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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has finalized its initial set of smart grid cyber security guidelines. NIST’s Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security (NISTIR 7628) includes high-level security requirements, a framework for assessing risks, an evaluation of privacy issues in personal residences, and other information for organizations to use as they craft strategies to protect the modernizing power grid from attacks, malicious code, cascading errors, and other threats, according to NIST’s press release.

Cleaning air heaters in power plants or recovery boilers has traditionally involved using high-pressure water, chemicals, or steam. These techniques, though effective on moderate airside fouling of heat exchange surfaces, are usually ineffective on the more tenacious deposits that can develop in coal-fired plants. If these deposits are not removed by periodic cleaning, heat transfer in the heaters is reduced, which in turn reduces boiler efficiency and increases a unit’s heat rate. Severe fouling on air preheaters (APHs) can even reduce a unit’s power output.

Many power purchase agreements entered into between qualifying facilities (QF) and electric utilities during the 1980s and 1990s have several years remaining on their terms. These contracts typically require the generator to comply with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations promulgated pursuant to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). The foremost FERC requirement […]

In the heart of corn country, Archer Daniels Midland is using seed corn that is no longer suitable for planting, along with coal, to power its 180-MW Clinton cogeneration plant. The cogeneration plant, which began operations in 2008, supports ADM’s Clinton corn processing plant, one of the largest corn wet mills in the world. It also supports ADM’s facility that produces renewable plastic from corn sugar. Firing up to 20% biomass along with coal, the new cogeneration plant is capable of providing 100% of the steam and electrical power needs of both facilities.

Constellation Energy Constellation Energy recently completed a series of air quality upgrades on both units at its Brandon Shores Generating Station that included flue gas desulfurization (FGD), baghouse, SO₃ control, and mercury reduction by activated carbon injection. The plant’s unique arrangement required long duct runs to the air quality system and a mile-long conveyor for moving barge-delivered limestone to the plant. Treated municipal wastewater was used as wet FGD supply water, and effluent treatment included first-of-its-kind nitrogen removal before discharge to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The 1,456-MW Brunner Island coal-fired plant has implemented advanced environmental improvements in order to be a good neighbor to the residents of south central Pennsylvania. For example, between 2006 and 2010, PPL invested more than $860 million in pollution control upgrades for air, water, and solid waste treatment at the facility.

Owner/operator: Mirant Corp. Dickerson Generating Station, a 50-year-old facility servicing Maryland and Washington, D.C., was recently upgraded with a flue gas desulfurization system and a unique draft system that allows an electrostatic precipitator and a baghouse to share flue gas cleanup chores on each unit. In addition, state-of-the-art equipment monitoring and diagnostics keep plant reliability high for this baseload unit.

Unit 2 at J-POWER’s Isogo Thermal Power Station entered commercial service in July 2009. The 600-MW ultrasupercritical unit joins an earlier, similar plant built in 2002. Together, these two new plants replaced 1960s-vintage coal-fired plants and doubled power generation from the small project site. In addition, the new unit improves the plant’s gross thermal efficiency to about 45% while reducing air emissions to those of a gas-fired combined-cycle plant.

Adding two 615-MW supercritical pulverized coal units to the 1,135-MW Oak Creek Power Plant is part of We Energies’ ongoing master plan to “Power the Future” of Wisconsin well into the 21st century. The new Elm Road Unit 1 went into service in February, and Unit 2 is expected to start operations during the fourth quarter of 2010. With operations marked by high efficiency and low emissions, these new units will provide large amounts of cleaner energy to the Great Lakes area.

Located in a semi-arid region, this “Texas tough” coal-fired power plant uses a number of smart practices to increase water-use efficiency. For example, a pipeline was constructed to send blowdown water from nearby Plant X for treatment and recycling at the 1,080-MW Tolk Station, making both plants “zero-discharge” facilities. For its environmental stewardship and superior plant operations, the Powder River Coal Users’ Group named Tolk Station its 2010 Plant of the Year.