Power Engineering articles from June 2009

Power Engineering archives from June 2009

Our next generation winners.(Opinion)(Power Engineering magazine)(Junior Engineering Technical Society )(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... This marks the third year I have had the pleasure of helping to award some money to students who just might make a big addition to our industry in the not-too-distant future. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I help direct the Next Generation...

Back to basics in tough times.(Peak Load)
June 1, 2009... As the economic and banking crisis continues, far lower quantities of private sector investment will flow toward the power generation sector. The recessionary economy has meant reduced near-term electric demand, reduced investment in new...

EPA's second, watery front.(Clearing the Air)(Law overview)(Column)
June 1, 2009... EPA is preparing to battle utilities on a second front. This time it's a water assault (as opposed to an air assault) using Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act (CWA). EPA's regulations implementing this simple section of the Act have been...

Don't hold your breath.(View on Renewables)(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... A major issue within the renewable energy industry cuts to the heart of where renewables will be a decade or two from now. It's an old subject almost preordained to become a tipping point since the first wind turbines started spinning in...

No Yucca should mean 'yes' recycling.(Nuclear Reactions)(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... Located in northwest France, Areva's La Hague is the largest nuclear fuel reprocessing/ recycling plant in the world. Spent fuel from 90 to 100 nuclear reactors can be recycled there each year, separated into uranium, plutonium and fission...

Smart turbine blades.(Tech Notes)(Department of Energy. Sandia National Laboratories)(Purdue University)
June 1, 2009... Researchers have developed a technique that uses sensors and computational software to monitor forces exerted on wind turbine blades, a step toward improving efficiency by adjusting for rapidly changing wind conditions. The research by...

Traveling wave reactor.(Intellectual Ventures Lab)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Refueling is a regularly recurring bother for the nuclear power industry. A group of researchers at Intellectual Ventures, an invention and investment company in Bellevue, Wash., have designed a reactor requiring only a small amount of enriched...

Worth the investment?(Electric Power Research Institute)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... EPRI is launching a project to provide information that may help a utility conduct a market-based assessment of how much investment its retrofit candidates can support (measured in dollars per kilowatt) and how a unit's investment worthiness...

High density plastic cooling system.(What Works)
June 1, 2009... Natural gas engines replaced diesel-powered generators years ago at the world-famous Bronx Zoo in New York City. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) cooling towers were installed at the time and have proven to be less expensive to maintain than...

New coupling on scrubbers.(What Works)
June 1, 2009... When an 8,000 MW coal plant upgraded its scrubbers, a coupling developed especially for use in wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems was used for the nozzle-to-header pipe connections, instead of the typical pipe flange. Installation and...

DOE budget lifts renewables, cuts nuclear and coal.(Startup)
June 1, 2009... The Department of Energy's $26.4 billion budget request for fiscal year 2010 proposes cutting funding for nuclear and fossil power and increasing funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy. The proposed budget was released May 7. It...

Post-recession energy demand could favor coal.(Startup)
June 1, 2009... A study of recent recessions shows energy demand jumping as the economy improves. The same could occur at the end of this recession, said Bryan Hawthorne, manager of Project Development, Business & Technology Services for Bums & McDonnell. He...

NERC: lower demand bolsters summer reserve margins.(Startup)
June 1, 2009... The outlook for electricity reliability for the coming summer season is generally good, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) reported in its annual 2009 Summer Reliability Assessment. Report findings include that the...

DOE narrows list of nuclear project favorites.(Startup)(United States. Department of Energy)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The Department of Energy narrowed its list of the most likely recipients of $18.5 billion in government loan guarantees to help build the first new nuclear power plants. DOE told four companies planning new reactors in Maryland, Georgia,...

Sunflower Electric Power Corp.(Industry News)
June 1, 2009... In a reversal from his predecessor, Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson signed an agreement ending a two-year fight over plans to build coal-fired power plants in Kansas. The compromise allows Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build one 895 MW...

Siemens Energy.(Industry News)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Siemens Energy will build a facility in Kansas to produce nacelles for its 2.3 MW machine. The plant will have an annual capacity equal to 1,500 MW. Construction of the 300,000-square foot facility will begin in August. The first nacelles will...

Babcock Power Environmental.(Industry News)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Babcock Power Environmental will supply FirstLight Power Resources with the company's Turbosorp technology to cut emissions from the 146 MW, coal-fired Mt. Tom Power Plant in Massachusetts. The equipment is expected to be operational later this...

Epcor Utilities Inc.(Industry News)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Edmonton, Alberta-based Epcor Utilities Inc. is spinning off its power generation business into a publicly traded company. The new company, Capital Power Corp., will own 31 coal-and natural-gas-fired power plants with a capacity of 3,300 MW....

Hydroelectricity: the versatile renewable: hydro OEMs are being flooded with orders for projects using improved conventional technology and new, emerging technologies.
June 1, 2009... As one of the earliest and most elementary forms of power generation, hydropower remains by for the largest source of renewable energy in the world, including in North America. In the early 1900s, hydropower was the dominant source of U.S....

Meeting the training and education challenge: a busy fall outage season looks to test the pipeline for skilled nuclear plant workers.(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... This autumn is shaping up as a busy one for many of North America's nuclear power plants. Almost three dozen refueling outages are scheduled for the fall, along with three steam generator and one reactor head replacement. The industry also...

Hydrogen cools well, but safety is crucial: in its pure state, hydrogen is fine, but a mixture of air and hydrogen can be explosive. Then, why hydrogen?(Proton Energy Systems Inc.)(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... Operating an electric power generator produces large amounts of heat that must be removed to maintain efficiency. Air, water and oil have all been used for cooling. But hydrogen's low density, high specific heat and thermal conductivity make it...

Enhanced mercury oxidation: a new catalyst offers a new way to enhance mercury control.(Law overview)
June 1, 2009... In March 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced two rules for air pollution that apply to coal-fired power plants: the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) and the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR). CAIR applies to states in...

A variety of Hg capture solutions are available.(Law overview)
June 1, 2009... While vacating the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) has postponed implementation of mercury capture to some extent, improvements in ways to capture--and monitor--Hg have continued to wend their way through the pilot testing phases and into the...

PE online question of the week.
June 1, 2009... Are the prospects for new nuclear power plants being built in the U.S. better or worse than they were a year ago? The Same 15% Worse 36% Better 49% Note: Table made from pie chart. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] (For more...

COAL-GEN expands in 2009: coal stands tall in Charlotte, N.C. at COAL-GEN this coming August 19-21.(Conference news)(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... Take advantage of most up-to-date discussions of what's happening in the coal-fired sector by attending COAL-GEN 2009 in Charlotte, N.C. the August 18-21. The 9th convening of COAL-GEN is expected to attract 4,500 attendees and 350 exhibitors....

Gas and diesel engines step up as variable resources grow: with growth in wind and solar, quick-start gensets fill the supply valleys that result.(Editorial)
June 1, 2009... More than 145,000 MW of new variable generation resources could be added to the North American bulk power system in the next decade, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corp.'s (NERC's) 2008 Long-Term Reliability Assessment....

A greener Greensburg.(Generating Buzz)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... A 2007 tornado all but wiped the town of Greensburg, Kansas off the map. Now with the of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and companies like John Deere Wind Energy and Clipper Wind Power, the town is rebuilding in a green sort of way....

Hydro and me ...(Brief article)(Statistical data)
June 1, 2009... To help his students imagine how various energy sources contribute to the U.S. generation mix, Frank Clemente, professor of Energy Policy at Pennsylvania State University, encourages them to picture farm animals. Coal, at about 49 percent of...

Ethanol vs. Phev.(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Which goes farther, an SUV fueled by ethanol or an SUV powered by electricity generated from the same acre of biomass? Seems the electric vehicle wins, at least according to research published in the online edition of Science. Research...