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Startup of Olkiluoto 3 Nuclear Plant Delayed Again

October 12, 2017

Continued problems with construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in Finland have pushed the facility’s expected start date into 2019, meaning operations will not begin until at least 10 years after the original proposed start of commercial service.

Project owner Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) on October 9 announced further delays. TVO project director Jouni Silvennoinen in a statement said: “We are very disappointed by this additional delay. There is still substantial work to be accomplished in the project.”

The 1.6-GW Olkiluoto 3 project is being built by a group led by Areva, France’s state-owned nuclear group. The nuclear plant, where construction began in 2005, was originally expected to begin operation in 2009. According to an October 9 Reuters story: “An Areva spokesman said the reactor would produce its first power at the end of 2018, but the ramp-up to full production would delay the commercial start-up to May 2019. He said hot-testing would start in December 2017, nuclear fuel would be loaded in August 2018, first grid connection would be in December 2018 and the commercial start would be May 2019.”…

EPA Ready to Attack Clean Power Plan

October 8, 2017

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The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering its options to repeal or replace the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the signature climate regulation of former President Barack Obama.

POWER magazine on October 6 obtained a 43-page draft of the EPA’s proposed action on the CPP. The formal document is expected to be released soon. The document notes “The EPA has not determined whether it will promulgate a rule … to regulate greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions from existing EGUs [electric generating units], and, if it will do so, when it will do so and what form that rule will take.”

President Donald Trump has said the CPP violates federal law, something the EPA proposal says it will attempt to determine. Trump has said the emissions regulations could cost power consumers as much as $ 33 billion. He also has called the CPP a “job killer,” and in June said he would pull the U.S. out of the landmark Paris climate agreement after saying that man-made climate change is a “hoax.”…

Droneweek [PODCAST]

October 6, 2017

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DRONEWEEK is a television program that will air on the Viceland network beginning Monday, October 9, 2017, and continuing each night throughout the week. Each episode will feature footage taken by drones—unmanned aerial vehicles—of impressive power projects from around the world.

In this episode of The POWER Podcast, Eric Gebhardt, vice president of systems and innovation for GE Power, is interviewed about some of the technology that will be featured during DRONEWEEK, which GE co-created with Viceland. This is the third year that GE has broadcast this type of footage taken using drones. The first year the company posted live footage on Periscope, and last year it did the same on Facebook. This is the first year that it will air the program on Viceland.

Each night a different energy-related theme will be the focus, and the show will include an expert panel that will discuss the featured topic of the night. On Monday, October 9, wind power will take center stage.…

Siemens Rolls Out MVDC Transmission System to Bolster Distributed Generation

October 4, 2017

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Siemens has launched a new direct-current (DC) transmission system for alternating current (AC) grids of between 30 kV and 150 kV. The medium-voltage system that can bridge distances of up to 125 miles is designed to help grid entities handle ever-growing volumes of power fed into the distribution system from distributed and renewable power.

The MVDC PLUS (Medium Voltage Direct Current Power Link Universal System) introduced on October 4 is based on Siemens’ high-voltage direct-current transmission (HVDC) technology, but it is offered in three variants: for a transmission capacity of about 50, 100, and 150 MW at DC transmission voltages of 20 to 50 kV. Comparatively, the company’s HVDC system transmits power at voltages of more than 220 kV.

Siemens has introduced a new medium-voltage power transmission solution that uses direct current applications to increase power transfer capability while also minimizing losses. Courtesy: Siemens

According to the company, the system meets growing needs to expand and upgrade grid infrastructures that are increasingly burdened with decentralized power generation, which is leading to congestion at distribution and transmission levels.…

GE Power Sells Lucrative Water & Process Technologies Division to SUEZ in $3.4B Deal

October 2, 2017

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Less than a week after GE struck a $ 2.6 billion deal with ABB for GE’s electrification business, GE Power completed the $ 3.4 billion sale of its lucrative water and process technologies division to multinational water management firm SUEZ.

The sale of GE Water & Process Technologies, a systems and services provider of water, wastewater and process systems solutions, was completed on September 30 but announced on October 2. According to GE and SUEZ, the division manned by 7,500 employees generated about $ 2.1 billion in revenues for GE in 2016. Today’s announcement, on the heels of last week’s GE-ABB deal, is part of the company’s transition under new CEO John Flannery.

According to Russell Stokes, who replaced Steve Bolze as president and CEO of GE Power in July, the sale of GE Water & Process Technologies is the “next step in GE Power’s business strategy and portfolio transformation.”

Bolze, whose final day at GE was September 30, announced his retirement from GE this June after he lost out to Flannery as successor to CEO Jeff Immelt.…

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

September 30, 2017

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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.…