POWER

The 335-MW Waneta expansion completed this June near Trail, British Columbia, adds a second powerhouse downstream of the Waneta Dam on the Pend-d’Oreille River, near the border between Canada and the U.S. (Figure 5). 5. Second powerhouse. The Waneta Expansion Limited Partnership this June connected the Waneta Expansion Project near Trail, British Columbia, to the […]

E.ON in late June announced that it wants to shutter its Oskarshamn 2 reactor (Figure 1) in southeastern Sweden because it is unprofitable. The announcement is the latest in a string of early nuclear plant retirements from around the world. 1. Early retirement. The 638-MW Oskarshamn 2 nuclear reactor, built in 1974, is at risk […]

Steam turbine technology took a leap in June as Siemens revealed a 10-MW prototype that uses magnetic force to suspend a rotor weighing several tons. The innovation means that instead of needing hundreds of liters of oil for the bearings, the first-of-its-kind steam turbine only needs about three liters of oil (for the valve actuators […]

Dr. Ozgur Sahin, an associate professor of biological sciences and physics at Columbia University, who has helped develop a floating, piston-driven engine that generates power, most succinctly describes the

I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of occupational fatalities resulting from exposure to electricity has decreased steadily during the past 10 years (Figure 1). The bad news is that 141 people died on the job in the […]

Two of the most important elements in any construction or upgrade project are safety and speed of completion. While one way to increase safety is to eliminate hot work whenever possible, the reality is that welding is necessary for many tasks around a power plant. However, one area where welding may not always be required […]

Courtesy: SaskPower There was no debate among our editorial team when it came to selecting the most interesting and worthy project worldwide for this year’s top award. Boundary Dam Power Station Unit 3 is the world’s first operating coal-fired power plant to implement a full-scale post-combustion carbon capture and storage system. It did so more […]

Courtesy: Colorado Energy Nations, GDF SUEZ Energy NA, and Behrent Engineering POWER’s 2015 Reinvention Award (formerly known as the Marmaduke Award) goes to an industrial cogeneration plant that reinvented its largest unit for greater fuel and operating flexibility. This project is exemplary for the owner’s foresight, maximizing local engineering resources, a stellar safety record, and […]

It’s not often that a power plant upgrade improves both the environment and the bottom line. Needing to come up with a new source of cooling water for Polk Power Station, and faced with mostly expensive, environmentally questionable options, Tampa Electric came up with a solution that both secured the plant’s water supply for the […]

Looking to ensure reliable power for a critical facility—as well as move the needle on microgrid technology—Texas’s largest transmission company went all-in on a state-of-the-art demonstration project that sets a new standard for future smart grid deployments. Having a 100% uninterruptible power supply for a commercial facility is far from a unique requirement. Traditionally, meeting […]

Social media is changing the role of public participation (PP) in the planning, permitting, and licensing process (PPL) for every energy project in the U.S. From the Keystone XL pipeline project to Cape Wind, social media is organizing opposition faster and elevating the community engagement part of the process to a new, unprecedented level. Energy […]

Despite wind power’s going “mainstream,” original equipment manufacturers and end users struggle to pin down quality standards for ever-evolving wind turbine component technologies. As more utilities embrace wind power, the U.S. wind turbine market has expanded tremendously over the years. It has proliferated into numerous facilities that specialize in the roughly 8,000 component parts that […]

  What motivates you? Is it mostly the paycheck you earn from your work in the power industry? Friendships with your coworkers? How about winning awards? I’m very proud of our small but savvy and productive editorial staff, which includes two associate editors (Sonal Patel and Tom Overton) who, over the past two years, have […]

Standards and regulations may change, but the danger associated with arc flash hazards remains. Analyzing potential incident energy correctly and understanding what personal protection equipment is required can help workers stay safe and avoid painful, or even life-threatening, injuries. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) have both […]

Is the sky falling? No, but are there lessons we can learn from Chicken Little? Absolutely. False alarms and fear mongering consume energy we can ill afford to waste, but should some sort of alarm be sounding

Australia Slashes Its Renewable Target to 33 TWh. The parliament of coal-rich Australia on June 23 approved legislation to slash the country’s Renewable Energy Target from 41 TWh to 33 TWh. The contentious bill passed after a compromise agreement in May (see “Australian Lawmakers Strike RET Deal” in POWER’s July 2015 issue). Australia’s RET, which […]

Lower power and electricity certificate prices in the Nordic region have made two wind power projects in Central Norway—with a combined capacity of 1 GW—unprofitable, Statkraft said in June as it announced it would scrap them. Norway produces the bulk of its power from hydropower (Figure 3), but the country’s government has encouraged wind farm […]

Many of the dangers existing at conventional power plants also threaten personnel in the wind and solar energy sectors. All workers can benefit by reviewing lessons learned and implementing corrective actions to improve health and safety performance. The expanding wind and solar energy sectors are not immune to industrial hazards affecting all energy generation markets. […]

This is a web supplement to “Riding Off into the Sunset: Nuclear Decontamination and Decommissioning Update,” appearing in the July 2015 issue of POWER.   The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) is located in eastern Lithuania near Visaginas—a town of more than 20,000 people founded in the mid-1970s for workers constructing INPP and for the […]

Wind is no longer a niche alternative energy industry, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) CEO Tom Kiernan told attendees at WINDPOWER 2015.  Despite policy hurdles, the wind sector has seen exponential growth and formidable cost reductions; it has the government’s endorsement for a low-carbon future; and it’s making up an ever-larger share of the nation’s […]

Concentrating solar power has found a partner in thermal storage, but costs remain high. Solar photovoltaic generation may have a partner in rapidly expanding battery options, but the economics are uncertain. Is there room for both approaches, or will one be crowded out? Battery storage is officially hip. Once a subject of concern largely only […]

Voters in Colorado and stakeholders in Minnesota forced through unique managed generation transformation plans that paved the way for aggressive state renewable and clean energy standards—inadvertently pushing their utilities out in front of proposed and now actual federal policies. As the power industry struggles with rising costs of adaptation, many beleaguered executives are anxiously focusing […]

This is an online supplement to the feature story “The  Need for Alternate PM2.5 Emission Factors for Gas-Fired Combustion Units” in the July 2015 issue of POWER. The history of in-stack PM measurement methods began in 1971 with promulgation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Reference Method 5, following on the heels of promulgation […]

The electric power generation industry relies heavily on demineralized and deionized water during process operations. Managing the water supply is critical not only under normal operating conditions, but also during outages. When scheduled or unscheduled outages occur, many boiler and pre-boiler systems are drained. After the outage, they are refilled with water that has been […]

Of the three ways to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for particulate matter (PM) measurement, using an optical PM continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS) also delivers valuable side benefits, especially for units using wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD).  Editor’s Note: This issue was published before the June 29, 2015, ruling by the […]

As the Chinese government lowers the particulate matter (PM2.5) limits to 5 mg/Nm3 or less in coal-fired power plants, wet electrostatic precipitators are one of the key environmental components utilities select to meet this requirement. Optimization of continuous water washing of electrodes allows lower-cost alloys to be used, reducing capital expenditures.  Wet electrostatic precipitators (WESPs) […]

Costs for the Akademik Lomonosov, Russia’s flagship floating nuclear power plant, have reportedly mushroomed to 37 billion rubles ($700 million), an increase of more than 300% from the original 2006 estimate of nine billion rubles ($170 million). The project has also been plagued by delays owing to a shipyard switch. Originally slated for delivery in […]

Developing a compliance approach for a new regulation sometimes means overlooking unintended consequences of the chosen compliance method. Preparing for compliance with the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on coal combustion residuals (CCR Rule), published in the Federal Register on April 17, 2015, is causing many power producers to make significant changes to […]

Beacon Power to Supply Flywheels for Hybrid Alaska Energy Storage Project. Beacon Power on May 26 said it will supply flywheels for a hybrid energy storage project in Anchorage, Alaska, as part of an agreement