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South Korea Will Close Half Its Coal-Fired Fleet

September 9, 2020

The post South Korea Will Close Half Its Coal-Fired Fleet appeared first on POWER Magazine.

South Korea’s president said the country will shutter 30 more coal-fired power plants by 2034, and bring additional solar and wind power resources online in the next five years in order to meet emissions reductions targets.

President Moon Jae-in made the announcement Sept. 8 in a speech he delivered virtually for the United Nations’ International Day for Clean Air for blue skies event. The president said his administration will close 10 of those operating coal-fired plants by the end of 2022. He also has called for the country to phase out nuclear power.

South Korea has about 60 operating coal plants, which generate about 40% of the country’s electricity. The country over the past three years has implemented temporary shutdowns of plants that are more than 30 years old, including idling about half the coal-fired fleet earlier this year in an effort to reduce air pollution.…

GE, CTCI Score 6.5-GW Gas Power Contract Win in Taiwan

September 7, 2020

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The post GE, CTCI Score 6.5-GW Gas Power Contract Win in Taiwan appeared first on POWER Magazine.

General Electric International Inc. (GE) and consortium partner Taiwanese engineering services firm CTCI have bagged a multi-billion-dollar engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for five combined cycle gas-fired power units in Taiwan.

The consortium will build three new units at the 3.9-GW Hsinta Power Plant and two new units at the 2.6-GW Taichung Power Plant. The two plants owned by state-owned utility Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) are slated to come online in phases, starting in 2024.

Power Plants Based on HA Technology

As part of the project scope, GE Gas Power will deploy 10 7HA.03 gas turbines—the newest model in its 2014-launched high-efficiency air-cooled (HA) gas turbine line—as well as five steam turbine, 15 generators, and 10 heat recovery steam generators. CTCI will provide engineering and construction of civil work and erection for the generating units, as well as the balance of plant. …

Georgia Power: New Vogtle Unit Still Set for 2021 Startup

September 5, 2020

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The post Georgia Power: New Vogtle Unit Still Set for 2021 Startup appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The target in-service dates for two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant site in Georgia remain November 2021 and November 2022, respectively, Georgia Power said in a filing this week with the state’s Public Utility Commission.

The utility on Aug. 31, in its “Twenty-third Semi-annual Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report,” said work on the two-unit expansion at the site in Waynesboro, Georgia, is progressing on pace despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest report, also known as the VCM (Vogtle Construction Monitoring), said cold hydro testing of Unit 3 (Figure 1) is set for this month, with hot functional testing planned to occur during the fourth quarter of this year.

Fuel loading of Unit 3 also is planned by year-end. The utility said that under an “aggressive work site plan,” Unit 3 could enter commercial operation as soon as May 2021, though the regulatory-approved date remains six months later.…

What Is Siemens Energy? CEO Tells All

September 3, 2020

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The post What Is Siemens Energy? CEO Tells All appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Siemens announced the spinoff of its Power and Gas division on May 7, 2019. It was part of the company’s Vision 2020+ strategy. On Sept. 1, Siemens Energy laid out its post-spinoff plans during a virtual capital market presentation.

Siemens Energy’s Portfolio

Leading up to the event, Christian Bruch, who was appointed CEO of Siemens Energy on May 1, 2020, offered power industry media insight on the company. During the August 27 video conference with reporters, he said, “For me, it’s important that people really understand what we put together here, because it’s a quite unique company in terms of what the portfolio is—what the business is. So, for me, it’s really putting together a leader in the energy industry, which cuts across really from conventional generation to renewables from generation of electricity over transmission to storage or green hydrogen. So, it’s quite a diverse picture.”…

NRC Gives Final Approval to NuScale’s SMR Design

August 30, 2020

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The post NRC Gives Final Approval to NuScale’s SMR Design appeared first on POWER Magazine.

NuScale Power said the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its Phase 6 review of the Design Certification Application (DCA) of the company’s small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), and said the company’s SMR is the first such reactor to receive NRC approval of its design.

NuScale on August 28 announced that with the DCA process now complete, “customers can proceed with plans to develop NuScale power plants with the understanding that the NRC has approved the safety aspects of the NuScale design.”

The NRC’s issuance of the agency’s Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER) represents the group’s completion of the technical review and approval process for NuScale’s SMR design. NuScale will discuss the company’s technology during POWER’s Digital Energy Experience, a now all-virtual program scheduled for October 19-22.

‘Significant Milestone’

“This is a significant milestone not only for NuScale, but also for the entire U.S.…

Exelon Makes Plans to Retire Byron and Dresden Nuclear Plants in 2021

August 28, 2020

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The post Exelon Makes Plans to Retire Byron and Dresden Nuclear Plants in 2021 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

In a stunning announcement, Exelon Generation, which operates the largest U.S. fleet of nuclear plants—21 reactors at 12 facilities in Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania—said it will retire the Byron and Dresden generating stations next fall for economic reasons.

“Although we know in our heads that shutting down the uneconomic Illinois plants is necessary to preserve even more jobs elsewhere, our hearts ache today for the thousands of talented women and men that have served Illinois families for more than a generation and will lose their jobs because of poorly conceived energy policies,” Christopher Crane, president and CEO of Exelon, said in a statement. “But we are only about a year away from shutdown and we need to give our people, the host communities, and regulators time to prepare.”

Massive Clean Energy Generation

The Dresden Generating Station (Figure 1) has two operating boiling water reactors that combine for a total net generating capacity of 1,845 MW.…