In This Issue
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Renewables
Change and Opportunity in Brazil
Brazil’s electricity market is vast: the largest in Latin America and 10th largest in the world, with an installed capacity of 121,000 MW. Download the report.
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CoalConverting Sulfur from Flue Gas into Fertilizer
The history of power plant emissions regulations and control technologies is largely one of preventing elements that are bad for the environment or human health—including sulfur dioxide, particulate matter
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CoalBe Prepared for Coal Ash Regulations
A little over five years ago, on the night of Dec. 22, 2008, the residents of Kingston, Tenn., were devastated when a dike holding back an 84-acre ash pond broke loose. The ash pond servicing Tennessee Valley
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Commentary
America Needs Continued Coal Use
Mike Duncan Coal is currently the feedstock for nearly 40% of America’s baseload electricity supply, and in communities and states where coal has the highest utilization, utility bills are the lowest. With
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O&MAdaptive Brush Seals Restore Air Preheater Performance
The gas sealing systems used on rotary, regenerative air preheaters (APHs) have evolved little from the metal strip configuration used on the first Ljungström preheaters nearly a century ago. Metallic strip
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CommentaryWhat Is a Fossil Power Plant?
That question isn’t as flippant as it may sound. If you look at the type of plant that’s familiar to the generation of power industry personnel who have retirement within view and compare it with the sort
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O&MModern Polymeric Materials Offer Options for Equipment Repair
Currently accounting for over 16% of global energy production, and with an expected growth rate of 3% per year for the next quarter century, hydroelectric power generation continues to grow as the front runner
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CoalMHI, Southern Co. Complete Demonstration Phase of CCS Test
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) and Southern Co. have completed the initial demonstration phase of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) test at the Plant Barry power station in Mobile, Ala. The companies
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Supply ChainsThe Future of Utility Supply Chain Management
There may be few things about power plant management less exciting than its supply chains. But few things can gum up a plant’s operations more completely than mismanaging supplier relationships, parts
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CoalThe Advent of Flexible Coal
The increasing penetration of intermittent renewable generation, smart grids, demand response, and other emerging technologies has underscored the need for power plants with greater flexibility and
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News
Facing Challenges from Natural Disasters to Customers as Generators
The 16th annual ELECTRIC POWER Conference & Exhibition takes place in New Orleans this year, and it’s a fitting place to be discussing the many persistent and new challenges facing the power generation
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NuclearForced Closure of Nuclear Plant Is Unlawful, German Supreme Court Rules
In a ruling that could have reverberating implications for nuclear generators, Germany’s highest administrative law court upheld a lower court’s finding that declared unlawful the State of Hesse’s
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O&MPractical Considerations for Converting Industrial Coal Boilers to Natural Gas
Increasing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restrictions pertaining to emissions from coal-fired power plants, the increasing cost of coal operations, and the decreasing cost of natural gas provide strong
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News
POWER Digest (March 2014)
South Korea OKs $7B Plan for New Shin Kori Reactors. Only two weeks after South Korea announced plans to cut the share of nuclear in its total future power supply to 29% by 2035 instead of 41% by 2030, the
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O&MCustomized Storage Solution Improves Efficiency
Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) operates four baseload plants in the state of Nebraska. In 1993, when the North Omaha Station added a new warehouse, OPPD sought help from Vidmar to create effective storage
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RenewablesStatkraft Shelves Osmotic Power Project
Norwegian power company Statkraft has shelved its much-watched effort to harness energy from pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO). It said in a rare industry admission that the technology could not be sufficiently
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GasThe LNG Export Debate: Lessons from Peru
Recent shale gas development, resulting in cheap natural gas in the U.S., has opened the debate about whether or not to export some of that energy—mainly as liquefied natural gas (LNG). As the U.S. considers
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RenewablesDeveloping the World’s First Magma-Enhanced Geothermal System
In 2009, when the first borehole in a series of wells was drilled as part of the Icelandic Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) in Krafla, northeast Iceland (Figure 5), it unexpectedly penetrated into magma with a
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Legal & RegulatoryWhen States Try to Manipulate Wholesale Power Markets
This has not been the best of times for state regulators trying to control the future of their regional power markets. In September, a federal court in Maryland shot down that state’s attempt to force the
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Smart GridAES Uses Synchronous Condensers for Grid Balancing
The future is looking bright for AES Huntington Beach Power Generating Station. Renderings of a proposed new look for the power plant—located steps from the beach on the Pacific Coast Highway—include
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CoalIs Polygeneration the Future for Clean Coal?
This is the story of a power plant like no other. The facility runs primarily on coal, but it can utilize petcoke and biomass when available. The front end resembles an integrated gasification combined cycle
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CoalThe Role of Activated Carbon in a Comprehensive MATS Strategy
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) set limits on the emissions of mercury (Hg) and other pollutants for coal-fired power plants. Many plant operators have