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Southern Nuclear Adds New Power Plant Simulators

August 19, 2019

GSE Systems said it has delivered and commissioned three additional full-scope simulators for Southern Nuclear’s new Operations Training Centers. The simulators are for the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant, and the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant.

Simulators provide efficient hands-on learning for power plant operators. While power plants of any type can benefit from simulators, nuclear plants perhaps gain the most value, as missteps on a live reactor plant can result in grave consequences. Simulators generally operate on personal computers and are provided for a broad audience of technical and non-technical professionals, students, and instructors.

GSE said Southern Nuclear’s additional simulators will add flexible scheduling and increased capacity that can drive operator performance. The simulators will also offer more availability to each plant’s engineering and maintenance staff, who find the simulators useful for virtually commissioning plant changes, validating plant procedures, management certification, and a variety of other training activities. Furthermore, the simulators are said to have been upgraded with some of the latest technology, including GSE’s new OpenSim 7.0 simulator operating system and enhanced containment modeling program and its PSA-HD program to train operators on beyond-design-basis events.…

SwRI to Design Flameless, Low-Emission Coal Combustion Pilot

August 17, 2019

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San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) said on Aug. 12 it will get $ 3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and another $ 760,658 from an assortment of industry giants to design a large-scale flameless pressurized oxy-fuel combustion pilot plant.

The announcement is a major boost for the promising, but yet unproven technology, that industry observers herald as a groundbreaking new approach to utility-scale power generation. As SwRI explained, “the process uses air that is stripped of other elements like argon and nitrogen until it is pure oxygen. It is then combined with a fuel, usually either coal or natural gas, into a stream of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water inside a combustor. The fuel and oxygen chemically react, and the hot gas can be used to boil steam, which pushes a turbine that generates power.”

Among the benefits of pressurized oxy-fuel combustion is that it has the potential to substantially improve overall cycle efficiency. Because it uses oxygen-rich combustion, it could also generate pure CO₂ that can be easily captured and stored, or reused.…

FES Will Close Mansfield Coal Plant Early

August 13, 2019

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FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) said it will close the Bruce Mansfield power plant in Pennsylvania in November, two years ahead of the previously scheduled closure for the facility’s remaining coal-fired unit.

FES in a statement August 9 cited a “lack of economic viability in current market conditions” for the decision to shutter the 830-MW Unit 3, which had been set to close in June 2021. Units 1 and 2 at the plant, each with 830 MW of generation capacity, were taken offline in February, just more than a year after a fire at the plant damaged equipment. Those units also had been scheduled to close in June 2021.

FES in a press release Friday said “deactivation activities” at Bruce Mansfield should be complete by May 2020. The group filed for bankruptcy in March 2018, as the company sought an “orderly financial restructuring.” FES at the time said both its coal-fired and nuclear power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania were unprofitable.

Company officials in a statement Friday said, “The [Bruce Mansfield] deactivation will be safely and responsibly conducted in accordance with relevant regulations and guidelines.…

DOE Speeds Up Development of Experimental Fast Reactor, Sustain Flagging U.S. Nuclear Sector

August 9, 2019

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The Department of Energy (DOE) officially launched development of its Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), a fast reactor that will foster experiments with much higher neutron energy and flux compared to the nation’s existing 35 research reactors to develop advanced nuclear fuel for future nuclear power plants in the U.S. The facility, it says, is necessary to keep the nation technologically competitive with China and Russia.

The agency on Aug. 5 published a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register announcing it would develop an environmental impact statement (EIS) to study impacts of building the novel experimental reactor. The DOE will accept public comment on what the draft EIS should include until Sept. 4, and it plans to issue a draft EIS analysis within “the next several months” for public comment.

On Monday, the DOE also announced that it is considering two locations for the VTR: Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in eastern Idaho, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee. Two sites, INL and the Savannah River site in South Carolina, are also under consideration for the fabrication of the fuel needed to run the VTR.…

How Nevada Is Leading the Renewable Energy and Battery Storage Charge [PODCAST]

August 6, 2019

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Renewable energy and battery storage are hot topics in the U.S. today. Lawmakers throughout the country debated various new energy policies during the 2019 legislative session. Nevada is among the states leading the way forward. Several new laws were passed in the state that will affect power companies and consumers for years to come.

Curt Ledford, a Nevada-based attorney who is a partner with Davison Van Cleve PC, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. Ledford’s practice is focused on utility, administrative, corporate, cooperative, and regulatory law, as well as general matters affecting energy developments, generation facilities, renewable energy, and Nevada’s utilities.

On the podcast, Ledford touched on several legal and legislative developments that occurred recently. Among the topics were changes to Nevada’s fundamental utility ratemaking structure and changes to the state’s open access for large customers. He also elaborated on an update to the state’s renewable portfolio standard, which requires 50% of Nevada’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2030.…

RWE Will Close Wales Plant, Leaving UK With Four Operating Coal Units

August 4, 2019

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German utility RWE on August 1 announced it will close its last coal-fired power plant in the UK. The closure of the Aberthaw B power station in south Wales, scheduled by the end of March 2020, means just four coal plants will be operating in the UK. The plant originally was scheduled to be shuttered in 2021.

Roger Miesen, chief executive of RWE’s generation business, said in a statement Thursday: “This is a difficult time for everyone at Aberthaw power station. However, market conditions made this decision necessary.”

The UK has been moving on from coal-fired generation over the past few years, and less than 5% of the country’s power came from coal last year. The UK earlier this year went a week without using any electricity from coal.

The UK government has said all coal-fired generation in the country must end no later than 2025 to help meet climate targets. Several plant closures have been announced in recent months; EDF Energy, the London-based utility, in February said it would close its Cottam coal plant in September.…