Power Engineering International articles from December 2002

Power Engineering International archives from December 2002

"It's a great day ...". (Up Front).
December 1, 2002... Berndt Bendsen, Danish minister for economic affairs and business affairs was jubilant and with good reason, perhaps. It has taken ten years of negotiation but at last the EU has agreed on a deadline for full competition in the electricity and...

REE boosts European presence. (Analysis).
December 1, 2002... Red Electrica de Espana is set to take control of Spain's grid assets, making it the third largest transmission system operator in Europe. The move will mean big changes for the company, and some doubt it has the financial muscle to succeed....

Russia seeks foreign investment for two gencos. (International).
December 1, 2002... Russia's state-owned power utility, Unified Energy Systems (UES) is looking for foreign utilities to take charge of two generating companies that it will spin off by 2006. Four or five foreign utilities look set to submit bids, including...

Second power plant slated for Fujairah. (International).
December 1, 2002... Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates is to be the location for a new $lbn, 800-1000 MW and 455m 1/day desalination plant under plans revealed by the Union Water and Electricity Company. The plant will be built near the 656 MW, 455m 1/day water...

Moldova power privatization grinds to a halt. (International).
December 1, 2002... Modolva's sale of three electricity distribution companies to Spain's Union Fenosa is in jeopardy after the country's Supreme Court highlighted legal discrepancies in the deal. The Supreme Court cited contract irregularities, but it has...

Russia to build world's first floating nuclear power plant. (International).
December 1, 2002... Russia looks set to be the first country to implement a floating nuclear power plant. The Atomic Energy Minister Aleksander Rumyantsev has signed the approval for the new plant, which will be operational by 2008. The northern region of...

Hungary taps KWI, Accenture. (International).
December 1, 2002... Hungary's state-owned electricity generator, MVM, has selected KWI and Accenture to provide an energy trading and risk management platform to support the opening of the country's electricity market. Hungary is opening its electricity...

BNP Paribas. (News Digest: Bulgaria).
December 1, 2002... More than 60 companies have expressed in writing their interest in the privatization of the seven Bulgarian electricity distribution utilities. BNP Paribas was appointed in September as a consultant for the sale, which is still in its initial...

Zanjan. (News Digest: Iran).
December 1, 2002... Tender documents for setting up two gas fuelled power plants (Zanjan I and Zanjan II) in Zanjan province, with a combined capacity of 1 GW, will be made available this month said Bahman Masoodi, deputy head of the power generation and...

National Electric Power Authority. (News Digest: Nigeria).
December 1, 2002... Nigeria will unbundle its state-run National Electric Power Authority next year and double generation capacity within three years ahead of privatization, says President Olusegun Obasanjo. The country also plans to have 10 000 MW of generation...

Poland's treasury ministry. (News Digest: Poland).
December 1, 2002... Poland's treasury ministry has received three bids for a stake in Elektrownia Kozienice power generator despite the air of pessimism surrounding the sale. The three bidders are thought to be AWE Plus, Electricite de France and Electrabel.

Energy Efficiency Project. (News Digest: Romania).
December 1, 2002... The World Bank and Romania signed the Grant Agreement for the Energy Efficiency Project. The agreement was signed by the Chief of the World Bank Office in Romania, Ziad Alahdad and Romulus Moucha of the Romanian Energy Efficiency Fund. The...

E.ON Energie. (News Digest: Russia).
December 1, 2002... Lenenergo's Andrel Likhachev, CEO, said that the company is scheduled to receive a $40m loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The loan will be issued for seven years, with a two year grace period. The loan will be...

Barq-i Tojik and Russia's Baltiiskaya Stroitrlnaya Kompaniya. (News Digest: Tajikistan).
December 1, 2002... Tajikistan and Russia signed a $lm contract to complete the construction of central Asia's largest hydropower station. The landmark deal, between Tajikistan power company Barq-i Tojik and Russia's Baltiiskaya Stroitrlnaya Kompaniya, has been...

Akkopru hydroelectric dam project. (News Digest: Turkey).
December 1, 2002... Voith-Siemens is in line for a contract valued at [euro]17.7m for the supply of electromechanical equipment to the Akkopru hydroelectric dam project. The contract would call for the supply of two 59.3 MW Francis-type hydraulic turbines.

Khasab power plant with Al Ghalilah power plant. (News Digest: UAE).
December 1, 2002... Work is underway to establish a 33 kV power line to link Khasab power plant with Al Ghalilah power plant, according to Oman's Minister of Housing, Electricity and Water.

TXU Europe calls in the administrators. (Europe).
December 1, 2002... Struggling energy group TXU Europe finally succumbed to the pressure of a $2.9bn debt burden by calling in administrators to protect creditors. The appointment of KPMG and Ernst & Young followed the termination by AES Corporation of its...

EU nations agree on power market opening. (Europe).
December 1, 2002... EU energy ministers meeting in Brussels have agreed to allow homeowners in the European Union to choose their gas and electricity suppliers starting in July 2007. The date set for liberalization of the domestic energy market is two years later...

VA Tech Hydro and GE awarded CCGT contract. (Europe).
December 1, 2002... A consortium of Austria's VA Tech Hydro and US engineering giant General Electric has won a contract valued at [euro]180m ($178m) to build a new 400 MW combined cycle power plant near Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Independent power...

Edison faces new credit downgrade. (Europe).
December 1, 2002... The Italenergia consortium which owns Italian energy group Edison is poised to increase the capital of the company by [euro]500m ($505m) in order to avoid a ratings agency downgrade which would put its debt in the junk category. Moody's...

Enel agrees Interpower sale. (Europe).
December 1, 2002... Enel has sold its third and final generating group, Interpower, to the Energia Italiana-Electrabel-Acea consortium for [euro]551m including [euro]323m in debt. Interpower has an installed capacity of 2611 MW. The joint venture will cover...

The European Commission. (News Digest: Europe).
December 1, 2002... The European Commission has faced criticism from a number of "green" groups for having a pro-nuclear agenda after it put forward proposals to extend its powers over nuclear energy, including the provision of loans and the safeguarding of funds...

RWE. (News Digest: Germany).
December 1, 2002... Core utility activities at RWE achieved a 29 per cent increase in profits in the first nine months of 2002. RWE attributed a growth of 46 per cent in its electricity business to firmer German power prices.

E.ON predicts. (News Digest: Germany).
December 1, 2002... A Study commissioned by E.ON predicts that the expansion in wind power generation in Germany will require heavy investment in the power grid and a [euro]850m ($842m) annual investment in balancing power from 2016.

Foster Wheeler. (News Digest: Italy).
December 1, 2002... Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by Voghera Energia worth [euro]113m to build a new gas fired combined cycle power plant at Voghera, near Pavia. Ansaldo will supply the power train and Siemens the gas turbine technology.

The Norwegian government. (News Digest: Norway).
December 1, 2002... The Norwegian government is proposing to allow the construction of gas fired power stations for the first time from 2006, on condition that technology is developed to filter out and store greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

Austria's VA Tech Hydro. (News Digest: Norway).
December 1, 2002... Austria's VA Tech Hydro has secured an order from Norwegian-based Lyse Produksjon for six new MicroGuss Pelton runners for the Lysefjorden plant, near Stavanger -- expected to boost the lifetime of the plant's existing Pelton units and increase...

Midlands electricity distribution network. (News Digest: UK).
December 1, 2002... Four indicative bids have been lodged for the Midlands electricity distribution network put up for sale by US energy group Aquila. The short list so far includes Malaysia's YTL, US energy joint venture WPD, Scottish & Southern and Macquarie, an...

Powergen. (News Digest: UK).
December 1, 2002... Powergen has applied for a permit to test the firing of wood pellets or vegetable material mixed with low-sulphur coal at its Kingsnorth power station in Kent to assess the viability and availability of these biomass fuels.

The Powergen Bowbeat project. (News Digest: UK).
December 1, 2002... A 24-turbine wind farm capable of generating 31.2 MW near Peebles, Scotland has been opened by Brain Wilson, UK minister for energy. The Powergen Bowbeat project is the most powerful in Scotland.

UK energy sales firm RWE Trading Direct. (New Digest: UK).
December 1, 2002... State-owned Gaz de France says it has bought UK energy sales firm RWE Trading Direct in order to increase its presence in Britain's electricity market.

China completes coal-by-wire plant. (Asia Pacific).
December 1, 2002... China has seen the completion of its first coal-by-wire power plant, a 2100 MW (6 x 350 MW) facility situated 800 km south west of Beijing in Shanxi province. The Yangcheng plant uses boiler equipment designed and supplied by US engineering...

Australia encouraged to unify regulation. (Asia Pacific).
December 1, 2002... A review of Australian energy policy has recommended implementing a single regulator to replace the multiple regional and federal regulators that currently govern the country's energy market. The review, carried out by the Council of Australian...

India powers up final HV link. (Asia Pacific).
December 1, 2002... India has ceremonially started the $49.6m Sasaram back-to-back High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) interconnector project that completes the final missing link of the Indian national high voltage grid. The HVDC link, built by Alstom,...

Singapore slings planned asset sales. (Asia Pacific).
December 1, 2002... Singapore has shelved plans to sell three state-owned power generating companies that were due to be sold next year after recent weak industry performance. The sale is now likely to take place in 2004. The gencos that were scheduled to be...

Philippines sale threatened after share slump. (Asia Pacific).
December 1, 2002... Thc Philippines may delay its planned sell off of Meralco -- Manila Electric Company -- after its shares plummeted some 40 per cent following news that it would be forced to pay refunds to customers. The government will now look for a share...

ADB inks $130m Sri Lanka loan. (Asia Pacific).
December 1, 2002... The Asian Development Bank is to find the restructuring of Sri Lanka's power sector with two loans worth a total of $130m. The loans are the biggest to be awarded to Sri Lanka, and will be split to finance different sectors of the market....

GE Hydro. (News Digest: Australia).
December 1, 2002... GE Hydro has won a contract from SunWater to build a new small hydropower plant in northern Queensland. The 1.6 MW plant will provide enough power to meet the needs of 100 homes.

China International Engineering Consulting Corp. (News Digest: China).
December 1, 2002... China International Engineering Consulting Corp. has approved a feasibility study to build a natural gas fired power plant in Qinhai province. CIECC is an entity authorized by the government to provide technical and economic assessments on...

PetroChina Co. (News Digest: China).
December 1, 2002... PetroChina Co. plans to build an Orimulsion-based power plant in Southern China's Guangdong province to accommodate more imports of Venezuela's trademark boiler fuel. The Zhanjiang city plant will be jointly operated by PetroChina and Port...

Indonesia plans to build a new 600 MW power plant. (News Digest: Indonesia).
December 1, 2002... Indonesia plans to build a new 600 MW power plant northeast of Jakarta in an effort to arrest a power shortfall in the country's main Java-Bali grid. Power shortages have been plaguing most of Indonesia due to a halt in new investments since...

Nippon Oil Corp. (News Digest: Japan).
December 1, 2002... Nippon Oil Corp. said it will build a wind power plant in northern Japan and sell most of the electricity generated to regional power utility Tohoku Electric Power Co. from March next year.

Alstom. (News Digest: Korea).
December 1, 2002... Alstom has delivered a turnkey energy management solution to manage the entire South Korean electricity power grid under a [pounds sterling]16.8m ($26m) contract with the Korea Power Exchange.

Gangwon Wind Power Co. (News Digest: Korea).
December 1, 2002... Work to build the nation's first commercial wind power plant has begun on a slope in the Daegwalleyeong hill chain in Gangwon Province. The project is promoted by Gangwon Wind Power Co., a joint venture established in September last year by...

Bakun hydroelectric project. (News Digest: Malaysia).
December 1, 2002... Work on the proposed 700 km power transmission line from the revived Bakun hydroelectric project is scheduled for completion by 2007 at the earliest, said Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan.

Korea Electric Power Company. (News Digest: Myanmar).
December 1, 2002... Korea Electric Power Company has completed a one-year project to diagnose and research the electric power network in Myanmar. The project represents the company's first overseas venture in the power transmission sector.

Song Da Construction Corp. (News Digest: Vietnam).
December 1, 2002... Song Da Construction Corp. will begin building the Tuyen Quang hydropower plant in northern Vietnam later this year. The 342 MW power plant will be built at a cost of $489.7m and will enter operation in 2006.

Independence Way.
December 1, 2002... In Chowhilla, California, DEUTZ ENERGY in cooperation with Stewart & Stevenson [much less than]Turnkey Solutions[much greater than] installed a state of the art 50 MW peak load power station within only 160 days from receipt of the order....

FERC subpoenas energy firms. (Americas).
December 1, 2002... Several leading energy companies in the US, including AES, Duke Energy, Reliant Resources, Mirant and Williams confirmed that they have been issued subpoenas from prosecutors investigating allegations of price fixing during the California power...

Fuel cell breakthrough. (Americas).
December 1, 2002... Fuel cell researchers in the USA have developed a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that they say can generate electricity as cheaply as the most efficient gas turbine. The research team from the Berkeley Lab says it is coming closer to...

Vegas hosts first hydrogen plant. (Americas).
December 1, 2002... The US will be the first country to experiment with a hydrogen energy station featuring the co-production of hydrogen fuel and electric power that can be used to fuel vehicles as well as produce electricity. The hydrogen plant will be...

Tractebel teams with Codelco for Edelnor acquisition in Chile. (Americas).
December 1, 2002... Tractebel and Chile's Codelco, the state-owned copper producer, have bought an 82.34 per cent share in Edelnor, the country's major thermal power company for $5.7m. The acquisition follows Edelnor's filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy...

Foster Wheeler takes JEA to court. (Americas).
December 1, 2002... Foster Wheeler's subsidiary, Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. (FWEC) has taken JEA, formerly known as Jacksonville Electric Authority, to court for breach of contract. Florida-based JEA had a contract with FWEC for the engineering, procurement...

Ecuador halts hydropower plans. (Americas).
December 1, 2002... Conelec, Ecuador's electricity regulator, has reversed a decision to allow a Spanish consortium to build a $500m hydroelectric plant due to contract irregularities. The concession for the hydropower plant was granted in April 2002 to a...

Argentina will raise electricity rates by presidential decree. (News Digest: Argentina).
December 1, 2002... Argentina will raise electricity rates by presidential decree, skipping a legally required set of public hearings in a bid to quickly comply with an IMP mandate. The country's currency has fallen 70 per cent since January, forcing many...

Engineering company SNC Lavalin Group. (News Digest: Canada).
December 1, 2002... Engineering company SNC Lavalin Group confirmed it is one of the bidders for part of Hydro One, the electricity transmission network that the Ontario government wants to partly privatize. On the heels of similar SNC investments in Alberta and...

Endesa. (News Digest: Chile).
December 1, 2002... Endesa has cut planned investments for the second time this year in an attempt to reduce debt, after net income in the third quarter dropped 8.6 per cent to $261m. It will cut investment in Latin America, especially Chile, where Endesa holds a...

Ecuador's Transelectric and Peru's Red de Energia. (News Digest: Ecuador).
December 1, 2002... Ecuador and Peru signed an agreement to hook up their electric transmission lines by the end of 2004 to help offset declines in hydroelectric power production during droughts. The Andean nations agreed to build a 146 km transmission line across...

GE Power Systems. (News Digest: USA).
December 1, 2002... Officials from the US Department of Energy have met with GE Power Systems and its research team to kick off a programme to develop a new high-efficiency generator that will provide major benefits for US utilities.

E.ON has halted its US expansion programme. (News Digest: USA).
December 1, 2002... E.ON has halted its US expansion programme and said it would delay plans to buy a power generator in the country's Midwest as it anticipated declines in utilities valuations. E.ON had said it wanted to buy one or two power utilities near its...

Alstom has been awarded a $160m contract. (News Digest: USA).
December 1, 2002... Alstom has been awarded a $160m contract by Santee Cooper, South Carolina's state-owned electric and water utility, to supply a 640 MW sub-critical pulverized coal fired utility boiler to be located at Cross Generating Station in Berkeley...

Ireland's Electricity Supply Board. (News Digest: USA).
December 1, 2002... Ireland's Electricity Supply Board has won a five-year contract to manage a regional power grid in the southeastern USA.

ABB pain continues. (Companies).
December 1, 2002... Jurgen Dormann, CEO of ABB, has been forced to revise down the company's growth targets for the second time since his appointment in September. ABB now expects growth of four per cent in the period 2002-2005, down from six per cent. Dormann...

GE Power Systems swallows Jenbacher. (Companies).
December 1, 2002... GE Power Systems is to acquire the Austrian reciprocating engine and genset manufacturer Jenbacher, it was announced in November. GE paid cash to a group of major shareholders and will make an public offer at [euro]17.43 ($17.27) per share for...

Superconductor consumes Danish HTS rival. (Companies).
December 1, 2002... American Superconductor Corp. has acquired the assets of Nordic Superconductor Technologies A/S (NST), a subsidiary of Denmark's NKT Holding A/S. NKT will receive 546 000 American Superconductor shares valued at $2.lm, which it must hold for a...

Power pact announced. (Companies).
December 1, 2002... Two US businesses specializing in the development and manufacturer of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, Plug Power Inc. and H Power Corp., have agreed a merger through a stock-for-stock swap, which values H Power at approximately...

Cantor Fitzgerald expands environmental brokerage service. (Companies).
December 1, 2002... Cantor Fitzgerald has begun marketing a "seamless environmental brokerage service" offering access to over 34 US environmental markets plus greenhouse gas and renewable energy markets worldwide through its Environmental Services and CO2e...

ABB sale OK. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... The sale of ABB's Structured Finance business to GE Commercial Finance for $2.3bn has been granted both US and European Commission approval. The sale is part of ABBa debt reduction programme and a new emphasis on power and automation...

Alstom launches switchgear. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... Alstom has launched PIX, a flexible range of medium voltage air-insulated switchgear suitable for a wide variety of applications for configurations between 3 kV and 25 kV.

Dynegy difficulties. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... A "difficult quarter" for Dynegy has resulted in the US energy group reporting a $1.8bn loss in the third quarter 2002 including a $908m goodwill write-off from its Wholesale Energy Network.

Esscor/GE interface. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... Esscor and GE Industrial Systems have agreed to develop a dynamic simulation solution for turbine-generator processes and controls that GE supplies and services.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries venture. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... Nihon Keizai Shibun, Chubu Electric Power and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are to establish a joint venture to lease fuel cell-based power sources.

Plug connected. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... Connected Energy Corp. and Plug Power Inc. have signed an agreement to provide Plug Power customers with a web-based system for centrally managing Plug Power GenSys fuel cells.

ScottishPower stronger. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... Better than expected half year profits from ScottishPower, buoyed by a strong performance from its US unit PacifiCorp, means that the utility may not be in such a need of a merger than its rival Scottish & Southern Energy, say analysts at...

Technip-Coflexip creates power. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... Following a number of acquisitions, French EPC contractor Technip-Coflexip has established a new independent business unit entitled "Power" in which it has grouped its power generating plant activities.

Tepco slides. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... Japan's largest power utility has reported first half profits down 11.9 per cent due to a fall in demand and lower electricity prices. Full year results may be impacted by the shutdown of nuclear facilities caused by a safety records scandal.

Utilyx extends. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... UK on-line energy broker Utilyx has launched a new range of services including strategic advice and consultancy in addition to the B2B online energy auction procurement package it began in 1999.

Wade surveys. (News Digest).
December 1, 2002... A report by the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy (Wade) says that decentralized power accounts for just seven per cent of global generation and that growth is constrained by barriers to efficiency in most countries.

A single market with multiple choice. energy utilities can reduce costs and improve customer service by offering telecoms products. Such synergies provide good growth opportunities, but can be hard to identify in the market. (Utility Strategy).
December 1, 2002... Despite the collapse of the technology market, leading energy suppliers such as Centrica and Powergen keep pushing their telecoms offering to residential and business customers. The secret behind their confidence comes from their multi-product...

Cross sound goes underground: The Cross Sound Cable Interconnector uses HVDC Light technology to provide a vital submarine cable connection between the transmission grids of New England and Long Island, New York. (HVDC Systems).
December 1, 2002... Historically, the Long Island grid has only been connected to the US main grid through New York City and through a small interconnection in southwest Connecticut. But for at least 30 years there have been plans to build a submarine cable...

Stepping up efficiency: the 9FB is the latest addition to GE's F technology gas turbine family. It builds on the design of the FA machine, and incorporates some of the latest developments in turbine technology and materials. (Gas Turbine Technology).
December 1, 2002... Many gas turbine applications today require the gas turbine to run almost continuously. With this increase in operating hours, the cost of fuel has assumed greater significance in optimizing machine design. As operating (or fuel) cost has...

Waste not, want not. (Power from Waste).
December 1, 2002... Encouraged by legislation, producing power through waste burning is on the increase in Europe. But in spite of its ability to reduce landfilling, environmental groups remain sceptical towards waste to energy technology such as that used by...

The modern approach. (It Focus).
December 1, 2002... The execution of major power plant projects is a complex process. But projects such as the [euro]213 million Kozloduy nuclear power plant modernization programme in Bulgaria are benefiting from project management and enterprise project...

Alimak access lifts improve power plant efficiency. (Alimak International Boiler Profile).
December 1, 2002... Alimak AB of Sweden are specialists in rack and pinion driven systems for vertical transportation. The company develops, manufactures and markets permanent industrial lifts, construction hoists and equipment for underground mining and civil...