Project | EnergyNorthwest.com

Select Boiler Chemistry in the Design Phase of Project Life

September 2, 2018

On many combined cycle projects, the major decisions about boiler chemistry are left until after the plant has been designed, equipment is procured, and construction is well underway. However, the best time to make these chemistry decisions is in the design phase of the project. That enables the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor to design the plant that best fits the selected chemistry program (Figure 1).

1. Water treatment decisions. The EPC contractors should design the plant that best fits the users’ selected chemistry program. Courtesy: Colleen Scholl, HDR Inc.

Phosphate Versus Oxidizing, All-Volatile Treatment

For example, consider the selection of a phosphate program versus an oxidizing, all-volatile treatment (AVT-O) program. Of these two, the phosphate program requires more-responsive instrumentation and controls, because of the potential problems of phosphate carryover and hideout. If the EPC contractor has a priori knowledge that phosphates will be used, its engineers can specify highly responsive pH and phosphate instruments, and can ensure those instrument signals are transmitted to automated chemical-injection pumps that feed into multiple injection points (Figure 2).…

Regulators Back Settlement for Costs of Failed Kemper IGCC Project

February 7, 2018

| No Comments

| Industry News

Shareholders of Mississippi Power will have to absorb the majority of outstanding costs resulting from the scuttled Kemper County coal gasification project, as the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) on February 6 approved a settlement for the remaining liabilities associated with the much-touted “clean coal” plant.

Mississippi Power in a statement said it “is pleased with this final order from the Public Service Commission, which effectively settles all costs associated with the Kemper County energy facility.” Anthony Wilson, the company’s CEO, in a statement after today’s vote said, “The economics really didn’t work out and the technology was hard to perfect.”

The PSC in 2017 told Atlanta-based Southern Co. to end construction at Kemper. The gasification project, touted as the future of coal, never was operational, as costs ballooned from an original price tag of $ 2.9 billion to about $ 7.5 billion. The settlement agreement, which was reached last year pending approval, means Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co.,…

Clean Coal Test Project Set for Wyoming

December 18, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

A test plant that will be part of research into producing cleaner-burning coal for power plants is set to begin operation next year in Wyoming, with the company behind the project saying global demand for coal makes the project viable even as the U.S. reduces its reliance on coal for electricity production.

Clean Coal Technologies Inc. (CCTI) is building the test facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and plans to move it to northeast Wyoming near the end of January 2018. The New York-based company has been developing what it calls “the world’s first commercially viable and scalable coal dehydration technology,” designed to upgrade the Btu content of lower-ranking coal “through the extraction of volatile material in liquid form,” ultimately producing a “cleaner burning, dry coal.”

The facility would dry Powder River Basin (PRB) coal, making it burn hotter with lower emissions, and increasing its value on the global market, according to CCTI. The company did not immediately respond to requests from POWER for comment on the cost of building and transporting the plant, although the company in June 2017 said a group of investors was seeking $ 80 million to build a facility in the PRB.…

DOE Offers Another $3.7 Billion in Loan Guarantees for Vogtle Project

September 30, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a statement that the “future of nuclear energy in the United States is bright” as his agency on September 29 announced another $ 3.7 billion in loan guarantees for continued construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has guaranteed another $ 1.67 billion to Georgia Power, $ 1.6 billion to Oglethorpe Power, and $ 415 million to three subsidiaries of the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia. The money is in addition to $ 8.3 billion already guaranteed by the DOE to support construction of the two AP1000 reactors at the plant near Waynesboro, Georgia. The long-delayed project to add two new units to the two existing reactors at Vogtle has been plagued by construction problems and cost overruns; the current timeline to complete construction is now near the end of 2022. Analysts say the cost for the project will go well above $ 20 billion.…

Mississippi Power Will Absorb Costs for Failed Kemper Gasification Project

August 23, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

A settlement Mississippi Power reached on August 21 with stakeholders of the Kemper County facility will ensure customers won’t be subjected to rate increases associated with the now-abandoned gasification portion of the project. While that will affect revenues, the resolution could soften controversy surrounding the project and avoid protracted legal and financial turmoil, the company said.

Mississippi Power reached the settlement with Denbury Resources—the company under contract to buy all the project’s captured carbon, and which had already built a 61-mile carbon dioxide pipeline—along with three advocacy groups: the Central Mississippi Building and Construction Trades Council, the East Mississippi Business Development Corp., and the Ministerial Alliance Partnership.

It essentially provides that the annual revenue requirement—which is necessary to cover the power company’s expenses and have the opportunity to earn a fair rate of return—for the 2018 Kemper IGCC–related costs would be $ 126 million, resulting in no rate increase for customers now or in the future. It also proposes to modify the project’s 2010-awarded certificate of public convenience and necessity to limit the facility to operations of the natural gas combined cycle power plant, which was completed in 2014.…

Toshiba Will Pay $2.2 Billion to Exit Summer Nuclear Project

July 29, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

SCANA Corp. and state-owned utility Santee Cooper on July 27 said Toshiba has agreed to pay nearly $ 2.2 billion to cap its liabilities from the unfinished V.C. Summer nuclear project in South Carolina. Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse, which was building two nuclear units at the Summer site along with the troubled Vogtle nuclear project in Georgia, filed for bankruptcy in March.

Toshiba reached a similar $ 3.7 billion agreement with Southern Co. in June as it seeks to limit its liabilities from the Vogtle project. Both AP1000 nuclear projects are years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

Decision on Summer’s Future Expected Soon

SCANA, represented by principal subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. (SCE&G), and Santee Cooper in a statement on July 27 said they expect the cost to complete the Summer plant will “materially exceed” both Westinghouse’s estimates for completion and the payments from Toshiba, outlined as $ 2.168 billion over a five-year period. SCANA and Santee Cooper said they expect to decide soon whether they will continue with Summer’s construction, modify the project, or abandon it.…