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Entergy Texas Breaks Ground on New 993-MW Combined Cycle Plant

February 19, 2019

Entergy Texas on February 15 began construction of its first new power plant in 40 years. The Montgomery County Power Station (MCPS), located in Willis, will be a 993-MW combined cycle gas turbine plant, adjacent to the existing Lewis Creek Power Plant.

Entergy Texas is part of Entergy Corporation, which provides power to about 3 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The company in a statement said “the facility will provide a new source of reliable, low-cost and clean energy to meet the growing power demand across Southeast Texas.” The plant is expected to enter commercial operation by mid-2021.

Sallie Rainer, president and CEO of Entergy Texas, at Friday’s groundbreaking said, “Southeast Texas is growing, and Entergy Texas needs to invest now to power that growth. By providing reliable, affordable power, we can meet our customers’ needs today, while laying the foundation for future growth across our region.”

Entergy Texas has said the new plant, with cleaner and more efficient combined cycle technology, will save its customers about $ 1.7 billion in energy costs over the next 30 years.…

Two Harriet Monroe Poems About Power Plants

February 15, 2019

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Harriet Monroe, the founder and longtime editor of Poetry magazine, was the author of a large body of poems that captured the essence of urban industrial modernity. Her 1914 book, You and I ( Macmillan Company, New York), contains two poems about power generation.

The first, “The Turbine,” is an engineer’s ode to his turbine. The second, “A Power-Plant,” references Edison’s Fisk Street power plant in Chicago—the plant that housed GE’s first (5-MW) steam turbine generator unit. The 1903-opened plant was permanently closed in 2012.

THE TURBINE

To W.S.M.

Look at her—there she sits upon her throne
As ladylike and quiet as a nun!
But if you cross her—whew! her thunderbolts
Will shake the earth ! She’s proud as any
queen,
The beauty—knows her royal business too,
To light the world, and does it night by night
When her gay lord, the sun, gives up his job.
I am her slave; I wake and watch and run
From dark till dawn beside her.…

Severe Modulation in Feedwater-Control Valves Reveals Need for Periodic Calibration

February 13, 2019

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Some combined-cycle plants have two feedwater-control valves: a small startup valve with the extra cavitation-protection needed during startup and low-load operations, and a larger main valve with the high flow-capacity needed during full-load ops. This design is intended to yield a longer service life of these valves. However, as the plant ages, this design also can yield a severe modulation, or “hunting,” in these valves.

At one 10-year-old combined-cycle plant, the two feedwater-control valves started hunting violently, eventually causing a loud boom.

The entire feedwater-piping system lurched, nearly out of its pipe rack. That startled everyone in the plant, and prompted the control room operator to hit his shutdown switch, and put in a trouble call to the maintenance shop. The maintenance technician grabbed his tool bag, went to the feedwater-control station, and began troubleshooting. He noted in his logbook that the incident had occurred shortly after a plant startup, just as the feedwater-control logic was transitioning from the startup valve to the main valve.…

Iraqi Official Casts Doubt on Deals With GE, Siemens

February 11, 2019

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Multibillion-dollar energy deals that both Siemens and General Electric (GE) signed with the Iraqi government last year may not come to fruition, according to the country’s electricity minister.

The Financial Times on February 10 reported that Luay Al-Khatteeb, who took his post late last year after the deals were brokered, told the newspaper, “I don’t have financial allocations or the processes available at hand, it doesn’t allow me to cherry-pick the right consultancies to deal with these multibillion-dollar deals. The bureaucracy that I inherited is . . . illogical.”

GE in October 2018 agreed to a $ 15 billion deal to provide 14 GW of power generation projects to Iraq, including 1.5 GW as early as this summer. The agreement, which was called “principles of co-operation” and is not binding, came after the Trump administration reportedly told Iraqi officials that diplomatic relations with the U.S. would be threatened if Iraq pursued that deal with Munich, Germany-based Siemens, instead of Boston, Massachusetts-based GE.…

Prepare for More Distributed Energy Resources [PODCAST]

February 7, 2019

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Paul DeCotis, senior director in West Monroe Partners’ Energy and Utilities practice, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. West Monroe, in partnership with Greentech Media, conducted a survey of more than 1,700 utility customers, 140 utility executives and managers, and more than two dozen regulators in major markets across North America. Its findings were released in a report titled Planning for a Distributed Energy Future.

Interestingly, 92% of survey respondents said they had distributed energy resources (DERs) on their system, up from 80% when the survey was conducted three years ago. However, DeCotis noted during the podcast that DERs are not yet universally economical throughout the U.S.

“Not all states and regulatory jurisdictions handle DERs the same. It’ll be a few years before we see very significant DER penetrations uniformly across the country,” DeCotis said. “DERs still need substantial backup generation because utilities have the obligation to serve load and be the provider of last resort, so the industry will develop cautiously in some parts of the country until regulations become more certain and incentives become more mature,” he added.…

NIPSCO Announces Three New Indiana Wind Farms

February 3, 2019

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Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO), which is phasing out coal-fired power as part of its “Your Energy, Your Future” plan announced late last year, on Feb. 1 said it will develop three new wind farm projects in the state that will add about 800 MW of renewable power generation capacity to its portfolio.

The Merrillville, Ind.-based utility on Friday said the wind farms will be sited in Benton, Montgomery, and White counties. NIPSCO said the projects are partnerships between the utility and private companies, and were chosen after NIPSCO last year issued a request for proposals (RFP) for alternative energy generation.

Violet Sistovaris, NIPSCO’s president, in a statement said, “We’re excited for the opportunity to add more home-grown renewable energy in Indiana. In addition to the economic benefits that projects like these add, the transition we’re making in our electric generation equates to an estimated $ 4 billion in cost-savings for customers over the long-term.”

The utility said it received 90 proposals for energy projects, including 70 sited within the state.…