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EIA Details Impact of Coal-to-Gas Switching

August 5, 2020

The post EIA Details Impact of Coal-to-Gas Switching appeared first on POWER Magazine.

U.S. utilities have made a significant move away from coal-fired power generation in the past decade, evidenced by a continuing stream of announced coal plant retirements.

That transition has been partly driven by new generation from renewable resources, such as wind and solar power. New data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released August 5, though, shows that a large part of that transition came as generators repurposed those coal plants to run on natural gas, or built new gas-fired plants to replace electricity generated by burning coal.

The EIA on Wednesday said 121 U.S. coal-fired power plants were repurposed to burn other fuels between 2011 and 2019. The agency said 85% of those plants were converted to gas, or replaced by natural gas-fired plants. This coal-to-gas switching was driven not only by more stringent emissions regulations, but also by consistently lower prices for natural gas.

*Most of the coal-fired generation capacity lost during the past decade came from coal plant retirements, but several power plants were converted to burn natural gas.*

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Xuzhou 3 Shows the Future of Subcritical Coal Power Is Sublime

August 3, 2020

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The post Xuzhou 3 Shows the Future of Subcritical Coal Power Is Sublime appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A remarkable retrofit at Xuzhou Unit 3 boosted the 320-MW subcritical coal unit’s efficiency to beyond 43.56%—higher than all existing Chinese supercritical units, and even many ultrasupercritical units. The groundbreaking demonstration is a POWER 2020 Top Plant award winner because it offers crucial hope and new purpose for subcritical units around the world.

In April 2017, engineers from Shanghai Shenergy Power Technology sat together contemplating how they would execute a formidable task. Owing partly to their success at boosting the annual average net efficiency at Shanghai Waigaoqiao 3, an ultrasupercritical (USC) unit (and a 2015 POWER Top Plant), to a world-class 44.5%, Hong Kong–based power generation giant China Resources Power had invited the technology arm of Shanghai government–owned Shenergy Group to conduct a high-temperature retrofit at one of four units at the 1.2-GW Xuzhou China Resources Power Plant in Jiangsu province.…

Assembly Phase Underway for ITER Nuclear Project

July 28, 2020

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Officials with the ITER project in France said work has started on the assembly of giant components needed for construction of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, a project designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful use.

The ITER group, in a ceremony July 28 that was broadcast online (see video below), marked the start of the machine assembly of the international experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor. Countries involved in the project include the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and member states of the European Union, with a total of 35 countries participating. The project (Figure 1), being built in Cadarache, France, is expected to start up in 2035.

The project has had large budget overruns, as well as several delays as the partner countries have tried to coordinate financing and cooperation on technical issues. The exact price tag is not known, as participating countries have not divulged their commitments, but Bernard Bigot, the project’s director, on Tuesday said the estimated budget for the European Union is about 20 billion euros ($ 23.5 billion).…

Rosatom Accepts First MOX Fuel Batch for BN-800 Fast Reactor

July 26, 2020

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Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy company, said it is ready to receive a shipment of the first full reload batch of fresh uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for the BN-800 fast reactor at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, the nation’s oldest operating nuclear energy facility.

The company on July 23 announced the Mining and Chemical Combine, the Russian facility in Zheleznogorsk, a city in the Krasnoyarsk region in East Siberia, had manufactured the fuel. Rosatom said 169 fuel assemblies have been accepted by Rosenergoatom, which operates Russia’s nuclear power plants, and its authorized representative VPO ZAES. That group confirmed the fuel was ready to be shipped.

The Rosatom announcement came at the same time as U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Dan Brouillette said his agency is working to end U.S. reliance on Russia for nuclear fuel. Brouillette, in comments to members of Congress who focus on energy, said the DOE’s Nuclear Fuel Working Group wants American-sourced uranium for domestic nuclear plans.…

[VIDEO] POWER Insights: The Amazing DIII-D Fusion Project

July 24, 2020

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The post [VIDEO] POWER Insights: The Amazing DIII-D Fusion Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The DIII-D National Fusion Facility, operated by General Atomics for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is the largest magnetic fusion research facility in the U.S. The mission of the DIII-D research program is to establish the scientific basis for the optimization of the tokamak approach to fusion energy production. The DIII-D program is a cornerstone element in the U.S.’s fusion program strategy. DIII-D research has delivered multiple innovations and scientific discoveries that have transformed the prospects for fusion energy.

Richard Buttery, director of experimental science for the DIII-D facility, was interviewed by POWER and explained how General Atomics’ facility works. “DIII-D is a tokamak, which means it’s a device that holds very hot gas together,” he said. “The gas is shaped like a doughnut, and we use magnetic fields to hold that plasma together.”

It’s called plasma because it gets so hot (about 100 million degrees centigrade) it’s ionized.…

DOE Seeks Power Sector’s Input on Bulk-Power Foreign Adversary Rules

July 22, 2020

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The post DOE Seeks Power Sector’s Input on Bulk-Power Foreign Adversary Rules appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Department of Energy (DOE) wants the electric power industry to help the DOE draft rules that will prohibit the U.S. bulk-power electric system from using equipment sourced from, or otherwise susceptible to, harmful influence by “foreign adversaries.”

Asset owners, utility operators, equipment vendors, and other interested parties can voluntarily provide information to the DOE by August 7. The DOE’s solicitation suggests that the forthcoming rules will delve considerably deeper than merely considering bulk-power equipment’s country of origin or the identity of its manufacturer when asking whether equipment is sourced from a “foreign adversary.” Instead, it appears the DOE is considering an evaluation of the entire supply chain used to procure and install a piece of equipment, including involvement from sub-tier suppliers and the development history of associated firmware and source code.

Background Information

President Trump on May 1, 2020, issued Executive Order 13920 (the “Bulk-Power Order”) which prohibits the acquisition, importation, transfer or installation of “bulk power system electric equipment” in the U.S.…