POWER

Fluke introduced a new family of clamp meters that is engineered to give electricians and maintenance technicians new ways to ways to work safely and reduce their exposure to electrical shock. The new Fluke 381 (shown here), 376, 375, and 374 current clamps and iFlex current probes are rated for use in measurement category IV […]

On January 27, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released a case study examining the causes of a heat exchanger rupture and ammonia release at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant in Houston in 2008. Use these lessons learned to check your employee tracking system and to determine whether your plant has installed valves that […]

Prior to the crash, the renewable energy industry—including wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources—was on a roll. In 2007 and 2008, the U.S. wind power sector alone added over 13,500 MW of new projects, enough to power almost 4 million homes.

A high-stakes dustup is shaping up in connection with the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) proposed new standard to regulate combustible dust. When and if enacted, this new OSHA regulation will definitely affect the way personnel handle coal at power plants that use it for fuel.

Steam turbines convert the thermal energy in motive steam to rotating mechanical energy, and the generator converts that energy into electrical power. One important requirement for safe and reliable operation is preventing water induction in the steam turbine and avoiding water hammer in the steam piping system. ASME standards present the design guidelines for removing moisture from steam lines; this article explains a practical design process.

If your facility has recently seen an upsurge in bearing failures on boiler feedwater (BFW) pumps, you are not the only plant experiencing these unnecessary and costly failures. The failure causes are often elusive, which is why plants have so many unresolved repeat failures.

Arizona Public Service’s (APS) plan to close three older coal-fueled units at the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico and buy out Southern California Edison’s 48% share of the two remaining units is a creative means of surviving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) committed action against coal-fueled generation.

Designing large package boilers rated at over 400,000 lb/h steam production is a challenge because of shipping limitations within the U.S. and Canada.

All of our legal column writers have this issue off (they’ll be back in the March issue), so we are using this opportunity to invite readers to share their legal and regulatory (L&R) concerns.

The 2009 blockbuster movie 2012 about a global cataclysm combined Hollywood special effects with supposed predictions by Nostradamus; a Mayan calendar that ends on December 21, 2012; and a very rare planetary alignment that supposedly occurs on the same day. Hollywood producers seldom let technical accuracy get in the way of a good story, but suppose, this one time, the story has an element of truth.