POWER

As part of constructing the recently commissioned We Energies’ Oak Creek Power Plant Elm Road units, four remarkable below-ground structures were built. Each unique structure required creative designs and meticulous construction techniques to meet the project’s distinctive requirements.

It has been three years and a few months since the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Reliability Standards (Standards) became mandatory and noncompliance became subject to sanctions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). You might assume that because we have had no further instances of widespread cascading outages that the Standards are working. You may also assume that—considering the database of documented noncompliance with the Standards—the industry as a whole is puzzled, unprepared, or negligent in carrying out its responsibility to keep the high-voltage electric grids reliable and secure. The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle.

Environmentalists renewed their attacks on coal-fired power development in 2010. At the same time, Congress dithered on cap-and-trade legislation while the Environmental Protection Agency marched forward rules to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. Couple the regulatory uncertainty with lean economic times that have flatlined electricity demand growth plus low natural gas prices, and the result is predictable: New coal-fired plant construction is in the doldrums.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has finalized its initial set of smart grid cyber security guidelines. NIST’s Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security (NISTIR 7628) includes high-level security requirements, a framework for assessing risks, an evaluation of privacy issues in personal residences, and other information for organizations to use as they craft strategies to protect the modernizing power grid from attacks, malicious code, cascading errors, and other threats, according to NIST’s press release.

The age-old adage “water and electricity don’t mix” does not apply to 21st-century infrastructure planning. The two entities can no longer be viewed as separate commodities. The demands on both are intertwined, so solutions for meeting new and growing challenges associated with water scarcity and carbon regulations must also be integrated. Water is essential to […]

Cleaning air heaters in power plants or recovery boilers has traditionally involved using high-pressure water, chemicals, or steam. These techniques, though effective on moderate airside fouling of heat exchange surfaces, are usually ineffective on the more tenacious deposits that can develop in coal-fired plants. If these deposits are not removed by periodic cleaning, heat transfer in the heaters is reduced, which in turn reduces boiler efficiency and increases a unit’s heat rate. Severe fouling on air preheaters (APHs) can even reduce a unit’s power output.

Sierra Instruments has introduced a new cryogenic version of its Innova-Mass multivariable mass vortex flow meter for measuring mass flow rates of cryogenic fluids down to –328F (–200C). Using a special cryogenic temperature RTD, mass calculations are done with the latest density equations of state for liquid oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide. The multivariable […]

Many power purchase agreements entered into between qualifying facilities (QF) and electric utilities during the 1980s and 1990s have several years remaining on their terms. These contracts typically require the generator to comply with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations promulgated pursuant to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). The foremost FERC requirement […]

The new IntelliPULSE pulse jet timer for baghouses and dust collectors from FilterSense reduces energy costs and offers direct connection to programmable logic controllers with user-specified fieldbus communications such as Devicenet, Ethernet, Modbus, and Profibus. The intelligent pulse-cleaning control technology is said to minimize compressed air use during filter cleaning, significantly reducing energy consumption. No […]

GE launched what it is calling the world’s first two-stage turbocharged gas engine this June.

Poly Performance’s newly launched Quick Release Fire Extinguisher Mount offers an innovative way to safely mount a fire extinguisher to any flat or round surface. The mount can be secured with either bolts or hose clamps. Configurable for any size fire extinguisher, the mount offers split-second removal to maximize emergency preparedness. Poly Performance manufactures the […]

MHI, Foster Wheeler to Support FEED for UK CCS Project. A consortium of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. on August 5 announced that it had received an order from E.ON UK to support the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO2) capture plant proposed as part of E.ON’s […]

Industrial health and safety equipment manufacturer Sensidyne released the SensAlarm Plus, an all-in-one gas detection system for monitoring oxygen, toxic, and combustible gases. The system functions as a single transmitter that offers “Test-on-Demand” and “Predictive Sensor Failure” features, in addition to accepting oxygen, electrochemical, catalytic bead, or infrared sensors. The system provides a large LED […]

This summary of results from a recent Platts/Capgemini survey of North American utility executives looks at what respondents had to say about all things related to the smart grid. Nearly half of respondents’ utilities have a smart grid strategy in place, while the other half said their utility has one in development.

We first reported on combined-cycle plant reliability concerns due to erosive wear and flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) in heat-recovery steam generator (HRSG) pressure parts at the 1999 EPRI Maintenance Conference. More than 10 years later, these damage mechanisms remain significant contributors to forced outages, pressure part repairs, and major component replacement.

Courtesy: Platts Data source: POWERmap All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed.

Although mining practices often vary greatly according to the material produced and the value of the deposit, one common denominator is that mining of materials containing sulfide minerals creates acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD is one of the mining industry’s major environmental challenges.

Feed-in-tariffs (FITs)—above-retail rates paid for renewable power that producers "feed" into the grid—are gaining momentum all over the world as a means of driving project growth. Here are some of those established and proposed FITs.

The UK grid, focused on adding valuable renewable generation, will rely on natural gas–fired generation for many years to come. One of the most recent additions is the Langage Power Plant, designed for quick response and low load “parking” at night while remaining below air emissions limits. With an extraordinary architectural design that blends into the natural surroundings, Langage is now a local landmark.

The Panoche Energy Center is a 400-MW simple-cycle power plant using four of General Electric’s GE LMS100s with fast-start capability. Dispatched by Pacific Gas & Electric to meet regional power and grid stabilization needs, the project entered commercial service two months earlier than planned. Panoche is the largest LMS100 peaking facility in the U.S.

At the Ras Laffan Power Co. facility, the 756-MW net combined-cycle plant and the integrated 40 million gallons per day desalination plant are working in tandem to provide abundant, reliable electricity and desalinated water to residents of the State of Qatar, the most prosperous nation in the Middle East.

There’s nothing slow about the fast-track operations at the new 870-MW Sloe Centrale Power Plant. The combined-cycle plant is designed for 250 starts per year and is capable of supplying power to the grid within a mere 30 to 40 minutes. In addition to its impressive rapid load response, the gas-fired plant produces low CO₂ and NO_x emissions by using the latest technology. It also attains an efficiency of 59%.

Cap and trade officially died on July 22 when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced at a news conference that the Democratic Caucus was unable to reach a consensus on any form of energy bill, even a recent short-lived version that proposed reducing carbon emissions from only the utility sector. I predict that carbon cap and trade is now dead for at least a decade, maybe longer.

Now that the 412-MW Timelkam Power Plant has replaced a 47-year-old coal-fired power plant located in the Vöcklabruck District, northern Austrians can bid auf wiedersehen (goodbye) to high levels of air pollution. Compared to its predecessor, the new gas-fired combined-cycle plant has dramatically cut CO₂ and NO_x emissions and produces seven times more energy.

What’s in a name? Would coal ash labeled as “special” hazardous waste be as easily recycled as that labeled nonhazardous waste?

The 3,600-MW West County Energy Center, with two recently commissioned power blocks and a third just entering start-up, is the first “greenfield” combined-cycle plant constructed by FPL since the 1970s. Thanks to FPL’s long history with repowering projects, the project team commissioned Unit 2 seven months early, with no operator errors during start-up. At just over $600/kW, the cost of the plant was a bargain.

The enforcement mechanisms of the environmental statutes in the 1960s were both cumbersome and ineffective.

Renewable electricity generation has many environmental advantages, but adding large amounts of far-flung renewable resources to a grid requires increased operating flexibility from dispatchable generators when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine. One promising option: A combined-cycle plant based on Alstom’s GT24/GT26 combustion turbine can be “parked” at approximately 20% plant load while producing emissions comparable to those during baseload operation—with little loss in thermal efficiency. When demand returns, the combined cycle can return to baseload within minutes.

The State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) in July put into operation the world’s first ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) superhighway when it commissioned the Xiangjiaba-Shanghai link. The ±800 kV project, completed in 30 months—a year ahead of schedule—has the capacity to transmit up to 7,200 MW from the Xiangjiaba hydropower plant in southwest China to Shanghai, the country’s leading industrial and commercial center, about 2,000 kilometers (km) away.

Summer peaks are still with us, and every unit on your system must be prepared to operate at a moment’s notice. Spot power prices are so high that you expect phone calls asking for a few more megawatts from your units. Then your plant chemistry lab calls to report a condenser tube leak. Your options are few: Shut down immediately and get charged with a forced outage, ignore the leak and keeping running until fall, or schedule a maintenance outage next weekend and hope the leak can be found and fixed. In Part I, we examine what you need to know in order to make an informed decision. In Part II, we’ll explore the actual damage mechanisms.