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News items of interest to power industry professionals. RWE and E.ON to partner on new UK nuclear capacity. German giants RWE AG and E.ON AG on Jan. 14 said they would partner to develop new nuclear power stations in the UK. The 50:50 joint venture will have a long-term focus on seeking secure sites being […]

With the U.S. economy currently in a free fall, some utility industry leaders and elected officials argue that carbon cap legislation should be put on hold while the country recovers financially. However, President Barack Obama has a different game plan.

Once a Soviet satellite, Poland is now transforming into a thoroughly modern nation. To support its growing economy, this recent European Union member country is modernizing its power industry. Exemplifying the advances in the Polish electricity generation market is the 460-MW Patnów II Power Plant — the largest, most efficient (supercritical cycle), and environmentally cleanest lignite-fired unit in the country.

Purge water from a typical wet flue gas desulfurization system contains myriad chemical constituents and heavy metals whose mixture is determined by the fuel source and combustion products as well as the stack gas treatment process. A well-designed water treatment system can tolerate upstream fuel and sorbent variation over time and consists of multiple process treatment steps arranged in just the right order to produce wastewater acceptable for discharge.

Formed suction intake designs have been used in many large vertical pump stations in flood control projects. Space limitations at the Oak Creek Power Plant Expansion Project near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, created a unique opportunity to apply this technology to an 800,000-gpm cooling water system upgrade for the entire Oak Creek Power Plant.

Tuning power plant controls takes nerves of steel and an intimate knowledge of plant systems gained only by experience. Tuning controls also requires equal parts art and science, which probably is why there are so few tuning experts in the power industry. In Part I of a two-part series, we explore a mix of the theoretical and practical aspects of tuning boiler controls.

Pulverizer throughput is determined by the coal fineness desired for a given coal. However, compromising on coal fineness when your pulverizer isn’t up to snuff can increase NO _x and cause many furnace problems. Your least costly option for increasing pulverizer capacity is to pay careful attention to key dimensions and critical tolerances during your next overhaul.

POWER published a summary of the flue gas desulfurization system scrubber cost survey conducted by the EUCG’s Fossil Productivity Committee in our July 2007 issue. Although the detailed results of the latest survey are proprietary to EUCG members that participated in it, we are privileged to present the newest summary data. The bottom line: Costs continue to rise but appear to be more predictable.

This guide offers suggestions from a control system engineering perspective for protecting power-generating units that are determined to be critical cyber assets

Skirtboard sealing systems are installed on the sides of belt conveyor loading zones to contain material, eliminate spillage, and reduce cleanup expenses. The new Double APRON SEAL Skirting system from Martin Engineering provides two wear surfaces on a single elastomer-sealing strip that’s installed along the bottom of the skirt board. When the bottom side of […]