POWER

Operating a combined-cycle power plant profitably is no walk in the park, even under ideal conditions. But the extreme conditions at the Beluga Power Plant—from isolation to volcanoes—challenge its staff every day in ways that operators in the lower 48 can only imagine.

Generators and exciters don’t get much respect during scheduled outages. If yours fall into that category, a strategy that includes regular inspections and routine maintenance is all the more important for identifying incipient problems that could bring a plant down. Read on to learn how to keep your generator or exciter from suffering any of the problems shown in the dramatic photos.

Global Monitor

Global Monitor

Global Monitor

Global Monitor

New Jersey’s gaming mecca is hosting one of the largest hybrid (solar-wind) power plants in the world (Figure 3). The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm, with 7.5 MW of wind capacity and 0.5 MW from photovoltaic (PV) cells, is expected to generate 20,000 MWh annually. That should be enough to power an adjacent wastewater treatment plant operated […]

The 130-MW Yuncán  hydroelectric plant (Figure 4) has come online in Peru about 210 miles northeast of Lima. To show his support for the project, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo Manrique attended the inauguration ceremony. Yuncán  was commissioned just 21 months after the Peruvian government awarded a 30-year contract to operate the plant to EnerSur, the […]

The long-awaited 41st edition of Babcock & Wilcox Co.’s (B&W’s) Steam: Its Generation and Use (Figure 5) is now available for ordering on the company’s web site, www.babcock.com. The release of the book is worth noting by power plant engineers for two reasons: The tome is the world’s longest continually published (since 1875) engineering text, […]

In "U.S. utilities driving for a license" (November/December 2005), we wrote that Bechtel Corp. is part of the UniStar consortium. Bechtel Corp. is not a member but is working for UniStar as a contractor.

Now that many U.S. selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems are in their fifth or sixth year of operation, a number of utilities are shifting their attention from implementing the technology to operating and maintaining it. Catalyst management and performance are key to the successful operation of any SCR system.

As an alternative to purchasing new catalyst, technological and economic advantages make a compelling case for regenerating rather than replacing the metal or ceramic that enables selective catalytic reduction systems to capture NO_x.

The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City was the site of the 2005 Platts Global Energy Awards (GEA). The seventh annual black-tie soiree was the most global ever. Some 400 top executives from more than two dozen countries on five continents gathered at the Roosevelt on December 1, 2005, to honor the energy industry’s "Best […]

The EUCG surveyed 72 separate installations of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems at coal-fired units totaling 41 GW of capacity to identify the systems’ major cost drivers. The results, summarized in this article, provide excellent first-order estimates and guidance for utilities considering installing the downstream emissions-control technology.

  The U.S. needs to add 600 to 800 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas storage capacity ASAP. Independent storage providers (ISPs) are the entities best equipped to build this needed infrastructure, but they continue to be restrained by anachronistic regulatory policies. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) December 2005 rule-making to modify its […]

CFB refractory repair; Upgrading conductivity monitoring; Low-cost maintenance of spinning reserve

Sliding-pressure, supercritical plants are all the rage. They generally include certain design features developed for markets and operating environments outside the U.S., where new coal-fired plants have been built in recent decades. U.S. market conditions are different, and considerable capital cost savings—with negligible operating cost differences—are possible if technology options are considered for the next wave of supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam plants.

In 2002, the Bush administration launched the Clean Coal Power Initiative in the hope that it would develop the missing technology piece of the cleaner energy puzzle. Four years and two rounds later, the U.S. electric power industry is seeing the first usable clean coal technologies emerge before its eyes.

Compared to most pieces of a power plant, refractory costs very little to install. Yet, if improperly manufactured, specified, stored, mixed, installed, cured, or dried, refractory may cause problems that can significantly decrease a plant’s operating efficiency and flexibility. Like Rodney Dangerfield, refractory design and installation deserve more respect.

The 35th birthday of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) passed last December 2 with little fanfare. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson noted at the time that, "Over the last three and a half decades, through the use of innovative and collaborative approaches to environmental protection and a commitment to responsible stewardship, we have made remarkable […]

GE Energy’s latest "first" is in Turkey, where the Frame 6C gas turbine-generator—a younger cousin of the popular Frame 6B—has made its commercial debut. The turnkey 130-MW combined-cycle plant, called the GE206C, comprises two 40-MW Frame 6Cs, one GE steam turbine-generator, two heat-recovery steam generators, and a distributed control system. The gas-fired plant (Figure 1), […]

FACILITIES MAINTENANCE Duck and cover! Tippi Hedren learned the hard way—in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic, "The Birds"—the damage that a flock of angry seagulls can do. But what do you do when 6,000 starlings suddenly invade your power plant? Hide the birdseed and run for cover! Like any conscientious company, PacifiCorp works hard at keeping its […]

Enforcement and (re)interpretation of the Clean Air Act’s new source review (NSR) rules will likely come into focus later this year as many of the key lawsuits against electric utilities are resolved. "It’s going to be a big year for NSR whether you’re a litigator, regulator, lawmaker, or member of the industry," says Tom Sansonetti, […]

The 267-MW Pavana III power plant (Figure 1) was officially inaugurated on January 28 by Honduran President Ricardo Maduro. It was built by Helsinki-based Wärtsilä Corp. for Tegucigalpa-based independent power producer (IPP) Luz y Fuerza de San Lorenzo S.A. (Lufussa).     1. From Finland to Central America. The new 267-MW Pavana III power plant […]

Munich-based Siemens Power Generation (PG) recently finished building the 384-MW combined-cycle Tahaddart Power Plant in the city of the same name in Morocco (Figure 2). The turnkey project, which is about 20 miles south of Tangier, was completed in 25 months. The plant’s natural gas fuel comes through a new, 8-mile-long spur that connects to […]

The remote town of Galena, Alaska, which pays three times as much for electricity as the national average, is seriously considering a very unusual way to generate as much electricity as a clutch of diesels could provide. Recently, town officials initiated talks with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about installing a small nuclear reactor in […]

For more than 70 years, Steam Plant Operation (Figure 3), published by McGraw-Hill Professional (like Platts, the publisher of POWER, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.), has been the bible of steam plant system design, installation, operation, maintenance, and repair. The new eighth edition of this classic reference book is now available.   3. […]

The reliability of service to millions of electricity consumers from Puget Sound to Portland improved significantly with the completion of the 84-mile-long, 500-kV Grand Coulee–Bell transmission line (Figure 4). The new path removes a major bottleneck between Spokane and Grand Coulee Dam and points west.   4. Breaking the bottleneck. The Bonneville Power Administration’s 84-mile, […]

In early December 2004, the Portrero substation received an early Christmas present. It was a shiny new static VAR compensator (SVC) from ABB (Raleigh, N.C.) that will improve the stability of the grid serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The SVC, which was commissioned on December 10, will help stabilize the grid’s voltage during peak […]

Abating the emissions of power plants is a very hot topic these days. So it’s not surprising that people are coming up with innovative ways to not only cut emissions but also make money from them. The latest brainstorm comes from—where else—the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Moshe Alamaro, an atmospheric scientist, has come up […]