In This Issue
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Legal & RegulatoryWind Is Mainstream, and Other Insights from WINDPOWER 2015
Wind is no longer a niche alternative energy industry, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) CEO Tom Kiernan told attendees at WINDPOWER 2015. Despite policy hurdles, the wind sector has seen exponential growth and formidable cost reductions; it has the government’s endorsement for a low-carbon future; and it’s making up an ever-larger share of the nation’s […]
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O&MIgnalina: Decommissioning Chernobyl’s Big Sister
This is a web supplement to “Riding Off into the Sunset: Nuclear Decontamination and Decommissioning Update,” appearing in the July 2015 issue of POWER. The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) is located in eastern Lithuania near Visaginas—a town of more than 20,000 people founded in the mid-1970s for workers constructing INPP and for the […]
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RenewablesSolar and Storage Find Common Ground
Concentrating solar power has found a partner in thermal storage, but costs remain high. Solar photovoltaic generation may have a partner in rapidly expanding battery options, but the economics are uncertain. Is there room for both approaches, or will one be crowded out? Battery storage is officially hip. Once a subject of concern largely only […]
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Legal & RegulatoryThe Voters Were Right: Colorado and Minnesota’s Paths to Clean Energy
Voters in Colorado and stakeholders in Minnesota forced through unique managed generation transformation plans that paved the way for aggressive state renewable and clean energy standards—inadvertently pushing their utilities out in front of proposed and now actual federal policies. As the power industry struggles with rising costs of adaptation, many beleaguered executives are anxiously focusing […]
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Gas
A Brief History of In-Stack PM Measurement
This is an online supplement to the feature story “The Need for Alternate PM2.5 Emission Factors for Gas-Fired Combustion Units” in the July 2015 issue of POWER. The history of in-stack PM measurement methods began in 1971 with promulgation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Reference Method 5, following on the heels of promulgation […]
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Commentary
Public Power and IOUs: The Same Yet Different
What separates investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and public power companies these days? Less than you might imagine. In early June, while the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the trade association for IOUs, was holding its annual meeting in New Orleans, I was in Minneapolis at the annual conference of the American Public Power Association (APPA), which represents […]
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RenewablesThe Clean and Dirty of Landfill Gas Power
Despite its apparent environmental benefits and strong government backing, generating power from landfill gas hasn’t gained traction for a variety of reasons in the U.S. Will the Clean Power Plan bolster this “dirty” renewable power source? For the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the only clean thing about landfills—those engineered dumps that entomb America’s infinite […]
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CoalVietnam Sees Start of Major Private Coal Plant
The 1,240-MW coal-fired Mong Duong 2 power plant in Vietnam—the country’s first new private sector power plant to be commissioned in the past 10 years—began commercial operations on May 11, six months ahead of schedule (Figure 6). AES Corp. built the plant on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. It has a 25-year power purchase agreement with […]
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Business
Public Power “Big Dog” TVA Takes Fresh Approach to Resource Planning
At the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), generation transitions are nothing new. The nation’s largest public power system—with 34 GW of generating capacity, supplying retail distributors with nine million
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RenewablesWave Energy: Size Matters
Australian firm Carnegie Wave Energy, operator of the Perth Wave Energy Project—the world’s first commercial-scale, grid-connected wave energy array—is on target to take its CETO technology to the next stage with a four-fold improvement on a dollar-per-MW basis, CEO Greg Allen said. The Perth Wave Energy Project employs three 10-meter-diameter buoys that generate about 5% […]
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CoalXcel Energy’s Harrington Generating Station Earns Powder River Basin Coal Users’ Group Award
Harrington Generating Station, located near Amarillo, Texas, began burning Powder River Basin (PRB) coal when its units first entered service, beginning in 1976. A unique feature of the plant is that TUCO Inc. buys and delivers the coal and Savage Services owns and operates the plant’s coal-handling facility. Incomparable housekeeping and exceptional safety performance evidence […]
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Legal & RegulatorySouth Africa Outlines Plans to Tackle Power Crisis
South Africa’s energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has pledged urgent resolution of the nation’s worsening power crisis. In her annual budget and policy speech in Cape Town on May 19, Joemat-Pettersson said the country was rushing to finalize its much-awaited Integrated Energy Plan, which, when approved by the Cabinet, will delineate South Africa’s future energy mix […]
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Commentary
NETL: Providing Energy Technology Solutions and Options
The United States is continuing its successful track record of providing global leadership in technologies critical to ensuring the prosperity of current and future generations, as it has done for decades. Today, clean energy technologies need to be quickly developed to satisfy often opposing energy needs: national security, affordability, and environmental sustainability. The nation is […]
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RenewablesNew Approach Powers Bladeless Wind Turbine
An innovative wind turbine concept currently in the prototype phase captures the energy of vorticity, an aerodynamic effect also known as the “vortex shedding effect.” As the wind bypasses a fixed structure, its flow changes and generates a cyclical pattern of vortices. Once these forces are strong enough, the fixed structure starts oscillating, may enter […]
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RenewablesReport: World Is Seeing an Upsurge of Hydropower Development
The global hydropower sector has seen an upsurge in development activity lately, with installed capacity growing by 27% since 2004 (Figure 2), a new report from the World Energy Council (WEC) suggests. 2. World hydropower development. Hydropower development around the world stalled from 1999 to 2005, reflecting the impact of the World Commission on Dams, […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Australian Lawmakers Strike RET Deal
The political impasse stalling investments in renewables in Australia was breached in mid-May after lawmakers reached an agreement to revise the renewable energy target (RET). After months of intense wrangling, the Coalition and Labor parties struck a deal to cut the RET to 33,000 GWh from the current 41,000 GWh. That figure is far more […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Increasing Environmental Challenges for Renewable Energy
For decades, renewable energy sources—primarily wind and solar—have been touted as the answer to continued reliance on fossil fuels. The technology has substantially improved, reducing unit costs, and state-imposed requirements have increased demand, enabling increased production to be sustainable. This expansion has come with the recognition that it also has environmental consequences. Wind farms threaten […]
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O&MMetallurgical Aspects of Secondary Combustion on Boiler Pressure Parts
Controlling combustion in fossil fuel power plants in order to control the emission of pollutants sometimes has adverse effects on plant equipment, including certain metals. To understand how to address the problem, it helps to understand how it develops. The emission of nitrogen oxides, generally referenced as NOx (NO or NO2), has several adverse effects […]
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O&MPrevent Contamination and Corrosion in Demineralized Water Storage Tanks Using Nitrogen Sparging and Blanketing
The electric power generation industry relies heavily on demineralized and deionized water during process operations. Managing the water supply is critical not only under normal operating conditions, but also during outages. When scheduled or unscheduled outages occur, many boiler and pre-boiler systems are drained. After the outage, they are refilled with water that has been […]
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CoalUsing an Optical PM CEMS with Wet FGD for MATS Compliance
Of the three ways to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for particulate matter (PM) measurement, using an optical PM continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS) also delivers valuable side benefits, especially for units using wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD). Editor’s Note: This issue was published before the June 29, 2015, ruling by the […]
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O&MContinuous Water Washing in Wet Electrostatic Precipitators Reduces Capital Cost in the Chinese Market
As the Chinese government lowers the particulate matter (PM2.5) limits to 5 mg/Nm3 or less in coal-fired power plants, wet electrostatic precipitators are one of the key environmental components utilities select to meet this requirement. Optimization of continuous water washing of electrodes allows lower-cost alloys to be used, reducing capital expenditures. Wet electrostatic precipitators (WESPs) […]
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NuclearRussia Sees Floating Nuclear Power Plant Costs Balloon
Costs for the Akademik Lomonosov, Russia’s flagship floating nuclear power plant, have reportedly mushroomed to 37 billion rubles ($700 million), an increase of more than 300% from the original 2006 estimate of nine billion rubles ($170 million). The project has also been plagued by delays owing to a shipyard switch. Originally slated for delivery in […]
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CoalDon’t Let Leachate Derail Your CCR Landfill Plans
Developing a compliance approach for a new regulation sometimes means overlooking unintended consequences of the chosen compliance method. Preparing for compliance with the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on coal combustion residuals (CCR Rule), published in the Federal Register on April 17, 2015, is causing many power producers to make significant changes to […]
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Renewables
POWER Digest
Beacon Power to Supply Flywheels for Hybrid Alaska Energy Storage Project. Beacon Power on May 26 said it will supply flywheels for a hybrid energy storage project in Anchorage, Alaska, as part of an agreement
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GasThe Need for Alternate PM2.5 Emission Factors for Gas-Fired Combustion Units
The Environmental Protection Agency’s emission factor resource, AP-42, is not your only option for developing particulate matter (PM) emission rates. Results of a prominent PM emissions measurement research program for gas-fired plants have been successfully used to support development and application of alternate PM2.5 emission factors by both regulatory agencies and permit applicants The regulatory […]
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GasNigeria Has Gas Capacity, Gas Supply, but Little Gas Power
Nigeria brought 1.5 GW of natural gas–fired generation from three brand new power plants online in May, adding much-needed capacity to the grid. But because the West African country that is Africa’s biggest economy doesn’t have the means of transporting its abundant gas resources to its power plants, its crippling power shortages are expected to […]
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NuclearRiding Off into the Sunset: Nuclear Decontamination and Decommissioning Update
The International Energy Agency predicts that nearly 200 reactors will be decommissioned during the next 25 years. Industry best practices and new technology can help make the process go more smoothly. It may not come as a surprise, but the average age of operating reactors in the U.S. is greater than 35 years. There hasn’t […]
