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Bechtel, GE Will Lead 3.2-GW Gas Power Project

July 14, 2021

The post Bechtel, GE Will Lead 3.2-GW Gas Power Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Vietnam’s first privately-owned power plant has moved a step closer to fruition, as Delta Offshore Energy chose Bechtel to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) services for a proposed 3,200-MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) facility.

The power station, sited in Bac Lieu province in the Mekong Delta about 155 miles south of Ho Chi Minh City, will be fueled with liquified natural gas (LNG). The plant will feature four single-shaft General Electric (GE) 9HA.02 H-class turbines. Vietnamese officials have said they expect the $ 3-billion project will further economic development in the region, which already is becoming an industrial hub. The Bac Lieu Province People’s Council approved the plant’s 70-hectare (173 acres) footprint earlier this year.

“This power plant is a game changer for the Bac Lieu province,” said Scott Osborne, Bechtel’s general manager for infrastructure, Asia Pacific, after the FEED contract was announced July 6.…

Enabling IIoT Connectivity for Virtual Power Plants

July 12, 2021

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Declarations of climate emergencies in many countries around the world have created awareness for the need to switch to clean energy sources, which in turn has prompted the power industry and governments to take action or set definite goals. Many governments around the world now provide incentives to individuals, industries, and communities who are interested in generating and using power from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy.

The power grid has seen many changes that have enabled the integration of power from distributed energy resources (DERs). In the new power economy that is emerging, virtual power plants (Figure 1, VPPs) are showing the way by making it possible to aggregate power from different DERs and providing an efficient platform for energy trading. Catalyzed by these developments, a new “prosumer” class is emerging that consists of consumers who not only consume power from the grid but also produce their own green power and might have excess power to sell.…

PSEG Power Closes Last Coal Plant, Explores Divestiture of Other Fossil Assets

June 6, 2021

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PSEG Power retired its Bridgeport Harbor Station Unit 3 (BHS 3, Figure 1) on May 31. The unit, located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was the last remaining coal-fired power plant in the company’s fleet.

1. United Illuminating Co. placed Bridgeport Harbor Station Unit 3 in service in 1968. The station changed hands in 1999 when WISVEST purchased it. WISVEST sold the station to PSEG Power in 2002. Unit 3 was officially retired on May 31, 2021. Courtesy: PSEG Power

“The retirement of Bridgeport Harbor Station Unit 3 marks the end of an era for the City of Bridgeport and the citizens who relied on its power,” Ralph Izzo, chairman, president, and CEO of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG Power’s parent company), said in a press release. “I’m grateful to the generations of employees who operated this unit safely and reliably for more than 50 years, and to the entire Bridgeport community for their support.”…

Wyoming Coal Power Plant May Host Natrium Advanced Nuclear Demonstration

June 4, 2021

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Bill Gates’ nuclear innovation startup TerraPower and Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary PacifiCorp are looking to site a federally backed demonstration of their 345-MWe Natrium advanced nuclear reactor system at a retiring PacifiCorp coal power plant in Wyoming.

During a June 2 energy event in Cheyenne attended by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Bill Gates, and U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), the companies said they plan to announce a plant site for the demonstration by the end of this year. While the companies are now still conducting “joint due diligence to ensure this opportunity is cost-effective” for PacifiCorp’s customers, their next steps will include “further project evaluation, education and outreach, and state and federal regulatory approvals prior to acquisition of a Natrium facility,” they said.

An ARDP Boost

The announcement is nonetheless significant because it provides a state-backed vicinity for one of the two much-watched demonstration projects bolstered by $ 80 million each in initial federal funding under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).…

The POWER Interview: Spotlight on the Solar Wave

May 28, 2021

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Growth in the solar power sector is coming from many angles, with utilities building ever-larger solar arrays, and more homeowners and building owners putting panels on their rooftops. Many utilities and other companies also are expanding offerings of community solar, a way for electricity customers to get the benefits of solar power without having to install a rooftop system.

BlueWave Solar, a Boston, Massachusetts-based company founded in 2010, offers community solar sales and services along with solar financing and project development. What began as a company “that started … with a couple guys driving around in an old station wagon touting the benefits of solar to anyone who would listen,” according to the BlueWave website, today has projects scattered across the U.S. Northeast.

The company works with cities and a variety of energy companies, and recently announced it has secured more than 1 GW of future solar and storage projects across eight states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.…

The POWER Interview: A Marketplace for Energy Collaboration

May 26, 2021

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The digitization of power generation is among the technology advancements transforming the way electricity is produced and distributed. Utilities have always sought ways to improve the efficiency of their operations, along with lowering the cost of maintenance while streamlining asset management.

The digital transformation has brought numerous challenges, as utilities seek to upgrade their legacy thermal generation while at the same time integrating renewable energy resources into their fleets. The advent of decentralized, distributed power generation also has brought digitization to the forefront, particularly as companies work to improve the quality of the data they’re gathering from their power plants, and figure out how to access and use an ever-larger quantity of information about how their assets are operating.

Awesense, a Vancouver, British Columbia technology group, is among the companies working to help power generators integrate digitization into their operations. The company’s Digital Energy Platform, “a digital twin-based energy analytics platform that allows utilities to scale at the same pace as the rapidly changing technology landscape of the energy grid,” is designed to support energy providers at a time when changing business models have become a constant in the industry.…