Power Engineering articles from April 2002

Power Engineering archives from April 2002

A rising tide. (Opinion).(back to basics approach at power companies continues)(Brief Article)(Column)
April 1, 2002... My January opinion piece discussed the growing trend toward a back-to-basics business strategy in the energy industry, as companies began to retrench and refocus on core strengths in response to the slowing economy and the Enron debacle. In the...

Feedback.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... DRY COOLING The column on dry cooling in the October issue of Power Engineering ("The Hot and Cold of Dry Cooling") is most interesting, revealing and timely. As a power plant design engineer, this is a subject matter that I have devoted...

State-specific guide can streamline plant siting. (Update).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Although the physical laws governing the operation of power plants are the same in California and Texas, regulations related to siting and building them are vastly different. In fact, every state has its own siting requirements and procedures,...

EPA proposes replacing fish rather than equipment. (Update).(Environmental Protection Agency)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a proposal that would allow power plants and other industrial facilities to pay to replace fish sucked into their cooling water intakes as an alternative to installing equipment to keep them...

Turbine boom sparks service boom. (Gas Turbines).
April 1, 2002... Between 1999 and 2004, hundreds of gas turbines will have entered commercial service in the power generation market. Most of these will be advanced combustion turbines -- with high firing temperatures, complex combustion systems, intricate...

Wind energy credit extended. (Update).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The wind energy production tax credit (PTC), considered vital by the U.S. wind energy industry for continued growth, has been extended for two years as part of an economic stimulus package recently approved by both houses of Congress and signed...

Exelon Generation. (Personnel and Promotions).(Oliver Kingsley has been named president and CEO)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Oliver Kingsley has been named president and CEO of Exelon Generation. He had most recently served as president and chief nuclear officer of Exelon Nuclear. John Skolds replaces him at Exelon Nuclear. Excelon is the largest nuclear power plant...

Daniel W. Kabel. (Personnel and Promotions).(named CEO of Clean Air Partners)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Daniel W. Kabel has been named CEO of Clean Air Partners, developer of methods for reducing distributed generation engine emissions. He is the founder and former general manager of GE Distributed Power.

Douglas Beighle. (Personnel and Promotions).(named chairman of Puget Energy Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Former Boeing executive Douglas Beighle has been named chairman of Puget Energy Inc.

Fred D. Hafer. (Personnel and Promotions).(retires from First Energy Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Fred D. Hafer has announced his retirement as chairman of FirstEnergy Corp., effective May 31.

SouthWestern Power Group. (Construction and Contracts).(to build 1,00 MW Bowie plant in Southeastern Arizona)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Arizona regulators have approved SouthWestern Power Group's proposed 1,000 MW Bowie plant in Southeastern Arizona and scheduled for operation in 2005.

PSEG Power New York. (Construction and Contracts).(to build 750 MW plant in upstate New York)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... New York State has approved PSEG Power New York's plans to build a 750 MW plant in upstate New York to be called the Bethlehem Energy Center and scheduled for operation in 2004.

Tampa Electric Company. (Construction and Contracts).(awards contract to Charah Environmental Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Tampa Electric Company has awarded a three-year contract to Charah Environmental, Inc. to design, install and operate a mechanical separation facility to process the by-products at their Polk gasification plant. Duke Energy Corporation has...

ALSTOM. (Construction and Contracts).(received contract from East Kentucky Power Cooperative Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... ALSTOM has received a contract from East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Inc. to design, supply and build the 268 MW E.A. Gilbert Unit, a coal-fired circulating fluid bed boiler at the utility's H.L. Spurlock Power Station near Maysville, Kentucky....

Mirant. (Construction and Contracts).(hopes to add 750 MW plant)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The New York Siting Board will consider a proposal by Mirant to add a 750 MW plant to its Bowline Station, about 35 miles north of New York City.

Encryption offers security applications for the power industry. (Update).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Cryptography is the science of information security, most often associated with scrambling cleartext into ciphertext. Making information unreadable is called encryption and unscrambling it is decryption. Encryption security has broad...

Dresser-Rand. (Business Briefs).(contract from South Houston Green Power)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Dresser-Rand has been awarded a contract to supply a 102 MW steam turbine generator set for South Houston Green Power's Texas City facility. The generator will provide the facility with approximately 2.5 million pounds of process steam per...

German energy firm RWE is buying Innogy, the largest supplier of electricity in the U.K. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... German energy firm RWE is buying Innogy, the largest supplier of electricity in the U.K. The deal means more than ha]f the UK power industry will be owned by foreign companies. Another German company, e.on, is expected to complete its takeover...

Hickham Industries. (Business Briefs).(in-house blade manufacturing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Hickham Industries has announced a major capital investment at its LaPorte, Texas facility. Hickham, the world's largest independent turbomachinery repair company, will soon be offering complete in-house blade manufacturing.

Watlow Process Systems. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Watlow Process Systems is moving into a larger facility outside of St. Louis to meet growing demand in the power generation industry for skid-mounted thermal processing systems and SCRs.

Believing it can do better than the $225 million offered by General Electric for its wind turbine manufacturing business, Enron is putting it up for auction. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Believing it can do better than the $225 million offered by General Electric for its wind turbine manufacturing business, Enron is putting it up for auction. Meanwhile, American Electric Power has acquired the coal contracts and marketing...

Powerware Corporation. (Business Briefs).(three contracts worth as much as $125 million for uninterruptible power systems)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The U.S. Department of State has awarded Powerware Corporation, a unit of Invensys plc, three contracts worth as much as $125 million for uninterruptible power systems, 50/60 hertz diesel engine generators, generator set overhauls, power...

Metso Automation. (Business Briefs).(received an order for its maxDNA plant automation system )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Metso Automation has received an order for its maxDNA plant automation system to be installed at Owenshoro Municipal Utilities' 430 MW coal-fired Elmer Smith Power Station in Owenshoro, Kentucky, where a selective catalytic reactor is being...

Atlanta-based Mirant has announced it intends to sell Mirant State Line Ventures Inc. to Richmond, Va.-based Dominion. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Atlanta-based Mirant has announced it intends to sell Mirant State Line Ventures Inc. to Richmond, Va.-based Dominion. The subsidiary owns the 515 MW coal-fired State Line plant in Hammond, Ind.

Duke Energy Corp. (Business Briefs).(has expressed interest in acquiring four power plants in Northwest Indiana)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Duke Energy Corp. has expressed interest in acquiring four power plants in Northwest Indiana. Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) owns three of the plants and Primary Energy Inc. owns the fourth. Both are subsidiaries of NiSource Inc.

Studies throw cold water on nuclear PR. (Nuclear Reactions).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Public relations (PR) efforts by the nuclear industry often tout the technology's advantages with respect to global warming. Similarly, nuclear critics cite global warming as a reason to doubt nuclear plant safety; they postulate a catastrophic...

Distributed generation coming into focus: The ultimate breadth of scope of distributed generation remains unknown, but market opportunities are coming into focus.(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Distributed generation is not a new concept. The first power plants, including Thomas Edison's Pearl Street Power station, were essentially distributed generation and constructed to serve a local area. It was some years before the concept of...

Metering matters -- inaccurate gas measurement can cost thousands. (Gas Metering).
April 1, 2002... Gas-fired power plants consume large volumes of gas. Accurate measurement of natural gas consumption in gas-fired power plants is a necessary element in commodity pricing of electricity. An accurate measure of the gas consumption is also...

Can staffing needs cope with a boom and bust cycle? (Staffing).(for power industry)
April 1, 2002... The reassessments of projected load growth and potential reserve margins have led to announcements of power plant deferrals and cancellations, with most talk centered on the newfound availability of turbine generators and other equipment needed...

Falling fuel inventory levels represent growing operational risk. (Fuel Supply Management).(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... While controversy rages in the generation business over the multitude of deregulation issues pounding on management's front door, the back door has been left open for the financial and reliability wolves. The back door is the backstop of power...

Conversion package aims at cleaning up stationary diesel gen-sets. (News & Views on Distributed Generation).(from Clean Air Partners Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... A package that converts diesel truck engines to dual fuel power units that run primarily on natural gas may have dramatic potential for the stationary gen-set market as well. Clean Air Partners, Inc. (CAP) has already retrofitted 1,500...

Power Measurement. (Briefly Noted).(Liebert Hiross agreement with Power Measurement Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Power Measurement, provider of enterprise energy management systems, has signed an agreement with Liebert HIROSS of Milan, Italy, to extend its ION technology to the Liebert HIROSS Hipulse and Series 7200 line of uninterruptible power systems....

The control products business of Honeywell has announced a joint marketing and distribution alliance with Cannon Technologies producer of electric utility automation and peak load management. (Briefly Noted).(Cannon Technologies alliance with Honeywell Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Control Products business of Honeywell has announced a joint marketing and distribution alliance with Cannon Technologies producer of electric utility automation and peak load management. The alliance combines Honeywell's expertise in home...

PPL Energy Services. (Briefly Noted).(new mehane power plant)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... PPL Energy Services has begun operation of an 800 kW methane-to-electricity power generation system at the Northern Tier Landfill in Bradford County, Pa. The landfill will use the 600,000 cubic feet of methane gas produced daily at the facility...

In-depth Redundancy. (News & Views on Distributed Generation).(Sure Power Corp. services information)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Sure Power has applied its Redundant Array of Independent Devices (RAID) to the creation of power for large-scale data centers and Web Hotels. The RAID technology allows a system to generate electricity without a single point of failure. By...

Putting "utility grade" power quality in perspective. (News & Views on Distributed Generation).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Utility grade power reliability has historically been regarded as three nines -- 99.9 percent -- an antiquated benchmark and far from acceptable for many customers in today's world where data, communication, and manufacturing processes require...

College campus invests in new equipment and conservation measures to cut energy costs. (Field Notes).(Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts with Alliant Energy)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE of Liberal Arts (MCLA) has implemented a comprehensive energy services performance contract with Alliant Energy Integrated Services. Alliant Energy has helped the college implement energy conservation measures designed to...

Scale removal. (Products).(advertisements)
April 1, 2002... ScaleBlaster is a product that eliminates the formation of limestone deposits in water pipes, faucets, cooling towers and boilers without the need for water softening equipment, salts, chemicals or maintenance. The integrated circuitry system...

Medium-speed vertical pump. (Products).(advertisement)
April 1, 2002... The pump division of Flowserve Corporation has published a new eight page full color brochure that describes its new medium speed pump (MSP), a variable speed, vertical inline pump. Featuring an Eexd(e) II C T4 explosive proof motor for...

Automated Lubrication System. (Products).
April 1, 2002... John Crane Safematic's Safegrease 2 Automated Lubrication System monitors equipment to determine exactly when, where and how much grease lubrication is needed. If required the system delivers the correct amount of lubricant to the specific...

Flue gas conditioning skid. (Products).(advertisement)
April 1, 2002... A state-of-the art fuel gas-conditioning skid is now available from Watlow Process Systems. To reduce installation and startup time the skid's components are all interconnected and tested prior to being shipped. The fuel gas conditioning skids...

Solenoid operated poppet valves. (Products).(advertisement)
April 1, 2002... A new line of direct solenoid operated two-way poppet valves from Lexair employ the latest pulse width modulated solenoid electronics. This design extends solenoid life and reduces power usage. Designed to operate from 29 inches Hg vacuum to...

Position monitor. (Products).(advertisement)
April 1, 2002... A new programmable position monitor from Incon, Model 1250B, has been specifically designed to accept inputs from rotary synchro transmitter devices. The model is configured to give proportional gate/valve position signals that can he...

Rotary UPS. (Products).(advertisement)
April 1, 2002... SatCon Power Systems has introduced Starsine, an advanced rotary uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The UPS can provide up to 12 seconds of protection from power line disturbances and short-term outages without the need for batteries. Models...

Cumberland Fossil Plant. (Managing the Plant).(Leonard "Bud" Hancock, manager)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Editor's Note: This is the initial installment of "Managing the Plant," a new Power Engineering feature where we will interview a power plant manager to identify key strategies, initiatives and programs being used to improve efficiency, reduce...