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Biden Presidency Promises Change for Power Industry

January 7, 2021

The post Biden Presidency Promises Change for Power Industry appeared first on POWER Magazine.

As we get closer to the presidential inauguration, and with President-elect Biden’s announcement of his Cabinet picks for the Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of the Interior (Interior), we begin the inevitable hypothesizing about which “Day 1 actions” will be taken, which actions will be among the administration’s “100 Day actions,” and what priorities will bleed into 2022 or beyond.

COMMENTARY

President-elect Biden has put forth a sweeping platform during the campaign, a platform that if accomplished would completely transform the U.S. energy system within the next several decades by putting the country on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by 2050, and to generate electricity from renewable sources in order to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. To achieve these goals, substantial technological advancement is required, including significant changes to the power generation, transmission, and distribution systems.…

Companies Accelerate Shutdown of Chilean Coal Plants

January 2, 2021

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Italy’s Enel is decommissioning one of its coal-fired power plants in Chile two years sooner than originally planned, with the unit’s closure coming two days after the Chile-based unit of a U.S. utility announced it would accelerate the closure of a pair of coal-fired power plants in the country.

Enel on Dec. 31 is closing its 128-MW Bocamina 1 coal-fired power station. The company also is awaiting authorization from Chile’s National Energy Commission (CNE) to close its 350-MW Bocamina 2 plant in May 2022.

AES Gener on Dec. 29 said it would close both the 120-MW Ventanas 1 and 220-MW Ventanas 2 coal-fired generating facilities ahead of schedule, with Ventanas 1 going offline immediately, and Ventanas shutting down in 2022, instead of 2024 as originally scheduled. The Chilean government over the past year has been working with several generators in the country, including AES Gener, Enel, ENGIE, and Colbun, to gradually phase out coal-fired power generation in the South American nation.…

GE Will Supply Turbines for Vietnamese Wind Farm

December 29, 2020

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The post GE Will Supply Turbines for Vietnamese Wind Farm appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Innovation in the design of onshore wind turbines continues, with GE Renewable Energy announcing Dec. 28 that it will supply eight of the company’s 3 MW-137 turbines as part of the Phuoc Minh Wind Farm in Vietnam.

Monday’s announcement comes just days after Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) announced the largest deal ever for its 5.X platform turbines, which will be used at a site in Brazil.

GE Renewable Energy said its Vietnam contract includes supply and commissioning of the 27.2-MW Phuoc Minh installation, located in Ninh Thuan, in south-central Vietnam. It also includes a 10-year operations and maintenance agreement. A consortium that includes PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corp., Henste Engineering, and IPC Group will provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for the wind farm.

EPC Partner

“We are proud to announce this new deal in Vietnam with PowerChina, which cements our partnership in this growing market,” said Gilan Sabatier, regional leader for GE Renewable Energy’s Onshore Wind Business in South Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).…

Rosatom Will Build SMR Project in Republic of Sakha

December 27, 2020

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The post Rosatom Will Build SMR Project in Republic of Sakha appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom has signed an agreement confirming its participation in construction of a small modular nuclear reactor project in the Russian Republic of Sakha.

Officials from Sakha—an area also known as Yakutia—on Dec. 23 signed a deal with Rosatom outlining the formation of “electric power tariff principles” for an SMR power plant with RITM-200 reactors in Ust-Kuyga, Ust-Yansky District, which would supply electricity to remote communities in the Arctic region. The agreement confirms the off-take of as much as 50 MW of electricity from the plant. It also confirms Rosatom’s “readiness to assist in SMR NPP siting,” according to an announcement from Rosatom shared with POWER.

The plant also will supply power for the Kyuchus gold deposit development project in the north of Verkhoyansky District, Yakutia.

Development of the SMR project comes after Rosatom and officials from Sakha signed an Agreement of Intent in September 2019.…

The Airgap Is Not Enough: The Failed Security Perimeter Paradigm in OT Networks

December 21, 2020

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The post The Airgap Is Not Enough: The Failed Security Perimeter Paradigm in OT Networks appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Operational technology (OT) electronics and networks for manufacturing, energy production, and virtually every other industrial application, are targets for cyberattacks. For infrastructure-related companies, such as power producers, transportation, and water plants, the OT networks are not only the revenue producers, but also important targets for destabilizing national security. Successful attacks can be destructive and costly, but the cost of the tools, training, and rigor to secure systems is also high.

What Is an Airgap?

An inexpensive perimeter defense solution to secure OT networks has become prevalent: Isolate the network from the internet with an “airgap” or a unidirectional communication device that blocks incoming communication and thus cyberattacks. With an airgap in place, other cybersecurity measures, such as the application of security patches, are no longer perceived to be necessary, reducing costs. In practice, the airgap solution is insufficient.

The airgap defense is not a new or revolutionary idea.…

Explosions Topple Smokestacks of Iconic Navajo Generating Station

December 19, 2020

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The post Explosions Topple Smokestacks of Iconic Navajo Generating Station appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Demolition of the Navajo Generating Station, a 2,400-MW coal-fired power plant that generated electricity for several cities in the U.S. Southwest, continued Dec. 18 as explosions brought down the facility’s three large smokestacks.

The plant was closed in November 2019. The NGS, located near Page, Arizona, is being demolished by Salt River Project (SRP). The station was the largest coal-fired power plant in the western U.S., and the three 775-foot-tall smokestacks towered above the surrounding countryside.

The plant, which generated power for Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Los Angeles, California, along with other cities, also pumped water that helped spur the growth of the Phoenix metropolitan area.…