COAL POWER Direct

On December 23, 2010, one day before the Yuletide season, when members of Congress, the media, and Tea Party activists are least likely to watchdog the federal bureaucracy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced rulemakings to establish New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power plants and refineries. Or maybe "whispered" would be more accurate.

An unintended consequence of employing selective catalytic reduction and wet flue gas desulfurization to reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide levels at coal-fired power plants has been unwanted sulfur trioxide (SO₃) emissions. Picking the right sorbent in the right amount can eliminate that problem.

Efficient boiler operation requires boiler auxiliary equipment to operate in harmony. The air preheater, for example, though it has few moving parts, is vital to maintaining efficient boiler performance. In this second installment of our Power 101 series, we examine performance degradation caused by corrosion and fouling of the air preheater that results from the combustion of coal plus the effects of ammonia and sodium bisulfite injection for SO₃ mitigation.

San Miguel Electric Cooperative selected and installed an automatic sootblowing system for its Unit 1 to minimize clinkers in the boiler that caused semi-annual unscheduled outages. New boiler surface-cleaning equipment and intelligent cleaning software eliminated these expensive outages.

President Obama’s Jan. 25th State of the Union address proposed that the nation commit itself to developing "clean energy" sources of electricity over the next two decades. A critical assessment of his proposal finds that it’s just a rehash of previously rejected legislative proposals. In fact, to me, it sounds like Waxman-Markey all over again. I have a better idea.

Duke Energy and Progress Energy announced January 10 that they are combining to create the nation’s biggest electric utility. The $13.7 billion deal is likely to draw tough scrutiny from federal and state regulators—and some protests from big power buyers—given the companies’ overwhelming market dominance in North Carolina and more modest operational overlap in South Carolina.

In a decision blasted by the coal industry as making the state "dangerously reliant" on natural gas, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has approved an emissions-reduction plan for Xcel Energy that further expands the utility’s already extensive shutdown of coal-fired power plants in favor of gas-fueled generation.

As the United States grapples with how best to address climate change and conservation—whether by taxing carbon, cap and trade, or setting higher renewable portfolio standards—an effective approach exists at the state level to reduce electricity producers’ carbon emissions: restructuring.

On November 8, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued its decision in West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, et al. v. Huffman. It’s an opinion that should be of great interest to government agencies and others who find themselves in a position of seeking to remediate water quality problems left by third parties.

Republicans picked up more than enough seats during the mid-term elections to assume control of the House, but don’t expect any relief from the administration’s war on coal-fired power plants.