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Belgian utility Electrabel has threatened legal action if the country’s government enacts a bill that would force the its two nuclear operators to pay a € 250 million ($336 million) tax. The one-time levy would force Electrabel and SPE to contribute to the 2008 financial year. If they do not comply, a penalty of 2% […]

A regional system plan for 2008 released Friday by ISO New England Inc. forecasts that the region is likely to have sufficient capacity to meet electricity demand through 2014, but significant challenges—such as major transmission upgrades—remain for the region New England Inc. is the operator of the region’s bulk power system and wholesale electricity markets. […]

Top Plant: CPS Energy’s J.K. Spruce Power Plant, Unit 1 was recently recognized by the EUCG Fossil Productivity Committee as the best performer in the large coal plant category over the 2002-2006 evaluation period. The competition was tough, with more than 80 plants in the running, but Unit 1 emerged as the clear winner by earning top points for high plant reliability and very low nonfuel O&M costs.

No U.S. federal standards exist to limit worker exposure to hand-arm vibration (HAV), but the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health suggests that high HAV acceleration levels (5-36 m/s2) can cause physical effects—and even permanent injury—if left unchecked and untreated. A new series of triaxial accelerometers launched this August by PCB Piezotronics’ Larson Davis […]

How often do you get a clash between two great Lone Star icons?

A twist on an old technique, flue gas recirculation, helps prevent slagging in the upper furnace and convective pass, according to pilot testing recently completed by APTECH CST and the Southern Research Institute. The technology—along with a companion technology for furnace sorbent and urea injection for SO₂ and NO^x control—could help owner/operators of smaller, older coal-fired plants meet emissions limits at a reasonable cost.

Software ranges from shrink-wrapped products available “off the shelf” to custom corporate implementations of enterprise systems that require sessions with shrinks to keep everyone sane. Regardless of its complexity, every piece of software a plant uses, or interfaces to, poses critical issues that require life-cycle management. Although functionality has always been the chief specification for software, plants must pay far more attention to long-term quality issues. These two concerns are often at odds with each other.

Most of today’s operating coal plants began service at least a generation ago and were designed to burn eastern bituminous coal. A switch to Powder River Basin coal can stress those plants’ boiler systems, especially the pulverizers, beyond their design limits and cause no end of operational and maintenance problems. Many of those problems are caused by failing to maintain good fuel fineness when increasing fuel throughput.

An increasing number of low-pressure steam turbines—especially at supercritical fossil units—have experienced stress corrosion cracking in the blade attachment region of their low-pressure rotors. Approaches to solving this problem range from redesign of the attachment and blade replacement to in-situ weld repair. Regardless of the procedure selected, the solution must completely restore the turbine performance while minimizing outage duration.

Top Plant: Not all coal-fired power plants are constructed by investor-owned utilities or independent power producers selling to wholesale markets. When Newmont Mining Corp. recognized that local power supplies were inadequate and too expensive to meet long-term electricity needs for its major gold- and copper-mining operations in northern Nevada, it built its own generation. What’s more, Newmont’s privately owned 200-MW net coal-fired plant features power plant technologies that will surely become industry standards. Newmont’s investment in power and technology is also golden: The capital cost will be paid back in about eight years.