POWER

NYU needed to repower its decades-old cogeneration system and cut emissions at its main campus in Lower Manhattan. The new gas turbine–based system cut the university’s energy bills by $5 million a year—and kept it going when Hurricane Sandy walloped the East Coast.  When figuring the payback period on a new power plant, calculations are […]

With a huge gold mine set to increase the load on an already overstressed grid, the mine owners and a Dominican generation company found a way to power mine operations and address capacity shortfalls by joining forces on the same project.  Like many countries in the developing world, the Dominican Republic regularly struggles to meet […]

No, this isn’t a column about the value of providing electricity to everyone everywhere (though that is a worthy goal toward which several nations and nonprofits are working). It’s about why we write and publish this magazine, and for whom. When I read email sent to our editorial staff and talk with readers at industry […]

Combined cycle plants have the advantages of being extremely efficient and can be built in two phases when power needs peak unexpectedly. Ulsan 4 was built in response to the country’s 2011 power crisis for both reasons. The first task was installation of the combustion turbines in time to meet the 2013 summer peak demand. […]

At the graveyard wherein resides the “nuclear renaissance” of the 2000s, a new occupant appears to be moving in: the small modular reactor (SMR). This is a statement that might have appeared nonsensical even a year ago. SMRs looked to be the Next Big Thing in nuclear, a way to circumvent the biggest obstacle to […]

Like some of those tests your doctor is always after you to get, boiler chemical cleaning is something that most of us would rather not think about but that we all agree is necessary. Adding to our general discomfort with the process are new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, which make the disposal of chemical cleaning […]

The experiences of the electric and gas markets in the Northeast this past winter highlighted better than any article, speech, or prediction the interesting and urgent challenges and opportunities arising from increased reliance on natural gas to heat and power homes, offices, and factories. The use of natural gas has risen so much that demand […]

Though “social costs” may be a new term of art in the power industry, it is about to become a critical one. Here’s what you need to understand about the concept in general and how it applies to the recently finalized cooling water intake rule.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recently released rule regarding […]

Construction on a $1 billion commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) system—one of the world’s largest to use post-combustion capture technology—began this July at NRG Energy’s W.A. Parish Unit 8 near Houston. The facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2016. Formerly known as the NRG Energy Parish CCS Project, it is […]

Once merely a staple of backup and distributed generation, reciprocating engines are now challenging other resources for utility-scale generation—in addition to carving out some new niches. Grant County is a rural, sparsely populated county in southwestern Kansas. It doesn’t have a lot of people—its population in the 2010 U.S. Census was just 7,829—but what it […]

Australia in July became the first nation to abolish a price on carbon, after the Senate passed the Abbott government’s repeal bills by a vote of 39–32. Yet the country’s carbon conundrum continues because Prime Minister Tony Abbott must still get his Direct Action Plan, a proposed replacement for the country’s emissions trading scheme, to […]

While several methods exist for sizing collector pipes on steam lines, the results obtained from the various approaches can be quite different. This article will show how design parameters can be used to calculate the dimensions much more accurately. In the steam lines of thermal and nuclear power plants, condensed steam is usually discharged from […]

EU Doles Out €1 Billion in Funding for Renewable Projects Under NER 300. The European Commission on July 10 awarded €1 billion ($1.34 billion) to 19 renewable energy projects and a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project under its NER 300 program. The projects will cumulatively raise European Union (EU) renewable energy production by about […]

Geothermal generation is clean, renewable, and cost-effective over the long term, and the U.S. has vast untapped geothermal resources. So why is it still operating on the sidelines?   For the U.S. geothermal energy industry, 2013 ended on a positive note. Cyrq Energy’s Dale Burgett geothermal plant, a 4-MW unit in southwest New Mexico, began […]

Since March, Hong Kong has been contemplating two options as it prepares to phase out its coal-fired power plants—which currently produce more than half of its electricity—to improve an enduring local and regional air quality and visibility crisis. One option calls for buying more power from coal-heavy mainland China, and the other is to increase […]

To ensure that its nuclear plants do not meet the same fate as those damaged and destroyed by the March 2011 events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant—should they be hit by similarly severe natural disasters—Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is using multiple new approaches to enhance safety. First Installation of New Spent Fuel Pool Instrumentation Spent […]

The world’s nuclear power generation capacity is slated to grow between 17% and 94% through 2030, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) forecasts in its 2013 Annual Report, released this July. However, it notes, those figures are slightly lower than projections made in 2012, owing to the continuing impact of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the […]

Skilled maintenance and service teams inspect critical infrastructure, perform preventive maintenance, and quickly respond to issues to keep service levels high. It is critical that such teams work with as-built drawings that reflect original plans along with the cumulative changes. Armed with the current drawings, service teams can avoid surprises. The challenge is that drawings […]

Despite stagnant economic growth globally, primary energy consumption surged in 2013, with growth for nuclear power and renewables in power generation expanding at above-average rates, BP said in its recently released Statistical Review of World Energy 2014. According to the report, world power generation grew 2.5% in 2013, slightly up over 2012 (which saw 2.2% […]

This supplement to “Strategies for Inspecting HRSGs in Two-Shift and Low- Load Service” in the August issue includes additional discussion of the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) Inspectors Toolkit and HRSG Inspection Guide sections of the main article plus additional photos of damage caused by rapid startups and two-shifting of units over time. More Tools […]

A significant reform of Germany’s aggressive renewable energy laws passed its final hurdle on July 11, setting the country on a more market-based path toward future growth. The bill was developed and approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. Because they are the two largest parties, the legislation was […]

A combination of falling natural gas prices, greater integration of renewable generation, and advancing technology has meant changing roles for many plants, particularly gas turbine combined cycle plants. (See “Managing the Changing Profile of a Combined Cycle Plant” in the June 2014 issue.) The added wear and tear on plant equipment, and the changing maintenance […]

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Sodium bicarbonate is an adsorbent that has been used for a relatively short time in industrial flue gas treatment (FGT) processes. This additive is especially interesting for operators of smaller

U.S. coal power plants are finding that they need to comply with an increasing number of stringent environmental regulations, and while nobody in any industry looks forward to additional regulatory burdens

Reactor pressure vessel (RPV) shells in the existing U.S. fleet of nuclear power plants were typically constructed by forging ring segments from ingots of low-alloy steel offering sufficient fracture toughness

Power plants are, with good reason, almost universally regarded as fixed assets to be operated, maintained, and retired on the spot where they were built. The idea of relocating something as large and

The era of Big Solar has arrived, and at the moment there are none bigger than Ivanpah. For overcoming numerous obstacles to build the world’s largest solar thermal plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is awarded POWER’s 2014 Plant of the Year Award. When the 392-MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in Nipton, Calif., […]

The utility-scale solar market is rapidly growing in North America, representing a large area of opportunity for project and product developers alike. The market more than doubled in size between 2012 and 2013

Problematic power plant systems diminish availability and directly affect plant productivity and efficiency. In order to maintain availability, electrical testing and maintenance services are imperative. Two