In This Issue
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Coal
Slide Show Supplement to Mátra Power Plant, Visonta, Hungary
The Mátra Power Plant in Visonta, Hungary, uses a dense slurry system for handling fly ash and other coal combustion residuals. The DSS combines ash and water in a 1:1 ratio, creating a cement-like slurry. [gss ids=”93802,93804,93832,93808,93834,93836,93838,93840,93842,93844,93822,93846,93848,93850″]
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CoalCoal Treatment Helps Power Plant Reduce Fuel Costs
Lakeland Electric, the third-largest public power utility in Florida, reported that it saved $12 million in fiscal year 2015 through the use of a coal treatment at its McIntosh Power Plant Unit 3. The savings
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Legal & Regulatory
Birds Continue to Muddy Permitting for Renewables
The push for clean energy notwithstanding, no silver bullet can cure the challenges that our continued use of carbon engenders. Every form of energy production, green or black, clean or dirty, presents downsides. Siting an energy facility—whether clean energy, hydro, natural gas, coal or nuclear—inherently imposes some form of environmental harm. For renewables, one of […]
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CoalTOP PLANT: Mátra Power Plant, Visonta, Hungary
Owner/operator: Mátra Power Plant Co. Ltd. Hungary’s largest coal-fired power plant is a model of efficiency and environmental impact despite its 1960s-era vintage. Continual upgrades have kept the plant running smoothly, and a modern dense slurry ash-handling system keeps combustion residuals under control and allows for a zero liquid discharge posture. Unlike some of its […]
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CoalTOP PLANT: National Capital Power Station Dadri, Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India
Owner/operator: NTPC Ltd. India’s state-owned generator NTPC operates a large fleet of power plants across the nation, and one of its top performers is found outside the capital of New Delhi. Staff at NTPC Dadri have taken a proactive, innovative approach to maintaining their plant, making it one of the most efficient in India despite […]
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CoalTOP PLANT: Tanjung Bin Energy Power Plant, Johor, Malaysia
Owner/operator: Malakoff Corp. Bhd. Building a power plant on a site previously used for an aquaculture farm comes with more than a few challenges. For the Tanjung Bin Energy Power Plant, that meant some redesign and rework was required. Even so, the GE-led construction consortium made adjustments and delivered the state-of-the-art ultrasupercritical project on time […]
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CoalCoal Combustion By-products Aren’t All Bad: The Beneficial Use Solution
While it’s true that coal ash can be an environmental hazard if it’s not properly managed, there are a lot of positive uses for coal combustion products that actually provide benefits to the world. Many beneficial uses have been around for decades, but valuable new options are being developed, and some are starting to make […]
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Legal & RegulatoryIs an Automated Compliance Tracking Solution Right for You?
Like so many other power plant functions these days, regulatory and standards compliance can be automated. Know what you want an automated system to do before you make a vendor decision. As North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) enforcement deadlines and audit dates loom—notably, CIP-003-6 in April 2017, which addresses the […]
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O&MHigh-Speed Turbine Rotor Balancing Lowers Costs and Improves Operation
High-speed turbine rotor balancing was once rare because of the costs and logistical challenges involved in doing it during an outage. That’s begun to change as economic options emerge, and experience is showing that high-speed balancing can pay big dividends in reliability and maintenance costs. To a maintenance engineer or fleet manager, unwanted vibration in […]
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TechnologyChronic Tardiness at South Africa’s Eskom Could Be Its Downfall
South Africa’s state-owned utility faces recent generation shortages, plant construction problems, load shedding, and uncertainty at the African continent’s only nuclear power plant. And that’s just on the generation side. Moves on the business planning and regulatory side are painfully slow and could, some argue, be writing the utility’s obituary. Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned monopoly […]
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Commentary
Who Is Subsidizing Whom?
For all the words published over the past several years about electric utility customer defection—thanks to the combination of lower-cost residential solar photovoltaic systems, tax incentives, and net
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Commentary
The Surprising Ground Zero for Electricity Market Fights
Look to the East and you’ll see a major initiative to transform New York’s electric grid into a cleaner, more efficient system. Look to the West and you’ll find ambitious clean energy legislation in California. Yet utility executives and federal regulators recently gathered in the Midwest to highlight how this region is ground zero for […]
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RenewablesBrazil’s Environmental Agency Halts 8-GW Amazon Hydropower Project
Brazil’s environmental protection agency, IBAMA, in early August canceled development permits for an 8-GW hydroelectric project on concerns about its social and ecological impacts. If built as proposed by a consortium of multinational companies—including Brazilian parastatal Eletrobras and private sector partners GDF Suez/Engie, EDF, Camargo Correa, Neoenergia, COPEL, and Endesa Brasil—the São Luiz do Tapajós […]
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RenewablesFirst Scottish Tidal Energy Array Is Connected to the Grid
One of the world’s first offshore tidal energy arrays was connected to Scotland’s grid this August. On its heels is the grid connection of a second array that is owned by a different company. Nova Innovation, a Scottish tidal energy company founded in 2010, on August 28 grid-connected the second of three 100-kW Nova M100 […]
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O&MA Primer on Gas Turbine Failure Modes
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. […]
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International
POWER Digest
Mexico to Launch Pilot Carbon Trade Program. Mexico will launch a yearlong simulation of a cap-and-trade program this November. The pilot program will involve up to 60 companies, allowing them to adapt a
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Coal
Sasan’s Shadow: An Ultra Mega Power Project’s Dark Side
For all its record-breaking achievements for speed, innovation, and efficiency, the 3,960-MW Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project should have been a POWER Top Plant. But the unique project has been plagued by serious setbacks—including loss of life—that show how perilous the plant construction journey can be. A decade ago, India was suffering a power crisis […]
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Carbon CapturePrototype Power Cell Captures CO2 and Produces Power
Researchers from Cornell University have developed an oxygen-assisted aluminum/carbon dioxide power cell that uses electrochemical reactions to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce power in the process. The cell developed by Lynden Archer, the James A. Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and doctoral student Wajdi Al Sadat would use aluminum as the anode and […]
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NuclearRussia Accelerates Efforts to Build Advanced Nuclear Reactors
Under a government decree published in early August, Russia will build up to 11 new nuclear reactors by 2030, including two BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast-neutron reactors. Russia already has 36 operating reactors
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O&MUsing Radar to Improve Security and Counter Drone Threats
Security is taken very seriously at most power plants. Fences and other barriers are usually installed before construction of a plant even begins to keep curious busy-bodies, thieves, protestors, and—at the far end of the spectrum—saboteurs and terrorists out of sensitive locations. Some plants have dedicated security staff patrolling areas both inside and outside of […]
