Features

Last year, San Diego Gas & Electric tapped Boston-based EnerNOC Inc. to aggregate 25 MW of backup generators throughout SDG&E’s service area to relieve the grid when it’s stressed by peak demand for electricity. By combining stringent environmental controls with field-proven expertise managing distributed assets, EnerNOC has helped to improve grid stability in Southern California.

The Fossil Productivity Committee of the EUCG conducts an annual analysis of its member plants’ operating results and selects the Best Performer in the categories of small and large coal plants. For 2007, Alliant Energy’s Lansing and Edgewater Generating Stations took the top spots—the first time in recent history that a single utility claimed both awards.

Carbon dioxide emissions aren’t yet regulated by the EPA, but it’s likely they will be soon. There are many technically feasible, but as-yet-undemonstrated ways to reduce the considerable carbon footprint of any coal-fired plant, whether it uses conventional or unconventional technology. One promising approach to removing CO2 from a plant’s flue gas uses chilled ammonium bicarbonate to drive the separation process.

The dearth of commercial operating experience for advanced coal-fired facilities is forcing their early adopters and builders to use long development cycles and pay high costs for unique engineering design studies. A broad-based industry collaborative effort fostered by EPRI to address this issue is beginning to show results.

POWER has reported on several EUCG benchmarking studies over the past several years. This month we examine the maintenance staffing of 45 coal plants reported by 13 EUCG member utilities. If you benchmark your plants or fleet, as you should, some of the study’s results challenge what is considered conventional wisdom.

All fossil fuels carry some risk with their reward of an energy density that’s sufficient for producing electricity economically. For coal and natural gas, that threat is a fire or explosion. However, the risk of an explosion isn’t limited to gas-fired plants. Gas poses a threat to any plant that uses the fuel, even in small quantities for heating. Here’s an overview of what you should be doing to keep gas pipelines from corroding and exploding.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that U.S. thermoelectric generating capacity will grow from 709 GW in 2005 to 862 GW in 2030 to help meet annual demand increases of 2%. The makeup and cooling water needed by plants generating that increased capacity certainly won’t be available from withdrawal sources, so plant developers and owners will have to apply water-stingy technologies plantwide. As is usually the case, conservation saves money as well as the environment. Here’s a thumbnail economic analysis of some solutions to the water problem.

Nobody expected driveline vibration to occur after a flawless retrofit of a 200-MW steam turbine. But when it did, Mitsubishi Power Systems and Exelon vibration specialists identified the symptoms and rapidly narrowed the list of possible causes. Confounding factors made the root cause difficult to identify, but the experts pinpointed the problem, made necessary hardware modifications, and placed the turbine back in service in a week.

Immunity from voltage sags is vital for reliable operation of our ever-more-sophisticated electronic controls and equipment. Every electrical product should be able to ride through typical voltage sags, but in many cases the first sag test occurs after equipment is installed and in operation. Select the appropriate sag immunity specification and equipment compliance testing, and you’ll be glad you did.

The biggest problem facing industrial managers is ensuring that they’ll continue to have a skilled workforce. With so many people nearing retirement, organizational skills are at risk, which poses a direct threat to operations. Many companies are making big investments to capture the unique knowledge and experience of graybeards before they move on. But that is just one aspect of a far more complex issue.