Professional Documents
Culture Documents
8 • August 2012
Preparing your plant or fleet to meet the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) rule may
seem like a challenge. B&W makes it easier. We provide advanced technologies and upgrades
to reduce emissions of particulate, HCl, mercury and other air toxics. Contact us today for
customized environmental compliance solutions.
www.babcock.com/MATS
1-800-BABCOCK (222-2625)
Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc.
© 2012 Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
26
SPECIAL REPORTS
2012 MARMADUKE AWARD
34 Combined Solar Technologies’ Hybrid Plant: Using Wastewater and Olive Pits
to Produce Clean Water and Clean Energy
What may seem like a quirky, one-off application of using biomass to generate both
power and produce clean water could actually have broad application. For example,
treating wastewater to reduce total dissolved solids will soon become important in
regions where “frack water” is being discharged from gas fracking operations.
ENVIRONMENTAL
58 New Environmental Rules Keep Pressure on Coal-Fired Generation
Here’s your guide to the latest set of environmental regulations governing coal-fired
power plants and what they mean, plus suggested ways to comply with them, in-
cluding projects that increase plant efficiency.
64 NUCLEAR
64 Small Is the New Big: The B&W Small Modular Reactor
Many in the U.S. nuclear industry are holding their breath and hoping that the new
generation of small modular reactors (SMRs) save the day for the industry. Our first
in a series of detailed looks at each SMR offering provides the low-down on what
appears to be the model most likely to reach commercialization first.
DEPARTMENTS
10
SPEAKING OF POWER
6 Tactical Advantage
GLOBAL MONITOR
8 Major Developments for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
10 The Age of the Mammoth Wind Turbine Blade
12 THE BIG PICTURE: Mercury Regulations Rising
14 Tubular Turbine Hydropower Plant Comes Online
14 New Gas-Fired Technology Gains Backers
15 POWER Digest
FOCUS ON O&M
16 Breaking the Cycle of Reactive Maintenance
18 Safety Measurement: Culture Shaping or Failure Avoidance?
22 Women in Power Event Provides Networking Opportunities
More at
www.powermag.com LEGAL & REGULATORY
For all you Marmaduke fans, a reprint of 24 Proposed Cooling Water Rule’s Ripple Effects
By Angela Neville, JD
“Marmy’s Happy New Year” will be associ-
ated with this issue online. You’ll also find
78 NEW PRODUCTS
a Powerpoint supplement to our Smart Grid
Award story that details some of the work COMMENTARY
San Diego Gas & Electric is doing. 84 Wind Energy Blown Away by Natural Gas
By Kimball Rasmussen, president and CEO, Deseret Power
2 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
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CIRCLE 3 ON READER SERVICE CARD
EDITORIAL & PRODUCTION Visit POWER on the web: www.powermag.com
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4 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
SPEAKING OF POWER
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POWER August 2012
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POWER August 2012
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POWER August 2012
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Countries with the Highest Mercury Countries with or Considering Mercury Rules
Emissions from Fossil Fuel Combustion for Canada: The first country to establish mercury limits applying specif-
Power and Heating ically to control technologies and coal-fired power plants. The Canada-
Wide Standards set provincial caps for 2010 and beyond, requiring
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is preparing to 85% mercury capture for bituminous coal and blends and 75% cap-
finalize and ratify a new global legally binding instrument on mercury ture for subituminous and lignite coals at new units.
by next year that would target coal combustion, among other sourc-
es, for control and reduction. UNEP estimates that power plants ac- U.S.: Mercury and Air Toxics Standards promulgated by the Environ-
count for about 25% of global anthropogenic mercury emissions to mental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 2011 will require 1,100
the atmosphere and that industrial and residential heating account coal-fired power plants to prevent 90% of mercury in coal burned
for another 20%. The following countries had the highest mercury from being emitted by 2015.
emissions from coal combustion in 2005 (in metric tons).
China: 387.4
India: 139.7
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Sources: UNEP, International Energy Agency, EPA
12 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
CIRCLE 8 ON READER SERVICE CARD
4. Heightened wind. Alstom erected its 6-MW Haliade 150 di- 5. Tubular turbine technology. The Ashta I and II run-of-river
rect-drive offshore turbine at Carnet in the Loire-Atlantique region of hydropower plants in northern Albania, which will total 53 MW, feature
France in March. The turbine features LM Wind Power’s wind turbine the largest array of Hydromatrix units, which are small steel turbine
blades, which are 73.5 meters long. Courtesy: Alstom modules mounted in a row at the upstream face of the concrete grav-
ity dam structure. This image shows Ashta I under construction in 2011.
Courtesy: Verbund
14 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
EU Backs Construction of Lithuanian Nuclear Plant. The Euro-
6. A flexible technology platform. NET Power, The Shaw pean Commission on June 8 issued a favorable opinion for the con-
Group, Exelon Corp., and Toshiba Corp. have partnered to develop a struction of the Visaginas nuclear power plant in Lithuania, saying it
new gas-fired power generation technology that they say produces could fulfill the country’s goal to be energy independent. However,
pipeline-ready carbon dioxide for sequestration or use in enhanced oil
it stressed that the plant should seek to remain economically vi-
recovery and are looking to put into operation a small-scale 25-MW
plant by mid-2014. The technology is called the “Allam Cycle,” after in-
able even though two new reactors could be built in the vicinity in
ventor Rodney Allam. Courtesy: NET Power the near future. If built, the Visaginas plant will be the first nuclear
energy project in the EU’s Baltic region. Neighboring Belarus is plan-
Air separation unit Water ning to build a nuclear plant with Russian technology, and Russia
Air CO2 turbine separator has begun building a nuclear plant in Kaliningrad, which also borders
Lithuania. According to Rosatom, the Russian nuclear energy state
corporation, 49% of the shares of the Kaliningrad plant will be of-
Combustor Heat exchanger Compressor fered to EU companies, making it the first Russian nuclear power
Natural plant with foreign participation.
gas
EOR The €5 billion (US$6.2 billion) Visaginas plant will be built
at the site of the Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear station that was
shut down in 2009. The Visaginas plant will be equipped with a
later this year; Phase 3, to be completed in mid-2014, involves con- Hitachi-GE advanced boiling water reactor. Construction is ex-
struction and commissioning of a small-scale 25-MW natural gas plant pected to start in 2015, and commercial operation is expected
(at an undisclosed location) that will capture all emissions and gen- between 2020 and 2022.
erate revenue from the sale of electricity, and carbon dioxide for EOR. Black & Veatch Wins Series of Advanced Gas Turbine Projects
Development of the first full-scale commercial 250-MW natural gas in China. Black & Veatch was in June selected by China’s Harbin
plant is expected to begin thereafter, in late 2014 or early 2015. Electric Co. Ltd. to help deliver three combined cycle power plants
NET Power, which developed the system and calls it the “Allam in China. Located in Zhejiang Province, Guangdong Province, and the
Cycle” (Figure 6), after lead inventor Rodney Allam, is expected Beijing region, the plants will deploy advanced gas turbine technol-
to be responsible for overall project development and systems ogy. Together, the three plants will produce approximately 3,000 MW
engineering of the pilot project; Toshiba will design, test, and of gas-fired electricity and alleviate industrial power and steam sup-
manufacture a combustor and turbine for it; Shaw will provide ply shortages. The three plants will feature heavy-duty combustion
engineering, procurement, and construction services; and Exelon turbines. “The Gaojing combined cycle power plant will deploy a level
is expected to support development and operation of the 25-MW of combustion turbine technology that has yet to feature in mainland
plant by selecting the site, obtaining permits, and commission- China,” said Dr. Suqing Wang, senior project manager for Black &
ing the facility. Early in June, Shaw said it would provide up Veatch’s global energy business.
to $50.4 million in cash and in-kind services to the effort and Synthesis Completes Testing of Turkish Lignite Coals. Syn-
acquire up to 50% of NET Power as certain milestones are com- thesis Energy Systems on June 29 said it had completed testing
pleted during the four phases of the project. of three Turkish lignite coals and obtained positive data. The lignite
The technology has “transformative applications” and can be coal projects are being developed for clean coal–based power genera-
integrated into a variety of industrial processes, such as liquefied tion projects and are being developed by independent power project
natural gas, enhanced oil recovery fields, and concentrated solar development company TUTEN for an undisclosed local utility com-
plants. “Although the initial system will utilize natural gas, future pany. Synthesis Energy undertook the coal tests using its fluidized
applications of NET Power will use coal, integrating with current bed gasification technology and indicated that each coal achieved
gasifiers, and biomass,” the company said in a statement in June. single-pass carbon conversions of between 96% and 99.5%. The test
results will be used by TUTEN’s project sponsor to proceed with its
project development activities using local, low-grade, low-cost lig-
POWER Digest nite that is unsuitable for conventional power generation.
FP&L to Increase Output at Turkey Point. Florida Power & Synthesis Energy has teamed with TUTEN and Slovakia-based
Light (FP&L) on June 19 received approval from the Nuclear Reg- Istroenergo Group to build a conceptual-level design applica-
ulatory Commission to increase the power generating capacity of tion for 50-MW and 100-MW size power generation modules for
Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Units 3 and 4 by 15%. The power the lignite fuel project. The plant design employs coal gasifica-
uprate for the pressurized water reactors will increase each unit’s tion and aeroderivative power generation, integrating Synthesis
capacity from approximately 700 MWe to 823 MWe. Energy’s technology for synthesis gas production and would sup-
ThermoEnergy, ITEA Partner on Pressurized Oxy-Com- port a General Electric (GE) LM2500+G4 aeroderivative gas tur-
bustion Technology. Massachusetts–based ThermoEnergy bine in combined cycle for 50 MW to 100 MW power capacity.
Corp. and Italian company ITEA SpA on June 14 said they would Iraq Commissions New Gas Plant. The Iraq Ministry of
collaborate to promote, finance, design, and construct a 50-MW Electricity (MOE) has commissioned the new 160-MW Taji power
pilot plant and a 320-MW commercial facility in the U.S. using plant featuring GE technology northeast of Baghdad. The plant
a clean coal technology called pressurized oxy-combustion. The comprises four Frame 6B gas turbines delivered by GE, which is
technology could enable utilities to continue burning inexpen- also supplying similar equipment for two other new power plants
sive and abundant coal while virtually eliminating both the tradi- in Hilla and Karbala that are slated to be operational in 2012.
tional pollution (such as sulfur dioxide) from coal plants and the The company will also provide the MOE with an estimated 56 gas
emissions of carbon dioxide, and it can be retrofitted to existing turbines for projects across Iraq that are expected to enter ser-
coal plants, the companies said. The clean coal technology will vice beginning in 2012, adding more than 7,000 MW of electric-
be developed and marketed by Unity Power Alliance LLC, a joint ity to support the country’s energy infrastructure. ■
venture of ITEA and ThermoEnergy. —Sonal Patel is POWER’s senior writer.
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 15
Breaking the Cycle of it. Organizations have been operating like this for so long that
Reactive Maintenance there is no memory of any other viable approach.
Nobody can schedule unplanned events that will affect power
generation. And no one wants to start a day expecting an emer- Create a Comprehensive Vision
gency to occur. But when critical systems fail in the power sup- My on-site customer observations confirm that there is a com-
ply system, it’s time to respond. That’s a given of power plant mon problem: the general lack of a comprehensive road map to
maintenance. clearly define the end game, link inputs to outputs, and pro-
For plant managers faced with economic constraints and regu- vide clear business rules for roles and responsibilities. The plan-
latory mandates, a common topic of discussion is the need for ners are often consumed with reactive maintenance. Work orders
power plants to cut costs and improve maintenance. Yet a deeper are initiated but not properly categorized or prioritized. Work
understanding of the advanced processes where true return on is performed but lacks proper feedback as to asset condition,
investment (ROI) exists eludes many. There are plenty of enter- recommendations to prevent future breakdowns, design flaws,
prise asset management (EAM) webinars and analytics training and maintainability issues. Ownership of the backlog is lacking,
courses out there, but often it is the underlying attitudes—the which leads to incorrect asset numbers, inaccurate statuses, du-
fears, presumptions, sheer crush of work to be done—that can plicate tickets, and stale work. When basic processes and founda-
keep plants stuck in reactive maintenance. tion data are suspect, it is very difficult to take that next step to
For many plants, changing from reactive to proactive main- fully leverage the EAM system.
tenance means challenging old norms, communicating change Often, it isn’t the lack of staff or lack of time at all; it’s a
management benefits, and correcting improper uses of the sys- lack of knowledge—or even a lack of belief in the feasibility—of
tem. These problems can include bad data; a system designed how to put EAM to work to proactively manage assets across the
and led by the information technology department instead of entire enterprise.
functional users; and having no business analysts, business rules, It’s commonly stated that reliability is everyone’s job. That
computerized maintenance management system expert, analyti- said, the maintenance and upkeep of the EAM system should also
cal reports, or long-term road map. be everyone’s job. For the EAM system to be a true knowledge
base, there has to be buy-in from all levels of the organization,
Too Busy to Be Proactive? including maintenance, operations, engineering, supply chain,
In every plant there are seasoned staff who know the equipment, and management. Ideal duties and roles are shown in the table.
know the systems, and are quite capable of “putting out fires.”
Yet all too often, when asked how well they use their EAM sys- Six Questions
tem, power plant maintenance managers concede they are too It’s time for the power industry to move beyond theoretical dis-
busy maintaining with far “too little staff” to do much beyond cussions and take on the real-world problems faced by power
using the system to create tickets for items that need to be ad-
dressed. This forms the cycle of reactive maintenance.
As a business process improvement consultant, I am often Enterprise asset management requires teamwork.
Source: Cohesive Information Solutions Inc.
met at power plants by planners/schedulers with a common
complaint. It goes something like this: “We cannot perform any Planner/ Fully believe in concept of work order planning.
advance planning; we’re fully utilized already. We have so much scheduler Be a student of proactive maintenance, enterprise asset manage-
emergency and urgent work, it requires our immediate attention. ment (EAM) system better/best practices, and advanced concepts.
On top of that, we are the main point of coordination when it
Reduce percentage of backlog planned.
comes to EAM system input and output. It’s too much!”
Under the “tyranny of the urgent,” all work is treated the Reliability Be an active participant in the reliability process.
same—although some of it gets done quicker. This also means engineer Lead the Reliability Team.
you could have self-inflicted reactive maintenance. The overall Advise the Core Team on how to set up the EAM system to sup-
result is mismanagement of the maintenance backlog, resulting port analytics.
in unnecessary costs associated with reactive maintenance. The
Maintenance Facilitate new work reviews, separating true emergencies from
primary benefit of creating a schedule is to align departments, manager work that can be planned/scheduled.
coordinate crafts, ensure job safety, minimize risk, and minimize
delays. Support weekly schedule meetings.
Without more staff, some planners/schedulers cannot visual- Create long-term vision and roadmap for the future.
ize a world in which they can proactively manage data to reduce Maintenance Believe in, and work to, a weekly schedule.
reactive maintenance. Rather than look for efficiency with “ad- supervisors Facilitate accurate work order reporting, especially at completion.
vanced processes,” they revert to “we need more staff.” But with
no budget for hiring, the situation is at an impasse. Encourage work order feedback in support of improved reliability-
centered maintenance.
Power plant workers have long-held misconceptions about
what an EAM system is or can be. Most see it as a work order Handle emergency/urgent work, as needed.
number provider that gives them a number “to charge time to.” Operations Identify emergency/urgent work.
From this perspective, why should they look for failure trends Perform first-level feasibility review of new/incoming work.
and worse offenders or reexamine preventive maintenance (PM)
Identify work that can be properly planned and scheduled.
frequencies (maintenance strategies)? When stuff breaks, they fix
16 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
plant planners, operations, and maintenance managers. Answers Common Power Plant Assumptions
to the following six questions for the power plant maintenance Many power plant staff recognize that problems exist with their
manager can quickly identify the maturity of a plant’s mainte- EAM system, but there may be confusion over whether those
nance approach: problems are software, or data, or process related. Most man-
agers would embrace change, but their misconceptions and as-
■ Other than emergencies, do you plan work? For example, sumptions are entrenched. For example, consider the following
do you enter job steps and craft estimates on your work assumptions, which often go unchallenged:
orders? Are you tracking the amount of reactive mainte-
nance? Change is too hard. A power plant cannot change without ■
■ Do you have a way to mark work orders “fully planned”? a universal desire to become more proactive. The need for
If yes, what percentage is planned (>90%)? Are the work change needs to be understood.
order priorities valid? Are you conducting regular reviews ■ We have planners, therefore we plan. Planner positions may
of backlog? exist, but planners are not fully effective in their positions if
■ Do you have a work order feedback loop by which you con- they lack training in and understanding of proactive concepts.
tinually gather input from the crafts and improve asset perfor-
A job planner should not be asked to perform nonproductive
mance and reliability? tasks such as material expediting, picking up parts, getting in-
■ Does a reliability team exist that proactively looks at the worst
volved in emergency work planning, performing maintenance
offenders, initiates root cause analysis, and the like? Are re-
work, or entering actual labor hours.
curring problems being identified and managed within the EAM■ Business rules exist, but only verbally. Different work groups
system? may have different processes and procedures. For an EAM sys-
■ Have the planners/schedulers been trained on EAM system use tem to have full support and interaction, these rules must be
and proactive maintenance techniques? clearly defined and understood.
■ Has the power plant ever performed EAM system benchmark- ■ There are barriers against bad data. It’s common to assume that
RA RE
ing? (Have you visited other power plants to learn their ap- the EAM system, if set up correctly, will automatically prevent
proaches?) bad data from being entered. This is far from the truth.
■ Standard reports work. It is rarely true that the EAM system has
If most of the answers are “No,” then there is a problem; the all of the reports needed. You need to link up analytical report
majority of practices are stuck in reactive maintenance manage- needs to the goals and objectives of the organization.
ment. A formal
CHA-113 and thorough review is warranted.
RARE2012withSnipePowerMagazineMay:Layout ■ We don’t
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the EAM system is navigationally based. Key processes and Operational Excellence Is the Goal
roles are left out of the discussion. This approach leads to bad Power plant maintenance is necessarily complex and carries sig-
data on day two. nificant risk and responsibility. Yet, much of the promise of an
EAM system in terms of efficiency and reliability gains has not
Facing Fears been realized by the industry. As the energy industry faces a
Unspoken fears can also hinder proactive maintenance. Many transformative 21st century, power plants that are not fully lever-
power plant managers and supervisors do not welcome criticism. aging their EAM system risk falling behind the industry average.
They may not be keen on setting up advanced key performance Changing culture is hard and may take months (or years), but it
indicators such as percentage of reactive maintenance, weekly is never too late to start trying. To ensure success, power plant
schedule compliance, and backlog growth trends. Similarly, man- leaders must begin with process improvement initiatives, care-
agers may fear that creating an EAM work order (and entering fully manage and implement changes, and follow up with periodic
actuals) for all their work means they will come under constant audits. By creating a long-term strategic road map, power plants
and potentially crippling scrutiny. The best advice is to get 100% can achieve operational excellence, optimize expenditures, and
on board and dive into the process. The primary purpose of mea- provide a substantial return on investment.
surement is to find opportunities for improvement in a very com- —Contributed by John Reeve (jreeve@cohesivesolutions.
petitive world. com), manager and senior consultant for Cohesive
Information Solutions Inc.
Getting Started
To institute proactive maintenance, power plants need to Safety Measurement: Culture Shaping or
clearly define their goals and objectives, and from this, all Failure Avoidance?
of the prerequisites to reach those goals. It is important to “It is a new month. I want you all to work very hard to fail less
remember the EAM system is much more than software. Eighty than previous months. I’ll be measuring. Failures will not be tol-
percent of all potential improvement lies in process and pro- erated. Anyone caught doing so will be disciplined by his or her
cedure. Be absolutely sure that working-level staff are on peers and/or leadership.”
board and fully committed. Verify key processes to be ad- Leading and measuring with the approach characterized by
hered to via spot checks, auditing, work sampling, and EAM this comment creates malicious compliance, avoidance behavior,
system error checks. Tie all of these actions together using a a have-to mentality, and disdain toward the organization. Team-
road map for the future. And remember that real ROI comes work becomes a pointless buzzword, and fear of measurement
with implementation of advanced EAM processes, which in- sets in. When organizations measure only incidents and establish
clude work order feedback in support of reliability centered and reward incident reduction goals, “fail less” becomes the mes-
maintenance, basic failure analysis, maintenance planning/ sage. Are your safety measurement systems focusing on motiva-
scheduling, and (major) project scope/cost control tracking tion and excitement, or evaluation and reactive accountability?
(including outages).
Gather up all of the representative user groups and form a Lagging Indicators Create Hope
Core Team. From this team, create formal business rules and Incident metrics are prescriptive when there are many kinds of
EAM system operating procedures. Identify “sore points” in data. As safety improves, the data used to advance results lose
the form of inadequate training, missing foundation data, or statistical significance, which leads to a multitude of random
missing reports. Even the meaning of planning and schedul- data points. As an organization matures in its safety manage-
ing must be defined. The definition of planning can be quite ment systems and culture, reported injury data often move from
involved, but for the purposes of this article it includes task prescriptive to descriptive, then to demotivating, and then be-
steps, craft/skills codes, number of workers, and estimated come borderline pointless. When you achieve zero incidents, how
hours and materials. do you continue to improve? Most importantly, are the results
due to purposeful initiatives and accountability, or luck? What
Reality Check: Key Points sense of comfort does the organization have that it can repeat
Some power plants will only focus on emergency/urgent work and the same results next year?
never choose to plan any work. Some plants may plan work, but An injury or incident is a failure in your prevention process.
never schedule work. Some plants might not have any records When the strategy or measurements are focusing on reducing in-
in their maintenance backlog. In this case, a paradigm shift is juries, the culture is being motivated to avoid failure rather than
needed. Not all power plants have a full-time planner/scheduler achieve success.
or reliability engineer. Yet, for an EAM system to contain ac- When a failure occurs and tactics are deployed quickly to pre-
curate data, someone must accept responsibility for data input vent recurrence, there is an impression that “leadership is reac-
and analysis. Clever and efficient use of the system requires your tive when it comes to safety” or “someone has to get hurt for
input. safety to improve.” Rarely are high-performing cultures motivat-
The overall maintenance program needs to include a proper ed by measurement of such an approach.
balance of preventive, corrective, and emergency/urgent mainte-
nance. Worker feedback should be enabled and expected. Through Measurement: Motivational or Demotivating?
a formal feedback loop, the maintenance strategy should be Safety measurement is supposed to direct, align, and motivate
continually reviewed and refined. All PM templates should be behavior. What percentage of employees in your organization are
fully planned (including those for labor and parts). PM schedules motivated, or even excited, by safety measurement compared to
should be near 100% compliance. Emergency/urgent work should those who are fearful of it?
have quick response times, but all other work should be planned Executives deploy a multitude of measurement systems to vali-
and scheduled. Key performance indicators should help identify date the health of operations. Safety is no different than any other
areas of (needed) improvement. operational priority, yet few leverage balanced scorecards or trans-
18 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
BECAUSE EXPERIENCE MATTERS
Since Bechtel’s founding in 1898 we’ve measured success against our ability to
repeatedly exceed customers’ expectations and deliver innovative solutions for unique
challenges. With over 65 years of experience in the power industry, we are continuing
to help customers provide power for the 21st century.
1. Balanced scorecard for safety excellence. If safety ■ What does excellence look like in behavioral terms? What would
excellence is defined in behavioral terms (what people need to do you see or hear the average employee, supervisor, manager, or
to create positive results), it is observable and feedback is pos- executive do or say that creates a sense of comfort that suc-
sible. When this happens, the organization is effectively coaching
cess is near, because you are effectively working your plan and
for performance, rather than managing results through a trial-and-
error strategy. Source: ProAct Safety
executing your strategy? If safety excellence is defined in be-
havioral terms (what people need to do to create the results),
it is observable. If it is observable, feedback is possible. When
Results this happens, the organization is effectively coaching for top
■ Reorderable rate
safety performance, rather than managing results through a
■ Severity rate
■ Cost
trial-and-error strategy.
■ How desirable are the current safety beliefs in the organiza-
tion? Beliefs influence decisions, behaviors, and stories told
Management Performance throughout the organization. Desirable perceptions are a com-
■ Training Transformational ■ Common practice mon leading indicator in the industry, and measuring those
■ Meeting safety focus ■ Compliance indicators through a perception survey is easier than many
■ Communications ■ Engagement realize. What would the desirable perceptions be, and what is
the current gap?
■ How does common practice compare to desired behaviors and
Culture experiences? What is the reality of day-to-day activities com-
■ Perceptions pared to what is desired?
■ Focus
■ How will you market safety at your facility? Yes, market safe-
■ Attitude
ty. Though it is often ignored, significant value is derived by
20 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
CIRCLE 10 ON READER SERVICE CARD
focusing on branding, positioning, customer feedback, and
reinforcing buying decisions. How will measurement systems 4. Women in Power panelists. Left to right: co-chair Angela
encourage improved safety efforts? Neville, JD, senior editor of POWER; co-moderator Erin Toelke, client
service manager of the environmental services business group, CH2M
■ What initiatives will support the safety excellence strategy? This
HILL; Sheree Petrone, vice president, fuels & environmental trading,
should be the last question of this series. Unfortunately, the Exelon Generating Co.; Verne Shortell, executive director of environ-
average organization makes many great attempts to improve mental business, NRG Energy Inc.; Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, vice presi-
safety but has difficulty demonstrating how those efforts will dent, corporate public affairs, Progress Energy Inc.; and Carol Dodson,
produce measurable progress. senior vice president, asset management services, Baltimore Gas &
Electric. Source: POWER
Delegate Priorities, Not Values
For safety to become a core value, safety improvement cannot be
delegated. Values are created when, over time, beliefs are reinforced
by consistent behaviors. This requires key decision-makers to be in-
volved in the creation and continuous evolution of the measurement
strategy. Measuring the right things and celebrating leading indica-
tor progress is far too important to be the sole responsibility of the
safety department if sustainable excellence is your goal. Unless, of
course, you are okay with just failing a little less year after year.
—Contributed by Shawn M. Galloway (info@proactsafety.com),
president of ProAct Safety. He is an international consultant, pro-
fessional speaker and seminar leader, and has helped hundreds of
international organizations improve their safety performance. He
is also the host of the weekly podcast series Safety Culture Excel-
lence, available on iTunes.
22 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
www.SMA-America.com
he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a long mined standard, a facility could seek a site-specific BTA for
24 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
CIRCLE 13 ON READER SERVICE CARD
2012 PLANT OF THE YEAR
AES Gener’s Angamos Power Plant
Earns POWER’s Highest Honor
A
ES Gener S.A. is a Chilean publicly two principal markets: the Central Inter- Gener’s market capitalization was approx-
listed power generation company connected System (SIC) and the Greater imately $5 billion.
that has invested heavily in the fu- Northern Interconnected System (SING) In Chile, AES Gener’s diverse genera-
ture of the Chilean economy. The sixth and in Chile. These separate regions were tion portfolio—consisting of hydroelectric,
seventh most recent units to enter service formed with the privatization of the Chil- coal, gas, diesel, and biomass facilities—
as part of AES Gener’s $3 billion, 1,638- ean electricity sector in the 1980s, when allows it to flexibly and reliably operate
MW power plant expansion plan were the all generation, transmission, and distribu- under a variety of market and hydrological
two units at the Angamos Power Plant tion systems were turned over to private conditions. The company’s power plants
(Angamos) on the Pacific coast of north- ownership. AES Gener, one of the largest are located near the principal electricity
ern Chile. Before examining the unique IPPs in Chile, operates 16 power plants in consumption centers, including Santiago,
design features of this coal-hybrid plant, the country, accounting for 3,821 MW of Valparaiso, and Antofagasta, extending
it’s useful to look at the Chilean electric- capacity—2,241 MW in the SIC and 1,465 from Antofagasta in the north to Concep-
ity industry and the important role that in- MW in the SING. ción in south-central Chile.
dependent power producers (IPPs) play in AES Gener enjoys a 22% share of the
the country’s economy. Chilean electricity market based on in- Shifting Fuel Mix
AES Gener, 71% owned by U.S.-based stalled capacity. In the SING, where The availability of low-cost natural gas
AES Corp., is the second-largest electricity electricity consumption is dominated by from Argentina delivered via pipelines
generating company in Chile. Pension funds mining (90%), the company’s market built across the Andes Mountains in the
(14%) and public investors (15%) hold the share is approximately 32%. Mining inter- late 1990s prompted construction of five
remaining stock. AES, based in Arlington, ests represent about half of the country’s combined cycle plants that were used to
Va., is one of the largest global power com- industrial infrastructure. In the SIC, which provide baseload generation to the SING.
panies. It operates 13 utilities and 121 gen- covers over 92% of Chile’s population, In 2004, Argentina began to curtail gas de-
eration facilities in 28 countries. including the densely populated Santiago liveries to Chile. The interruptions became
The Chilean government contracts with metropolitan area, the company’s market increasingly severe over the next several
AES Gener for the supply of electricity in share is 19%. As of March 15, 2012, AES years until gas deliveries were essentially
26 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
PROTECTING POWER
PLANT CHIMNEYS
Tomorrow’s chimney
design: lighter, cheaper,
built to last
15ºc (59ºF)
23ºc(
23ºc(73ºF)
28 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
Powerplant Engineering
DESIGN & EPC CONSTRUCTION
SERVICES: CLIENTELE:
Detailed Design • EPC • CM Utilities • IPPs • Industry
Studies • Owner & Bank Universities • OEMs
Engineering Banks/Investors
PROJECTS (New, Retrofit & Modifications):
Biomass • Solar (Thermal & PV) • Simple & Combined Cycle
Wind • Fluidized Bed/PC/Stoker Boilers • Biofuels • MSW
Gasification • Landfill Gas • Pyrolysis • Plant Improvements
Air Pollution Control • CHP/Cogeneration • Energy Savings
Engine-Generators • Facilities/Buildings & Systems
Bob Bibb
Lou Gonzales
Dave Wiker
Matt Helwig Doug Franks
Rob Schmitt
ChairmanPresident
/ CEO VP
/ COO
Engineering
ivil/Structural
Mgr. C Mgr. Mechani
Mgr. Electrical
George Neill
Phil Peterson Rich Carvajal
Dean Andrisevic Chris Bramha
Nick Francoviglia
Sr. Project
Sr.
Mgr.
Project
Sr.
Mgr. Sr.
Project Project
Mgr. Chief Mgr.
Mgr.Mech. Bus. Dev
Eng.
For career opportunities e-mail a resume in confidence
CIRCLE 15 ON READER SERVICE CARD
2012 PLANT OF THE YEAR
tomers are BHP Billiton of Australia sub- & Construction supplied the two coal-fired which we work in our country since it is
sidiaries Minera Escondida and Minera steam boilers outfitted with low-NOx burn- competitive, it gives energy supply security
Spence—both large copper mines. A long- ers, and Italian manufacturer Ansaldo En- and meets the highest environmental stan-
term power purchase agreement was essen- ergia provided the steam turbines and the dards. Angamos complies with all environ-
tial for obtaining long-term financing for two 350-MVA air-cooled generators. (See mental standards promulgated by President
the project, which is discussed later. Table 2 for key performance characteristics Sebastián Piñera last February and meets
South Korea’s POSCO Engineering & of the project.) the requirements of Latin-American and
Construction Co., Ltd. (POSCO) was the Other key components—such as the coal- are at the same level of the European Union
engineering, procurement, and construction and ash-handling systems and air quality in terms of exigency.”
(EPC) contractor. Doosan Heavy Industries control system (AQCS), including electro-
static precipitators (ESP) and fabric filter Unique Design Features
(to remove particulates from the flue gas) Fuel supply represented a special challenge
2. Clean air was a priority. A full com- and spray dryer absorber flue gas scrubber because coal deliveries for Angamos are
plement of air quality control system (AQCS)
(to remove 95% of the SO2)—were sup- made by sea through a dry bulk terminal
equipment—an electrostatic precipitator, fab-
ric filter, and spray dryer absorber for remov-
plied by POSCO Plantec and other South that was constructed in Mejillones, north
ing SO2 from the stack gas—was included on Korean manufacturers. The AQCS used of Angamos Port. Construction of the port
both units. It was the first use of this AQCS in was the first of its kind in South America coal-handling facilities was completed in
South America. Courtesy: AES and was designed to meet the latest emis- January 2011. Bituminous and subbitumi-
sions standards, published in Chile in June nous coal, purchased on the global market,
2010 (Figure 2). is transported to the plant’s transfer tower,
POSCO received the notice to proceed for from which it is distributed across the coal
construction of the plant on Apr. 7, 2008. pile. The port’s solids-handling capacity is
Earlier, on Oct. 17, 2007, AES Gener 1,500 metric tons (mt)/hour. It can receive
had signed a turnkey EPC contract with cargoes up to 80,000 mt and has unloading
POSCO valued at $870 million. Although rates between 17,000 and 20,000 mt/day.
POSCO started engineering the project Ash collected from the ESP hoppers is
at contract signing, actual construction at conveyed to a silo, where it is stored. The
the site did not begin until June 2008. The ash is then removed by truck and deposited
groundbreaking ceremony was held on Au- in a special landfill or used in the construc-
gust 27, 2008, with more than 150 partici- tion industry as raw material for cement.
pating, including Energy Minister of Chile Although Angamos is located on the Pa-
Marcelo Tokman, Korean Ambassador to cific coast of northern Chile, 55 km north
Chile Lim Chang-Soon, POSCO E&C CEO of Antofagasta and 1,300 km north of San-
Han Soo-Yang, AES Gener Chairman An- tiago, it is situated in the 1,000 km–long
3. Ocean cooling. The desert location of dres Gluski, and President Felipe Creron. Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the
the Angamos plant did not allow using potable “Angamos coal-fired power station with world, according to NASA. Annual rainfall
water for the cooling tower. Instead, a seawa- a generation capacity of a large scale will in this desert is less than 0.004 inches, and
ter cooling tower was used, which runs at contribute to Chile’s economic growth,” some areas have gone hundreds of years
about two cycles of concentration. Courtesy: said Soo-Yang in his congratulatory with no rainfall. That makes water supply
AES Corp. speech. a major concern.
Unit 1 was first synchronized to the The Angamos plant is the first of its kind
SING grid on Dec. 21, 2010, and entered in South America to use seawater cooling
commercial service in April 2011, approxi- towers (Figure 3). About 6,000 cubic me-
mately two weeks ahead of the scheduled ters/hour of seawater are supplied from a
completion date. The second unit entered seawater makeup pumping station with si-
commercial service in October 2011, also phon and submarine discharge pipe. This
several weeks ahead of schedule. This rep- pumping station also supplies seawater to
resents a significant achievement, especial- the thermal vapor compression (TVC) de-
ly given that a magnitude 8.8 on the Richter salinization plants to produce boiler make-
scale earthquake hit southern Chile in Feb- up water, firewater, potable water, service
ruary 2010 and delayed construction by water, and water for other facility uses.
about a month because 70% of the workers Demineralized water is produced by a
lived in the affected area. Even so, POSCO multiple-effect distillation system as well
completed both units early and earned a $7 as with the TVC unit. Desalinated water
million schedule bonus. In addition, unit is next treated in a new demineralization
performance tests found that the net output plant using electro-deionization units to
of both units was about 5% higher and the produce boiler-quality makeup water. Giv-
heat rate about 6% lower than the contract en the arid location, this water system is
guarantee. cost-effective and sustainable for a plant
During the inauguration of Unit 1 in located close to the ocean.
August 2011, the subsecretary of energy A containerized portable reverse osmosis
of Chile said, “This project meets the three plant was shipped from South Korea to pro-
basic conditions of energy policies with vide potable water during construction.
30 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
ENTERPRISE
ASSET
MANAGEMENT
AND AGILE
ERP.
BETTER TOGETHER.
Only IFS Applications offers class-leading enterprise asset management (EAM) as part of a
fully integrated enterprise resources planning (ERP) suite. So you can implement EAM with
components of ERP, an entire ERP package or even integrate EAM seamlessly with your legacy
ERP system. So your energy assets can be as agile as your thinking.
32 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
2012 PLANT OF THE YEAR
features system monitoring, SCADA, and “We are very proud of AES Gener for ognized as the Best Deal of the Year by
integration with other operational systems. winning this prestigious award. The Anga- LatinFinance, Project Finance Inter-
A123 Systems supplied the lithium-ion mos project combines low-cost, reliable national, and Infrastructure Journal in
batteries for the project. ABB provided the power with our innovative lithium-ion bat- 2008.
power controls modules. teries to increase available capacity and
efficiency,” said Andres Gluski, president Environmental Concerns
People First and CEO of AES. “By delivering innova- AES Gener, in partnership with several
Angamos is a significant contributor to the tive projects such as Angamos, AES helps companies in the nearby city of Mejillones,
development of Chile’s energy sector and the meet a growing demand for affordable en- formed the “Fundación para la Sustentabili-
entire country. It also benefited the region by ergy in the markets we serve.” dad del Gaviotin Chico” (Foundation for
creating more than 3,000 jobs during the con- Financing the $1.3 billion Angamos Sustainability of the Small Tern) with the
struction phase. Hiring local manpower was a plant represented a significant challenge, aim of instituting measures that will preserve
priority, and some of the workers are staying as the process was initiated in 2008 and bird migration. It was the first time in Chile
with the company as plant operators. closed in the midst of the international that the public and private companies joined
To integrate the project with the local financial crisis. However, a syndication together to contribute to the conservation of
community, the company has developed of international banks, reassured by the an ecosystem affected by the development of
a cooperation agreement with municipal financial strength of AES Gener, the EPC large infrastructure projects.
schools to align students’ capabilities with contractor, and the offtakers, allowed AES The foundation has found that the popu-
project needs. In addition, as part of the Gener to secure nearly $1 billion under lation of Gaviotin Chico has remained
company’s social responsibility program, a 72/28 debt-to-equity project finance stable in the area of Mejillones, where the
it committed to enhancing the infrastruc- structure just months after the debt market birds have found new nesting sites. With
ture of the Municipal Sport Center to im- meltdown in September 2008. Notably, input from specialists working for this or-
prove the quality of life. $675 million was guaranteed by Korea Ex- ganization, companies and private citizens
AES Gener maintains strict environ- port Insurance Corp. Financing also was better understand the life cycle and migra-
mental and safety standards at its opera- guaranteed by two long-term contracts: tory patterns of this bird species and have
tions. Maintaining a workplace free of with Minera Escondida, for 340 MW for taken concrete actions to control the haz-
safety incidents was a remarkable chal- 18 years, and with Minera Spence, for 90 ards that might affect them. ■
lenge for a project that took around 14 MW for 15 years. —Dr. Robert Peltier, PE is POWER’s
million man-hours in a multicultural envi- The Angamos project was also rec- editor-in-chief.
ronment. The project recorded no fatalities
and achieved 5 million man-hours without
a lost-time accident and without a fatality.
The achievement of that milestone dem-
onstrated the strength of the programs and Your trusted partner
culture at the construction facility, such as
proactive AES actions that include safety for bolted joints
walks and work activity observations.
The development of 10 Safety Manage-
ment System action plans and complet-
ing each of them was a strong indication
of the company’s dedication to continuous
safety improvement. Making the construc-
tion safety requirements a priority and the
routine identification of workplace haz-
ards was certainly a key to the milestone
achievement.
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 33
2012 MARMADUKE AWARD
Combined Solar Technologies’
Hybrid Plant: Using Wastewater
and Olive Pits to Produce Clean
Water and Clean Energy
Combined Solar Technologies (CST) has designed, built, owns, and operates a
water purification system located at the Musco Family Olive Co. facility in
Tracy, Calif., that burns olive pits to purify highly saline wastewater through
a distillation process while also producing electric power. For its pioneer-
ing approach, CST is the winner of POWER’s 2012 Marmaduke Award for
excellence in plant problem-solving. The award is named for Marmaduke
Surfaceblow, the fictional marine engineer and plant troubleshooter par
excellence, whose exploits were chronicled in POWER beginning in 1948.
By Angela Neville, JD
F
eatured in the Discovery Channel’s system was designed to generate 375 kWh The $4 million CST plant has many com-
recent television special “Powering of electricity and operates year-round. ponents of a modern biomass power plant
the Future,” the Combined Solar Tech- The Musco facility processes more than with the major exception of the SteamBoy
nologies’ (CST) innovative water purifica- 13 billion olives per year, each with a pit brine boiler system. Conventional biomass
tion system began operating in 2010. The that is a source of energy. The combustion plants consume large amounts of clean
Musco Family Olive Co. hired CST to help system burns about 24 tons of olive pits water to produce electricity; in contrast,
its plant—the largest olive-canning facility per day to power its onsite water purifi- the CST plant produces large amounts of
in the U.S.—better meet the California Wa- cation system; no pretreatment is required clean water in the process of making elec-
ter Board’s wastewater treatment standards. to utilize the olive pits as fuel (Figure tricity. CST designed and built the unique
The facility’s one-of-a-kind system vali- 1). This helps the olive company by both SteamBoy system, which includes a boiler,
dated CST’s concept of using biomass fuel eliminating a waste stream and providing condenser, and steam engine.
combustion for wastewater treatment. The free fuel. The creative force behind the invention
34 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
Energy Products of Idaho
is now Outotec
We know you have come to trust EPI for high quality and reliable fuel thermal oxidation and
gasification technologies to recover energy from biomass and wastes, and we are committed to
making sure that trust only grows stronger.
Under the Outotec umbrella, we increase our global presence and expand our capabilities allowing
us to even better meet customer needs worldwide. Now operating as Outotec Energy Products,
we can also grow our service offerings for our large existing base of installed technology only
further improving the overall quality of service and support you have come to expect.
www.outotec.com/energyproducts
CIRCLE 18 ON READER SERVICE CARD
2012 MARMADUKE AWARD
of the SteamBoy system is CST’s Frank gineer with Bibb Engineers, Architects & system that uses exhaust from the engine
“The Rub” Schubert. He is a renaissance Constructors who works on a number of to operate (Figure 4).
man whose career ranges from working CST projects (Figure 2). CST’s technology is an economically
on closed water systems for NASA’s man- Victory Energy of Tulsa built the CST viable solution for dealing with waste-
to-Mars effort to playing music with the SteamBoy brine boilers. All SteamBoy water salinity problems. Schmitt said,
famous rock band Devo. Much like the products are inspected and ASME certified. “the SteamBoy process treats the Musco
fictional Marmaduke Surfaceblow (see the CST built the steam engine, combustion facility’s highly saline effluent, which
online reprint of a classic Marmaduke sto- unit, and condensing unit that are being can contain upwards of 20,000 ppm of to-
ry that will appear with this issue’s story used at the Musco facility. The plant’s full- tal dissolved solids (TDS), and produces
archive), he’s an inventive troubleshooter scale system features a SteamBoy 1,200 hp treated water that almost achieves potable
who’s comfortable using his technical steam engine and three SteamBoy steam water standards.”
prowess to improvise original solutions to generators that, on average, operate at a The boilers evaporate the water under
challenging situations. little less than half of rated capacity. Kato pressure and produce clean steam (90% to
Engineering built the 750-kW generator. 97%) and a blow-by stream (3% to 10%)
Wastewater Treatment Technology The SteamBoy engine, while not as ef- that contains some steam and a high con-
“The heart of the CST system is the Steam- ficient as a modern-day steam turbine, is centration of the salts (contaminants). The
Boy brine boilers. The design of the boil- robust (Figure 3). And unlike a steam tur- remaining salts and other contaminants
ers allows for the use of wastewater as a bine, it can handle steam that would typi- are deposited in the evaporator tubes,
feedwater source without the normal foul- cally be considered too harsh to use for from which they are easily removed as
ing that would be associated with standard power generation. The proprietary EcoPod dry solids. The resulting distilled water is
boilers,” said Robert Schmitt, PE, an en- is CST’s negative pressure evaporation allowed to leave the top of the boilers as
clean pressurized steam that is then direct-
ed to electrical generation units before it is
1. From pits to power. The CST system, 2. Solving the salt problem. The condensed back into distilled water.
located at the Musco Family Olive Co. facility SteamBoy brine boilers are shown at the
The distillation process purifies over
in Tracy, Calif., uses about 24 tons per day of Musco Family Olive Co plant. The facility has
90% of the challenging wastewater re-
olive pits to power its onsite water purifica- a zero-liquid discharge system that cleans the
tion system; no pretreatment is required to highly saline wastewater produced by pro- ceived from the plant’s olive processing
use the olive pits as fuel. The tanks shown in cessing olives and generates electricity at the and removes the TDS. The process pro-
the background are where Musco stores and same time. Courtesy: Sam Burbank duces waste brine that is less than 10%
cures its olives. Courtesy: Sam Burbank of the original wastewater amount. In the
final process phase, waste brine is evapo-
rated/concentrated using steam from the
distillation process, making the plant a
zero–liquid discharge facility. The plant’s
top priority is keeping salt out of the en-
vironment.
Bob Bibb, chairman and CEO of Bibb
Engineers, suggests that CST’s wastewater
treatment technology also has many other
uses. “Treating wastewater to reduce TDS
will soon become big business, particu-
larly within California and regions where
3. Tough engine. Combined Solar Tech- 4. Brine busters. Combined Solar Tech- frack water is being discharged. CST ap-
nologies’ Scott Mattson is shown in front of nologies installed the SteamBoy evaporators pears to have one of the few proven treat-
the SteamBoy 1,200 hp steam engine at the at the Musco plant during 2010. In the final ment systems that works.” Bibb suggests
Musco facility. Unlike a steam turbine, it can process phase, the waste brine is evaporated/ that the CST system may also have future
handle steam that would typically be consid- concentrated using the steam from the distil- application in power plant zero–liquid dis-
ered too harsh to use for power generation. lation process, making the plant a zero–liquid charge systems.
Courtesy: Sam Burbank discharge facility. Courtesy: Sam Burbank
Using Biomass to
Generate Electricity
The Musco Plant produces clean water and
electricity by processing biomass fuel. The
biomass is fed into the combustion unit and
hot combustion gas gives up its heat to the
oil heat exchanger. The oil heat exchanger
delivers the heat transfer oil that is con-
tinually circulated though the SteamBoy
steam generators. The steam generators, in
turn, produce clean, pressurized steam that
is directed to the electric generation units
that produce electricity. The exhaust steam
is directed to drying pans, where its heat
36 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
2012 MARMADUKE AWARD
5. Under construction. A worker is shown inside the shell of the CST Vector Jet combus- 6. Ultra-clean firing. The Combined So-
tion system before the refractory bricks and vector nozzles were added. The system burns olive lar Technologies plant’s combustion and emis-
pits, a former waste product, as fuel. Courtesy: Sam Burbank sion system is shown next to the silo and
auger feed system. Recent source testing of
the system showed that its emissions are the
lowest of any biomass-fired system in Califor-
nia. Courtesy: Olga Perry
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 37
2012 SMART GRID AWARD
Customers Motivate San Diego Gas
& Electric’s All-Inclusive Smart
Grid Vision
“If you build it, they will come” has proven a risky strategy for some smart grid proj-
ects. One of California’s largest investor-owned utilities faced the opposite challenge—
customers whose behaviors necessitated a smarter grid. Customer involvement in
and support for smart grid plans is a major reason SDG&E’s smart grid efforts con-
tinue to garner accolades, including the 2012 POWER Smart Grid Award.
By Dr. Gail Reitenbach Courtesy: SDG&E
W
hen POWER introduced its new smart grid technology deployment. “For the
Smart Grid Award in early 2011, Leaders Followed San Diego region and SDG&E, however,
money from the American Recovery Just as VEC proved that a small cooperative waiting is not an option,” it says, because:
and Reinvestment Act was still flowing, and can achieve benefits that many larger utilities
there was a lot of industry chatter about smart of all stripes have not, SDG&E’s smart grid ■ Its customers and many stakeholders have
grid projects, though the vast majority of them experience has also turned accepted wisdom shown consistent support for new renew-
just involved meter change-outs. Our inaugural on its head. Large investor-owned utilities able legislation, generation technologies,
year Smart Grid Award went to Vermont Elec- (IOUs) in particular have been accustomed and projects.
tric Cooperative (VEC), which demonstrated to a top-down approach that might glibly be ■ Its customers have installed more mega-
how a small team of savvy professionals can called “Father Knows Best.” For SDG&E’s watts of rooftop solar in San Diego than
develop and implement a successful smart grid smart grid plan, the motto is more like “When utility customers in any other U.S. city. By
vision with what many would consider meager the people lead, the leaders will follow.” the end of 2011, more than 13,000—more
resources and industry visibility. Obviously, like any other utility that an- than 1%—of SDG&E customers had in-
This year, the winner is at the opposite end swers to shareholders, SDG&E doesn’t do stalled photovoltaic systems totaling over
of the size spectrum and the other side of the anything simply because customers ask for 100 MW of capacity. (As of June this year,
country. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), it, whether the ask involves more renewable the total was 135 MW, and the forecast for
a Sempra Energy company, serves 3.4 mil- generation or lower bills. Nevertheless, un- 2015 is 300 MW to 400 MW.)
lion consumers through 1.4 million electric like some utilities that have faced heated ■ Its customers are already taking delivery
meters and more than 850,000 natural gas opposition to the introduction of advanced of Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt electric
meters in San Diego and southern Orange metering infrastructure (AMI, digital meters vehicles, and more Leafs are being sold in
Counties—a service territory covering 4,100 with wireless communications capabilities), San Diego than anywhere else in the coun-
square miles. SDG&E is making its mark as SDG&E’s customers have largely welcomed try. Ford, Mitsubishi, and BMW have also
one of the most comprehensive large-scale its smart grid efforts and are a major, if indi- targeted the San Diego region for their
smart grid ecosystem developers. The utility rect, driver of them. plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) release in
has already garnered numerous smart grid SDG&E’s “Smart Grid Deployment Plan late 2011 to early 2012.
awards, but that’s not why we chose it for the 2011–2020” (SGDP) notes that many utili- ■ Its customers already have access to in-
POWER Smart Grid Award. ties are taking a wait-and-see approach to terval usage data, and thousands signed
38 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
2012 SMART GRID AWARD
up for Google PowerMeter (before it was that can also serve as energy storage devices are bound to vary for a variety of reasons,
killed by Google in 2011), and more than is difficult enough with aging infrastructure. including generation portfolio options, exist-
7,500 are using the Green Button (see When you add the desire to use energy ef- ing infrastructure status, population density
sidebar, p. 44). ficiently and provide incentives for doing so, and growth patterns, and more. That caveat
you’re going to need a smarter grid. aside, the most basic smart grid plan would
Integrating a large number of small, dis- One reason SDG&E has garnered ac- entail equipping the system’s devices with
tributed renewable generation sources— colades for its smart grid efforts is that the bidirectional communication capabilities and
along with the utility-scale ones necessary scope of those efforts is broader than at most integrating information technology into grid
to meet state mandates—plus new load types utilities. Utility grid modernization goals operations and back office systems to en-
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 39
2012 SMART GRID AWARD
able more timely, wireless, remote access to though, fewer than 1,000 customers have Corp.’s Critical Infrastructure Protection
and action on energy usage and grid health. opted out of its total 2.3 million installations program.
SDG&E is going beyond the basics. to date (0.0004%). The California Public For the reasons already listed, SDG&E
Utility Commission (CPUC) ruled in March was an early smart grid pilot program player.
The Challenge of Phased that state IOUs could charge up to $75 per Over the years, its early mover status and the
Implementation customer initially plus $10 a month for smart size of its customer base have made it a valu-
One conundrum any utility faces if it aims meter opt-outs to compensate for the extra able contributor to the development of smart
to develop a grid modernization program labor required for meter reading, maintaining grid standards and a highly visible member
that touches end users’ premises is how to two types of meters, and duplicating back of national smart grid organizations, includ-
balance a vision of the “end state” benefits office systems. In the words of the CPUC, ing the Gridwise Alliance, Open Smart Grid
with necessarily phased implementation. Just “This opt-out option is a service because the users group, and the IBM Intelligent Utility
installing smart meters doesn’t enable access standard for metering has been transitioned Network Coalition.
to real-time energy usage data, for example. throughout the country and, for the most part,
Nor does it necessarily ensure faster outage the world” to wireless digital meters. A Three-Part Vision
response. Getting customers on board to sup- According to its SGDP, “The Smart Grid em-
port each incremental step in developing a What’s Driving SDG&E’s powers customers, increases renewable gen-
smarter grid requires them to understand the Smart Grid? eration, integrates plug-in electric vehicles
big picture while the utility delivers substan- As noted earlier, drivers of PEVs and home- (PEVs) and reduces greenhouse gas (GHG)
tive, incremental improvements. owners with rooftop generation are among the emissions while maintaining and improving
One way SDG&E addressed this challenge reasons SDG&E needs a modernized grid. But system reliability, operational efficiency, se-
was to develop the SGDP. Its details include California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard curity and customer privacy.” Those may not
spelling out what customer groups the utility (RPS) is driving the lead bus. Without a more be the exact goals that every U.S. utility would
plans to equip with what tools and services robust and responsive grid from end to end, have for its smart grid efforts, but they’re smart
each year. Another strategy was to enlist cus- it will be virtually impossible for California’s ones for the San Diego area’s realities.
tomer input from the start of the AMI plan- IOUs to feed 33% renewables onto the wires SDG&E has a tripartite vision of:
ning process. Three areas of interest stood by 2020 (see sidebar, p. 39).
out as the highest priorities in these discus- The Southern California utility’s cus- ■ A “smart customer” empowered with reli-
sions: customer behavior/education, demand tomers have supported state policies that ability, choice, control, and convenience.
response, and rate design. One finding that help drive smart grid development. Beyond ■ A “smart utility” capable of coordinating
emerged is that one size does not fit all when the RPS, those policies include Senate Bill resource operation from central station
it comes to educating customers about smart 17, Assembly Bill 32, the state’s distrib- generation to distributed energy and de-
grid technology changes. uted generation goals, its demand response mand resources sited on the distribution
To say that customers have supported (DR) mandate, improved building and ap- system that can provide customers with
SDG&E smart grid efforts is not to suggest pliance efficiency standards, implementa- “more timely and relevant information on
that all customers have. As among any large tion of the electric procurement loading their energy usage, market prices and sys-
group of individuals, some are opposed to order, and national security standards such tem conditions.”
any new ideas. For SDG&E’s smart meters, as the North American Electric Reliability ■ A “smart market” for customers and all
grid stakeholders enabled “by creating a
2. Sun power for science center. SDG&E is contributing to the growth of renewable utility platform that ensures reliability and
generation in multiple ways, including through its Sustainable Communities program. These allows resources to respond to accurate
solar panels were installed on the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park as part of that and timely price signals and system event
program. Courtesy: SDG&E conditions” and strengthened efficiency,
transparency, and security of the grid.
40 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
Easy Call. Big Payoff.
The Baldor IBE Team uses advanced data If you’re ready to do something about your growing
collection equipment and software to work with electricity consumption, email the Baldor IBE
your plant maintenance personnel to take an specialists at IBETeam@Baldor.com or call
accurate account of your motors, drives and (864) 281-2100 to receive case studies with real-
mechanical power transmission products, both in world savings. It’s an easy call with a big payoff.
operation and from spares inventory. The IBE Team
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42 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
Power Plant Parts
and Parcel to go.
now are using Aclara in this role as part of our broader enterprise focus to engage the $17.50 back over the course of the pilot.
■ On average, each of the 3,000 customers
customer,” said Lee Krevat, the utility’s smart grid director.
got $8 back over the course of the pilot.
Later this year, SDG&E intends to take the Green Button a step further and launch
“Green Button Connect,” a tool that will allow customers to share their energy usage Smart meters will also help if there is any
data with third parties of their choice on an automated and daily basis. This will open sort of outage. They will be able to send out-
up a new market for private companies to offer innovative services to customers that age notifications through the utility’s new
help them better manage their energy use and conserve. With access to this daily en- outage management system (OMS), which
ergy usage data, private companies may in the near future develop applications that will be operational this summer. The OMS
provide this information to customers in new ways, perhaps through a cell phone app or will help SDG&E “identify outages more
a personalized web portal. Third parties have already developed 64 Green Button apps, quickly and accurately by removing the need
according to the website Open Energy Information. for customers to call us about suspected
outages in most situations. We will already
44 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
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46 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
2012 SMART GRID AWARD
so SDG&E is collaborating with ECOtality this network and will have 250 installed by “We’ve increased our college recruiting
and Nissan on The EV Project, the largest the expected completion date of 2014.” and intern program, including adding an in-
U.S. electric vehicle charging infrastructure SDG&E also has developed new smart tern to our Borrego Springs Microgrid team.
build-out project so far. This effort will de- grid wireless sensors that are being deployed This gets these students interested in the en-
ploy charging facilities in the greater San to provide monitoring of important electri- ergy industry and channels them into posi-
Diego region to serve the needs of all PEV cal infrastructure. These new sensors en- tions at the utility at the ground level,” Avery
consumers in the area. able, for example, wireless monitoring of explained. “We are also working with univer-
The utility is also supporting the adoption overhead and underground cables that allow sities to encourage them to develop and teach
of PEVs by residential customers by offering quick identification of failures and monitor- smart grid–related curriculum.”
two experimental PEV rates that will save ing of the condition of aerial warning lights
customers money when they charge their ve- on electric towers and poles. These sensors Get Smarter
hicles at off-peak time periods, when energy allow faster identification and location of There is far more detail about SDG&E’s
costs are lowest and capacity is plentiful. problems, resulting in improved reliability smart grid plans and achievements than we
SDG&E has already installed 21 PEV for customers, fewer outages, and enhanced can possibly present in a single article, so
chargers for its fleet of 13 PEVs (see the safety, Avery explained. The new sensors will anyone interested in smart grid programs
opening photo) and has five PEV chargers leverage part of the wireless communication should download the pdf of its Smart Grid
designated specifically for the 30 electric system described above and represent an in- Deployment Plan from http://bit.ly/KKBBsF.
vehicles owned by employees. More than vestment of approximately $16 million. Additional, more recent details and graphics
1,500 metric tons of greenhouse gas emis- can be found in the web supplement Power-
sions are removed from the atmosphere Smart People Point file, “SDG&E Smart Grid Information
each year for every 1,000 passenger cars “We must behave more like a competitive Graphics,” which can be downloaded from
replaced by PEVs. company with a dedicated focus on our cus- www.powermag.com. It will be associated
tomers and what they value and need and with this issue in the archives.
Other Smart Systems less like a traditional utility provider,” Av- Congratulations to everyone involved
In addition to the SCADA, OMS, and other ery acknowledged. In addition to an internal in San Diego Gas & Electric’s smart grid
smart-technology-enabled systems previous- initiative designed to spur innovation, the programs—the utility, its customers, and its
ly mentioned, SDG&E is blazing a trail with company is recruiting new hires that have implementation partners. ■
other grid-related systems. “blended skill sets” that include information —Dr. Gail Reitenbach is POWER’s
For example, SDG&E has what Avery technology and engineering. managing editor.
dubbed “one of the largest and most so- abt. power april:Layout 1 3/2/12 11:57 AM Page 1
phisticated weather sensor networks in
the nation. We have installed 128 weather
stations throughout our service territory to Structural Bolting 101:
T R A I N I N G
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reliability of our electric system overall.
The utility also is receiving information on
solar and wind generation capabilities at
S U P P O R T
specific sites throughout the region, which
assists us in planning for rooftop solar in- the best way to bolt!
tegration. We have invested approximately
1 800 552 1999
$1.5 million in this program.”
SDG&E has received nearly $30 mil-
•
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 47
PLANT DESIGN
Flow Control Chutes Reduce
Fugitive Coal Dust
Moving thousands of tons of coal per hour at high speeds through a complex
handling system is a main cause of airborne coal dust in a coal-fired plant.
Depending upon the coal’s characteristics, that dust can become explo-
sive when its concentration reaches 80 g/m3 and, hence, a threat to life
and property. The best option is to stop the dust from becoming airborne
in the first place.
By Daniel Mahr, PE, Energy Associates PC and Michael A. Schimmelpfennig, PE, Ameren Missouri
T
he dangers and causes of explo- to dry as the belt travels along the return points to get the best return on the plant’s
sions in power plants caused by fu- strand. Flexing of the belt around pulleys investment dollar.
gitive coal dust have been discussed and over return idlers releases the bond, so
at length in POWER and have been ad- larger particles spill onto the floor below, Classic Chute Design
dressed extensively by the Occupational and the smallest particles become an air- Belt conveyors were once designed with
Safety and Health Administration’s regu- borne cloud. relatively low capacity and slow belt speeds.
latory response. (See “Coping with Coal Coal spillage from an operating conveyor The discharge of coal from the head pulley
Dust,” March 2012; “Proactive Strategies increases the dust dilemma. Spillage can be of a conveyor fell (usually) vertically onto
for Dealing with Combustible Dust,” May caused by momentary overloads or surges, shallow sloped chute surfaces, which slowed
2011; and “A Burning Concern: Combus- off-center loading of the belt, poorly fitted the speed of the falling coal stream. The ge-
tible Dust,” May 2010, all available in the seals, holes in worn plates, and inspection ometry allowed for a relatively low transfer
archives at www.powermag.com.) Owners ports that are left open or are poorly fitted. height, which by default helped to minimize
of new or soon-to-be upgraded coal-han- Worn or inadequate belt cleaners can also dust. Historically, plants handled hard coals
dling systems should be proactive in reduc- cause spillage. This is most clearly seen rather than a product with a high percentage
ing fugitive dust emissions by using flow behind the conveyor’s discharge, at verti- of small particles, such as today’s Powder
control chute technology. In this article we cal/horizontal take-up areas, and at the tail- River Basin (PRB) coals, which are more fri-
examine the features, benefits, and limita- loading section of the conveyor. However, able and prone to spontaneous combustion.
tions of flow control chutes and report on a the primary airborne dust sources in most Classically designed chutes on older plants
good application of this technology. coal-fired plants are the conveyor transfer burning hard, washed coals had fewer dust
points. Therefore, the most economic de- problems because of higher surface moisture
Identifying Dust Sources sign approach is to first focus on the transfer and fewer small particles.
High-capacity conveying systems handle
thousands of tons of coal per hour, and there 1. Classic discharge trajectory. For this 72-inch-wide belt operating at 760 feet per
are a number of conditions, situations, and lo- minute, the stream of coal impacts a curved directional plate, which can slide and rotate to turn
cations on a coal conveyor where dust can be the falling coal and better center it on the receiving belt. Courtesy: Energy Associates PC
produced. Even when a small fraction of the
coal throughput becomes airborne as dust, it Discharge head pulley Coal stream trajectory
can become an unacceptable safety hazard,
particularly when dust levels reach explosive
concentrations.
Any coal or other solid fuel that con- Baffle plate
Top belt
tains small, dry particles is a prime dust
source. Moisture content and particle size
pm
are important properties to consider when 760 f
controlling dust. The obvious control op-
tion is to add moisture. Coal stockpiles are
often sprayed by water cannons to control
windblown dust from the surface. Spray
headers at coal-handling system transfer
points also are used to wet coal as it is
discharged from one conveyor to another Return belt
or to the stockpile. Inevitably, some moist
coal particles will adhere to the surface
of the conveyor belt. These particles start Liner plate
48 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
CIRCLE 24 ON READER SERVICE CARD
PLANT DESIGN
Today, the discharge of coal from the toured, and form-fitting plate surfaces so the falling projectiles.
head pulley of a conveyor no longer falls material’s speed, as it is being loaded onto There is an additional 3-D component for
vertically down off the head pulley onto the downstream belt, closely matches the conveyor systems that shouldn’t be ignored.
shallow, sloped chute surfaces. At today’s speed of the receiving belt. This approach As the stream of coal approaches the dis-
higher belt speeds, coal shoots forward also reduces turbulence and sliding friction charge point of the inbound conveyor, the belt
off the conveyor and impacts directly into at the loading point, which is a primary cause and the stream of coal are changing shape. The
the vertical plate at the front of the head of belt cover wear. trapezoidal-shaped base of the coal stream (a
chute (Figure 1). Some lumps fracture on Typical design features for a flow control troughed contour formed by the conveyor’s
impact, which creates smaller, lighter dust chute, discussed in detail in the following sec- support idlers, typically fitted with 35-degree
particles with newly formed dry surfaces. tions, address three stages of the process: inclined wing rolls) flattens into a horizontal
The impact also splatters the coal stream, plane at the discharge pulley.
and gravity accelerates other lumps into a ■ Inbound particles. A conveyor discharge During the transition from troughed to
waterfall of particles. chute head section that is contoured as a flat, lumps and particles on the belt slide
The falling aerated stream of coal also curved hood with plates that intersect the outward toward the edges of the belt. In
creates a draft at the entrance to the dis- particle trajectory at a 15-degree angle some cases, lumps and particles can spill
charge hood, continuously pulling ad- centers the particles into a defined width over the edge of the belt before reaching
ditional air into the chute. The slightly and quickly turns them downward into a the discharge chute. The belt is troughed
higher pressure within the chute allows vertical stream. because that configuration can carry more
floating dust to escape through poorly ■ Falling particles. Intermediate chute sec- coal than a flat conveyor belt. As a result,
sealed openings and flanges. The force tions and gates, if needed, are sloped and the width of the stream expands while its
of the impact on chute plates allows some contoured to again intersect the vertical height is reduced. The small sideways ve-
particles to adhere to chute surfaces and stream at a modest angle, maintain the locity does cause some outward particle
build up into hard layers. The result is to particles in the defined width, quickly turn spills and sprays. Also, as the coal stream’s
slow the flow due to increased friction, the particles into the desired direction of speed slows upon impact with the first
which creates chute-plugging problems. the outbound conveyor, and control the chute plate, the stream expands outward.
To lessen coal accumulations within a speed of the stream. In one flow control chute, an expanding
chute, design parameters have evolved ■ Outbound particles. A conveyor-loading coal stream spills backward over the dis-
to require much steeper chute slopes and chute is contoured much like a curved charge pulley (Figure 2).
low-friction liners. spoon that maintains the coal particles in a The discharge pulley can also be slightly
defined width and centers the particles for elevated above the normal beltline, reducing
Flow Control Chutes Introduced belt loading, reduces its incidence angle the belt’s edge tension in the transition sec-
In the mid-1980s, Australian engineers to the outbound belt, and discharges the tion. The change of the belt’s contour from
and universities began examining transfer stream at a velocity close to that of the troughed to flat stretches the edges of a belt,
designs using fluid flow principles as a outbound belt. like the hypotenuse of a right triangle. Con-
way to reduce the vexing production prob- veyor belt manufacturers and some system
lems that high-capacity conveyor systems Inbound Particles: Discharge design firms favor elevated discharge pulleys
were experiencing. Their efforts focused Speed, Trajectory, and Spillage to reduce the duty experienced by the belt,
on transfer chute design to control the flow The trajectory of coal from the inbound to stay well within its elastic limits. By el-
of material within the chute. belt is typically determined by finding the evating the discharge pulley, however, the
This technique avoids the direct impact of stream’s velocity (speed and direction) coal stream encounters a “speed bump” that
the coal stream on chute surfaces. Instead, from the inbound conveyor coupled with “bounces” lumps and sprays them slightly
the stream is guided. Its velocity and direc- the effects of gravity. It’s a classic Physics upward (Figure 3).
tion are controlled with intersecting, con- 101 motion-in-a-plane problem for freely Conversely, if the coal stream is some-
2. Make a mess. Coal often sprays 3. Raise discharge pulley. The red arrows illustrate how the discharge direction for the
from a flow control head chute if the design stream of coal deviates from the conveyor’s beltline. This situation is also called a transition flow
doesn’t consider the trajectory of the coal bump. Source: Energy Associates PC
particles during the design. Courtesy: Energy
Associates PC Transition bump
50 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
If a job’s worth doing,
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52 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
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respective trademarks and service marks of Emerson Electric Co. and Micro Motion, Inc.
1,000,000,000
ton of coal (specific gravity = 1.4)
54 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
PLANT DESIGN
the harder lumps are less prone to attrition chute as four times the Conveyors Equip- for different approaches to minimize the ef-
and crushing. By testing and reporting the ment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) fect of air currents within a chute. Instead of
results of the finer fraction, however, the load area for the inbound conveyor. How- considering 400% of the CEMA belt area,
reported angle of wall friction is conser- ever, this guide does not consider the speed one supplier’s standard “fills” chute sec-
vative, as intended. The result is that the of the conveyor belt. Higher-speed convey- tions to 60% of the area. Effectively, this is
coefficient of friction for a representative, ors deliver a higher volume (volume = load a 167% (100%/60%) factor. An advantage
uncrushed sample is often different than area x belt speed). Air currents entrain dust for the supplier is that smaller chutes are less
laboratory test results. within transfer chutes, so large chutes that expensive to fabricate and easier to retrofit in
Angular changes in direction occur when disregard air currents can have a dust issue the available space. The disadvantage for all
the trajectory impacts a chute surface, two to handle. is that smaller chutes are easier to plug.
inclined plates at different angles meet, Flow control chute suppliers have opted Coal-fired plants naturally refuel at the
or as the coal follows a curved surface. In BREEN BOP - Power Mag Ad 4-10:Layout 1 4/11/12 8:38 AM Page 1
Figure 9, the downstream particle’s speed
(V2) is slower than the upstream particle’s
speed (V1) and can be calculated as: V2 =
V1 (cos – µ sine ). Using this equation, AcidGasExperts.com
we can compare making a 30-degree an-
F
gular change in one and two steps. In this EF
Y,
IT
example, a 0.50 coefficient of friction is IL
AB
used. So, as seen in the computation, it is IT
OF
PR
better to design a chute with gradual angle L,
changes in the chute when the objective TRO
N
CO
is to avoid slowing the coal stream speed. S
ON
On the other hand, if the speed is too high SI
IS
M
at the loading point for the receiving con- S,E
CT
veyor, a larger directional change can be PA
IM
advantageous. NT
LA
Particles near the edge of the stream will F-P
O
E-
rebound at odd and unpredictable angles NC
LA
due to the irregular, angular shape of each
, BA
particle. That is quite evident in Figure 4, NS
SIO
where coal is spilling through an opened IS
EM
inspection door. Coal particles are not NG
GI
nice little spheres, as considered in some A NA
, M
computer models. Bounce a tennis ball ES
SU
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 55
PLANT DESIGN
10. Discharge chute dust curtain and 11. Examples of dust/flow control skirtboard designs. On the left is a dust
belt seals. Source: Energy Associates PC curtain installed on the skirtboard exit. On the right is skirtboard with an adjustable flow gate.
Source: Energy Associates PC
Entrance to head Adjustable flow gate
Dust curtain discharge chute Skirtboard
Skirtboard exit
Dust curtain
amounts of air can be exhausted from the stream maintains contact with chute sur-
coal stream as it funnels onto the receiving faces, chute and liner wear will increase
conveyor. Typically, this dust-laden air will dramatically. In one case, holes were worn
blow out through the skirtboard. This is a through flow control chutes in a matter of
Rubber belt Rubber seals reason that one of the primary objectives for weeks, instead of years, due to errors in
flow control chutes is to attempt to match selecting and inspecting fabrications and
start of the workday, when bunker levels the speed of the coal at the loading point the materials of construction.
are low. At one retrofit location, the flow with the speed of the belt. Another reason is Typically, chutes are constructed with
control chutes plugged at such a time dur- to minimize frictional belt wear, as particles replaceable liners. Liners are a wear item.
ing their first commissioning test. The slide/accelerate onto the moving belt. For many chutes, replacement liners can
plant’s fueling operation degenerated with To reduce the amount of air that is be sourced from local fabricators who can
the silos’ coal tonnage precipitously fall- pulled into the head chute, dust curtains follow the existing shape and attachment
ing to near-empty levels before an emer- and belt seals at the discharge are often patterns.
gency silo-filling procedure could be used and are Ameren’s standard. Figure Because of the high wear rates associ-
applied. This 1,500-MW coal-fired power 10 illustrates a typical arrangement. The ated with flow control chutes, some manu-
plant reportedly came within 30 minutes dust curtain is slit and cut to conform to facturers and proponents like Weba Chute
of an emergency plant shutdown. the surface contour of coal on the belt. Systems have adopted a design feature of
The belt seals are arranged to lightly con- uniformly spaced micro-ledges that cap-
Inducing Airflow tact the bottom of the carrying strand and ture the bulk material being handled, like
Computational fluid dynamic computer both the top and bottom of the return belt a rock box that is used in some industries.
tools are used to predict the aerodynamic strand. The entrance to the discharge chute The spacing between ledges is a function
drag, turbulence, and vortices that form as is behind the conveyor’s head pulley, in of particle size and the product’s rill an-
coal flows along the surface of a flow con- the zone where the belt transitions from a gle. The flow and impact forces can pack
trol chute and the movement of air around 35-degree trough to a flat, horizontal con- the bulk material tightly. The bulk materi-
the stream of coal. These tools can be used tour at the head pulley. al wears on itself, rather than a liner plate,
to understand aerodynamic forces and the To reduce the amount of air that is ex- so liner maintenance and replacement is
flow paths that dust-size particles will hausted at the loading point, skirtboards often reduced. That’s fine for minerals
take. DEM does not consider these forces, are normally fitted with dust curtains at like iron ore, but it can be problematic for
nor dust-size particles, which would be too the skirtboard exit. An additional method highly volatile bituminous and PRB coal.
numerous for analytical modeling, as seen that has gained a following is to add dust Some suppliers have adopted complex
in Figure 7. curtains and flow control plates within the curved and circular shapes for chute sec-
A falling stream’s bulk density (lb/ft3) length of the skirtboard. tions. Their intricate patterns make the
decreases as air becomes entrained around Figure 11 illustrates an example of this. design and eventual retrofit of worn lin-
the moving matrix of particles. This is an The dust curtains provide additional barri- ers difficult. Instead, the complete chute
indicator that a dust cloud is probably be- ers to airflow, to reduce air speed and tur- section is fabricated from steel with a
ing formed. It is a reason why one of the bulence. The flow control plate at the right hardened, finished surface. The chutes
basic design techniques for flow control in Figure 11 also helps to control surges themselves become a spare parts replace-
chutes is to keep the moving stream of coal and overflows, particularly following an ment business. Special care is needed in
in contact with chute surfaces. emergency stop, when the lower portions these cases, because welding steel with a
Air is induced into the expanding stream of the transfer may fill due to differential hardness gradient requires an atypical pro-
as gravity accelerates particle speeds. This conveyor stopping times. If you see a large cedure during fabrication; uneven welded
moving stream of coal particles and air pile of coal at the exit of a skirtboard, joints become the wear locations. ■
creates suction that pulls air into the head chances are that it was caused by such a —Daniel Mahr, PE (danmahr@energy-pc
chute. At the bottom of the chute, the in- spill event. .com) is a project manager with Energy As-
duced air is exhausted from the slowing sociates PC. Michael A. Schimmelpfennig,
stream that is condensing as it loads on the Reducing Chute Wear PE (mschimmelpfennig@ameren.com) is a
receiving conveyor. Depending upon the de- Materials of construction are important consulting engineer for Power Operations
gree of control at the loading location, large for flow control chutes. Because the coal Services, Ameren Missouri.
56 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
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POWER August 2012
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60 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
ENVIRONMENTAL
benefit from a further reduction in emission any large new or modified industrial from being a physical change that could trig-
thresholds and that the rule promulgated in source will be as clean as possible and that ger PSD.
2010 should be maintained. advances in pollution control occur side But although PSD excludes routine main-
Plants that currently fall under PSD per- by side with industrial expansion. tenance, repair, and replacement activities
mitting and participate in Title V programs from triggering PSD, the regulations also
of the Clean Air Act are affected by this regu- NSR specifies three types of permitting stopped short of defining “routine.” Industry
lation. For the Title V program, this applies requirements. A source may have to meet one kept many older plants up and running and so
to both new and existing operating permits. or more of these permitting requirements: avoided the need to decommission and replace
Existing facilities will be required to address them. Many of these older facilities remain in
GHGs if a modification to the facility triggers ■ PSD permits, which are required for new operation today and have never been required
a PSD review during the term of the permit. major sources or a major source making a to meet Clean Air Act requirements.
From a GHG standpoint, a PSD modifica- major modification in a so-called “attain- The best guidance to define “routine”
tion is one that increases the net emissions ment area.” maintenance came from the court case known
by 75,000 t/yr CO2e. If it doesn’t, then GHGs ■ Nonattainment NSR permits, which are as Wisconsin Electric Power Co. (WEPCO)
will have to be addressed when renewal of required for new major sources or major vs. Reilly. The case came about after WEP-
the Title V permit occurs. sources making a major modification in a CO planned a retrofit project on existing
This is critical because the likelihood of nonattainment area. coal-fired boilers. In 1988, WEPCO sued the
power generating facilities needing to ad- ■ Minor source permits. EPA for failing to grant a PSD exemption
dress GHGs at some point during their ser- under the routine maintenance, repair, and
vice has greatly increased. Unlike the NSPS When Congress passed the Clean Air replacement provisions. The court’s deci-
for CO2, CCS has not been determined to be Act, the electric utility industry argued that sion (known as the “WEPCO rule”) outlined
the default technology of choice. For those its oldest plants should be exempt from new a test for routine that used five factors: na-
facilities that trip PSD thresholds, GHGs will limits, saying that those plants would likely ture, extent, purpose, frequency, and cost of
need to be addressed through the detailed be replaced by newer plants built under PSD an improvement project. But this outline still
case-by-case BACT analysis outlined above. and subject to BACT. Congress granted ex- stopped short of offering a clear definition of
Due to the sizable number of permits ex- isting facilities “grandfather status” that “routine.” The effect is that NSR discourages
pected by the EPA that will be required to shielded them from the more stringent emis- plant improvements that might increase effi-
address GHGs, the agency is currently de- sion control requirements. This meant that ciency, which is the goal of the EPA’s recent
veloping presumptive BACT for GHGs. This routine maintenance, repair, and replacement GHG rulemaking.
presumptive BACT as defined by the EPA is activities were excluded in the regulations A second court case (U.S. et al. v. DTE Ener-
a “standardized BACT for certain emissions
units.” As noted in the proposed update to
Step 3 of the GHG Tailoring Rule, very few
permits have been issued addressing GHG 24-hour Emergency Service 800-383-0313
emissions. In fact, as of Dec. 1, 2011, only
18 permits nationwide had been issued with
a GHG provision. MartinPLUS®
Because of the lack of permits that address
GHG emissions, there has not been a determi-
nation of presumptive BACT. Those permits
Tough,
Silo Cleaning
Silos | Bins | Hoppers | Bunkers
that have been issued to address GHGs have tested,
held that plant efficiency is the most effec-
tive method for reducing GHGs, with some and Problem Indicators
permits requiring a minimum plant heat rate • Off-center loading
to be maintained. innovative • Material discharges in chunks
• Shorter & more frequent
Achieving Emissions Targets material fill cycles
Through Plant Efficiency
handling
For a coal plant, the requirement of a more Benefits
stringent plant maintenance program to up-
hold a minimum plant heat rate may be con- solutions
sidered BACT at this time.
Congress established the New Source Re- since
view (NSR) permitting program as part of
the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments. NSR 1944
is a preconstruction permitting program that
serves two purposes:
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 61
ENVIRONMENTAL
Table 2. Plant improvement and potential increase in plant efficiency. 2. Plugged solid. Excessive ash buildup in a
Source: Reducing CO2 Emissions by Improving the Efficiency of the Existing Coal-fired Power regenerative air heater can severely reduce the
Plant Fleet, NETL, 2008. boiler combustion efficiency. Courtesy: KBR
gy Company and Detroit Edison Company)— achieved by magnesium hydroxide injection. addition of heat transfer area in the econo-
this one involving Detroit Edison’s Monroe Maximum reductions in slagging and fouling mizer section, additional sootblowers to re-
Station—led to still more requirements for can increase plant performance by 0.4%. duce slag formations, or fuel switching to
power plant operators. That utility made ef- A regenerative air heater with better seals a lower-moisture-content fuel, resulting in
ficiency improvements to a steam turbine, but or new baskets will reduce air leakage and in- better boiler efficiency. The addition of soot-
because it was a non-routine modification, it crease heat transfer, resulting in better com- blowers or optimized sootblowing techniques
had to prove for five years after the changes bustion performance. Removal of excessive has the potential to add another 0.1% to
were made that actual emissions from the ash buildup in the air heater also will increase 0.65% to plant efficiency. If possible, waste
combustion turbine did not increase above heat transfer while reducing the pressure heat from various sources could be utilized
PSD thresholds. loss and saving on auxiliary power (Figure to “dry” a fuel source to achieve better com-
The result is that if efficiency improve- 2). The increase in effective surface area of bustion performance. Such fuel drying has
ments enable a unit to be run more often, the air heater can lead to plant efficiency im- the potential to add another 0.1% to 1.7% to
PSD may be tripped. On the one hand, this provements up to 2.1%. plant efficiency.
discourages many efficiency improvement Increased heat transfer efficiency for In all these cases, however, maximum effi-
projects that could help reduce overall emis- steam condensers, feedwater heaters, cool- ciency and best heat rate is typically achieved
sions. On the other hand, it encourages the ing towers, and closed cooling water systems at full-load operation. During startup and
seemingly perverse decision to maximize all support increased plant efficiency. Opti- shutdown, provisions will be needed to ex-
emissions as much as possible in the years mizing an existing condenser can increase ceed accepted plant efficiency. Upset condi-
before an efficiency improvement project. plant efficiency from 0.7% to 2.4% while im- tions that require the plant to operate at partial
By doing so, the operator improves the like- provements to the feedwater heating system load also will be problematic for achieving
lihood that its future emissions will be no can add an additional 0.2% to 2.0% to plant maximum plant efficiency. It is quite undesir-
worse after the efficiency improvements than efficiency. Ensuring that rotating equipment able and inefficient for large coal plants to be
they were before. is operating at its best efficiency point and required to shut down due to heat rates not
The bottom line is that since practically that material-handling systems are optimized being met at part-load operation.
nothing is considered by the EPA to be “rou- help to reduce auxiliary plant loading. Ener-
tine maintenance,” almost any change at gy losses through electrical equipment such Under Pressure
a plant is potentially subject to PSD. This as transformers also should be evaluated to Already under a substantial amount of
makes operators justifiably wary of making minimize plant losses. pressure from the EPA’s recently finalized
efficiency improvements. Environmental Reducing the amount of steam and en- Mercury and Air Toxics Standard and the
groups benefit from the confusion because ergy lost through boiler tube leakage is an- litigated Cross-State Air Pollution Rule,
the vague definition of “routine” and ac- other critical plant improvement. Replacing coal power has increasingly been the sub-
companying standards provides them with a defective tubes can increase overall plant ject of much environmental scrutiny. With
substantial stick to wield against a utility. So performance by 1.1%. Analyzing combus- another round of proposed environmental
although the EPA’s GHG rules view efficien- tion performance and upgrading control sys- regulations designed to implement CCS and
cy improvements as BACT for compliance, tems to better measure and control fuel also limit the release of CO2, the likelihood of a
the longstanding record of often ambigu- will result in increased plant performance. new coal power plant being constructed in
ous and sometimes hostile precedent works Increases in plant performance of between the U.S. would appear to be minimal. The
counter to those goals. 0.15% and 0.84% can be experienced by GHG Tailoring Rule remains active and
this upgrade. Additionally, better combustion ambiguous as to what BACT will be for
Efficiency Improvement Gains controls can have the added benefit of reduc- greenhouse gases. Combined, these regula-
Table 2 lists some common improvement ing the formation of nitrogen oxides and car- tions leave coal-fired generation in a much
projects along with typical efficiency gains. bon monoxide. less attractive position than natural gas com-
For the hot gas path, increased sootblowing In case a more stringent plant maintenance bined cycle plants. ■
or online furnace cleaning to minimize slag program is unacceptable as BACT, additional —Brandon Bell, PE (brandon.bell@kbr
formation will work toward this goal. Re- measures may be taken to ensure a minimum .com) is a principal mechanical engineer
ducing slag and furnace fouling also can be heat rate is achieved. These may include the with KBR Power and Industrial, Chicago.
62 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
& 28th
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NUCLEAR
Small Is the New Big: The B&W
Small Modular Reactor
Small reactors are big news, particularly the 180-MWe Generation III++ Bab-
cock & Wilcox mPower small modular reactor (SMR). This SMR has all
the features of its larger cousins, but the entire reactor and nuclear steam
supply system are incorporated into one reactor vessel, all about the size
of single full-size pressurized water reactor steam generator. Expect the
first mPower—and probably the first SMR—to enter service before 2022.
By James M. Hylko
D
uring the formative years of the nucle- under nuclear power from 1968 through 1979. tification application, which is expected to be
ar power industry, prototype reactors The reactor design, known as consolidated submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-
(such as the 67-MWe Big Rock Point, nuclear steam generators, continued to evolve sion (NRC) in the fourth quarter of 2013.
94-MWe Fermi 1, and 275-MWe Indian over the decades to its current iPWR design. The Generation III++ designation is ap-
Point Unit 1) were typically less than 300 A formal program launch in terms of board propriate because of the integral design and
MWe in size. Commercial reactors quickly approval to pursue full-scale development was robust safety margins addressing “beyond
scaled up to 1,000 MWe as technology ma- received in 2009. The next important mile- design-basis” accident scenarios. Although
tured and energy demand soared. Economies stone is the B&W mPower reactor design cer- the reactor design is significantly smaller than
of scale soon made that size-class reactor the
norm for baseload capacity in the U.S. While Table 1. Key features of the integral reactor coolant system (RCS) com-
advances in new construction continue, small pared with existing pressurized water reactors. Source: Babcock & Wilcox
appears to be back in style, as demonstrated mPower Inc.
by the Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) mPower
small modular reactor (SMR). Feature B&W 177a Typical Gen III PWR B&W mPower reactor
The U.S. Department of Energy defines Rated core power (MWth) 2,568 3,415 530
SMRs as reactor designs with a nominal out- Core average linear heat rate (kWth/m) 18.7 18.7 Lower
put of <300 MWe. The term “modular,” in the
Average flow velocity through the core (m/s) 4.8 4.8 Lower
context of an SMR, refers to a single reactor
module that can be grouped with other reac- RCS volume (m3) 325 272 Smaller
tor modules to form a larger nuclear power RCS volume to power ratio (m3/MWth) 0.14 0.08 Consistent
plant, sized according to demand. Although Maximum loss-of-coolant-accident (LOCA)
the utility-scale advanced reactors currently 1.3 1.0 Much smaller
area (m2); assumes double-ended break
under construction incorporate factory-fabri-
RCS volume/LOCA area ratio (m3/m2) 250 270 Much larger
cated modular components into their designs,
a substantial amount of field work is still re- Note: a. Example of a B&W 177 is Duke Energy’s Oconee nuclear plant.
quired to assemble these modules into an op-
erational nuclear power plant. SMRs, on the
other hand, are envisioned to require limited The Generation mPower Consortium
on-site preparation, and—other than loading
the nuclear fuel—be ready to operate when The joint company Generation mPower LLC advisory council of 29 utilities (both U.S. and
they arrive from the factory. (www.generationmpower.com) was formed international), which demonstrates broad in-
POWER recently interviewed Christofer M. in 2010 by B&W and Bechtel Power Corp. dustry interest. Members of this consortium
Mowry, CEO of Generation mPower LLC and (www.bechtel.com) to design, license, and include the Tennessee Valley Authority, First
president of Babcock & Wilcox mPower Inc., build B&W mPower reactors. B&W will focus Energy, Oglethorpe Power Corp., and others.
the B&W business group responsible for de- on designing and testing the reactor and The consortium is dedicated to addressing
sign, licensing, manufacture, and construction submitting the design certification appli- the proper regulatory framework, design
activities for the B&W mPower modular reac-
cation. Bechtel is responsible for engineer- requirements, licensing infrastructure, and
tor (see sidebar). Mowry began by describing
ing the major structures, balance-of-plant cost/risk sharing necessary to support the
the SMR as a 180-MWe Generation III++ in-
tegral pressurized water reactor (iPWR). design, procurement, and construction. commercialization of the B&W mPower reac-
Mowry said the SMR evolved from B&W’s In support of the design certification and tor. The ultimate goal of the consortium is to
first integral reactor prototype that was de- licensing goals, a consortium was established deploy one or more demonstration plants in
signed and built for the NS Otto Hahn, one of comprising 15 U.S. utilities and an industry the U.S. before 2022.
the first nuclear merchant ships, which sailed
64 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
CONNECT with the
WORLD-WIDE LEADERS
Focusing on the
SAFE & EFFICIENT use of coal
Annual Meeting
May 14-16, 2013
Rosemont, IL
Donald E. Stephens Annual Meeting
Convention Center November 6-8, 2012
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66 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
NUCLEAR
The Fukushima Effect
Critics of multiple-reactor sites are quick to Table 2. Multi-layer design features mitigate extreme beyond-design-
reference the events at Fukushima, where the basis and “Fukushima-type” events. Source: Babcock & Wilcox mPower Inc.
plant operator was forced to shift resources
from one unit to another, thus making these Events and
B&W mPower reactor design features
sites less attractive from a safety perspective. threats
However, the events at Fukushima were, more Earthquakes Seismic attenuation: Deeply embedded reactor building dissipates energy, limits motion.
than anything else, the result of plant and site and floods “Water tight”: Separated, waterproof reactor compartments address unexpected events.
configuration. This viewpoint also ignores Loss of offsite Passively safe: AC power not required for design basis safety functions.
the inherent differences between SMRs and power
the Fukushima plant, Mowry said. Table 2 Defense-in-depth: Two backup diesel generators for grid-independent AC power.
summarizes the multi-layer design features Station Three-day safety-related batteries: Safety-grade batteries support fully automated
that mitigate extreme beyond-design-basis blackout mitigation of all design basis accidents for 72 hours.
challenges and “Fukushima-type” events. Defense-in-depth non-safety-related batteries: Provide additional redundant power to
The Babcock & Wilcox Co. manufactures important systems and plant control functions for beyond–design basis accidents.
naval nuclear reactors for submarines and Emergency Gravity, not pumps: Natural circulation decay heat removal; water source in containment.
aircraft carriers. For security purposes, U.S. core cooling Robust margins: Low core power density and small core limit energy release.
military technology will not be transferred to
the mPower reactor project; however, the fac- No operator action required: For 72 hours to mitigate consequences of all design basis
tories already exist and the additional invest- accidents.
ments for the initial stages of market adoption Containment Passive hydrogen recombiners: Prevention of explosions without need for power supply.
are minimal. Another advantage is that the integrity and Internal cooling source: Ultimate heat sink inside underground shielded nuclear island.
reactor is small enough for the reactor vessel ultimate heat
sink Extended performance window: At least 14 days without need for external intervention.
head and bottom to be forged in North Amer-
ica. The B&W Nuclear Operations Group’s Spent fuel Protected structure: Underground, located within nuclear island.
Barberton, Ohio, and Mount Vernon, Ind., lo- pool integrity Large heat sink: 30+ days before boiling and uncovering of fuel, and 20-year
cations specialize in the design and manufac- and cooling storage capacity.
ture of large, heavy components. These two
2. The B&W mPower reactor electric power generation cycle. Source: Babcock & Wilcox mPower Inc.
Primary containment
barrier RSB barrier
Moisture
separator reheater Extraction to deaerator
& LP FWH
MSIV MS stop valve TEWAC generator (3,600 rpm)
HP turbine LP turbine
Extraction to HP
FW heater
Main steam
turbine bypass
LP FWH LP FWH
LP extraction
Main condenser Gland seal
steam
Deaerator Gland steam
Main condenser hotwell condenser
MFWIV MFW
control HP extraction LP
valve extraction
HP FWH Condensate
LP FWH polisher Condensate
pumps
Reactor
Main feedpumps
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 67
NUCLEAR
locations are ASME N-Stamp accredited, time before you evolve into the next level of TVA Leads the Way
making them two of only a few North Ameri- design. This is a big departure in philosophy A memorandum of understanding has been
can suppliers of large, heavy-walled nuclear from where people design to current regula- signed by B&W, Tennessee Valley Authority
components and vessels. tion. Then, when the regulations change, you (TVA), and a consortium of regional munici-
The construction process is equivalent to have to change the design. We do not think pal and cooperative utilities to explore the fu-
that for a combined cycle gas turbine plant that is the path to success for mPower.” ture construction of a fleet of B&W mPower
rather than a standard large commercial nucle- Mowry said that by taking this bound- reactors with operation of the first unit before
ar reactor and is estimated to take about three ing, robust approach to the reactor design— 2022. In November 2010, TVA informed the
years. The plan is to build the power plant first for instance, achieving reactor safety levels NRC of its plans to evaluate the feasibility
and then bring in and bolt together the inte- several orders of magnitude beyond existing for one or more SMR modules at its Clinch
grated modules in parallel with field activities CDF requirements—he expects they will River site in Roane County, Tenn.
to shorten construction time (Figure 3). not have to change the design as regulations Mowry said that the first B&W mPower
Mowry said the B&W mPower reactor evolve over the next 10 years. construction permit application at Clinch
is “plowing new ground as it relates to the River would be prepared in accordance with
robustness of our seismic design.” For exam- Integrated System Test Facility the two-part licensing process under 10 CFR
ple, the current reactor design addresses con- In September 2011, B&W opened the mPower Part 50. “This is something that we have had
ditions covering the vast majority of the U.S. Integrated System Test (IST) facility, which is a lot of dialogue [about] with both the NRC
He added, “We do not think that SMRs are located at the Center for Advanced Engineer- commissioners and the staff, and everyone
going to be successful in the long term un- ing and Research (CAER) at the New London is comfortable with this approach.” From
less you have a stable platform and stable de- Business & Technology Center in Bedford a best practice/risk management commer-
sign that can be replicated for some period of County, Va. (Figure 4). cial perspective, the two-stage Part 50 pro-
The IST facility contains a scaled proto- cess—a construction permit (CP) followed
3. Clean plant layout. The B&W type of the B&W mPower reactor and all by an operating license (OL)—provides
mPower reactor “twin pack” site layout lacks important nuclear island systems, which the flexibility necessary to enable a quicker
a prominent containment dome because the were installed in July 2011. All of the tech- construction start and support design modi-
reactors are underground. Courtesy: Babcock nical features of the B&W mPower reactor fications, because the requirements for a CP
& Wilcox mPower Inc. are included in the IST, although the source are relatively limited. The OL process would
of reactor core power is electric rather than benefit from the experience gained during
nuclear. The reactor will undergo testing and design and construction of the initial SMR
data will be collected to demonstrate the re- deployments. Experience with the initial CP/
actor’s thermo-hydraulic characteristics that OL framework could then be transferred to a
support the safety analysis methodology, the combined operating license (COL) structure
protection systems, and the passive engi- under the Part 52 process.
neered safety features used in the reactor’s In accordance with the Part 50 licensing
design certification application. The facility process, TVA would develop a Preliminary
is being used for developing test procedures Safety Analysis Report (PSAR). The PSAR
and simulations for operator training. would be prepared utilizing the guidance of
Regulatory Guide 1.70, Revision 3, Stan-
dard Format and Content of Safety Analy-
4. B&W testing facility. The Integrated System Test (IST) facility is located at the Center sis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants (LWR
for Advanced Engineering & Research (CAER). The CAER is an initiative of Virginia’s Region Edition) and the organizational structure of
2000 Partnership to develop an industry-focused regional research and development center that
the standard review plan. In addition, the
drives the creation of innovative products and processes. Opened in August 2011, it provides ac-
cess to university and federal research and targets the growth industries specific to the region,
application would include an environmental
particularly nuclear energy and wireless technologies. The IST loop and emergency core cooling report addressing the environmental standard
systems are located in a 110-foot-tall tower visible in the photo. Courtesy: Babcock & Wilcox review plan guidance contained in NUREG
mPower Inc. and CAER 1555, Standard Review Plans for Environ-
mental Reviews for Nuclear Power Plants:
Environmental Standard Review Plan.
TVA plans to use Generation mPower as
its vendor for developing the B&W mPower
reactors. Fabrication of major plant com-
ponents may begin before issuance of the
construction permits and may require NRC
inspection resources in advance of issuing
the construction permits. This will necessi-
tate close coordination and timely communi-
cation of manufacturing plans and schedules
to facilitate NRC inspection activities.
The SMR initial test program would be
developed using Regulatory Guide 1.68,
Revision 3, Initial Test Programs for Water-
Cooled Nuclear Power Plants to ensure that
all systems, structures, and components im-
68 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
NUCLEAR
portant to safety are tested and demonstrate partnerships) on an annual basis is required manufacturing infrastructure, including un-
that the facility can be operated in accordance over the life of the cooperative agreements. derutilized domestic nuclear component and
with design requirements and in a manner Also, the FOA states that proposed contribu- equipment plants. Therefore, a viable U.S.-
that will not endanger the health and safety tions greater than 50% is a selection factor in centric SMR industry would enable the U.S.
of the public. The scope of the inspection and evaluating program proposals. The total gov- to recapture leadership in commercial nuclear
enforcement program—along with the initial ernment funding available for two awards un- technology, which has been lost to suppliers
test program that encompasses site prepara- der this FOA is a maximum of $452 million in France, Japan, Korea, Russia, and China.
tion inspections, construction inspections, over five years. The actual level of funding
manufacturing inspections, and system tests will depend on congressional appropriations. Much Work Remains
through hot functional testing—will inform The cost-sharing approach is used to Mowry said the B&W mPower NSSS design
and demonstrate successful execution of fu- offset the risks associated with developing has progressed well beyond the preliminary
ture inspections, tests, analysis, and accep- and deploying this first-of-a-kind nuclear stages. “The design teams have been very
tance criteria that may be specified in design technology. Also, a public-private partner- disciplined about how much new technology
certification or COL applications. ship to develop SMRs is necessary to share to inject into this effort. This is definitely not
these risks and make the long-term invest- a fourth-generation technology. This is all
SMR Cost-Sharing Program ment justifiable to shareholders and investors about capturing best-in-class ideas. There
In March 2012, the Department of Energy’s by showing the government’s commitment are some new technologies in the design, but
Office of Nuclear Energy’s Small Modular to the future of nuclear power and SMRs. they are very focused and very limited.” For
Reactor Licensing Technical Support pro- In addition, broad market adoption of SMR example, the prototype internal control rod
gram issued a funding opportunity announce- technology depends on a successful first-of- drives are already being tested and validated.
ment (FOA) on first-of-a-kind engineering a-kind project. Mowry added: “We are in a transition
projects that promote the accelerated com- Mowry said he believes there is a critical phase with mPower, moving from a concep-
mercialization of SMR technologies that can need for the DOE’s cost-sharing program to tual preliminary design into final design and
be expeditiously licensed to achieve a com- spur market development and the viability of testing activities. The mPower development
mercial operation date on a domestic site by SMRs in order to improve energy security sup- program, as it relates to safety and economic
2022. The application submittal closing date ported by deployment of SMR technology. performance goals, is making very success-
was May 21, 2012. A growing SMR industry creates the po- ful progress.” ■
A minimum 50% industry cost sharing tential to establish a large domestic manu- —James M. Hylko is a POWER
(for example, by SMR vendors and utility facturing base building upon existing U.S. contributing editor.
www.turbocare.com
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August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 69
NUCLEAR
2011 Nuclear Industry Scorecard
The world nuclear industry experienced few substantial changes in performance
metrics for 2011—beyond Japan, that is. In the aftermath of Fukushima,
the once–world leading Japanese nuclear industry fell to the bottom of the
rankings, perhaps for good.
By Thomas W. Overton, JD
T
he big story for the world’s nuclear regain the level of nuclear capacity it had The remainder of the rankings held
power industry in 2011 was the dra- before the disaster. steady over 2011.
matic near-departure of Japan from
the nuclear club. The consequences of Total Electricity Generation, Average Capacity Factor
the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Capacity, and Fuel Share With power demand rebounding as the
which wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi The United States continued to hold its world economy recovers from the 2008–
nuclear plant and led to the radioactive wide lead in number of reactors, installed 09 crisis, most countries have shown
contamination of large areas of northern capacity, and total generation (Table 1). slight to moderate gains in capacity fac-
Japan, are reflected in Japan’s precipitous France, likewise, is still by far the most re- tor over the past three years (Table 2). The
drop in the worldwide rankings. Once one liant on nuclear power for its electricity. big exception, again, is Japan, which was
of the leading nations in total generation, In 2010, Japan’s fuel share from nuclear already near the bottom of the rankings
Japan shut down the last of its operating was 29.2%. The loss of nearly all its gener- but last year showed a precipitous drop
reactors in May 2012. One reactor re- ating capacity, which was shut down after
started at the beginning of July, but it is the earthquake and mostly not restarted,
questionable whether the nation will ever caused the nation’s share to fall to 18.1%. Table 2. National capacity factors
for the past three years and three-
year average. Source: IAEA
Table 1. Total generation and capacity, by country. Sources: Nuclear Energy
Institute (NEI), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 2009–
Country 2009 2010 2011 2011
2011 As of March 2012 Romania 95.2 93.9 95.2 94.8
Country Generation (thousand GWh) Fuel share (%) Plants Capacity (MW) Finland 95.7 92.5 93.6 93.9
United States 790.2 19.3 104 101,465 Lithuania 93.8 NA NA 93.8
France 421.1 77.7 58 63,130 Slovenia 90.8 89.3 99.2 93.2
Russia 161.7 17.6 33 23,643 Netherlands 95.1 89.1 92.9 92.4
Japan 156.2 18.1 50 44,215 Taiwan ROCa 92.2 92.5 92.2 92.2
Rep. of Korea 147.7 34.6 23 20,671 Republic of Korea 91.2 90.7 90.1 90.7
Germany 102.3 17.8 9 12,068 Switzerland 92.8 89.0 89.8 90.5
Canada 90.0 15.3 18 12,604 United States 90.1 91.5 89.8 90.5
PR China 87.4 1.9 16 11,816 Slovakia 88.0 88.8 92.3 89.7
Ukraine 84.8 47.2 15 13,107 Hungary 87.6 88.6 88.9 88.4
Sweden 58.0 39.6 10 9,326 Belgium 87.6 88.0 89.2 88.3
United Kingdom 56.4 15.7 17 9,703 Chinaa 88.4 88.9 87.8 88.3
Spain 55.1 19.5 8 7,567 Bulgaria 87.2 85.1 90.1 87.5
Belgium 45.9 54.0 7 5,927 Brazil 81.2 83.8 95.8 87.0
Taiwan ROC 40.5 19.0 6 5,018 Spain 78.7 91.2 84.8 84.9
India 28.9 3.7 20 4,391 Argentina 93.1 82.3 72.2 82.5
Czech Republic 26.7 33.0 6 3,766 Russia 82.2 81.7 80.7 81.5
Switzerland 25.7 40.9 5 3,263 Czech Republic 80.2 82.0 82.1 81.4
Finland 22.3 31.6 4 2,736 India 73.7 78.9 89.6 81.1
Bulgaria 16.3 32.6 2 1,906 South Africa 75.3 83.2 82.4 80.3
Brazil 15.6 3.2 2 1,884 Canada 79.2 78.2 81.0 79.5
Hungary 14.7 43.3 4 1,889 France 77.9 78.5 80.7 79.0
Slovakia 14.3 54.0 4 1,816 Ukraine 76.8 78.8 78.2 78.0
South Africa 12.9 5.2 2 1,830 Germany 74.2 77.5 82.2 77.7
Romania 11.7 19.0 2 1,300 Mexico 88.7 54.7 80.1 74.5
Mexico 9.3 3.6 2 1,300 Armenia 71.3 71.8 75.5 72.8
Slovenia 5.9 41.7 1 688 Pakistan 72.5 69.7 70.3 70.8
Argentina 5.9 5.0 2 935 Sweden 64.2 69.3 72.4 68.7
Netherlands 3.9 3.6 1 482 United Kingdom 71.1 63.7 71.4 68.7
Pakistan 3.8 3.8 3 725 Japan 64.6 67.5 46.3 59.6
Armenia 2.4 33.2 1 375 Average 80.9 82.0 80.2 81.0
Iran 0.1 0.0 1 915 Note: a. China’s numbers include Taiwan.
70 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
NUCLEAR
from 67.5% to 46.3% in the aftermath of
Table 4. U.S. nuclear unit power uprates, approved and under review
Fukushima.
(2009 to present). Sources: NEI, NRC
Most of the countries that had already
been achieving better than 90% capacity Approved
held steady over 2011. Reactor Percent uprate MWt Year approved Type
Calvert Cliffs 1 1.4 37.0 2009 MUR
Calvert Cliffs 2 1.4 37.0 2009 MUR
Availability by Country North Anna 1 1.6 47.0 2009 MUR
The availability rankings continue to be North Anna 2 1.6 47.0 2009 MUR
dominated by European countries (Table Prairie Island 1 1.6 27.0 2010 MUR
3). Worldwide, most availability ratings Prairie Island 2 1.6 27.0 2010 MUR
held steady or showed modest improve- LaSalle 1 1.6 57.0 2010 MUR
ments as demand returned. Japan, as LaSalle 2 1.6 57.0 2010 MUR
would be expected, showed a major drop Surry 1 1.6 41.0 2010 MUR
Surry 2 1.6 41.0 2010 MUR
in 2011.
Limerick 1 1.6 57.0 2011 MUR
Limerick 2 1.6 57.0 2011 MUR
U.S. Nuclear Power Uprates Point Beach 1 17.0 260.0 2011 E
Five U.S. reactors received power uprate Point Beach 2 17.0 260.0 2011 E
approvals from the Nuclear Regulatory Nine Mile Point 2 15.0 521.0 2011 E
Commission (NRC) in 2011, with three Turkey Point 3 15.0 344.0 2012 E
of them being significant enhancements Turkey Point 4 15.0 344.0 2012 E
Harris 1 1.6 48.0 2012 MUR
(Table 4). Units 1 and 2 at the Point Beach
Under review
plant in Two Rivers, Wis., received ap-
Reactor Percent uprate MWt Expected Type
provals for 17% uprates, while Unit 2 at Braidwood 1 1.6 58.4 Jun-2012 MUR
the Nine Mile Point plant in Scriba, N.Y., Braidwood 2 1.6 58.4 Jun-2012 MUR
was approved for a 15% uprate. Byron 1 1.6 58.4 Jun-2012 MUR
In June of this year, the NRC approved Byron 2 1.6 58.4 Jun-2012 MUR
a 15% uprate for Units 3 and 4 at the Tur- Oconee 1 1.6 42.0 Jun-2012 MUR
Oconee 2 1.6 42.0 Jun-2012 MUR
Oconee 3 1.6 42.0 Jun-2012 MUR
Table 3. National availability fac- Grand Gulf 13.1 510.0 Jul-2012 E
tors for the past three years and Crystal River 3 15.5 405.0 Jun-2013 E
three-year average. Source: IAEA St. Lucie 1 11.9 320.0 Q2 2012 E
St. Lucie 2 11.9 320.0 Q2 2012 E
2009– Browns Ferry 2 14.3 494.0 TBD E
Country 2009 2010 2011 2011 Browns Ferry 3 14.3 494.0 TBD E
Romania 94.8 93.5 94.6 94.3 Browns Ferry 1 14.3 494.0 TBD E
Lithuania 93.8 NA NA 93.8 Monticello 12.9 229.0 TBD E
Finland 95.2 91.9 92.8 93.3 McGuire 1 1.7 58.0 TBD MUR
McGuire 2 1.7 58.0 TBD MUR
Slovenia 90.8 89.3 98.6 93.0
Netherlands 95.1 88.9 92.1 92.0 Notes: E = Extended; MUR = Measurement Uncertainty Recapture.
Taiwan ROCa 91.5 91.4 92.4 91.8
Republic of Korea 91.1 90.6 90.0 90.5 Table 5. U.S. nuclear unit license renewals and applications (2009–2012).
United States 90.1 91.5 89.0 90.2 Source: NRC
Switzerland 92.2 88.6 89.5 90.1 Applicant Plant Application submitted Renewal approved
Hungary 87.6 88.6 88.9 88.4 AmerGen Energy Oyster Creek 2005 2009
Chinaa 88.4 88.8 87.7 88.3 Entergy Vermont Yankee 2006 2011
Slovakia 86.7 87.0 90.6 88.1
PPL Susquehanna Susquehanna 1 & 2 2006 2009
Belgium 87.3 87.5 88.7 87.8
Bulgaria 86.7 84.3 90.0 87.0 Southern Vogtle 1 & 2 2007 2009
Brazil 80.7 83.8 95.7 86.8 First Energy Beaver Valley 1 & 2 2007 2009
Spain 77.5 90.1 83.2 83.6 AmerGen Energy Three Mile Island 1 2008 2009
Argentina 93.1 81.9 72.0 82.3 Nuclear Management Prairie Island 1 & 2 2008 2011
Russia 82.0 81.4 80.3 81.2 Dominion Kewaunee 2008 2011
Czech Republic 79.6 81.6 81.8 81.0 Nebraska Public Power District Cooper 2008 2010
South Africa 74.0 82.9 81.3 79.4 FPL Energy Duane Arnold 2008 2010
Canada 78.7 77.6 80.4 78.9 Arizona Public Service Palo Verde 1, 2 & 3 2008 2011
Germany 73.6 76.7 82.0 77.2 PSEG Nuclear Salem 1 & 2 2009 2011
France 72.9 76.4 79.3 76.2 Pending
Ukraine 74.5 76.0 75.6 75.4 Entergy Pilgrim 2006
Mexico 88.5 53.6 80.0 74.0 Entergy Indian Point 2 & 3 2007
Armenia 69.8 69.7 73.7 71.1 Florida Power Crystal River 3 2008
Pakistan 72.5 69.7 70.3 70.8 PSEG Nuclear Hope Creek 2009
United Kingdom 70.8 63.4 71.2 68.5 Pacific Gas & Electric Diablo Canyon 1 & 2 2009
Sweden 63.4 68.2 71.3 67.7 Energy Northwest Columbia Generating Station 2010
India 47.7 57.6 76.2 61.2 FPL Energy Seabrook Seabrook 2010
Japan 63.3 66.9 41.8 57.5 First Energy Davis-Besse 1 2010
STP Nuclear Operating Co. South Texas Project 1 & 2 2010
Note: a. China’s numbers include Taiwan.
Exelon Limerick 1 & 2 2011
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 71
NUCLEAR
key Point plant in Homestead, Fla. A num-
1. Still the leader. Despite slight increases in the cost of fuel, nuclear power remains the
ber of other uprates are pending for 2012,
least expensive source of electricity per kilowatt-hour. Coal and natural gas data reflect total
production cost. Nuclear data is shown in its components: fuel and operation and maintenance most of them fairly minor.
plus the total production cost. Data is for the period 1995 to 2011 in cents/kWh. Sources: NEI,
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Applications for
License Extensions
Total nuclear Nuclear O&M Nuclear fuel Total coal Total gas Five U.S. plants received renewed licens-
9.00 es from the NRC in 2011: Vermont Yan-
kee in Vernon, Vt.; Prairie Island in Red
8.00 Wing, Minn.; Kewaunee in Carlton, Wis.;
Palo Verde in Tonopah, Ariz.; and Salem
7.00 in Lower Alloways Creek Township, N.J.
(Table 5).
6.00 Ten other applications for renewal are
Cost (cents/kWh)
This unique database globally covers over 34,000 installed or projected generating units including details as geographic
location, capacity (MW), age, technology, fuels, boiler, turbine, generator and emissions control equipment. You also
gain access to over 4,200 plant management and support contacts including titles and job functions.
This data set comes in Microsoft Excel, an easy to use application that allows you to manipulate data and import
easily into your own database.
72 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
NUCLEAR
Table 6. Nuclear units under construction worldwide. Sources: NEI, IAEA 2. Safety first. The worldwide nuclear in-
Country Reactor name Reactor type Total MWe Estimated startup year dustry continued its substantial progress to-
Argentina Atucha 2 PHWR 692 2012 ward improving worker safety over the past
Brazil Angra-3 PWR 1,245 NA two decades. Source: WANO
Belene 1 PWR 953 NA Accidents per million
Bulgaria man-hours worked
Belene 2 PWR 953 NA
Changjiang 1 PWR 610 NA 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Changjiang 2 PWR 610 NA
Fangchenggang PWR 1,000 NA 5.2
1990
Fangjiashan 1 PWR 1,000 NA
Fangjiashan 2 PWR 1,000 NA
Fuqing 1 PWR 1,000 NA
Fuqing 2 PWR 1,000 NA 1995 2.9
Fuqing 3 PWR 1,000 NA
Haiyang 1 PWR 1,000 NA
Haiyang 2 PWR 1,000 NA
2000 1.63
Hongyanhe 1 PWR 1,000 NA
Hongyanhe 2 PWR 1,000 NA
Hongyanhe 3 PWR 1,000 NA
China
Hongyanhe 4 PWR 1,000 NA 2005 1.3
Lingao 4 PWR 1,000 NA
Ningde 1 PWR 1,000 NA
Ningde 2 PWR 1,000 NA
Year
Ningde 3 PWR 1,000 NA 2006 1.21
Ningde 4 PWR 1,000 NA
Sanmen 1 PWR 1,000 NA
Sanmen 2 PWR 1,000 NA 2007 0.96
Taishan 1 PWR 1,700 NA
Taishan 2 PWR 1,700 NA
Yangjiang 1 PWR 1,000 NA
Yangjiang 2 PWR 1,000 NA 2008 0.92
Yangjiang 3 PWR 1,000 NA
Lungmen 1 ABWR 1,300 NA
China, Taiwan
Lungmen 2 ABWR 1,300 NA
2009 0.78
Finland Olkiluoto 3 PWR 1,600 NA
France Flamanville 3 PWR 1,600 2016
Kakrapar 3 PHWR 630 2015
Kakrapar 4 PHWR 630 2015 2010 0.85
Kudankulam 1 PWR 917 NA
India Kudankulam 2 PWR 917 2012
PFBR FBR 470 NA
Rajasthan 7 PHWR 630 2016
Rajasthan 8 PHWR 630 2016 3. Holding steady. Average radiation
Ohma ABWR 1,325 NA exposure levels have been largely unchanged
Japan since the mid-2000s. Source: WANO
Shimane 3 ABWR 1,325 NA
Chasnupp 3 PWR 315 2016
Pakistan
Chasnupp 4 PWR 315 2017 Collective exposure (man-rem per unit)
Akademik Lomonosov 1 PWR 32 NA
Akademik Lomonosov 2 PWR 32 NA 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Beloyarsky 4 FBR 804 NA
1990 276
Kursk 5 LWGR 915 NA 174
Leningrad 2-1 PWR 1,085 NA
Russia 157
Leningrad 2-2 PWR 1,085 NA 1995 137
Novovoronezh 2-1 PWR 1,114 NA
Novovoronezh 2-2 PWR 1,114 NA 2000 126
85
Rostov 3 PWR 1,011 NA
Rostov 4 PWR 1,011 NA 2005 136
65
Year
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 73
NUCLEAR
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POWER August 2012
NUCLEAR POWER
Too Dumb to Meter, Part 3
As the book title Too Dumb to Meter: Follies, Fiascoes, Dead Ends, and
Duds on the U.S. Road to Atomic Energy implies, nuclear power has
traveled a rough road. In this POWER exclusive, we present the third
chapter, “Micro-Mismanagement by Committee.” During the frenzy to
manage atomic power after World War II, Congress created an execu-
tive branch agency that threatened to be too independent, too power-
ful, and too isolated from the rest of government. Compounding their
errors, perhaps in recognition of what they had created, the solons
also developed a way to insert their own power into the action. This
proved to be a major mistake—blurring the lines between executive
and legislative authority—causing no end of problems for the nation’s
nascent atomic energy venture.
By Kennedy Maize
T
o protect its interests in the postwar example, while the Ways and Means Com- committee, one of the histories of the AEC
jockeying over atomic energy, Con- mittee has jurisdiction over taxes, other notes, “Moreover, it was the only joint
gress in the 1946 law established committees also have concurrent authority committee of Congress authorized to re-
the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy over aspects of tax policy, tempering the ceive proposed legislation and recommend
(JCAE), made up of eighteen members, power of the tax panel. It’s messy, but it it to the Congress.” In the wacky world of
nine from the Senate and nine from the usually works. Congress, with the Atomic Washington, that’s a powerful proposition:
House. Its mission, as stated in the law, Energy Act, made an end-run around tra- a joint committee can write bills that large-
was to “make continuing studies of the ac- ditional structures and power thereby em- ly trump the work of the other substantive
tivities of the Atomic Energy Commission powering an atomic autocracy. committees in the House and Senate.
(AEC) and of problems relating to the de- The 1946 law also set up a political fight What’s more, the JCAE developed such
velopment, use, and control of atomic en- between the conventional appropriations expertise, and based its decisions on se-
ergy.” The move to erect a special commit- committees, which had evolved into major cret testimony, which it could reveal and
tee to keep Congress involved in atomic power centers in Congress, and the new conceal at will, that it was able to dictate
energy reflected, in part, ambiguity about group on the block, the JCAE. In 1951, national policy to Congress and the execu-
the powers that had been given to the AEC. the Senate essentially ceded the power of tive branch. Also, when it was adding to
During the debate over the legislation, the purse to the joint committee, providing the powers of the committee in 1951, Con-
Rep. Clare Booth Luce, a Connecticut that three members of the joint committee gress gave it the authority to wield a leg-
Republican, commented that the represen- would be ex officio members of the appro- islative veto. The committee could review
tatives were “torn between a distaste for priations committee for all matters atomic. proposed actions of the AEC, the White
the vast dictatorial domestic powers [the That didn’t happen in the House, where a House, or other executive branch agencies,
legislation] confers on the five-man com- stormy relationship between the nuclear including the military, and nullify them.
mission, and our fears that without it we power barons and the legacy powers of the This set up monumental battles between
shall endanger our national security in a appropriators prevailed. both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, most
troubled world.” The legislation gave the Because Congress—which controlled often won by the joint committee.
joint committee—the only congressional the federal government’s purse—gave the The AEC quickly realized where the
committee established by law, not by the joint committee extraordinary authority real power on atomic policy in the United
internal rules of the House and Senate— over the AEC, the committee quickly be- States could be found, and used the joint
“exclusive jurisdiction” over atomic power. came the political sun around which the committee to protect the agency against
One analysis concluded, “While the JCAE other atomic institutions revolved. The moves by the White House to implement
was certainly a committee of Congress, JCAE was, in its time, the most power- administration policy that the AEC found
in many ways it did not resemble a con- ful committee in Congress—arguably the threatening, particularly on budget mat-
gressional committee, or at least few other most powerful in congressional history. It ters. A symbiotic and sycophantic rela-
congressional committees before or since, was also one of the most powerful insti- tionship soon developed between the AEC
serving as almost a unicameral legislature tutions of government in Washington, of- and the joint committee.
within the bicameral Congress.” ten eclipsing the executive branch. These The intimate relationship between the
In the normal order in Congress, various (mostly) guys had radioactive muscles, congressional overseers and the agency
committees generally compete with each and they flexed them often—and often on it oversaw caused some heartburn, even
other, bringing greater debate and diver- behalf of half-baked, irrational nuclear on the committee. California Republican
sity of views and interests to consideration schemes. Craig Hosmer, who served on the joint
of legislative issues. In today’s House, for Examining the unique powers of the committee, and who had been a young
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 75
NUCLEAR POWER
AEC lawyer earlier in his professional life, matters of administration. This needs clar- door. In 1946, Lilienthal brought Ramey—
was troubled by the close relationship. In ification by force of law rather than force at the time, a young lawyer on the staff
a 1960 speech on the House floor, he said: of personalities and customs.” Also, com- of the Tennessee Valley Authority—with
“I sometimes feel that as between mem- mittee staff—who wielded extraordinary him to Washington as an assistant general
bers of the Joint Committee and members power—often moved over to the AEC, counsel. Ramey then transferred to the
of the Atomic Energy Commission, there where they again exercised exceptional AEC’s Chicago office, where he worked
exists only a shadowy and blurred under- power due to their back channel relations with Adm. Rickover on the contract with
standing of which policy matters are to with the JCAE. There was similar move- Westinghouse Electric Corp. for the first
be decided by the committee and which ment in the other direction, from the com- nuclear submarine, the Nautilus.
by the commission, even sometimes as to mission to the committee. James Ramey’s In 1956, Ramey moved to the joint com-
what are matters of policy and what are career exemplified this revolving atomic mittee, where he was executive director,
the most important staff job on the com-
mittee. It was a plum job in many ways,
including pay. The joint committee was
not bound by staff pay directives for other
congressional committees, or by the spe-
cial pay schedule that applied to the AEC
(which was already higher than that of the
rest of the civil service). Ramey became
a powerful and influential presence, par-
ticularly on matters related to the AEC’s
military programs and its dealings with
the Pentagon. He helped develop the in-
formation on the presence of Soviet mis-
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION siles in Cuba that led to the 1962 Cuban
Missile Crisis.
In 1962, President Kennedy nominated
Ramey as an AEC commissioner, where he
served from September 1963 to July 1973.
celebrating During that period, most of it served un-
15 years der AEC chairman Glenn Seaborg, Ramey
emerged as a major power at the AEC.
Seaborg, a Nobel Prize–winning nuclear
chemist, was largely a hands-off admin-
istrator during his ten years as chairman,
preferring to make speeches and presenta-
DONALD E. STEPHENS
tions on the wonders of the atom. Ramey
CONVENTION CENTER | ROSEMONT, IL stepped into that vacuum. His 2010 obitu-
May 14-16, 2013 ary in the Washington Post said, “He was
described in a 1974 New York Times arti-
cle as the ‘single most influential member
of the commission in the past decade,’ who
for many years was the ‘power behind the
throne’ of the AEC’s chairmen.”
Flexibility & Adaptability: The New On the JCAE, no more than five of the
nine members from each house could be
Hallmarks for Power Generation from the same party; the leadership rotated
by chamber and party control of Congress.
Share Your Experience with Thousands of Power Members of the committee tended to have
safe electoral seats, so they spent years and
Generation Professionals from Around the Globe decades on the committee. The member-
ship of the JCAE was remarkably stable.
Over the years, the same names dominated
the committee. From the Senate: Demo-
Don’t Miss Your Chance to Speak - crats Richard Russell of Georgia; Clinton
Anderson of New Mexico; John Pastore
Submit your session ideas and industry solutions for consideration of Rhode Island; and Republican Bourke
at www.electricpowerexpo.com/speak before September 25, 2012 Hickenlooper of Iowa regularly served
on the committee. During the first eight
years of the committee’s life, control of
Congress shifted back-and-forth between
the two parties, and Hickenlooper moved
repeatedly from ranking minority to lead
76 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
NUCLEAR POWER
Republican. He served as chairman of policies which they worked to have imple- matters of national priority. Most recently,
the committee in the Eightieth Congress mented.” When the members of the joint the national Commission on Terrorist At-
(1947–1948) and the Eighty-third Con- committee were angry with the AEC, it tacks upon the United States (the so-called
gress (1953–1954). Pastore was a three- generally meant they didn’t believe the 9/11 Commission) looked fondly on the
time chairman (1962–1964, 1967–1968, agency was moving fast enough. Partisan- JCAE and its approach to governance. The
and 1970–1972). ship was not a major factor in the JCAE’s 9/11 Commission’s July 2004 final report
On the House side, two men dominated legislative life—pork was. The committee called for “centralizing and strengthening
the joint committee: Democrats Chet Holi- took great care to assure that spending on congressional oversight of intelligence and
field of California and Mel Price of Illi- AEC programs put money into their states homeland security issues,” with the joint
nois. Holifield served in the House from and congressional districts. committee as a model. The report said,
“Either Congress should create a joint
committee for intelligence, using the Joint
Atomic Energy Committee as its model,
The joint committee represented the stron- or it should create House and Senate com-
mittees with combined authorizing and ap-
gest arm of an iron triangle of interests that propriations powers.” Fortunately for the
cause of limited government and diversity
included the AEC, industry, and Congress. The of policy views in the process of running
a government, Congress ignored the 9/11
administration, decidedly not part of that Committee on this recommendation (and
most others, as well).
As the nation’s views of nuclear power
arrangement, was often its enemy and occa- soured in the mid-1970s, mostly as a result
of under-delivery on the promises made in
sionally its foil. the preceding decades, Congress complete-
ly restructured the government’s atomic
enterprise. In October 1974, President
1943 through 1974, becoming a nuclear Industry lobbied the joint committee Gerald Ford signed the Energy Reorgani-
lobbyist for General Electric after his when it thought the AEC wasn’t serving zation Act. The Atomic Energy Commis-
congressional service. Under an informal their needs or when it wanted to mold AEC sion was split asunder like a fissioning
agreement that alternated the chairman- policies. If an administration (of either par- uranium atom: The production and energy
ship of the joint committee between the ty) wanted to redirect or shut down a failing research and development aspects became
House and Senate, Holifield chaired the AEC program, the commission invariably the province of a place-holder agency
committee three times (1960–1961, 1965– enlisted the JCAE on its side, along with called the Energy Research and Develop-
1977, 1969–1970). A friendly and garru- industry. The joint committee represented ment Administration, later transmogrify-
lous cigar-chomping former sports writer the strongest arm of an iron triangle of in- ing into the U.S. Department of Energy.
from East St. Louis, Price chaired the joint terests that included the AEC, industry, and The puny and often conflicted regulatory
committee only once, serving from 1973 Congress. The administration, decidedly function of the AEC, which licensed new
through 1974. First elected to Congress in not part of that arrangement, was often its power reactors, became the U.S. Nuclear
1944 after Army service, Price was also a enemy and occasionally its foil. Regulatory Commission.
long-serving member of the House Armed The concept of the joint committee and The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy
Services Committee and combined his in- its unprecedented powers has prompted died a lingering death alongside the AEC.
terest in atomic energy with his position some admiration over the years and recom- Shortly after Ford signed the reorganiza-
on military affairs. Price became armed mendations that it be duplicated for other tion law, the House adopted a proposal
forces chairman in 1975, following his ser- from Richard Bolling of Missouri, a senior
vice on the joint committee. House Demo- Democrat on the House Rules Committee,
crats purged him from the armed services More to Come which began chipping away at the joint
committee in 1985, believing his age and In the next installment of Too Dumb to committee’s expansive jurisdiction. The
his unwavering support for all things mili- Meter, by 1952, when the Republicans Bolling Amendment gave authority for
tary rendered him no longer fit to lead the under Eisenhower recaptured the White non-military aspects of nuclear power to
committee. House, the House of Representatives, the House Interior Committee. In August
While often critical of the AEC and and the Senate, civilian control of nu- 1977, both the House and the Senate for-
its programs, all of the members of the mally abolished the joint committee, fol-
clear energy—at least on paper—was
JCAE were enthusiastic about the big lowing a scathing report the year before by
well established. The AEC was up and,
prospects for nuclear energy. A Congres- the reformist group Common Cause, titled
sional Research Service analysis of the if not running, at least lurching ahead. “Stacking the Deck,” and outlining how
joint committee written in 2004 described However, the military was pushing to the committee had become a “huckster for
the committee’s “unswerving dedication expand the U.S. arsenal with bigger and the nuclear power industry.” ■
to the development of nuclear power.” The more deadly weapons, while the AEC was —Kennedy Maize is a POWER contribut-
piece goes on to note: “The members of recommending smaller bombs with more ing editor and executive editor of MAN-
the JCAE had a pro-nuclear power phi- bang-per-pound and -dollar, including AGING POWER. Too Dumb to Meter is
losophy; definite objectives which they battlefield tactical nukes. available on Amazon.com and is serialized
believed should be achieved; and specific by permission.
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August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 77
TO POWER YOUR BUSINESS
NEW PRODUCTS
Sensors for Detecting Corrosion Under Insulation
Rohrback Cosasco released three types of Cosasco corrosion under insulation (CUI)
corrosion sensors for detecting corrosion under insulation: continuous insulated braid
“corrosion fuse” wire (Type 1), inserted “corrosion fuse” probe array (Type 2), and
the CUI Corrosometer Probe (Type 3). The three techniques offer direct corrosion
detection and a much lower cost per monitoring point than existing methods and
may be customized to meet individual requirements and applications to fit with any
plant integrity management program. The sensors offer savings on inspection and
repair costs plus simple and low-cost installation (Types 2 & 3 do not require removal
of insulation). (www.cosasco.com)
Non-Discharging
Synthetic Media
for Pulse Systems
Camfil Farr Power Systems
added two new products
Rotary Screw Air Compressor for dusty environments to
Ingersoll Rand is offering a newly improved single-phase its Campulse product line:
control scheme for its 5 and 7.5 versions of the small Campulse GTC and GTD. Both
UP6 5-15c line of air compressors. It has added a run-on have new, non-discharging
timer and load/unload and fiber media, which are
blowdown solenoids to sturdy, durable, and offer
improve the reliability and high dust-holding capacity.
performance of single-phase The Campulse GTC’s smooth
units in general industrial synthetic fibers offer low
applications up to 28 cfm. resistance to airflow and
The company says that maintain a low pressure
a compressor that does drop throughout the filter
not include an enhanced life. The filter is designed to
control scheme can easily withstand harsh conditions,
be misapplied and fail in including high humidity and
an environment where the wet tropical environments.
compressor starts and stops The Campulse GTD’s layer of
too many times per hour. Its nanofibers over the synthetic
enhanced control scheme substrate significantly
allows the compressor to increases dust collection on
operate unloaded with the the media surface, resulting
motor continuing to run for in improved dust release
the appropriate length when pulsed. Ideal for high-
of time, ensuring dust environments, such as
that the reliability deserts and arid areas. (www.
and performance of camfilfarr.com)
the system is protected.
(ingersollrandproducts.com)
78 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
NEW PRODUCTS
Comprehensive Spectrophotometer
Hach Co.’s new DR 6000UV-Vis spectrophotometer was designed to fulfill any water
testing needs using one spectrophotometer. It is equipped with RFID technology,
integrated QA software, and more than 250 testing methods and guided procedures. The
instrument is programmed to take absorbance readings of a single sample at different
wavelengths or over a specific period of time and allows high-speed wavelength scanning
across the UV and visible spectrum. RFID technology helps operators track their samples
and manage their labs. When the DR 6000 is paired with Hach’s TNTplus reagent vials, it
detects and alerts users to expired reagents, ensuring chemistries are used within their
shelf lives. In cases where changes to a stored program are required to use a new lot of
chemistry, it prompts the user to perform the update. The RFID technology allows the
DR 6000 to update the program’s calibration factors automatically when the TNTplus
reagent box is placed near the instrument. Results are analyzed and outliers—caused by
scratched, flawed, or dirty glassware—are eliminated. (www.hach.com)
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August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 79
POWER PLANT BUYERS’ MART
POWER PROFESSIONALS
Opportunities in Operations and Maintenance,
Project Engineering and Project Management,
Business and Project Development,
First-line Supervision to Executive Level Positions.
Employer pays fee. Send resumes to:
P.O. Box 87875
Vancouver, WA 98687-7875
email: dwood@powerindustrycareers.com
(360) 260-0979 l (360) 253-5292
www.powerindustrycareers.com
LINEAL RECRUITING
SERVICES
www.Lineal.com • LisaLineal@Lineal.com
Toll free 877-386-1091
Electric Power Systems & Service Specialists
Se habla Español
To Advertise in POWER
CLASSIFIEDS
C O N T A C T Diane Hammes
PHONE 713-444-9939 FAX 512-213-4855 dianeh@powermag.com
80 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
POWER PLANT BUYERS’ MART PRODUCT Showcase
OFF Switch
Safely breaks
load, UL listed
FREE SAMPLES
available
meltric.com • 800.433.7642
READER SERVICE NUMBER 210 READER SERVICE NUMBER 211 READER SERVICE NUMBER 212
|
August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 81
Are environmental rules
posing some of the most
vexing challenges for
your power plant?
The alphabet soup of rules (CSAPR, MACT, NSR and
so on) impact everything from daily operations to
long-term capital planning and outage management.
Sponsored by:
Organized by:
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
Enter reader service numbers on the FREE Product Information Source card in this issue.
Reader Reader
Service Service
Page Number Page Number
Applied Bolting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 . . . . . . . . . 23 Kiewit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . 8
www.appliedbolting.com www.kiewit.com
AES Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 . . . . . . . . . 13 Martin Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 . . . . . . . . . 30
www.aes.com www.martin-eng.com
Babcock & Wilcox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 2 . . . . . . . . . . 1 MTU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . 10
www.babcock.com www.mtu-online.com
Babcock & Wilcox mPower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 4 . . . . . . . . . 33 NatronX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 . . . . . . . . . 29
www.babcock.com www.natronx.com
Baldor Electric.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 . . . . . . . . . 19 Outotec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 . . . . . . . . . 18
www.baldor.com www.outotec.com
Bechtel Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Paharpur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 . . . . . . . . . 24
www.bechtel.com www.paharpur.com
BHI Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . 2 Roberts & Schaefer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 . . . . . . . . . 25
www.bhienergy.com www.r-s.com
Bibb Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 . . . . . . . . . 15 Santee Cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 . . . . . . . . . 20
www.bibb-eac.com www.santeecooper.com
Breen Energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 . . . . . . . . . 27 SMA-America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 . . . . . . . . . 12
www.breenes.com www.sma-america.com
Chatham Steel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . . . . . 9 Superbolt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 . . . . . . . . . 17
www.chathamsteel.com www.superbolt.com
Dresser-Rand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 . . . . . . . . . 11 Swagelok. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 3 . . . . . . . . . 32
www.dresser-rand.com www.swagelok.com/connection
Emerson Process Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 . . . . . . . . . 26 TEAM Industrial Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.emersonprocess.com www.teaminc.com
Fluke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . . 4 TIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 . . . . . . . . . 21
www.fluke.com
www.tic-inc.com
Fuel Tech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 . . . . . . . . . 28 TurboCare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 . . . . . . . . . 31
www.ftek.com
www.turbocare.com
Phillips 66 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . 3
www.phillips66lubricants.com URS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 . . . . . . . . . 22
www.urs.com
GE Energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . 5
www.ge-energy.com
Hadek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 . . . . . . . . . 14
www.hadek.com CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
Hytorc Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 . . . . . . . . . . 7 Pages 80-81. To place a classified ad, contact
www.hytorc.com
IFS North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 . . . . . . . . . 16 Diane Hammes, 713-343-1885, dianeh@powermag.com
www.ifsworld.com/en-na
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August 2012 POWER www.powermag.com 83
COMMENTARY
he environmental push for renewables and mandates to the maximum replacement that we can get from the wind
84 www.powermag.com |
POWER August 2012
Make the unpredictable
totally predictable.
Swagelok® Pressure Regulators are now an even better choice for all
your pressure regulator needs. Why? Well, alongside our proven experience
and expertise, our range now covers sizes from 1/8 to 4 in. and all your
regulator needs – high-flow capability, two-stage, back-pressure and
vaporizing models. With our regulators you get accuracy, sensitivity and
pressure stability. In short– total predictability. Exactly what you would expect.
Visit swagelok.com/pressure.
© 2012 Swagelok Company