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The reliability of service to millions of electricity consumers from Puget Sound to Portland improved significantly with the completion of the 84-mile-long, 500-kV Grand Coulee–Bell transmission line (Figure 4). The new path removes a major bottleneck between Spokane and Grand Coulee Dam and points west.   4. Breaking the bottleneck. The Bonneville Power Administration’s 84-mile, […]

In early December 2004, the Portrero substation received an early Christmas present. It was a shiny new static VAR compensator (SVC) from ABB (Raleigh, N.C.) that will improve the stability of the grid serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The SVC, which was commissioned on December 10, will help stabilize the grid’s voltage during peak […]

Abating the emissions of power plants is a very hot topic these days. So it’s not surprising that people are coming up with innovative ways to not only cut emissions but also make money from them. The latest brainstorm comes from—where else—the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Moshe Alamaro, an atmospheric scientist, has come up […]

In an effort to tap the significant solar energy resources of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, Texas, and Colorado, the U.S. DOE will support efforts to install a total of 1,000 MW of concentrating solar power (CSP) systems over the next five years. “This initiative will provide a substantial engine for economic development, job […]

In our January/February 2005 story “The 2004 Global Energy Awards” we incorrectly identified the award received by Constellation Energy. The correct caption follows. The 2004 Energy Company of the Year Award went to Constellation Energy. Constellation is one of the largest wholesalers of electricity in the U.S. and a leading supplier of power to large […]

My New Year’s resolution was to try to be optimistic about 2005—and why not? The past few years have been a roller-coaster ride for the generation industry, with a quick turn here and a negative-G drop there. Although the ride was a bit gut-wrenching the first few times, the ups and downs are now expected […]

  Renewable power development will continue to grow in the U.S., with the nonhydro total reaching 53,121 MW by the end of 2016. So predicts a soon-to-be-released report from Boulder, Colo.–based Platts Analytics (which, like POWER, is a part of Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies). If all that capacity goes on-line, it would […]

Siemens Power Generation (Erlangen, Germany) announced late last year that it had acquired wind turbine manufacturer Bonus Energy A/S (Brande, Denmark). With a market share of about 9%, Bonus was one of the top five manufacturers of wind turbines in 2004. On paper, Siemens now seems well-positioned to challenge the market leaders (GE Wind, Vestas, […]

  Sun drives pistons and generator Sandia National Laboratories is joining forces with Stirling Energy Systems Inc. (SES) of Phoenix to test and develop new solar dish-engine systems. Five new systems installed at Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility in New Mexico joined a prototype Stirling system that was erected earlier in 2004. The six-dish […]