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Power Plant Control Loop Tuning and Optimization [PODCAST]

December 2, 2018

Optimizing power plant control systems can be challenging, but new tools are available to simplify and improve the process. On this episode of The POWER Podcast, Executive Editor Aaron Larson spoke with Jon Towslee, digital engagement leader for ABB Inc.’s Industrial Automation Power Generation & Water business.

Towslee explained how ABB Ability is focused on improving customers’ businesses by optimizing assets and operator effectiveness, and enhancing top-to-bottom performance. Solutions like the company’s loop performance monitor can be used to identify such things as transmitters that are providing bad data, noisy signal lines, and actuators that aren’t working correctly. Once maintenance crews have all equipment functioning properly, technicians can evaluate process control schemes to ensure they are responding appropriately, which then permits loops to be tuned for optimal performance.

The loop performance monitor evaluates control loops on 17 different parameters. Once individual loops are optimized, higher-level adjustments can be made. Ultimately, the tools allow plant operators to expand boundaries and operate plants more closely to maximum safe operating limits.…

Voters Back Nuclear Power, Phaseout by 2025 Nixed

November 28, 2018

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In a referendum held alongside local elections, the Taiwanese electorate voted overwhelmingly to abolish a stipulation in the country’s Electricity Act that called for all nuclear energy-based power-generating facilities to completely cease operations by 2025.

Many experts considered it a surprising victory for pro-nuclear activists. In January 2016, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party garnered widespread support in elections, running on a platform that included the elimination of nuclear power by 2025. After the election, leaders quickly passed an amendment codifying the nuclear phaseout.

However, a blackout on August 15, 2017, apparently helped change many people’s views on nuclear power. The outage occurred when a contractor accidentally interrupted the gas supply to the 4,384-MW Tatan power station, Taiwan’s largest gas-fired plant. The interruption caused all six units at the site to shut down, and 6.6 million households and businesses across the island lost power for more than five hours. At the time, three of Taiwan’s six then-operational nuclear reactors were offline for maintenance.…

Distributed Energy Is Disrupting the Power Industry: Is the Sky Falling?

October 19, 2018

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Utilities are faced with many disruptive changes in the power market. Customers are demanding cleaner energy and turning to distributed generation as a solution. One expert suggested power companies must react and evolve their business models to change with the times.

During a keynote presentation at the Distributed Energy Conference in Golden, Colorado, on October 17, Roy M. Palk, Esq. (Figure 1), president of New Horizons Consulting and former CEO of East Kentucky Power Cooperative, said, “The utility model, in terms of planning, has just been turned upside down. It will stay that way, in my opinion, for years to come.”

1. Roy Palk, Esq., president of New Horizons Consulting, gave a keynote presentation during the Distributed Energy Conference, in Golden, Colorado, on October 17, 2018. Source: POWER

However, Palk was not pessimistic about the future. He encouraged power utilities to “embrace the changes.” The three points that Palk wanted attendees to take away from his presentation were:

Power companies were born and thrive on disruption.

…

Nuclear Power Roundup: New Milestones Reached on Several Reactors

October 4, 2018

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A handful of nuclear power projects around the world completed notable achievements recently: Rostov 4 entered commercial operation, Tianwan 4 achieved first criticality, the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant completed fuel loading, Leningrad II-1 received its commissioning permit, and the dome was installed on Karachi 3.

Rostov 4

Rostov Unit 4 was placed into commercial operation on September 28, three months ahead of schedule. The reactor is the last VVER-1000 type that will be constructed in Russia. However, Rosatom said the design incorporated some safety elements that are used in Generation 3+ power units.

“Rostov NPP [nuclear power plant] is the first NPP in the newest history where the so called straight-line construction that provides both adherence to deadlines and maximum effective use of materials and financial resources was revived. It is due to this type of construction [Rostov] NPP was constructed not only 3 months earlier, but with the high quality,” Director General of Rosenergoatom JSC Andrey Petrov said in a press release announcing the achievement.…

Several States Urge Federal Court to Rule on Clean Power Plan

September 6, 2018

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Seventeen states have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject the Trump administration’s efforts to further delay the court’s decision on legal challenges to the Clean Power Plan.

In a filing with the court on September 4, the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, noted that the case—State of West Virginia, et. al. v EPA (No. 15-1363)—claimed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken “undue advantage” of the now 18-month-long abeyance granted to the agency by the federal court to allow it to review the rule.

The states were joined by the District of Columbia, and the cities of Boulder, Colorado; Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and South Miami, as well as Florida’s Broward County.

The EPA is “prolonging the delay through a series of notices that do not come close to fulfilling EPA’s statutory obligations,” the filing claims.…

Power Market Is Changing — Distributed Energy Gaining Ground [PODCAST]

August 27, 2018

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The power market is changing. It’s being driven more and more by the retail side of the business, according to Roy Palk, Esq., president of New Horizons Consulting. Palk will give a presentation titled “The Rise of Distributed Energy — New Challenges Bring New Opportunities” during the Distributed Energy Conference, which will be held at the Denver Marriott West in Golden, Colorado, October 15–17, 2018.

Palk joined The POWER Podcast to give a brief preview of his talk. He said younger, more-sophisticated and environmentally attuned consumers, as well as commercial and industrial companies that are going green—often following edicts from their boards of directors—are forcing utilities to evolve in order to remain the energy provider for these customers.

The rise of solar and wind power, microgrids, and other distributed energy resources means member-owned cooperatives and large utilities must look at their business models in a new light, focusing on the benefits of leveraging the trend toward distributed generation.

To learn more about the Distributed Energy Conference and to register for the event, visit www.distributedenergyconference.com…