Editorial

Plenary session participants at Power-Gen Europe on June 21 in Milan were (left to right) Moderator Stephen Sackur, BBC; Karim Amin, CEO of Global Sales, Power & Gas, Siemens AG;
Petrit Ahmeti, President of the Albanian Energy Regulator (ERE) & VP of MEDREG; Paul McElhinney, President & CEO of Power Services, GE Power. Courtesy: Lee Buchsbaum

Enrico Viale, head of global thermal generation for the Italian energy company Enel, gave the keynote presentation at Power-Gen Europe on June 21, 2016 in Milan. Courtesy: Lee Buchsbaum

This artist is finishing up details on the theme board for the electrification panel at the 2016 EEI convention. Source: POWER

Themes of the panel discussion about big data displayed graphically at the 2016 EEI convention. Source: POWER

Participants in the 2016 EEI conference renewable session (left to right): Tom Dunn, Velco; Steve Berberich, California Independent System Operator; Charlie Smith, Utility Variable Generation Integration Group; Sue Tierney, Analysis Group; and Joe Viola, Hawaiian Electric. Source: POWER

GE and Exelon partnered on a display titled “The Future of Electricity Is Digital” at the 2016 EEI convention. Source: POWER

GE and Exelon displayed the concept of a digital power system at the 2016 EEI annual convention. Source: POWER

Evan Burfield (left), cofounder of 1776, and Brian Wolff, executive vice president, public policy and external affairs for EEI, announced their partnership at the EEI annual convention in Chicago, June 14. Source: POWER

International security analyst, author, and speaker Keren Elazari urged electric utilities to welcome “friendly hackers” to help test and secure their systems. Courtesy: Keren Elazari, ww.k3r3n3.com

American Electric Power’s Energized Reconductor Project of the Lower Rio Grande Valley won the 2016 Edison Electric Institute’s Edison Award for U.S. utilities. Courtesy: AEP

AES’s modular architecture for its Advancion 4 battery storage system enables interchangeable components from certified suppliers. Courtesy: AES

2016 EEI Annual Convention banner

Business incubator 1776 logo

Kevin Cramer was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 and is North Dakota’s only representative. He serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has the broadest jurisdiction of any committee in Congress. Rep. Cramer is assigned to three subcommittees: Communications and Technology, Environment and the Economy, and Oversight and Investigations. Source: http://cramer.house.gov/about/full-biography

Boundary Dam Unit 3 power produced. Spring and fall maintenance outages are standard in the coal-fired power industry, and units may run at less than full capacity for a number of reasons, including reduced demand. Courtesy: SaskPower

This shot from the roof of SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station shows ductwork that carries flue gas from the upgraded Unit 3 to the new carbon capture facility, where sulfur (in the shorter tower) and then carbon dioxide (in the taller tower) are absorbed and stripped before the carbon dioxide is compressed in the building partially visible on the right. From the compression building, the gas is piped underground to a metering station before being sent underground again, either for enhanced oil recovery or permanent geological storage. Source: POWER/Gail Reitenbach

A consortium led by Mainstream Renewable Power ordered 157 Siemens SWT-2.3-108 wind turbines for three projects in South Africa in February 2016. The 140-MW Khobab wind farm and the 140-MW Loeriesfontein 2 wind farm are both located in the Namakwa District Municipality, and the 80-MW Noupoort wind farm is located in Umsobomvu Local Municipality. Courtesy: Siemens

Tesla’s 10-kWh Powerwall is designed for home use in conjunction with rooftop solar. This photo shows a two-unit system; up to nine can be paired together. Source: POWER/Tom Overton

Final assembly of the Siemens gas turbine SGT6-8000H in the Berlin manufacturing plant. Courtesy: Siemens

Final assembly of an H-class Siemens turbine. Courtesy: Siemens

The largest plant in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority fleet is the Aguirre station in Salinas, with a 900-MW unit burning #6 fuel oil. The plant went into service in 1975. Courtesy: PREPA

Commission Chair Betty Ann Kane opposed the merger of Exelon and Pepco to the end. Courtesy: District of Columbia Public Service Commission

Lithium-ion batteries are an important component of San Diego Gas & Electric’s Borrego Springs microgrid. Courtesy: SDG&E

Two HH-1N “Huey” helicopters sit on the grounds outside of the Search and Rescue hangar aboard Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma, Ariz., Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. The MCAS Yuma SAR team hosted a conference with regional emergency services personnel to discuss tactics, techniques and procedures. MCAS is leasing land to Arizona Public Service to develop a microgrid that will supply backup power for the installation. Photo by Lance Cpl. Brendan King

Demonstration platform. This photo shows one of the screens that display operation of the Microgrid Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop Demonstration Platform developed by MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. This screen displays the anonymized real-world power system operating as a microgrid. Source: POWER

Potential microgrid value streams pancaked. This is not an exhaustive stack of microgrid benefits, and not all value streams will be options for all projects. Some benefits will accrue to different parties (the customer and the grid operator, for example). You could think of the different pancake colors as different “flavors” of benefits: green represents revenue from external/offsite sources; yellow represents customer costs avoided or lowered by use of a microgrid; blue represents social and environmental benefits that may be hard to assign a dollar value to. Source: POWER

DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz spoke with the press after his luncheon keynote on February 24 at the 2016 IHS CERAWeek conference. Courtesy: POWER

HE Ali Al-Naimi, the minister of petroleum and mineral resources for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, spoke on February 23 at the 2016 IHS CERAWeek. Though the kingdom is known for its fossil fuel exports, he anticipates a day when it will export solar power. Courtesy: POWER

OPEC Secretary General HE Abdalla Salem El-Badri, speaking at the 2016 IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. Courtesy: POWER

GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt, speaking at IHS CERAWeek 2016, said we live in a world of “slow growth and volatility.” Source: POWER/Gail Reitenbach