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2.2-GW Coal-Fired Behemoth Could Permanently Close This Week

November 14, 2019

The post 2.2-GW Coal-Fired Behemoth Could Permanently Close This Week appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The 2,250-MW coal-fired Navajo Generating Station (NGS) in Arizona will permanently close likely this week, ending a long and bitter fight to keep the plant and its affiliated coal mine open.

The plant’s utility owners—Salt River Project (SRP), Arizona Public Service Co., Tucson Electric Power Co., and NV Energy—in February 2017 voted to shut down the plant located on tribal land near Page along the border with Utah, citing “rapidly changing economics of the energy industry,” which has seen natural gas prices sink to record lows.

SRP, the plant’s majority owner, told POWER in an email on Nov. 12 that operations at the plant are now expected to end within the next week, once fuel on site has been exhausted. “The best estimate now is for all units to be shut down permanently on Nov. 15—but that could change,” a spokesperson said.

After the project’s utility owners voted to close the plant in 2017, coal mining giant Peabody Energy, the Department of Interior (whose Bureau of Reclamation is a participant in the project), and the Navajo Nation launched concerted attempts to find an outside buyer to keep running the plant.…

ExxonMobil Extends Deal for Fuel Cell Carbon Capture Project

November 12, 2019

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The post ExxonMobil Extends Deal for Fuel Cell Carbon Capture Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

ExxonMobil and FuelCell Energy announced a new joint-development agreement to enhance carbon capture fuel cell technology, as the groups work on a process to capture combustion exhaust from power plants and other industrial facilities.

The two-year deal, announced Nov. 6 and an extension of an earlier agreement, is aimed at optimizing core technology, process integration, and large-scale deployment of carbon capture. FuelCell Energy’s technology uses carbonate fuel cells to capture and concentrate carbon dioxide (CO₂), with the CO₂sent to the fuel cell. The fuel cell produces power and captures and concentrates the CO₂for storage.

“We have a great opportunity to scale and commercialize our unique carbon capture solution, one that captures about 90 percent of carbon dioxide from various exhaust streams, while generating additional power, unlike traditional carbon capture technologies which consume significant power,” FuelCell CEO Jason Few said in a statement.…

EAM Solutions Stretch Capabilities of Lean Plant Maintenance Teams

November 4, 2019

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The post EAM Solutions Stretch Capabilities of Lean Plant Maintenance Teams appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Of the many challenges power and industrial plant maintenance teams face, stretching the capabilities of their ultra-lean staff is one of the most critical. Assets can range from industrial generators, to warehouse forklifts, overhead doors, corridor lighting, and on-premise security systems. Unexpected downtime can be disastrous—and costly.

To prevent operational failures or delays, technicians as part of enterprise asset management (EAM) teams must possess broad skills and be well-prepared to handle numerous types of service calls, from power outages to valve failures or pipeline cracks. With budgets stretched thin and a shortage of skilled maintenance technicians, the challenges compound. However, technology can help the maintenance team work smarter, not harder—the key to modern plant maintenance.

Defining the Problem

The power industry, like many others, is facing a severe skills gap. Experienced service technicians are difficult to recruit. Retiring baby boomers are leaving gaps that incoming millennials and Generation Z workers cannot (or will not) fill.…

Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Drone Intrusions

November 2, 2019

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Drones represent a classic good news/bad news scenario. The good news is great. The bad news is terrifying.

On the good news front, drones can keep utility-sector workers safely on the ground, with the machines performing aerial inspections at a fraction of what it would cost to do with manned aircraft. They provide faster, easier inspection of boilers, stacks, towers, and other infrastructure.

1. Drones—unmanned aerial vehicles—are often used to conduct inspections and collect data from power generation sites, and transmission and distribution assets. But they also can pose a security risk with their ability to intrude upon areas humans are not able to access. Courtesy: S. Hermann and F. Richter / Pixabay

The bad news? Drones (Figure 1) represent an enormous threat across the energy sector—from production to distribution.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notes: “There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”…

Using Extreme Visibility to Protect Industrial Control Systems [PODCAST]

October 29, 2019

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The post Using Extreme Visibility to Protect Industrial Control Systems [PODCAST] appeared first on POWER Magazine.

What does it mean to have “extreme visibility” in an operational technology (OT) environment? According to Claroty, a New York-based company that offers cybersecurity products for industrial control systems, it’s having the ability to see all assets on a network, knowing what they are, and understanding what functions they perform. The company says the more organizations know about their OT network assets, the better equipped they will be to detect and investigate suspicious behavior.

“In order to really understand how to protect these networks, you really have to have your finger on the pulse of the threat landscape,” Dave Weinstein, Chief Security Officer with Claroty, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast.

“With respect to industrial control systems, nation-state actors continue to monopolize, if you will, the threat landscape. That is to say that the barriers to entry are sufficiently high enough at this point to prevent your average script kiddie or high school hacker from doing serious damage to, for example, the electrical grid,” Weinstein said.…

Report: Nearly 80% of EU Coal Units Operate at a Loss

October 27, 2019

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The post Report: Nearly 80% of EU Coal Units Operate at a Loss appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A new report from a group that studies the impact of climate change on financial markets recommends that European Union (EU) governments move to phase out coal-fired power generation completely by 2030 in order to avoid even-greater economic damage.

Carbon Tracker, a London, UK-based group supported by foundations in Europe and the U.S., on Oct. 24 released its Apocoalypse Now report. The study said European utilities could lose as much as $ 7.3 billion in 2019 from operations of coal-fired power plants. The group said nearly 80% of coal units in Europe are not economic, up from about 46% of units just two years ago.

Matt Gray, head of Power & Utilities for Carbon Tracker, in an email to POWERsaid, “In this report, we explain the financial implications of recent changes to EU coal power economics. In doing so, we argue EU policymakers and investors need to prepare for no hard coal or lignite generation by 2030.…