Must Be Managed as Electrical Generation Plants
Wind turbine blades, gearboxes, and generators get most of the attention both within and beyond the power industry. The focus is often on increased capacity and blade lengths, as well as drive train premature failures. That’s natural, because those rotating blades are the most visible part of a wind project. However, successful operation of a […]
-
GasAre Simple Cycles or Combined Cycles Better for Renewable Power Integration?
It’s been called “filling the duck pond,” and it’s the increasingly common challenge worldwide of balancing supply and demand when variable renewables are not feeding power to the grid. Gas-fired generation is often filling the pond, but the technology mix matters. The growing portfolio of renewable power generation around the world has made the selection […]
-
O&MKeeping Pollution Control Devices Online with Good Operating Practices
In order to comply with the Clean Air Act and subsequent regulations covering emissions, coal-fired utilities have installed multiple pollution control devices. Understanding key operating aspects of this equipment can help you avoid costly maintenance activities and forced shutdowns. Since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, the regulatory environment for control of […]
-
BusinessNextEra Energy: A Tale of Two, and Maybe Three, Companies
NextEra Energy consists of a traditional, vertically integrated electric utility with a heavy reliance on nuclear and natural gas—Florida Power & Light—and an aggressive foray into renewable energy outside of Florida—NextEra Energy Resources. Given its recent bid for Hawaii’s electric utility, which has a legacy of oil-fired generation and a state commission pushing renewables, NextEra […]
-
O&MBalancing Risk, Reliability, and Safety at Plants Slated for Retirement
When the decision is made to retire a power plant, the work of getting there is just beginning. Maintaining safe and reliable generation requires strong leadership, clear communications, and heightened attention to operations and maintenance, staff morale, and post-shutdown plans. For utilities and other generators facing the challenge of winding down operations at an […]
-
Legal & RegulatoryProposed Ozone Rule May Be the Most Costly Regulation Ever
Estimates vary widely, but even the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges that lowering the ozone standard will cost billions. How will it affect power companies? It could make approval of new projects much more difficult. Even in the annals of expensive environmental regulations and the hyperbole that often accompanies them, the numbers are eye-popping: $140 billion […]
-
O&MUnderstanding Electrical Fire Hazards at Electric Generating Stations
Minimizing the impact of electrical fires in power plants requires a combination of prevention, compartmentalization, detection, and suppression strategies. But first, everyone in a plant needs to understand the hazard. Fires at electric generating stations are rare—but not as rare as one might think. Loss history at hydroelectric facilities, for example, shows that fires involving […]
-
RenewablesLeveraging Generation Synergies with Hybrid Plants
Everyone loves efficiencies. Combining generation technologies can create a plant that’s more than the sum of its parts, but engineering challenges mean these projects are not for the faint of heart. When you think of “hybrids” these days, your first thought is probably of automobiles. But hybrids—hybrid power plants, that is—are starting to emerge in […]
-
NuclearTwo Years Later, S. Korea Finally Puts Shin-Wolsong 2 Online
In South Korea, the second unit at Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s (KHNP’s) Shin-Wolsong reactor (Figure 3) was finally connected to the grid in late February. 3. Finally connected. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s Shin-Wolsong 2 was grid-connected in late February, nearly two years after it was completed. Courtesy: KHNP Though the reactor was completed […]
-
RenewablesStudy: Perovskite-Silicon Tandems Provide Big Boost to Solar Efficiency
Stacking perovskites, a crystalline material, onto a conventional silicon solar cell may dramatically improve the overall efficiency of the cell, scientists from Stanford University concluded in a new study. “Right now, silicon solar cells dominate the world market, but the power conversion efficiency of silicon photovoltaics has been stuck at 25% for 15 years,” explained […]
-
NuclearSeismic Hazard Resiliency at U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
Since the beginning of the U.S. commercial reactor industry, regulatory agencies have required that nuclear power plant designs take into account the potential threats posed by natural hazards such as earthquakes and floods. The tsunami-caused disaster in Japan in 2011 prompted renewed attention worldwide on these hazards. Given the devastation caused at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi […]
-
RenewablesOne Step Back, One Step Forward for U.S. Offshore Wind
Though offshore wind is becoming increasingly important in Europe, with many hundreds-of-megawatts projects in service, the sector has stagnated in the U.S., with no operational facilities—and some
-
Legal & Regulatory
The “Dark Side” of Reliability Regulation
Reliability of the bulk power system may not be as sexy as news of “got-rich-quick” energy traders and alleged insidious market manipulation. But for those on the ground balancing the practicalities of ensuring electricity arrives when and where it is needed with a carousal of mandatory regulations, it can be every bit as interesting. Cue […]
-
NuclearChina’s Hualong One Reactor Design Gets Argentine Boost
Argentina’s Ministry of Federal Planning in early February signed an agreement with the National Energy Administration of China and China National Nuclear Co. (CNNC) to build Argentina’s fourth nuclear reactor, an 800-MW CANDU design, on the site of the existing Atucha nuclear power plant. Under the agreement, Nucleoeléctrica Argentina—holder of the rights to Canadian CANDU […]
-
Commentary
The Export-Import Bank’s Role in Supporting Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is on the rise, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is playing its part to support American renewable exporters in the global marketplace. Global installed capacity of renewable electricity over the last 10 years has increased by over 100%, to 1,560 GW, and now accounts for 23% of all […]
-
Business
POWER Digest
$1.9B Pan-African Renewable Energy Platform Launched. Renewables company Mainstream Renewable Power and private equity firm Actis on Feb. 17 launched a pan-African renewable energy platform dubbed Lekela Power, with ambitions to provide between 700 MW and 900 MW of wind and solar power across Africa by 2018. Mainstream will take responsibility for the full end-to-end […]
-
Commentary
In a Word, Storage
What turns a trend from trendy to established? In the energy industry it can be any number of things, from a technology breakthrough, to a new market, to forces of nature. The shale gas boom in the U.S. is the most well-known example of a technology trend that has changed the economics for all power […]
-
NuclearPalo Verde Nuclear Station Sets U.S. Production Record
The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station led the U.S. in electrical generation in 2014, as it has done for 23 consecutive years, with a total output of 32.3 million MWh. That bested its previous record set in 2012. The Palo Verde plant is located about 45 miles west of Phoenix, Ariz. (Figure 5). It has […]
-
O&MInnovative Pipe Conveyors: Effective, Efficient, and Environmentally Friendly
Transporting household and industrial waste as well as sewage sludge from a treatment plant to a power station can be a messy business. The utility company Linz AG found that a pipe conveyor system offered an optimal solution. The conveyor is not only highly energy efficient, but due to its closed design, it also allows […]
