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Tampa Electric Will Convert Big Bend Coal Plant to Natural Gas

January 14, 2018

An executive with the parent company of Tampa Electric said the utility plans to seek regulatory approval to convert its Big Bend Power Station in Florida, the oldest and last major coal-fired facility in its fleet, to natural gas.

Rob Bennett, speaking at a breakfast gathering in Tampa on January 12, said an engineering analysis of the switch has been underway for a few years. “It’s a big decision,” said Bennett, who was named CEO of newly formed Emera Technologies last month after overseeing Emera Inc.’s integration with TECO Energy, which Emera Inc. acquired in July 2016. TECO has operated Tampa Electric for many years. “It has to work. It has to make sense for 35 or 40 years,” Bennett said of the plan.

Big Bend has four coal-fired units, the first of which came online in 1970; Unit 4 began operation in 1985. The 1,730-MW plant in Apollo Beach, south of Tampa across Tampa Bay, has a troubled history; most recently, five workers at the plant, including a senior plant manager and four contract workers, were killed in an accident June 29, 2017, which occurred as the workers were trying to clean hardened slag, a by-product of burning coal, from the bottom of a tank where slag cools.…

CPUC Backs PG&E Plan to Retire Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant

January 12, 2018

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California regulators have approved Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E’s) application to retire the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by year-end 2025, ending a protracted battle over the generating station that pitted local economic interests against environmentalists and other opponents of nuclear power.

The state Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on January 11 voted unanimously to accept PG&E’s request to decommission the two reactors at the plant near Avila Beach when operating licenses for the units expire in November 2024 and August 2025, respectively. The 2,256-MW plant is the lone remaining operating nuclear facility in California.

The CPUC also authorized PG&E to recover from ratepayers $ 241.2 million in costs associated with the retirement: $ 211.3 million to keep employees until the plant in closed; $ 11.3 million to retrain displaced workers; and $ 18.6 million for operating license renewal costs.

CPUC President Michael Picker, the commissioner assigned to today’s proceeding, said “Diablo Canyon has been a source of reliable and clean electricity, and employment, in San Luis Obispo [County] for many years now.…

FPL Closes Coal Plant, Brings More Solar Online

January 10, 2018

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Florida Power & Light (FPL) began the new year by opening four new solar power plants, along with officially retiring one of its two remaining coal-fired plants in the state.

The utility on January 8 said the four solar plants began operating on January 1, 2018. They are the Horizon Solar Energy Center, in Alachua and Putnam counties; the Coral Farms Solar Energy Center in Putnam County; the Indian River Solar Energy Center in Indian River County; and the Wildflower Solar Energy Center in DeSoto County. Each has a generation capacity of 74.5 MW.

The utility plans to add four more 74.5-MW solar plants to its generation fleet by March 1, 2018, sited in Brevard, Indian River, Hendry, and St. Lucie counties. FPL has installed more than 3.5 million new solar panels in the state over the past two years. It expects to have more than 10 million solar panels in service by 2023.

“The truth is progress like this doesn’t happen by accident,” Eric Silagy, FPL’s president and CEO, said in a statement.…

Commentary: Pressing Forward With Vogtle, a Nuclear MVP

January 6, 2018

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Georgia wasn’t looking for an award or recognition when we set out to build new nuclear reactors in our state. Yet we now find ourselves as the last team on the field as our commissioners unanimously voted to move forward with a new cost and schedule for the Plant Vogtle new nuclear units—keeping the project alive just months after South Carolina walked off the field. This “experiment” here in Georgia is all that is left of the nuclear renaissance bludgeoned by cheap natural gas prices and a Japanese tsunami. Here is why I wanted to move forward.

Plant Vogtle is one of two Georgia nuclear sites. The plant’s existing two units came online in 1987 and 1989 amid cost overruns and controversy and now serve the state’s energy consumers as the crown jewel of our generation fleet. Disappointingly, Units 3 and 4 are running behind schedule and set to cost substantially more than we anticipated—almost double. The success of the first two units clearly played a role in us moving forward, with the hindsight that the addition of two more units most likely will work out.…

Siemens Reaches for Higher Efficiency with Its HL-Class Gas Turbine [PODCAST]

January 2, 2018

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Siemens claims to be paving the way for the next level of efficiency with the development of its HL-class gas turbine. In June 2017, the company announced it will validate the technology at Duke Energy’s Lincoln County site in North Carolina. Siemens is developing this class in an evolutionary development step derived from its proven SGT-8000H technology.

The advanced Siemens HL-class gas turbines combine a series of new but already tested technologies and design features with the best of past experience—resulting in a technology carrier to the next level of efficiency and performance. The HL-class is currently achieving greater than 63% efficiency with a mid-term goal to reach 65%.

The post Siemens Reaches for Higher Efficiency with Its HL-Class Gas Turbine [PODCAST] appeared first on POWER Magazine.

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How to Leverage the Value of Outsourcing Electrical Power Maintenance

December 31, 2017

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From deregulation and restructuring to new technology and globalization, the power industry has undergone dramatic changes over the past few decades. Falling barriers to entry have led to the rise of small and independent power producers, and empowered consumers with choices when it comes to where to purchase their energy.

These changes have transformed a once staid, stable industry into a dynamic market driven by competitive pressures rather than traditional cost of service models. Today’s plant managers and operators must focus on customer service and retention, cost and rate control, and new tools and technology to compete.

To maximize profitability, most modern plants run “lean and mean” when it comes to internal staff and resources. This often means the highly skilled specialists who perform complex reliability maintenance are not included as part of the in-house team—they are often too expensive or too hard to find. Yet, system failure and unplanned downtime and outages can be catastrophic, and North American Electric Reliability Corp.…