March 2012

Vol. 156 No.
3 March 2012
Coping with Coal Dust
Power in Vietnam Outage Planning Approaches Roadmap for PEVs Efficient Worker Callouts
Solutions for combined heat and power plants
A city full of energy

Siemens turbines contribute directly to increased quality of life
The inhabitants of Wrzburg, a vibrant city in Southern Germany, have every reason to be proud of their modernized CHP plant. State-of-the-art Siemens gas and steam turbines help reduce its carbon emissions by an impressive 40 percent. The plant now provides about 85 percent of the citys electricity plus district heating for the entire city center in a clean, cost-efficient, and sustainable manner.
www.siemens.com/energy/chp
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Established 1882 Vol. 156 No. 3
March 2012
ON THE COVER
Photo courtesy iStockphoto
COVER STORY: PLANT DESIGN

30 Coping with Coal Dust
Understanding what OSHA dust instructions require, proper housekeeping, and making appropriate upgrades will ensure that the next OSHA inspection of your coal-fired plant is much less stressful. Those efforts could also save lives.
SPECIAL REPORTS
OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
40 Regional Service Organization Provides Supplemental Maintenance Support

American Electric Powers Field Services Regional Service Organization gives the utility a flexible way to assist plant maintenance teams and minimize costs. It also delivers fleetwide long-term benefits that include knowledge sharing, optimizing fleet outage schedules, and promoting continuous process improvement.
30
44 Achieving Sustainable Performance Improvement

Fluor explains how integrating its broad experience and O&M servicesranging from operational readiness to outage execution to total O&M supportwith individual plant processes can result in sustainable performance improvements.
46 Optimizing Outages with Outage Readiness Analysis

OG&E, which operates a small but diverse fleet serving parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas, has adapted a project planning process that ensures consistency and readiness in outage planning. The improved approach has contributed to the utilitys overall success.
50 Enhancing Plant Performance Through Formal Outage Planning and Execution

Southern Company details its outage management model and regional maintenance approach. Upfront project identification and planning through the regional structure have optimized costs and ensured reliability.
44
POWER IN VIETNAM
52 Vietnam Works Hard to Power Economic Growth

Though Western nations enduring economic woes might envy Vietnams average annual GDP growth of 7%, that prodigious growth has been accompanied by growing pains for power generation development. We look at how the nation is working to balance prices, water constraints, financing challenges, and fuel choices.
POWER MARKETS
60 Ensuring Resource Adequacy in Competitive Electricity Markets

A number of recent events have demonstrated that, despite extensive efforts over a number of years, the regions of the country that have embraced competitive electricity markets are still struggling to find the best method to ensure resource adequacy.
52
March 2012 POWER
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66
FEATURES
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
66 EEI Proposes Road Map for Electric Vehicle Integration

First it was the LEAF and Volt. This year five more major car manufacturers are rolling out models that get at least some of their juice from the grid. A new guide from the Edison Electric Institute identifies four main issues that every electric utility will need to address to ensure readiness for plug-in electric vehicles.
PLANT OPERATIONS
68 Automating Crew Callouts

Progress Energy has adopted an emergency worker callout program that has eliminated manual dialing, improved work acceptance rates, and increased the speed of worker reporting.
DEPARTMENTS
SPEAKING OF POWER
6 Abundance of Energy
GLOBAL MONITOR
8 8 12 13 14 14 16 16 18 20 26 27
Large China Energy Storage Project Begins Operation Meeting LNG Demand with Floating Liquefaction Facilities THE BIG PICTURE: Dammed Dams High-Temperature Superconductor Technology Stepped Up MHI Ships First Commercial J-Series Turbine Spain Inaugurates Two More Parabolic Trough Units Desertec Ambitions Turn to Asia, Australia POWER Digest
FOCUS ON O&M
7EA Conversion Saves Time and Money Inlet Fogging Boosts Power in High-Humidity Environments User Group Profile: Philippine Coal Plant Users Group Plant of the Year Trophy Presented
LEGAL & REGULATORY
28 Rethinking Security Requirements for Generation Developers

By Margaret H. Claybour, associate, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
18
70 NEW PRODUCTS COMMENTARY
76 Has the Dust Settled?

By Bob Taylor, chairman, PRB Coal Users Group
Connect with POWER

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POWER March 2012
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EDITORIAL & PRODUCTION

Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Robert Peltier, PE 480-820-7855, editor@powermag.com Managing Editor: Dr. Gail Reitenbach Senior Editor: Angela Neville, JD Gas Technology Editor: Thomas Overton, JD Senior Writer: Sonal Patel European Reporter: Charles Butcher Contributing Editors: Mark Axford; David Daniels; Steven F Greenwald; Jeffrey P Gray; . . Jim Hylko; Kennedy Maize; Dick Storm; Dr. Justin Zachary Graphic Designer: Joanne Moran Production Manager: Tony Campana, tcampana@accessintel.com Marketing Director: Jamie Reesby Marketing Manager: Jennifer Brady
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POWER March 2012
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SPEAKING OF POWER
Abundance of Energy
resident Obamas Jan. 24 State of the Union address did not convince me that the nation should, in his words, double down on future clean energy investment. Americas abundance of oil and gas should be the foundation upon which to build a comprehensive national energy policy, not subsidies for government-favored energy technologies and overreaching energy regulations. I agree with President Obamas comment that nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy, although we differ on which forms of American-made energy should be developed. Let me examine his State of the Union comments on natural gas production, oil reserves, and climate change.
of dollars on clean energy investments and carbon controls. According to the EIA, that 2% statistic (about 20 billion barrels) represents proven reserves rather than technically recoverable reserves, a much better measure of how much known oil
tion is on private land. North Dakotas overall oil production, growing 250% over the past decade, is out of the federal governments reach. The presidents single-handed denial of the Keystone XL pipeline demonstrates that he is not truly
The U.S. does not have a shortage of oil, just a shortage of government policies that promote recovery of the fuel.
is available for recovery. Proven reserves describe known reservoirs that have been thoroughly analyzed and can be economically tapped. Technically recoverable oil is oil that can be recovered using existing drilling and production technologies without reference to economic profitability. Technology innovation is rapidly closing that economic gap every day, much like the technology that advanced unconventional gas. According to EIA estimates, there are 1.4 trillion barrels of oil (about 200 years worth at todays rate of consumption) that are technically recoverable in the U.S., out of a total reserve of 3.7 trillion barrels of oil in the ground. The only logical conclusion that can be made is that the U.S. does not have a shortage of oil, just a shortage of government policies that promote recovery of the fuel. The president, in his speech, then noted the increased oil production in the U.S. that has occurred in recent years. American oil production is the highest that its been in eight years. Thats righteight years. Not only thatlast year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past 16 years, said Obama. True statements all, yet none of these accomplishments occurred as a result of government policy. In fact, the EIA reports that oil and natural gas production on federal lands has fallen by over 40% since 2000, yet over the same period, oil production on private and state lands has risen 11% and gas production has risen by 40%. For example, the oil coming from North Dakotas enormous Bakken formawww.powermag.com
interested in further reducing imports of foreign oil from outside North America.
More Than a Gas Glut The Energy Information Administrations (EIAs) Annual Energy Outlook 2012 Early Release (AEO2012ER), made public the day before the presidents annual address to Congress, predicts that the U.S. will become a net exporter of natural gas by 2020 and that natural gas will fuel a growing share of electric power generation. Tapping natural gas supplies located more than a mile underground was a colossal technology breakthrough that will pay tidy dividends to all Americans for decades to come. The quantities of shale gas now produced are enormous and are expected to quickly grow for many years (23% today and 49% by 2035, according to the AEO2012ER), more than offsetting the declining quantities of natural gas produced from conventional well-drilling techniques. These discoveries were the result of investment by private energy companies, not by government assistance or subsidy. Instead of celebrating and encouraging additional gas discoveries, the administration is now hyper-focused on adding an additional layer of federal regulation on the gas industry. Massive Oil Reserves The presidents statement about American oil reserves is misleading. The president stated that America has only 2 percent of the worlds oil reserves, a statistic often cited as justification for spending billions
6
Carbon Emissions Dropping The president segued from oil and gas policy to his wish for Congress to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. The stated goal of climate change legislation is to reduce CO2 emissions from industry, principally the power generation industry. Reduce anthropogenic CO2 and climate change will slow or cease, or so the theory goes. What the president failed to mention in his address is that the increasing use of natural gas helps explain why the U.S. is already making exceptional progress in reducing CO2 emissions. The AEO2012ER shows that CO2 emissions are in freefall, regardless of the accounting measure used: per dollar spent on energy, per capita, or CO2 per GDP. In fact, the EIA predicts that CO2 per GDP will drop over 40% through 2035. Wrong Energy Policy The president missed an opportunity to propose economic policies built on the firm foundation of world-leading reserves of fossil fuels and the very real possibility of true energy independence. Instead, he again described an energy policybuilt on energy subsidies, further intervention into the energy markets, and overreaching executive ordersthat is not sustainable. Which policy path will stimulate private infrastructure investment and establish millions of new well-paying jobs that this country desperately needs? Dr. Robert Peltier, PE is POWERs editor-in-chief
POWER March 2012
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Large China Energy Storage Project Begins Operation

Chinese state entity State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) and battery maker BYD in January said they had finished construction on what they call the worlds largest battery energy storage stationa project in Zhangbei, Hebei Province that combines 100 MW of wind and 40 MW of solar capacity, a smart power transmission system, and 36 MWh of energy storage in arrays larger than a football field. The $500 million project uses BYDs lithium iron phosphate battery technology, which SGCC said it chose for a service life of over 20 years (Figure 1). SGCC in September had lauded completion of another iron phosphate battery storage stationthe 12-MWh Shenzhen Baoqing Battery Energy Storage Station in the Longgang District of Shenzhen City, which is tied to a 110-kV substation supporting the rapidly growing Biling Industrial Park. That facility, like the Zhangbei project, is being used for load leveling and daytime peak shaving. The two projects may be the largest iron phosphate battery projects, but they are not accurately called the largest, nor the most powerful, existing energy storage projects, experts point out. Comparisons of energy storage projects are unwieldy be-
1. A big deal. Chinese state entity State Grid Corp. of China and battery maker BYD developed a $500 million energy storage facility that combines 100 MW of wind and 40 MW of solar capacity, a smart power transmission system, and 36 MWh of energy storage. Courtesy: BYD
2. Chilled storage. UK company Highview Power Storage completed 150 hours of operational testing of its Cryo Energy System, a novel technology that relies on phase-change and expansion of liquid air to run an engine. Courtesy: Highview Power Storage
cause some developers measure projects in megawatts, as opposed to megawatt-hours. Among other large energy storage projects is the Laurel Mountain energy storage facility in Randolph and Barbour Counties near Elkins, W.Va., which comprises 98 MW of wind generation and 32 MW of integrated lithium ion battery storage. AES Wind Generation and AES Energy Storage began operating this project in October 2011 and call it the largest project of its kind. A 34-MW sodium sulfide battery system was installed at a 51-MW wind farm in Japan by the Japan Wind Development Co. in 2008. And Alaskas Golden Valley Electric Association has been using a nickel cadmium battery storage system since 2003 that has been designed to deliver 27 MW over 15 minutes (6.75 MWh) to improve reliability servicesbut whose maximum test limits show it can discharge up to 46 MW in 5 minutes. Several interesting new energy storage projects are slated to come online in the next five years. Among them is UK company Highview Power Storages 350-kW pilot plant near London, which recently completed tests and was connected to the National Grid (Figure 2). Called a Cryo Energy System, the pilot uses liquefied air or liquefied nitrogen (air is 78% nitrogen) that can be stored in large volumes at atmospheric pressure. The company is considering building a 7-MW to 10-MW unit using the technology within two years. Liquefied air has a high expansion ratio between its liquid state (196C) and, more common, gaseous state; expanding about 700 times when regasified, the company says on its website. As with a traditional steam engine, a cryogenic engine relies on phase-change (liquid to gas) and expansion within a confined space e.g. engine cylinder or turbine. Since liquid air boils at 196C, ambient temperature will superheat it, creating regasification and expansion. An engine can therefore use freely available environmental heat as the heat source. Bloomberg New Energy Finance points out in a study of UK energy storage efforts that a niche market for relieving bottlenecks in the transmission and distribution of power is already viable and that energy storage will be able to economically meet the need for fast-response reserves and short-term operating reserves between 2014 and 2017. One significant development for energy storage worldwide is that the price of lithium-ion batteries is poised to fall, the research group says: In the long-term, as more and more electric vehicles are made and sold, the cost of batteries used in these vehicles will fall, and this technology will be directly transferable to the grid system as well. Most grid-scale lithium-ion battery projects today cost more than $1,000/kWh, but with battery manufacturing capacity likely to outstrip supply in the short term, Bloomberg New Energy Finance is forecasting significant price drops in the next 36 months, towards $600/kWh by 2015.
Meeting LNG Demand with Floating Liquefaction Facilities

The past two years have seen a dramatic escalation of global natural gas liquefaction capacity. In 2010 alone, liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade jumped by a stunning 21%, to around 300 billion cubic meters (10,594 billion cubic feet, bcf), which amounts to 9% of the total global demand for gas, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Meanwhile, surplus gas on the market is eroding fast, IEA Senior Gas Analyst Anne-Sophie Corbeau told reporters in an LNG
8 www.powermag.com
POWER March 2012
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Q&A late last year, because as global gas markets tightened in 2010, global gas demand recovered by 7.4% and the appetite for LNG (and spot prices) grew correspondingly in all regions. As a result, the IEA says that LNG imports are forecast to meet about a fifth of the total incremental demand. Global LNG markets are expected to further tighten over the coming two-three years due to strong LNG demand, notably in Asia, and modest supply coming online, Corbeau said. Besides China, India, and Taiwan, most demand will come from Southeast Asiaparticularly countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore. Among the worlds biggest LNG exporters are Qatar (whose liquefaction capacity was roughly one-quarter of global LNG liquefaction capacity as of mid-2011), Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and Algeria. But other countries have also recently entered the export scene, including Russia and Yemen in 2009 and Peru in 2010. Angola is expected to start exporting in 2012, followed by Papua New Guinea in 2014. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administrations (EIAs) early release version of the Annual Energy Outlook 2012, the U.S. is also poised to become a net exporter of LNG starting in 2016and an overall net exporter of natural gas in 2021 (Figure 3)starting with an LNG export capacity of 1.1 bcf per day in 2016 and increasing by an additional 1.1 bcf per day in 2019. Cumulative U.S. LNG imports are also expected to drop, pegged on increased use of LNG markets outside North America, strong domestic production, and relatively low U.S. natural gas prices in comparison with other global markets, the EIA says. In the meantime, the LNG demand surge has prompted some firms to consider implementing novel means of producing LNG. A
3. A gas exporter? The U.S. Energy Information Administrations

(EIAs) Annual Energy Outlook 2012 corrects the estimated unproved technically recoverable resource of shale gas in the U.S. to 482 trillion cubic feetmuch less than the estimate of 827 trillion cubic feet made just a year ago. The agency foresees increases in natural gas production through 2035 attributable to increased shale gas production and improved drilling technologies. One surprising finding is that the U.S. will substantially lower natural gas imports and likely become an overall exporter of natural gas in 2021. The nation is expected to be a net pipeline exporter of natural gas in 2025 and an net exporter of LNG starting as soon as 2016. Source: EIA Coal Liquids Natural gas Nuclear Nonhydro renewables Hydropower 30 History 2010 Projections
Quadrillion Btu
20
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0 1980
1990
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2010
2020
2035
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POWER March 2012
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THE BIG PICTURE: Dammed Dams

New coal and nuclear power plants arent the only ones facing opposition. Several countries that are struggling to alleviate chronic power shortages are facing hurdles as they attempt to build new hydropower plants. Here are some massive projects riddled with setbacks caused by everything from social and environmental protests to funding collapses.
Sonal Patel is POWERs senior writer. INDIA: The 2,000-MW Lower Subansiri project (1) in Arunachal Pradesh has been paused until the government and protesting indigenous groups can reach an understanding. Disagreement about how to conduct an environmental assessment have put off a decision to construct the 1,750-MW Demwe lower hydroelectric project (2) nearby. The 1,000-MW Tehri Pump Storage project (3) on the Bhagirathi River in Uttarakhand was stalled three years, until March 2010, by legal wrangling concerning a tender dispute. BURMA: Burmas president in September 2011 unexpectedly suspended construction of the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam (4) on the Irrawaddy River in northern Kachin state, saying the politically wrought $3.6 billion project was contrary to the will of the people. LAOS: In December, Southeast Asian governments settled a long-standing dispute and agreed to postpone construction of the 1,260-MW Xayaburi Dam (5), the first of 11 proposed for the Mekong River. TAJIKISTAN: In June 2011, Tajik authorities temporarily halted resettlement of villagers and stopped construction of the 3,600-MW Rogun Dam (6) on the Vakhsh River until two World Bank feasibility studies can be completed. At 1,102 feet, Rogun would be the worlds tallest dam, trumping the Nurek Dam, also in Tajikistan. CHINA: The $4.75 billion Xiaonanhai plant (7) planned for the Yangtze River was suspended in 2009 by central authorities after critics decried plans to reduce the size of a protected nature reserve in Chongqing Province. In December 2011 the 1,760-MW project was quietly revived. UGANDA: The 250-MW Bujagali dam (8) across the Victoria Nile Riveran $800 million project plagued by environmental objections, cost overruns, and funding delayswas completed at the end of 2011, but full commissioning was deferred for more than two months because of technical hitches. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Investors have held off on developing the 3,500-MW Inga 3 (9), an $8 billion project for the Congo River (near the site of the proposed 39,000-MW Grand Inga complex, another beyond-ambitious plan), citing unrealistic costs and timelines. MOZAMBIQUE: The government says construction on the 1,500-MW Mphanda Nkuwa (10) on the Zambezi River will continue after completion of an environmental impact assessment, despite international protests about environmental impacts to the lower Zambezi. Funding will largely come from a China Exim Bank loan. ETHIOPIA: Ethiopias controversial 1,870-MW Gilgel Gibe III Dam (11) on the Omo River will be the largest in Africa when completed in 2013. It is reportedly more than 50% finished, even though funding has been impeded by international criticism of the projects possible environmental impact. The 278-MW Chemoga-Yeda plant (12) under construction on the Chemoga-Yeda River is behind schedule due to funding delays by the China Exim Bank, which had pledged to finance the $555 million plant. BRAZIL: Construction of the 11,000-MW Belo Monte Dam (13) on the Xingu River in the Amazon has been on and off, swayed by legal contests between environmentalists and Norte Energia, a consortium of state and private energy firms. Work also continues at the 3,750-MW Jirau (14) and 3,150-MW Santo Antonio dam (15) sites in the Amazonian state of Rondonia, on the Madeira River hydroelectric complex, even though both projects were suspended for months as workers protesting low wages violently rioted in March 2011 and federal security forces were dispatched to restore calm. PERU: Three years of sustained protests by indigenous groups prompted the Peruvian government in June 2011 to defer a contract granted to Brazilian consortium Egasur for the 1.5-GW Inambari plant (16) on the Madre de Dios River in Peru. In November, Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht withdrew from building Tambo 40, a 1,278-MW project (17), the first of six planned for Perus Amazon region. CHILE: The highly controversial 2,750-MW HidroAysen project (18) planned for Pascua and Baker Rivers in the Aysn region of Chiles Patagonia is on hiatus, pending an investigation by the countrys Chamber of Deputies of an allegedly flawed environmental impact assessment approved in May 2011. TURKEY: Protests have shelved plans for some of the 1,700 hydroelectric dams slated for Turkeys Black Sea region. Concern that the 1,200-MW Ilisu Dam (19) planned for the Tigris River in southeast Turkey could drown the 10,000-year-old city of Hasankeyf and destroy valuable biodiversity persuaded a consortium of European credit agencies to withdraw funding for the $1.7 billion project in 2009. Ankara has vowed to complete the dam with financing from Turkish banks. RUSSIA: Despite the catastrophic accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant in south-central Siberia (20), Russia continues to add major hydropower projects such as the 3,000-MW Boguchanskaya plant (21). It has plans for several more, including two on the Angara River, a chain of hydropower plants on the Yakutia River, and the 8-GW to 12-GW Evenkiiskaya project (22) on the Lower Tunguska River in the Arctic region of Krasnoyarsk Territory. In the face of mounting international protest, RusHydro delayed a decision to build the Evenkiiskaya project, even though it says it would be extremely important from a social, economic, and geo-political perspective.
12 www.powermag.com
POWER March 2012
4. Testing the water. Shell is constructing a floating liquefied

natural gas facility 124 miles off the northeastern coast of Australia on the Prelude gas field. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will supply a 40-MW power generation system for the facility. Courtesy: Shell
number of companies, with Royal Dutch Shell leading the pack, are researching floating liquefied natural gas projects (FLNGs). Shell last year began building the Prelude project, a 534-yardlong, 81-yard-wide facility (Figure 4) that will be moored some 124 miles from the nearest land in Australia to produce gas from offshore fields and liquefy it onboard by cooling. It is expected to be operational by around 2017. Natural gas, chilled to 162C and shrunk in volume 600 times, will be shipped to land via oceangoing LNG carriers rather than being piped to a land-based plant, as has been done conventionally. The facility will include a host of technologies such as mechanical drive steam turbinesas opposed to gas turbines used in conventional land LNG facilitiesto enable continuous long-term operation and easier maintenance. The FLNG facility is expected to stay permanently moored at the Prelude gas field for about 25 years and later be used at other fields where Shell has interests. Power equipment companies, too, have a stake in such facilities. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in January said it would supply three compressor trains for gas recovery from gas wells and a 40-MW power generation system for the Prelude facility off the northwest coast of Australia.
SOME THINK LONG-DISTANCE TRANSPORT IS INFRASTRUCTUREINTENSIVE. WE THINK DIFFERENT

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High-Temperature Superconductor Technology Stepped Up

A new project planned by RWE and partners Nexans, the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), and Jlich is poised to mark another milestone for high-temperature superconductor (HTS) cable technology, which transports electricity without losses when cooled down to about 200C (392F). In January the firms announced they would kick off a project to replace a 1-kilometer (km, 3,280 feet) high-voltage cable connecting two transformer stations in the city of Essen, Germany, with a buried three-phase concentric 10-kV HTS cable made by Nexans, which is designed for a transmission capacity of 40 MW (Figure 5). HTS technology has seen sparse development since 2008, when the U.S. Department of Energy energized a 138-kV, 600-meter (1,968-foot) superconducting transmission power cable in a test installation for the Long Island Power Authority in New York.
March 2012 POWER
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5. A freezing current. A 10-kV high-temperature superconductor

cable made by Nexans will replace a 1-kilometer high-voltage cable in Essen, Germany. At temperatures of around 200C (392F), with cooling provided by liquid nitrogen, the concentric superconducting cable is transformed into an almost perfect electrical conductor able to transport at least 100 times more electricity than copper. Despite the cooling jacket, the compact design of the superconductor means that it can transport five times the electricity as a similarly sized copper cable with much lower electrical losses. Courtesy: Nexans Cable cryostat Liquid nitrogen return Dialectric Liquid nitrogen inlet
6. An advanced series. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipped its first commercial J-Series gas turbine, the M501J, to Himeji Unit 2 in Hyogo prefecture, Japan last December. Courtesy: MHI
Phase L1 Phase L2
Neutral conductor Phase L3
That cable was manufactured by Paris-based Nexans using wire produced by American Superconductor Corp. A handful of projects have been tested since then, including a 300-m cable with fault current limiting functionality installed under Manhattan. Known as Project Hydra, Con Edison and wire-maker Southwire plan to use that technology to connect two Con Edison substations in late 2014 with a 170-m-long cable. Asked why superconductor technology development has been limited to smaller scales, Nexans said that though production processes have improved, superconducting wires are only now available in sufficient lengths and quantities. But experts anticipate that these innovative cables will soon be in a position to compete with copper solutions in energy-intensive applications, the company added. One suitable use for the technology is in city networks. According to Nexans, the AmpaCity project, scheduled for operation in Essen by 2013, could herald a whole new dimension in the restructuring of inner-city networks. The project follows a study by KIT that found superconducting cables are the only reasonable alternative to high-voltage cables in city networks. Although copper medium-voltage cables could also be used in inner-city areas to transmit power, the cost efficiency of this solution would be cancelled out by the much higher ohmic loss, the study says. After successful completion of a two-year field test, the project could make it possible to install 10-kV superconducting links in large sections of the Essen distribution network, Nexans claims. In addition to greater efficiency and lower operating and maintenance costs, a key benefit would be to reduce land use because numerous 110/10-kV transformer stations would no longer be needed. Backed by the energy research arm of Germanys Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, total project costs are approximately 13.5 million ($17 .7 million), including a government-funded 6 million ($7.9 million).
chinery Works in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, for commercial use at Himeji Unit 2, also in Hyogo, owned by Kansai Electric Power Co. (Figure 6). Though it touts its M501J turbine as having achieved the the worlds highest efficiency and power generation capacity in a system of this type, MHI continues to grapple for share in a highly competitive gas turbine market with industrial giants like Siemens, GE, and Alstom. MHI says the 60-hertz M501J is its most advanced gas turbine, having reached an inlet temperature of 1,600C (2,912F)100 degrees higher than the 1,500C-class G-Series. The M501J gas turbine has also achieved a rated power output near 320 MW (ISO basis) and 460 MW in gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) power generation applications. And it has a confirmed gross thermal efficiency exceeding 60%the worlds highest level in GTCC applications, MHI claims. (See The T-Point Plant: The Ultimate Validation Test in our June 2011 issue.) The 486.5-MW unit delivered to Himeji 2 plus five others will become core components of GTCC plants with a cumulative capacity of 2,919 MW. The units are slated to go online between October 2013 and 2015. The J-Series faces off with Siemens SGT6-8000H gas turbine, which was launched in June 2011. Siemens has called the 50-Hz version of that turbine (SGT5-8000H), rated at 375 MW, the largest and most powerful in the world. (See Top Plant: Irsching 4 Combined Cycle Power Plant in the September 2011 issue for more information on the performance of this first 50-Hz installation.) Six 60-Hz units are expected to be dispatched to Florida Power & Lights Riviera Beach and Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Centers in Florida this year. Siemens has also received orders from South Korea to build a turnkey single-shaft 60-Hz combined cycle power plant by 2013.
Spain Inaugurates Two More Parabolic Trough Units

Two identical 50-MW parabolic trough plants with thermal storage in Cadiz, in the south of Spain, began operating this January. The Valle 1 and Valle 2 projects (Figure 7) built by Torresol Energya joint venture between Abu Dhabibased Masdar and Spanish engineering and construction firm SENERare capable of generating 160 GWh per year, producing power for up to 7.5 hours per day, even when there is no solar radiation. Construction of the plants, which required 4,500 workers, began in December 2009. SENER, which led the engineering, proPOWER March 2012
MHI Ships First Commercial J-Series Turbine

The first unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHIs) muchwatched J-Series gas turbine, a technology MHI has been testing for a year, was shipped this December from its Takasago Ma14
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7. Twin hot oil plants. Valle 1 and Valle 2, two concentrating parabolic trough plants with thermal storage, began operating in Cadiz, in the south of Spain, this January. Courtesy: SENER
8. Looking skyward. Inspired by the Desertec project, which envisions that 15% of Europes power could be sourced from renewable projects in North Africa and the Middle East by 2050, the Grenatec project calls for infrastructure links between China, Southeast Asia, and Australia that will enable those regions to share power, natural gas, and information via fiber optic channels. Courtesy: Grenatec
Grid (new) Grid (existing) Natural gas (existing) Natural gas (new) Fiber optic (existing) Fiber optic (new) High solar radiation
curement, and construction contract for the projects, said the two plants use a solar field of 510,000 square meters (0.2 square miles) equipped with cylindrical SENERtrough parabolic trough collectors. The technology concentrates solar radiation on a central collector pipe through which thermal oil is run and which is fitted with a high-precision optical sensor that monitors the suns movement from east to west. The hot oil is used to vaporize water, which, by means of expansion in a steam turbine, drives an electrical generator that injects energy into the grid. It is worth mentioning that, due to the financial strength of Torresol Energys partners, SENER and Masdar, the Valle 1 and Valle 2 projects were financed through seven Spanish commercial banks in 2009 for a total financing of EUR 540 million, despite the global financial crisis, Torresol told POWER in January.
Desertec Ambitions Turn to Asia, Australia

The ambitious Desertec projecta $9 billion initiative to develop, harness, and transmit 2,000 MW of renewable power from North Africa and the Middle East to Europe by 2050has been trumped by a vaster concept that spans Asia and Australia (Figure 8). Founded by Stewart Taggart, a former journalist and a founder of Desertec, Grenatec, a so-called Pan-Asian Energy Internet, calls for infrastructure links between China, Southeast Asia, and Australia by 2050 that will enable those regions to share power, natural gas resources, and information via fiber optic channels. Deepened cross-border electricity and natural gas interconnections increase market efficiency and reduce transport friction, Grenatec says in a recent 230-page report. This shouldnt be hard. Common standards are widespread. Grenatec argues that China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Southeast Asian states will collectively spend trillions of dollars in updating their infrastructure. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), for example, is developing the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline and Trans-ASEAN Electricity Grid to enhance integration among the organizations 10 members, while China plans for a unified domestic power grid by 2020 using high-voltage transmission links. Several hurdles will need to be overcome, Grenatec admits. One incentive that could encourage multilateral cooperation is to introduce carbon pricing that could rearrange the dispatch order of regional electricity-generation in favor of low-emission energy sources. Costs are another, but, if Asia plans ahead and coordinates investment, these costs (as well as the costs of climate change) can be much reduced, it claims. Grenatecs plans stem from Desertec ambitions to source 15% of Europes power from North Africa and the Middle East by 2050.
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The initiative formed in 2009which includes heavyweights such as ABB, Abengoa Solar, Cevital, Deutsche Bank, EON, HSH Nordbank, Muenchener Rueca, M+W Zander, RWE, Schott Solar, and Siemenshas quietly been making strides. Last November, Desertec contracted the 500-MW Ouarzazate concentrating solar power plant in Morocco, the first of five planned to come online between 2015 and 2020. That project has since received $297 million in loans from the World Bank. Early in January, the Desertec Industrial Initiative said it had signed an agreement to develop a mammoth 22,000 MW of renewable power by 2030 with Algerian energy company Sonelgaz stipulating that half that power would be exported to Europe. And at the end of January, the initiative announced construction of the 2,000-MW TuNur concentrating solar plant in Tunisia, a project that would begin exporting power to Europe by 2016 via a new low-loss transmission line to Italy.
POWER Digest
RusHydro Inaugurates New Unit at Restored Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydropower Plant. RusHydroa hydroelectricity
company that is majority-owned by the Russian Federation announced in mid-December that it had put its first brand new hydropower unit into commercial operation at its Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant on the Yenisei River, near Sayanogorsk in the Republic of Khakassia. Following the catastrophic accident at the plant in August 2009 that claimed the lives of 75 workers, the company in 2010 completed the first stage of reconstruction, restoring four damaged hydropower generating sets. (See Investigating the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydro Power Plant Disaster in the December 2010 issue.) The new turbine deployed in December, part of the companys second stage of reconstruction (and fully modernizing the beleaguered plant), is the first of six new generating sets planned for
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the plant that will be equipped with an advanced process safeguard system. This fifth power unit increases the plants generating capacity to 3.2 GWhalf of the plants designated capacity. By 2014 the company plans to also replace the four generating sets restored in 2010. The service life of the new equipment is expected increase the 1978-built plants life up to 40 years.
technology for a potential solar thermal plant in South Africa; the technology currently is being deployed at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, which is slated to start up in 2013. Under the contract, BrightSource and Alstom are expected to conduct a comprehensive front-end engineering and design study for the South Africa market.
Westinghouse Signs Agreements to Develop AP1000 for Czech Plant. Westinghouse on Jan. 20 announced a memorandum of understanding with Czech company Metrostav A.S. that will allow the two companies to cooperate on the development of a Westinghouse proposal submission to CEZ for the completion of the Temeln Nuclear Power Plant based on the AP1000 reactor. Westinghouse has already signed similar agreements with Czech firms I&C Energo and Vitkovice for construction of the new plant planned in the South Bohemian part of the country.
French-Russian Joint Venture to Supply Equipment for Baltic Nuclear Plant. A joint venture between French engineering group Alstom and Russian state-owned nuclear body RosatomAlstom-Atomenergomashon Feb. 3 signed an agreement worth 875 million to provide Alstom ARABELLE steam turbines, generators, condensers, moisture separator reheaters, and auxiliary equipment to Units 1 and 2 of the Baltic nuclear power plant in Kalininigrad, Russia. The new VVER-1200 reactors are expected to be commissioned in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
AREVA Submits Commercial Bid for New Finnish Nuclear Plant. AREVA on Feb. 3 submitted its commercial bid to Finnish
Nuclear power company Fennovoima for construction of an EPR plant at Pyhjoki, in North Ostrobothnia, Finland. AREVA had previously submitted a technical bid in January. The plant supplier will be selected during 20122013. According to Finnish company Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), for which an AREVA-Siemens consortium is building an EPR at the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant, that projects commercial startup may be postponed until August 2014. The 1,600-MW project, Finlands fifth nuclear reactor, was originally scheduled to start operations in 2009 but has encountered repeated delays. TVO said it is also looking at options to build a fourth Olkiluoto unit, saying it would begin a bidding and engineering phase to determine preconditions before it submits a construction license application to the Finnish government. B&W to Supply SO2 Equipment for Colo. Plant. Charlotte based Babcock & Wilcox Co. on Feb. 3 said that its subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group (B&W PGG) had been awarded a contract to design and supply two spray dry absorber (SDA) units and associated equipment for Xcel Energys coal-fired Pawnee Generating Station in Brush, Colo. The SDA systems are designed to control sulfur dioxide emissions from the single-unit, 544-MW plant. The contract scope also calls for B&W PGG to supply atomizers, a reagent preparation system, structural steel, and commissioning for the project. Material delivery is scheduled for 2013, with tie-in of the SDA units expected in the fall of 2014. Gamesa Bags Major Contracts for New Turbine. Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa Elica on Feb. 2 said it had secured contracts to supply 356 MW of its new newly launched G97-2.0 MW turbine by the end of 2011. Europe, specifically Spain, accounts for about 40% of those deals; China, for 28%; and the U.S., for about 26.4%. India and Canada each equally made up the remainder. Gamesa in late 2010 and early 2011 conducted the global launch of its new G9X-2.0 MW platform, which consists of a 2.0-MW wind turbine equipped with four rotors of varying diameters (80 meters [m], 87 m, 90 m, and 97 m) and multiple tower heights. Gamesa will also continue supplying wind turbines to Iberdrola up to 2022 in accordance with a new agreement it signed with the Spanish renewable energy giant in early January. Under the agreement, Iberdrola will buy half of its wind turbines from Gamesa between 2013 and 2022, up to a maximum of 3,800 MW. Iberdrola will also award Gamesa a three-year contract to service 1,748 MW of its turbines in Spain and Portugal and will grant a one-year extension to a current maintenance contract on 2,312 MW of wind turbines.
Alstom and SSE Renewables Prepare for Massive Offshore Wave Farm. Alstom in mid-January signed a new joint
venture agreement with marine developer SSE Renewables for the 200-MW Costa Head wave project in Scotland, a project located in ocean depths of 60 m to 75 m. According to the companies, detailed site surveys and an environmental impact assessment will be carried out by the firms to develop the site with an initial 10-MW phase. The partnership will also obtain the necessary permits and install AWS Ocean Energys AWS-III floating wave energy converters. That technology consists of a multi-cell array of flexible membrane absorbers, which convert wave energy into pneumatic power through the compression of air within cells that are interconnected. A full-scale prototype is planned for deployment at the European Marine Energy Center in 2014. Sonal Patel is POWERs senior writer.
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Sasol Contracts BrightSource for South African Solar Tower. South African oil and gas company Sasol in early February selected California-based BrightSource Energys solar tower
CIRCLE 10 ON READER SERVICE CARD March 2012 POWER
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7EA Conversion Saves Time and Money

ProEnergy Services (PES) was recently contracted to install six Frame 7 DLN1.0 dual-fuel assemblies in Venezuela. The problem: The lead time to purchase the conversion hardware from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) would not meet the customers schedule. The only option was for PES to convert the fuel nozzles removed from a gas-only unit to a dual-fuel configuration, a process that had never before been attempted. Starting with new sets of dual-fuel end covers and secondary nozzles, the fuel nozzles were disassembled down to the smallest component. The detail dimensions of each component were then found by laser scan to create a 3-D model and followed by a dimension check to validate the model. These component 3-D models were next converted into individual SolidWorks models suitable for design and manufacture. The individual solid models were then virtually reassembled to ensure proper fit of the entire assembly before a single part was manufactured. The individual solid models were then used to create detailed part drawings suitable for manufacture. The entire reengineering portion of the project was completed in just three weeks. PESs knowledgeable and respected vendor base made it possible for all details to be manufactured, inspected, and delivered within six weeks of the project start date. Many Technical Challenges Converting a gas-only DLN1.0 fuel system into a dual-fuel system required a number of innovative designs, particularly on the primary end covers and the secondary nozzles. Primary End Covers. One of the first challenges the team faced was how to introduce an atomizing air cavity into the gas-only end cover. The team first believed this to be an easy task, as the dual-fuel nozzles already had the cavity installed. A closer examination of the covers revealed that the gas passage on the gas-only end covers was installed on the cold side of the end cover rather than on the hot side, as on the dual-fuel end covers. Unfortunately, the position of the cavity overlapped the atomizing air passage of the dual-fuel
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1. Conversion begins. ProEnergy Services decided to convert a gas-only end cover (cold side) for a Frame 7 DLN1.0 to a dual-fuel end cover design. Courtesy: ProEnergy Services
2. Machine air passages. The gasonly end cover design with the new atomizing air passages installed. Courtesy: ProEnergy Services
3. Braze block mounts. Fuel block mounting locations were machined into the end cover. Courtesy: ProEnergy Services
4. Completed assembly. The end cover

with the atomizing air passage and isolation blocks installed. Courtesy: ProEnergy Services
covers, making it impossible to merely install a passage similar to the dual fuels. The 3-D model allowed the team to identify a location in the assembly for the passage that did not affect the minimal wall thicknesses of the internal passages, nor did it reduce the cavity cross-sectional area (Figures 1 and 2). The location of the gas passage on the cold side also posed a problem for mounting the fuel blocks: The fuel blocks mounting bolts would now pass directly into the gas passage. This problem was solved by deepening the passage and installing isolation blocks (Figures 3 and 4). The team also took the opportunity to correct another problem on the assembly. During operation, thermal expansion of the midsection has caused
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the upper braze joint on each nozzle boss to crack. The team eliminated this condition by constructing the insert out of two pieces. Each of the two parts has only one point of retention, thereby reducing the stresses typically experienced by the boss (Figures 5 and 6). One of the last challenges the team faced was that during the processing of the end cover it was necessary to remove a minimal amount of material across the entire surface to ensure each new boss was installed perpendicular to the end cover mounting face. If too much material was removed, the liquid core would insert too far into the atomizing air cone and impinge on the water injection holes. This condition was corrected by installing welded shims under the fuel blocks, allowing for inPOWER March 2012
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5. Virtual parts. A SolidWorks model of the two-piece boss design. Courtesy: ProEnergy Services
7. End cover mod complete. Completed end cover with atomizing air piping installed for dual-fuel operation. Courtesy: ProEnergy Services
6. Machined parts. The two-piece boss assembly installed. Courtesy: ProEnergy Services
8. Nozzle mods complete. This secondary fuel nozzle has

completed its conversion to dual fuel. Courtesy: ProEnergy Services
terchangeability of the modified end cover hardware and all other DLN1.0 dual-fuel end covers. Secondary Nozzles. The conversion of the secondary nozzles appeared straightforward at first, requiring only new liquid and water inlets and replacement of the blanked liquid fuel cartridge. Further study revealed this was not the case. To prevent trapped air in the liquid passage of the main body, the housing has a cross channel passage installed from the liquid passage into the flame scanner port. In order to prevent liquid fuel from entering this passage, the team would have to develop a way to separate the two passages. The solution to this problem was to insert and braze a sleeve between the ports. This approach required removal of the flame scanner inlet pipe to gain access to the area for this sleeve. Because there would be no access to the sleeve after assembly, the team opted to use a gold nickel palladium braze material to ensure the part sleeve joint would outlast the useful life of the secondary nozzle itself. After this modification was completed, the remaining secondary conversion work was uneventful (Figures 7 and 8). Successful Results The six new Frame 7 DLN1.0 dual-fuel assemblies were delivered in advance of the customer deadline and provided the customer a 25% savings over aftermarket parts. A secondary advantage was that PES was able to rework the gas-only end covers and secondary fuel nozzles that were available in inventory. Otherwise, the customer would have been forced to wait months for OEM assemblies. Since completing this project, PES has completed similar conversion projects for
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the General Electric Frame 7FA(+e) and Siemens Westinghouse 501F turbines. Contributed by Christopher Garrett (cgarrett@proenergyservices .com), fuel systems manager for ProEnergy Services.
Inlet Fogging Boosts Power in High-Humidity Environments

Turbine inlet fogging has been in use now for 20 years in combustion turbine plants. It is an obvious choice for boosting power in hot, dry areas such as Nevada or Arizona, where plants have long used fogging, but it has also proven effective in many other climates. Several plants in hot, tropical regions have also used the technique. Florida Power & Light has fogging installed at its Turkey Point plant on the Atlantic shore south of Miami. In 2002, Indias Reliance Industries Ltd. started using fogging on one of the Frame 6s at a cogen facility near Surat, a city with a tropical monsoon climate, and followed up with fogging on four other Frame 6s. Though they dont run during the monsoon season, during the months that they are used, the fogging systems provide an 8% to 10% power boost. Fogging has also proven successful in mild humid climates. Along the Southern California coast, two cogen facilities, Harbor
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Cogen and Watson Cogen, have been using fogging since the 1990s, adapting the use to meet their specific needs. Both are located near the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor, where temperatures range from average August afternoon highs of 79F to January nighttime average lows of 46F. But, although they are located within a few miles of each other and both are running combined cycle Frame 7s, their use of fogging is very different: Watson runs it every day, whereas Harbor only uses it during the summer. Continuous Improvement The Watson Cogeneration Plant in Carson, Calif., is one of the largest cogeneration facilities in the western U.S. A joint venture of Edison Mission Energy (49%) and BP (51%), the primary purpose of the plant is to provide a reliable source of high-pressure steam to BPs 275,000-barrel-per-day Carson Refinery. In addition, Watson Cogen, which sits on 21.7 acres next to the refinery, supplies electricity to the refinery and the grid. Edison receives a minimum of 260 MW, and about 90 MW of electricity goes to the refinery. The plant consists of four natural gasfired GE Frame 7EA turbines rated at 84.5 MW each, each with a duct-fired heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and two Dresser Rand steam turbine generator sets. The HRSGs generate both high- and medium-pressure steam. Originally, the high-pressure steam was split evenly between the steam turbines and the plant, but that is no longer the case. As the BP refinery grows, it requires more steam for the processes, says principal engineer Steve Ingistov. We have two steam turbine generators, but the refinery is taking so much of the steam we are generating that sometimes we shut down one steamer. Though Watson Cogen has a permit pending for installation of a fifth combined cycle gas turbine to help meet growing demand, the plant also finds ways to get the most out of its existing equipment. Ingistov, an ASME Fellow with numerous patents to his name, continually works to improve the performance and reliability of the plant and regularly shares the results of his research at ASMEs annual TurboExpo. For example, in 2000, he installed a custom-designed and -built interstage compressor washing system that injects up to 2 gallons of water per minute at up to 500 psi between the stator blades of three of the compressor stages. This action cut the power losses due to compressor fouling by more than half and doubled the time between offline compressor washes. Later, to keep the blades from getting dirty in the first place, he redesigned the labyrinth seal and installed a nonmetallic brush seal on bearing No. 1 in order to minimize the leakage of oil into the compressor, which coats the blades and causes particles to stick. Between these two actions, he avoided a loss of up to 6 MW per turbine. He also managed to get an additional 8 MW out of each of the steam turbines by using new blades, boosting their output from 33 MW to 41 MW. All told, through a series of steps, he helped to increase the plants output from its initial rating of 385 MW to 420 MW. Daily Operation One of the key actions Ingistov has taken is to maximize the amount of inlet cooling. And, although most plants choose between using a chiller, an evaporative cooler, or a fogging system, Watson Cogen used both evaporative coolers and foggers. Even so, Ingistov continued to look for ways to improve the performance of the plant. First, 240 gpm evaporative coolers were installed; howMarch 2012 POWER
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ever, at that flow rate, water droplets were being carried by the inlet air past the inlet air filter and impacting the compressor blades. The fix was to reduce the flow rate to 150 gpm. This fixed the droplet issue but lowered the cooling, so in 1998, Watson installed a Mee Industries fogging system on each turbine to work in tandem with the evaporative coolers. An evaporative cooler is a crude
device in comparison to a fogging system, says Ingistov. Evaps are simple and reliable, but especially when the air is cool and there is high relative humidity, evaporative cooling is doing next to nothing, but fogging is still efficient. Instead of going with the standard Mee package, Watson Cogen ordered a custom system, which included advanced instrumentation, a pressure vessel, and a submicron filter for the water.
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The plant uses reclaimed water from a local municipal district. Although Mee had recommended using demineralized water for the fogging system, Watson decided to just filter the water. This turned out to be a problem. Because we did not have the right water, the water was plugging the nozzle filters and the pumps were running against a dead end, says Ingistov. Once we changed to clean water, as Seite Mee suggested from day one, it reduced 1 maintenance problems by 90%. Initially, the nozzles were installed upstream of the silencers, but he found that the fog washed off the dirt that had collected on the silencers and carried it into the compressor, where it fouled the blades, so they were subsequently moved downstream of the silencers. Our biggest enemy now is the trash screen, which is about 10 to 15 feet upstream of the compressor inlet, says Ingistov. In that position, it minimizes foreign object damage, but when fog strikes the screen, the fine particles agglomerate and, when heavy enough, fall down and are carried by the air stream. Those large particles can produce a mild erosion of the leading edge of the first-stage compressor blades. Rather than removing the trash screen, Watson Cogen installed applied an erosion-resistant coating to the leading edge of the first-stage blades. We have been doing that for years, and we are significantly arresting the erosion losses, says Ingistov. Only When It Is Hot Ingistov aggressively manages his fogging system to get the greatest output from his generators. The turbines operate 8,000 hours per year, and he uses fog whenever the temperatures are above 60F, producing an extra 2.5 MW per turbine. But not everyone needs to maximize the efficiency and output. Harbor Cogen, which in 1992 was one of the first power plants to use fogging, only uses it on hot summer days. The plant has a GE Frame 7 combined cycle system, but it is no longer used as a cogen plant. Instead, the once-through boiler that was used for cogen is used to provide steam to a pair of 10-MW steam turbines, and the plant sells all its power to Edison and the California Independent System Operator. The plant mainly operates during the summer months. Plant Supervisor Ron Hoffard says that
POWER March 2012
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at one point they used fogging to augment the online water wash (OLWW) system but have stopped doing OLWW because of the wear on the blades. We have no need to meet a contract commitment like we used to, he says. If we are shy half a megawatt, we just live with it. It is not worth the wear. There is no chance, however, of water droplets from the fogger damaging the blades, because the nozzles were installed upstream of the air filter. Any water droplets are caught on the fiberglass prefilter media, which then acts as a swamp cooler. Back when we installed the fogging system, everyone was still paranoid about putting spray nozzles inside the inlet plenums, says Hoffard. If we had to do it over, we would have the nozzles inside the inlet plenum. Because it doesnt need fine control over the fog, Harbor Cogen disabled the automatic temperature and humidity control system and just turns it on and off manually, as needed. We dont need them cycling on and off for different ambient temperatures and humidities, says Hoffard. In the summer, it doesnt matter what the humidity is; if it is hot, we will use it. On the occasions that we do use it, we get a 4- to 5-MW boost out of it. Eliminating Evaps As Ingistov continues to research ways to improve his inlet cooling, the latest step is to completely eliminate the evaporative coolers. There is a lot we have learned since 1998, he says. We
first went through a learning curve, then an evolutionary phase. Now we are in a revolutionary phase in getting rid of the evaporative coolers. Although the evaporative coolers do lower the air temperature, they also produce some drop in the air velocity. It might just be a fraction of an inch, but it is still there, and if the media is dirty the Delta-P (pressure) goes up says Ingistov. Though there are ways to model and calculate efficiency, nothing compares with real-world measurements. Because Watson Cogen had four identical machines running continuously on site, it could conduct its own controlled experiment. In October 2010, Watson Cogen removed the evaporative cooler and existing fogging array from Unit 4, replaced them with 600 new fogging nozzles (20 foglines with 30 nozzles each), and then compared the performance over the following months. The efficiency and output of the units varied during the day and over the months, depending on ambient conditions. On an unusually hot April day when the temperature approached 90F, Unit 4 started out as the leader in the morning, but as the day progressed, the units with the evaps surpassed it. However, there are few such days in Carson. Today the weather is the opposite, and Unit 4 without the evap is doing the best, says Ingistov. What this means is that when it is relatively cool and the relative humidity is high, the evap cooler does next to nothing, while fog does very well. Contributed by Joe Zwers, a freelance writer from Glendale, Calif., specializing in engineering and technology.
POWER March 2012
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User Group Profile: Philippine Coal Plant Users Group

The Philippine Coal Plant Users Group (PCPUG), the leading nonprofit organization involved in generating electricity in the Philippines, recently held a conference introducing its mission and vision. The PCPUG was first conceived by Founder and President Engr. Edgardo Cruz in the late 1990s as an organization responsible for disseminating information about the technology of coal-fired power generation in the Philippines. Since its formation, the organization has experienced significant growth yet never lost sight of its founding principles: promote the importance of coal as the primary fuel for electricity generation in the Philippines. A Big Success Today, the PCPUG conducts training, seminars, and forums to promote coal-fired generation throughout the Philippines. The organizations flagship event is the annual PCPUG technical conference. The PCPUG sponsored its sixth Technical Forum, held in the Ruby B Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria, November 34, 2011. The agenda for the forum included presentations covering a range of topics of interest to coal plant engineers and developers (Figure 9). The forum commenced with welcoming remarks by Jim Willey, facility manager of the Quezon power plant. Willey explained the purpose of the forum was to exchange technology expertise and knowledge among the countrys coal generators.
9. Forum participants. The PCPUG held its sixth Technical Forum on the safe and economical use of coal for power generation in the Philippines last November. Courtesy: PCPUG
Kevin Pierce, plant manager of the AES Masinloc Power Plant, described steps taken by AES to expand its business into the Philippines. He also spoke about the importance AES placed on improving plant efficiency and output of the Masinloc plant and the companys investment to achieve that goal. The 660-MW plants availability increased from 38% to 74% from 2008, when AES purchased the plant, to the end 2010. (Masinloc Power Plant was a POWER 2011 Top Plant and was profiled in the October 2011 issue.)
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POWER March 2012
10. Recognizing participants. PCPUG President Ed Cruz is

shown handing a certificate of appreciation to PRB Coal Users Group Chairman of the Board Bob Taylor. Courtesy: PCPUG
11. Trophy presentation. Presenting the 2011 Plant of the Year

trophy to the staff of KCP&L Iatan 2 is Editor-in-Chief Dr. Robert s Peltier (center). Receiving the trophy, representing the staff and plant ownership partners of Iatan 2, are (left to right): John Riley, PE, consultant to Missouri Joint Electric Utility Commission and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative; Scott Heidtbrink, KCP&L Sr. Vice President, Supply; Tom Mackin, Iatan plant manager; and John Minturn, jointowned asset manager, Empire District Electric Co. Courtesy: KCP&L, photo by Phil Gooch
Other important and informative presentations were made during the first day of the forum, such as: Lubrication: Keeping Moisture Out, by P.A.R Alloy Inc.; High Energy Pumps, by P.A.R Alloy Inc. and RER; and Local Manufacturing and Servicing Capabilities for Coal-Fired Power Plants, by Christian Pfeiffer of Tiger Machinery. The second day of the forum was devoted to coal combustion. It began with Ronald Pircon, president and CEO of Benetech, presenting Reducing Spontaneous Combustion with an Oxidation Inhibitor. Another presentation featured Richard Storm, president of Innovative Combustion Technologies, discussing Combustion Optimization for Subbituminous Coal. Bob Taylor, the Powder River Basin Coal Users Group chairman of the board, also spoke on his favorite topic: the safe and economical use of PRB coals (Figure 10). Attendees reported that the conference format was conducive to learning, and much interaction with the speakers took place. The success of this forum has motivated the sponsors to begin early preparations for the next meeting, in 2012. Information on membership and future meetings can be found at http://pcpug.org, or email jbenito@pcpug.org. Contributed by Eduardo V. Bautista Jr. for the Philippine Coal Plant Users Group.
ued to operate without incident. Operations at the plant returned to normal with the new year, as did the opportunity to visit the plant and present the trophy commemorating the achievement (Figure 11). Dr. Robert Peltier, PE.
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The POWER Plant of the Year for 2011 was Kansas City Power & Lights 850-MW Iatan 2, located about 30 miles northwest of Kansas City. The utilitys first new coal plant in nearly 30 years entered commercial service in August 2010, just in time to meet the summer peak load. (For details on the project, see KCP&Ls Iatan 2 Earns POWERs Highest Honor in the August 2011 issue or our archives at www.powermag.com.) Presentation of the trophy to the staff of Iatan 2 was initially delayed by regional flooding of the Missouri River in late June, which forced staff to put 10 miles of sandbags in place to protect the plant. During that time, employees were brought to work via boat, as parking lots were flooded. For a period, coal deliveries via railroad were suspended, reducing the typical 50-day supply stored on plant property to just a few days supply. Despite these challenges, the plant continMarch 2012 POWER
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Rethinking Security Requirements for Generation Developers

By Margaret H. Claybour
universal reality for U.S. power generation developers is the challenge of obtaining funding in todays tight credit markets. Financing exigencies make the level of security a developer must post of critical importance to its ability to achieve the return thresholds necessary for project development. The amount of security postings transmission owners require for interconnection agreements can be a major impediment for projects. These requirements, accordingly, have been debated and continue to evolve.
Wholesale Tax Advantages Current Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) policies obligate generation project developers to make payments to transmission owners for the construction of interconnection facilities. From the tax perspective, these payments constitute the income tax component of contribution (ITCC) and represent potentially taxable income to the transmission owner. FERC policy also imposes liability on the developer for any ITCC taxes the transmission owner will pay. The good news is that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has promulgated rules that provide the transmission owner a comprehensive safe harbor for transfers under an interconnection agreement, effectively ensuring that the transmission owner should never have to pay any ITCC taxes. The safe harbor rules are designed to confirm that the primary purpose of the interconnection facilities is to enable the generator to deliver its generation to wholesale markets and not primarily to enable the transmission owner to make retail sales of power to the generator. It is, however, theoretically possible in extreme cases (for example, if the generator consistently operates at capacity factors below 20%) that a generator will fail to comply with the safe harbor rules and subject the transmission owner to contingent ITCC tax liability. FERCs policy successfully protects the transmission owner from any possible exposure relating to ITCC. The transmission owner may require either that the developer make an upfront payment for the amount of possible tax gross up or post security in that amount. Transmission owners in almost every instance require developers to post security to cover any potential future ITCC liability. In the unlikely event a developer contravenes the safe harbor rules and the transmission owner is obligated to pay the tax, the transmission owner can enforce its rights in the security. Real Cost of Security Posting While the policy protects the transmission owner, the question remains whether this policy is cost effective and best advances energy policy, particularly the objective to encourage the development of more efficient, more environmentally benign power plants. The IRS safe harbor notices provide the generator explicit and easy-to-comply-with rules to avoid a taxable event for trans28
actions under interconnection agreements. Not surprisingly, we are aware of no contribution under an interconnection agreement that has caused a transmission owner to incur an income tax liability. The facts are that the risk of any ITCC exposure, while admittedly greater than zero, is negligible; the corresponding cost to the developer of maintaining the security for the theoretically maximum amount of tax exposure exacts real costs and necessarily impedes project development. In essence, the amount of ITCC security required is the taxable amount of the developers contribution multiplied by the transmission owners effective tax rate. If major interconnection facilities are neededthe costs of which can be in the eight-figure range or higherat a 35% tax rate, the ITCC security requirement often exceeds seven figures. Regulators, legislators, and consumer advocates tend to view a security posting requirement as a win/win, because it protects the utility and yet imposes no cost on the party posting security. That myopic view, however, ignores financial reality: Security posting is a zero sum game. Posting of security represents a real cost to the developer, depriving it of capital necessary to develop the project. The question that needs to be addressed is whether it is good policy to require a developer to set aside substantial sums every year, over the term of an agreement, to protect the transmission owner from a risk that most likely will never arise. Not to be overlooked are the administrative costs of the security that are imposed on the transmission owner to calculate, track, and maintain the ITCC security. The right equation must be to compare benefits versus costs (both to the developer and to the transmission owner). Given the limited risk to transmission owner and real cost to developer, the ITCC security requirement warrants reconsideration.
Rational Security Policy Is Possible The good news is that at least one major California utility, based on experience and a better understanding of the costs of administering the ITCC security in compliance with FERCs rules, has decided that the cost of an ITCC requirement exceeds its benefits. The transmission owner obtained authorization from FERC to waive the ITCC security requirement and retained the option to reinstate the requirement at a later point, if necessary. This is a win/win approach that others should follow. Why stop there? Regulators and parties supposedly benefitting by the security posting should constantly assess security requirements and challenge whether the benefits warrant the costs being imposed. It may be that the optimal result for all constituencies in the energy arena is to reduce arbitrarily imposed security amounts and allow scarce capital to be redirected to more productive purposes. Margaret H. Claybour (margaretclaybour@dwt.com) is an associate in the Davis Wright Tremaine LLP Energy Practice Group.
POWER March 2012
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Coping with Coal Dust
Plants can no longer sweep coal dust under the rug and ignore the health and safety hazard it presents, because a single spark can cause a dust explosion that could put a plant out of service, perhaps permanently. Managing dust in a power plant begins with good housekeeping, followed by retrofits using properly designed equipment.
By Daniel Mahr, PE, Energy Associates, PC and Michael A. Schimmelpfennig, PE, Ameren Missouri
Courtesy: Chemical Safety Board
n February 7, 2008, at about 7:15 p.m., a series of huge explosions and fires occurred at the Imperial Sugar refinery northwest of Savannah, Georgia, causing 14 deaths and injuring 38 others, 14 seriously. The facility, which converted raw cane sugar into granulated sugar, had a material-handling system that included the familiar railcar unloader, belt conveyors, bucket elevators, and silo storage. The explosions were fueled by massive accumulations of combustible sugar dust throughout the packaging building. The initiating explosion occurred in the enclosed belt conveyor below the silos. That explosion lofted the dust accumulated on floors and elevated surfaces throughout the buildings. Secondary explosions and fires heaved thick concrete floors and collapsed brick walls, blocking stairwells and exit routes. The destruction, as shown in the photo above, was complete. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports that between 1980 and 2008, 422 combustible dust incidents were reported across
30
Five Requirements for a Dust Explosion

The dust explosion pentagon (Figure 1) takes its first three elements from the familiar fire triangle and adds two more. If one of these five elements is missing, an explosion cannot occurbut a fire may still occur: combustible dust (fuel), an ignition source (heat), oxygen in air (oxidizer), dispersion of dust particles in sufficient quantity and concentration, and confinement of the dust cloud. A flame need not be the ignition source. Dry powders can build up static electricity charges when subjected to the friction of transfer, conveyor belt friction on pulleys and idlers, and mixing operations. Adequate precautions should be provided, such as electrical grounding and bonding, or inert atmospheres.
1. The coal dust explosion pentagon. Source: National Fire Protection Association
Ignition
Dispersion of dust particles
Confinement of dust cloud
Combustible dust
Oxygen in air
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64 different industries; electric power generating utilities experienced 28 incidents. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) investigates and documents the causes of these industrial dust explosions. Each of the CSB dust explosion reports suggests a common cause: Companies and their employees failed to recognize the implicit danger of airborne and accumulated dust. The explosion at the Imperial Sugar plant prompted the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill requiring OSHA to adopt the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommendations to prevent explosions caused by combustible dust (see Five Requirements for a Dust Explosion), although it never became law. Today, OSHAs instruction No. CPL 03-00-008 is the guiding directive for controlling dust in manufacturing facilities. CPL 03-00-008 and NFPA 654 define the conditions under which plants must immediately remove dust accumulations that are 1/32 inch thick. OSHA standard No. 29 CFR 1910.269(v)(11)(xii) requires the elimination or control of ignition sources when coal-handling operations may produce a combustible atmosphere. NFPA 654, which includes a comprehensive list of dust control, ignition sources, and damage control provisions, is also an invaluable reference. A good understanding of what these instructions require (and following through on upgrades, as required) will make your next OSHA inspection much less stressful. The sidebar Prepare for Inspections, Not Citations describes what happens during a typical OSHA visit.
The Challenge with Handling Coal

Coal-fired power plants typically store coal outdoors and normally avoid using enclosed bucket elevators, making the design of a coalhandling system unique and much different than, for example, a grain-handling system at an export terminal. Most coal-fired plants have crushers, and those in northern climates will often feature enclosed transfer houses and conveyor galleries. Day silos store one or more shifts supply of coal within the power block for operating reliability. Consequently, devastating fires and explosions such as those that occurred at Imperial Sugar and at grain export terminals, particularly during the 1970s, are an everpresent threat at coal-fired plants that ignore basic safety and housekeeping precautions. At coal-fired plants, high-capacity conveying systems handle thousands of tons of coal per hour. When even a small fraction of this tonnage is released and becomes airborne, an unacceptable danger is present. The danger escalates because the conveyed product is also flammable and may reach explosive concentrations. Airborne dust eventually settles on a variety of surfaces and over time; thick layers accumulate in less-visible or inaccessible areas. These accumulations fuel the most devastating events when a small initial explosion shakes dust-laden equipment, piping, conduit, ducts, and structures, thereby propelling the dormant fuel into a dense, flammable cloud that feeds a rapidly expanding fireball. These secondary explosions typically cause the majority of the damage in a plant. Consider the bulldozer in Figure 2 that is slowly pushing a blade of coal into a mostly empty, below-grade reclaim hopper. As the coal slides from the left into the hopper, it displaces air within the hopper. As the photo shows, the slow-flowing dry coal creates a cloud of dust. The exiting displaced air floats fine coal particles into a coal dust cloud that drifts upward at the right side of the hopper. Clearly, even relatively slow motions can create a cloud of dust. Now consider the amount of coal dust generated when a fast-moving
Prepare for Inspections, Not Citations

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administrations (OSHAs) area offices are required to identify and inspect facilities where employees may be exposed to potential combustible dust hazards and respond if a formal complaint or referral is received. Facilities are selected using a random numeric system or are chosen via a Site-Specific Targeting Plan. OSHAs inspector may elect to do one or more of the following during a visit:
Conduct
a preliminary walk around the facility to observe areas of the plant for dust accumulations. Areas to be viewed include floors, structural members, conduit and pipe racks, above the ceiling, and on or around equipment. Conduct an opening conference. Take photographs or videos. Collect samples of settled dust from areas such as upper plant levels, roof beams, tops of pipes and ductwork, interior of dust collectors, and within ducts. Gather information about efforts to abate the combustible dust hazard, which is a factor in determining the employers good faith and penalty factors. The OSHA inspector may issue citations for housekeeping, general duty, deflagration/explosion hazards, personal protective equipment, electrical, warning sign, egress, and fire protection violations. The
collection of air samples is not necessary for a citation to be issued. OSHA has initiated site visits to obtain facility-specific information on combustible dust recognition, prevention, and protection programs, and to relay notable findings and other facility feedback to OSHA. In one such reported instance, plant representatives expressed concern about the amount of resources needed to comply with OSHA dust standards and commented that this would be particularly difficult for older plants. They also expressed a concern that new standards should not conflict with environmental regulations and that a new dust control system would be required to be within permitted limits. Ameren has experienced two OSHA combustible dust inspections. In both instances, the inspectors were primarily interested in the silo fill areasthe tripper area directly above the coal silos/bunkers. The inspectors were satisfied with the dust control measures being used by Ameren. The company has added a variety of dust control measures to its plants in a continuing, multi-plant improvement program. This spreads the cost over several years, and the staff gain valuable experience and confidence with the equipment during that time. Dust reduction results can also be compared and verified over time so that the most effective and economical technologies are deployed, as needed.
2. Quick and easy. Dust forms easily when coal is slowly sliced by a bulldozer. Courtesy: Energy Associates PC
32
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POWER March 2012
PLANT DESIGN
belt conveyor throws a continuous discharge stream of coal into a transfer chute. While upgrading housekeeping will reduce visible coal dust, curing the patient is a better practice than only treating the symptoms. In other words, housekeeping must be followed by a program that eliminates coal dust altogether in order for future housekeeping to be effective. A haze of coal dust that obscures vision, and accumulations that block egress, as shown in Figures 3 and 4, are workplace obstructions that are not allowed and major safety hazards that must be eliminated in order to comply with OSHA requirements. Together, a selection of these dust reduction technologies and improved housekeeping practices are required to meet OSHA requirements for dust control in plants. In addition, OSHA suggests a four-step process for reducing coal dust in plants: 1. Identify the factors that may contribute to an explosion by a hazard assessment of the handled materials, plant operations, spaces (including hidden ones), and potential ignition sources. 2. Implement a hazardous dust inspection, testing, housekeeping, and control program. 3. Control ignition sources using appropriate electrical equipment and wiring methods (the Know Your Area Classifications sidebar describes the importance of properly selecting the correct electrical area classification); eliminate or control static electricity, smoking, open flames, sparks, friction, and heating surfaces; and use an equipment preventive maintenance program. 4. Reduce the risk of injury and equipment damage via separations, segregation, isolation, venting, fire protection, explosion prevention systems. Develop an emergency action plan, and maintain emergency exit routes. In a practical sense, the first step in eliminating the hazard is to understand dust formation processes and which dust control technologies will be most effective to reduce airborne dust at the source. The available technologies are usually classified as containment, suppression, collection, and flow control. Each individual technology will reduce dust formation at the source, but a holistic approach should be considered for the entire plant. Each technology is discussed in more detail in the following sections. In the remainder of this article, we explore useful hardware upgrades that will reduce dust production within the typical coal-fired plant that enable operators to comply with the latest OSHA guidance and NFPA design requirements. eas are useful steps in reducing the effects of coal dust. Transfer chutes and skirtboards enclose the stream of coal as it spills off the upstream belt and falls or cascades onto the next conveyor. Chute joints can be sealed and dust curtains and/or belt seals can be fitted to chute entrances and skirtboard exits. These improvements help to reduce the flow of air that is carried along with the stream of coal on the belt. Stilling curtains within the skirtboard are another feature that can be added to reduce the turbulent air that is pulled or pumped by the moving belt and coal stream. The carrying surface of the belt naturally comes in contact with the coal being conveyed. Although multiple belt scrapers are a necessity to clean sticky particles from this surface, some of the smallest, clay-like particles are not easily removed and will adhere to the belt. As these particles dry and the belt flexes over conveyor pulleys and idlers on the return belt strand, they can spill onto the floor or become airborne as they fall from the moving belt or are flung by the rotating rollers. So, although containment can be effective, it is not a complete solution. Coal-handling systems are typically operated from remote, central control rooms, which monitor and control the system at as a whole. Where a local operator is required, the worker can be stationed in an enclosed cab that is provided with fresh, clean, filtered air. Such is often the case for traveling and mobile equipment like bucketwheel reclaimers and bulldozers. The same is true for stationary locations
3. Mountains of coal. Spillage from coal-handling systems is often allowed to accumulate. Courtesy: Energy Associates PC
Contain and Isolate the Dust

Containment of the dust-generating process and isolating workers from dusty ar-
Know Your Area Classifications

The National Electric Code and National Fire Protection Association 70 classify hazardous locations and provide guidance for electrical equipment design/enclosures as well as whether they should use explosion-proof, dust ignitionproof, dust-tight, purge and pressurized, or intrinsically safe designs. For coal-handling systems, the following area classifications are commonly of interest:
Class Class
4. Working in a haze. Uncontrolled coal

dust from a belt conveyor can obscure the view down a conveyor tunnel. Courtesy: Energy Associates PC
II, Division 1 (explosion proof). Use where combustible dust is in the air under normal operating conditions in quantities sufficient to produce explosive or ignitable mixtures, where mechanical failure or abnormal operation of machinery/equipment creates a hazard.
II, Division 2 (dust ignition proof). Use where combustible dust is not normally in the air in quantities sufficient to produce explosive or ignitable mixtures and accumulations are normally insufficient to interfere with the normal operation of electrical equipment to create a hazard. Class II, Groups E and F. Use where the atmosphere contains combustible dusts, which, due to either particle size or having volatiles greater than 8%, is a hazard. Floor areas of an opened, unenclosed transfer tower are classified as Class II, Division 2. The inside of a transfer chute is classified as Class II, Division 1.
March 2012 POWER
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33
PLANT DESIGN
such as the control panel for a rotary railcar dumper. As for any power plant system, daily inspections and a planned maintenance program are essential elements in keeping a coal-handling system performing as designed. A walking inspection of the system while it is operating is one of the best methods for detecting emerging problems, such as a bearing thats starting to rattle or equipment that is beginning to overheat. BREEN BOP - Power Mag Ad 2-8:Layout During routine maintenance tasks, the system is locked out, but employees are still exposed. Using the wrong method to clear a spill can kick dust into the air. interior of a stockpile (below what might be a moist outer surface) can become sufficiently dry to create a dust problem as the coal cascades from one conveyor to another. One common solution is to use a dust suppression system that wets small particles that become airborne. This technique suppresses airborne dust by spraying fine droplets of water into the dust cloud. The objective is to increase the weight of these particles by wetting individual particles, a percentage of which will collide into neighboring wetted particles and agglomerate into larger, heavier particles that fall more rapidly. The effectiveness of a suppression system on airborne dust depends upon dust particle and water droplet characteristics, including their size, solubility, hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties, presence of hygroscopic salts, electric charge, temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and surface tension. The dust particle is much smaller than the water droplet, so air currents can interfere with successful collisions. Smaller droplets are more effective. To create smaller water droplets, the suppressant water is modified by using surfactants to reduce waters surface tension, ultrasonic atomizers to produce a fog of water droplets (1 to 10 micron size), and foam generators to create a blockade of bubbles. A secondary advantage: An increase in effectiveness means less water is required. However, in open outside areas, care must be taken to ensure the water droplets are not so small that they simply blow away with the dust and wind. Minimizing water usage at the first transfer point can affect the dust problem at the next and subsequent transfer points. Much of the coal can remain relatively dry so that particles that did not agglomerate can become a downstream problem. A common practice for reducing dust formation at the next transfer is to install suppression systems at multiple locations. A different approach developed in the 1980s for the Superior Midwest Energy Terminal increases the moisture content of the coal to reduce dusting, which economically provides dust carryover from the application point to subsequent transfer chutes.
Suppress the Dust

Small, dry dust particles that become entrained in air currents are the prime cause of airborne dust. When the surface of a coal stockpile becomes too dry, irrigationstyle water cannons are used to wet the surface to control windblown dust. As re1 2/13/12 12:01 PM Page 1 ceived coal and coal reclaimed from the
AcidGasExperts.com
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THE BALANCE OF POWER

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Operating a power generation plant is a balancing act. Compliance issues, managing emissions, Balance-of-Plant impacts from emissions control... and the bottom line. At Breen, we understand this balancing act. Were the leader in bringing new ideas and technologies to bear on the issues that give plant managers sleepless nights. An innovator in acid gas management, Breen balances the concerns of compliance, environmental issues, efficiency and profitability. Our technologyand chemical-neutral solutions
Ventilate Vital Areas

Ventilation of the general area and processing areas is important for coal-handling system dust control. General area ventilationusing outdoor air to control indoor air qualityis a basic requirement for any building, structure, or enclosed work area. Process area ventilation, on the other hand, is used to prevent dust from escaping from
To learn how Breen can help with your balancing act, call 412.431.4499 or visit www.breenes.com today.
POWER March 2012
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PLANT DESIGN
chutes, skirtboards, and crushers into the general work area. For general area ventilation on a coalhandling system, fresh air can be drawn into captive areas of tunnels and enclosures by locating the filter/inlet to the exhaust duct at these furthest, interior locations. An induced draft fan then exhausts air from these areas, and the inlet filter (if the system is equipped with one) helps to reduce the potential for dust accumulations in the ventilation duct. Though the finest particles will remain in suspension and be captured on the filter, a general area ventilation system cannot prevent larger dust particles from settling on floors, equipment, conduit, piping, and other surfaces. Controlling airborne coal dust that settles on surfaces requires more than dilution air. The containment of process dust is more complex. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists publishes Industrial Ventilation, A Manual of Recommended Practice. This manual is a guide to the latest techniques and data for the design, maintenance, and evaluation of industrial exhaust ventilation systems. Sections and examples are devoted to the design of dust capture/intake hoods, ducts, airflow, losses, and the like. Reducing the opportunity for dust to escape into the work area is an important focus of this manual. Once dust-laden air is extracted from the process, we must safely handle it and meet air emission requirements. A common tool for this task is a fabric dust collector. In some cases, a precleaning cyclone might be advantageous to first capture larger particles. Wet cyclones or scrubbers can also be an effective option. Regardless of the technology used, there are several important criteria to consider: Ventilate the housing to prevent a rapid rise in internal pressure, and duct the vent safely outdoors. Incorporate fire protection/suppression into the collectors housing. Electrically ground the housing. Design hopper angles that are sufficiently steep, as much as 70 degrees, to ensure that coal dust will completely discharge. Purge dust from the collector prior to shutting it down. Maintain a minimum duct velocity of 4,500 fpm. Consider that cooling the dust-laden air below its dewpoint, or to freezing temperatures, can cause moisture or ice to accumulate on the hopper walls and the filter medium.

Pneumatically conveying the dry dust to the silo, if the collector is on the reclaim system (Figure 5). Wetting the dust in a mixer/agglomeration process so it will not become an airborne nuisance (Figure 6). Treating/compacting the dust to form briquettes.

Dust collectors are commonly used to vent the tripper and plant silos areas. Coal can oxidize within a silo, especially if there are stagnant, poorly flowing regions within the silo. The risk is that oxidation can accelerate, erupting into a smothering fire usually deep within the coal silo or bunker. Smothering fires generate carbon monoxide (CO), which is also a safety and explosion hazard. Installing a CO monitoring system within the dust-collection system can both warn of the presence of this poisonous gas and provide early warning of an impending fire.
Flow Control Transfer Chutes

Belt conveyors were once designed for relatively low belt loads and speeds. Everincreasing belt loads, widths, and speeds became common with the growing size of coal-fired power plants, starting in the 1950s. The impact on coal transfer design was just that, impact. The discharge of coal from the head pulley of a conveyor no longer falls mostly vertically onto shallow-sloped chute surfaces. At high belt speeds, the stream of coal now typically shoots off the conveyor and lands directly into the vertical plate at the front of the head chute.
Once the dust is collected in the hopper of the filters housing, we must do something with it. Just discharging it onto the downstream conveyor at a transfer point can create a secondary dust problem at that location. The dust can also become airborne again at the next downstream transfer station. Dust can be even become more of a nuisance if the coal is being stockpiled and theres a chance it will become windblown over a wide area of the plant. More sophisticated options include these:
5. Dustless option. A dust hopper with a pneumatic conveying system. Courtesy: Air-Cure Inc.
6. Wet and stick. A dust hopper with an agglomeration mixer. Courtesy: Air-Cure Inc.
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7. Old, second-generation transfer chute at Amerens Meramec Plant.
Courtesy: Energy Associates PC
8. New, third-generation flow control chute. Courtesy: Ameren Missouri/

Michael Schimmelpfennig
9. Illustration of the new flow control chutes at Amerens Meramec Plant. Courtesy: Ameren/ Michael
Schimmelpfennig
10. Dust collection test methodology. Courtesy: Ameren Missouri/Michael

Schimmelpfennig
Violent collisions such as these produce a lot of dust. Some lumps of coal fracture, which creates smaller, lighter dust particles with newly exposed dry surfaces. These are entrained with air and then carried along in the newly formed aerated mixture. The falling aerated stream of coal creates a draft at the entrance to the discharge hood, pulling more air into the chute to continue the process. The slightly higher pressure within the chute allows floating dust to escape through poorly sealed openings and flanges. In the mid-1980s, new transfer designs using fluid flow principles were introduced that reduced coal dust generation produced by high-capacity conveyor systems. The new approach focuses on transfer chute design to control the flow of coal within the chute. This technique avoids the direct impact of the coal stream on chute surfaces. Instead, the stream is guided. Its velocity and direction are controlled with intersecting, contoured, and form-fitting plate surfaces. The objective is to channel the coal stream so its speed, as it is being loaded onto the downstream belt, closely matches the speed of that belt. This also reduces turbulence and sliding friction at the loading point, which is a primary cause of belt cover wear. One of the all-too-common problems experienced with coal chutes is plugging. Ameren has installed flow control chutes at several of its coal-fired plants, including the Meramec Plant; Figures 7 and 8 are before and after photos of that plants tripper transfer. This was a particularly challenging transfer system design because of an extremely short skirt board length. This design, common in the 1950s, featured a slow-moving belt fitted with a bend pulley for transitioning from the inclined loading section to the horizontal length of the belt. As units were added, belt speeds increased and the bend pulley was replaced by a convex belt curve. The original transfer chute/ skirtboard was replaced with a secondgeneration design. Meramec next switched to Powder River Basin coal, which increased the amount of spillage and dust to unacceptable levels. To alleviate the problem, a third-generation design using flow control technology was installed. A hood funnels the flow of coal from the discharging conveyor. The coal is then guided into a concentrated stream by intersecting plates and is directed toward the tail pulley of the tripper conveyor. This is different from how most chutes are designed, where the primary objective is to direct the flow in the direction of the outbound belt. As seen in Figure 9, there is
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a lower spoon chute section that does this, but the coal takes an atypical zigzag route. The objective is to gently lower the flowing stream by maintaining plate contact to avoid an uncontrolled freefall where gravitys acceleration expands the falling coal stream and separates it into individual particles or lumps that allows the finer particles to float into a cloud of dust. The lower loading chute has an internal spoon that directs the coal stream onto the tripper belt at a reasonable speed and angle to minimize turbulence, belt wear, and particle size degradation. The spoon is enclosed in a stilling box, which also helps to reduce airborne dust. As a proof of concept, Ameren conducted an acceptance test over a three day-period. As seen in Figure 10, sample collecting pans were employed. The dust samples collected in these pans confirmed that coal spillage and dust accumulations just outside of the transfer chute were reduced by 98.8%, from an average of 1.810 to 0.022 grams/ton for those samples that were collected Meramecs new tripper conveyor loading chutes illustrate an issue that is common for many existing power plants. Existing transfers were not originally designed for flow control chutes. The available transfer height and conveyor arrangement was fixed long ago and are definitely not ideally suited for the features employed in flow control technology. Besides the zigzag flow path, the loading point for Meramecs tripper conveyor is moved back toward the tail pulley. This is a compromise for the belt troughing transition distance, which is normally established to avoid overstressing the outer edges of the belt as it transitions from flat to troughed contours as it moves from the tail pulley to the troughing impact idlers. Overstressing a conveyor belt can lead to other problems including poor tracking due to belt cupping and splice failures. Materials of construction are also important when specifying flow control chutes. Because the coal stream maintains contact with chute surfaces, chute or liner wear will increase dramatically. In one case, chutes have worn through in a matter of weeks instead of years due to errors in selecting and inspecting materials of construction for the particular application.
Good Housekeeping Approval

Vacuum and washdown systems provide the tools necessary to clean up spills and dust accumulations that will inevitably occur. Designs run the gamut from rudimentary to sophisticated. Choices are often determined
POWER March 2012
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PLANT DESIGN
by clean-up quantities, frequencies, and difficulties. Consider how the selected design reduces the cost of manual labor otherwise needed for clean-up to help financially justify a decision. Vacuum systems are an effective alternative to shoveling large spills when crushed coal is dry. Truck-mounted systems are often employed when an abnormal event occurs and the services of a contractor is a logical response. At plant locations that are within reasonable distance of a coalhandling system dust collector or scrubber, a permanent central vacuuming system is usually an economical choice. Portable units can be added to plant tools where a central system is not available. Keep in mind, however, that portable vacuum systems are essentially dust collection systems and entail all the hazards associated with contained dust. With any washdown system, an important consideration is disposal of sludgeladen wash water. Sometimes concrete floors can be resloped to drains using a layer of thinset mortar, but this is not critical. Workers can also hose down dust accumulations, walking them to the collecting basin, and follow up with a wide floor squeegee to help move puddles. Tunnels will normally slope to a belowgrade vault, which is often fitted with a sump pump. It may be necessary to upgrade the design to handle increased water flow, higher solids flow, and larger particles. A slurry pump in an agitated sump should be considered. For above-grade floors, collection basins fitted with a grating cover should be connected to large-diameter downspouts or nearly vertical drain pipes. The washdown water will be saturated with silt and larger particles that mass into a muddy mess in shallow slopes, where velocities are too low to maintain the sludge in suspension. Naturally, elbows should not be used, but cleanout provisions at any bend should. from an elevated discharge into a gravity- can be collected in perimeter ditches. Finally, hot coal should not be reclaimed formed pile. Coal fines will naturally accumulate in the center of the pile, while from a storage pile. This introduces an ignithe largest particles roll down the surface tion source into the coal-handling system. to the perimeter base, creating voids at the Any smoldering coal should be segregated perimeter base of the stockpile. Winds en- from the main stockpile and extinguished. tering the crevices promote oxidation and Daniel Mahr, PE (danmahr@energy-pc fan the flames. It is better to stack coal in .com) is a project manager with Energy Aslayers and contour and compact it with sociates PC. Michael A. Schimmelpfennig, mobile equipment, especially for longerPE (mschimmelpfennig@ameren.com) is a term storage. This also allows rainfall to consulting engineer for Power Operations be RS easily shed from the surface, so it more PM ad 013012_Layout 1 1/31/12 8:52 AM Services, Ameren Missouri.
1970 Dodge Super Bee
Inspect Bulk Coal Storage

Coal is subject to spontaneous heating as it absorbs oxygen from the air, often within the first 90 to 120 days. Freshly mined coal absorbs oxygen more rapidly and spontaneously heats quicker than coal that has been mined and stored. Moisture aids spontaneous heating by assisting oxidation. Water used in fighting a coal pile or silo fire may aggravate the problem if sufficient water does not reach the core of the fire to adequately cool and quench it. To reduce the potential for stockpile heating and the progression of events to a hazard, coal should not be simply stacked
March 2012 POWER
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OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
Regional Service Organization Provides Supplemental Maintenance Support

American Electric Powers Field Services Regional Service Organization augments resident power plant maintenance teams to provide outage support and non-outage balance-of-plant support. The augmentation approach adds significant value to the maintenance process, with the greatest benefits coming in the areas of expertise, cost, productivity, and ownership.
By Angela Neville, JD
he American Electric Power (AEP) system provides electricity to some 5.3 million customers across 11 states. The AEP fleet has a total capacity of nearly 39,000 MW and a fuel mix of 66% coal, 22% natural gas, 6% nuclear, and 6% hydro. In order to leverage the expertise of its in-house personnel fleetwide, AEP created the Field Services Regional Service Organization (RSO). The advantages of AEPs RSO are numerous: sharing historical fleet knowledge, reinforcing traditional partnerships, optimizing fleet outage schedules, integrating knowledge transfer, and promoting continuous process improvement. AEPs RSO consists of 310 full-time employees who work across the generating fleet. Rob Osborne, manager of AEP Field Services, and John Ranegar, manager of AEP Regional Outage Management, shared details of the RSO approach with POWER in January.
An Overview of the RSO Approach

The majority of RSO employees are physical workers in the mechanic, turbine mechanic, welder, and instrumentation and control technician classifications. These disciplines represent the resources necessary to take on almost any maintenance activity in a generating station. On some occasions, RSO resources also have been called upon to supplement construction resources. The Field Services organization also has a number of employees who coordinate the work activities of others. The Field Services team has a Regional Outage and Maintenance Planning Team of 14 employees who are responsible for target outage planning and execution coordination. Target outages represent the greatest risk to AEP based on cost, schedule, and work scope. Responsibility for outage implementation resides with the entire outage execution team. This team consists of a region outage manager from Field Services, a plant outage
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manager, a project manager, and construction managers from the Major Projects Support Group, as well as a number of support personnel from these organizations. Outage work is prioritized collaboratively by all stakeholders, Ranegar said. RSO resources are utilized in the areas that provide the most value when cost, risk and technical requirements are analyzed. This transparent approach to resource prioritization is fundamental to the RSO success, as we have to ensure all parties are on board with the utilization plan for resources. The team prepares and supports a completely integrated outage execution schedule that drives process ownership and accountability across the team. The targeted outage readiness process starts 18 months before the actual outage begins, requiring all parties to participate in a significant number of readiness activities. This transparent readiness process establishes clear expectations for all team members and raises the accountability for actions they must take to support successful execution. Ranegar explained that the team focuses its efforts on (and evaluates performance based on) three phases: Phase 1readiness/ preparedness, Phase 2execution, and Phase 3post-outage performance, where reliability is the driving success metric. These performance metrics become part of all stakeholders incentive plans. They also encourage the team to pull on one rope together, providing a common focus and driving team success. Disciplined planning drives extraordinary results, Osborne said. Safety is the most important aspect of any challenge we undertake. He emphasized that projects where we apply the disciplined outage and maintenance planning process are our safest and most productive projects. The companys policy is that the staff can complete their work without that work resulting in employee injury.
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Centralized Facility Fosters Expertise

Within Field Services, AEP has centralized machine shop facilities where nearly all fleet steam path maintenance repair activities are performed. These shop facilities allow the company to optimize outage schedules by prioritizing work scope and optimize shop resources to support the highest priority work, in a fashion similar to that outlined for the RSO group. The shop facilities group possesses the capability to re-blade turbine rotors, repair turbine stationary components, repair and overhaul large steamdriven pumps, rebuild large axial flow fans, rewind and repair major generator components,
1. Masterly machining. AEP Field Services has centralized machine shop facilities where nearly all the fleet steam-path maintenance repairs are performed. One example of the AEP machine shops high-quality work is the new replacement wheel installed in the low-pressure rotor at the 528-MW coal-fired Flint Creek Power Plant near Gentry, Ark. Courtesy: American Electric Power
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OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
and rebuild large-horsepower motors as needs arise (Figure 1). The AEP centralized shops capabilities add extraordinary value to the process, as the Shop Services teams performance rivals that of any equipment repair shop in the country, based on quality and production, while enhancing schedule flexibility, according to Ranegar. Our unique and talented employees provide technical oversight for turbine maintenance projects, Osborne said. This team consists of 12 full-time AEP employees with great technical knowledge from years of experience and technical training (Figure 2). The AEP turbine coordinators typically offset the need for an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) technical advisor on a turbine project, lowering technical support costs across the fleet. As the technical experts on the floor, turbine coordinators allow the team to make sound, quick technical determinations, expediting the work process while ensuring equipment integrity via interface with the Turbine Engineering Team. Traditional customer/OEM risk determinations and associated decisions are approached from a completely different angle than the ownership perspective used in the AEP model. The turbine coordination team provides candor when we fall short of team process expectations, Osborne said. This internal learning and accountability process has proven to be key to team success, allowing us to incrementally improve our processes year after year. The coordinators have shared responsibility for schedule development and execution with the RSO team, which provides significant forwardlooking capabilities to the execution process. The coordinators also provide process modifications that can be built into the equipment series schedules and work packages, which, in turn, foster long-term process success. In addition, the turbine coordination team has established relationships with a number of contractors who can be called upon to augment the team when the technical support demand warrants their services. asked up front and helps the RSO teams internal customers understand the need to prioritize their work in order to support those activities that are best for the fleet as a whole. Ranegar noted that we have a great company, and our team understands our business in a way that allows us all to see the value in the transparent plan we communicate. The RSO team conducts periodic assessments where the entire group evaluates outage readiness at specific points during the pre-outage phase. These readiness sessions drive team accountability and optimize outage readiness. Then the assessment results are compiled for all outages and are communicated across the organization, allowing all parties to understand the remaining scope associated with outage preparedness.
Managing RSO and Plant Priorities

AEP has non-outage or home-based RSO employees co-located at its larger generating stations. They augment the plant maintenance resources and can be assigned, as needed, to any facility. The AEP staff generally finds that outages provide the greatest opportunity to add value within the fleet, specifically in the area of rotating equipment maintenance. RSO employees often travel from their home base location to another plant during outage seasons. We also support forced outages, as indicated by value assessments, allowing for a quick turnaround of generating, Ranegar said. We have great employees who understand their role, allowing our organization to react quickly to provide optimum value. The RSO team conducts routine planning meetings and provides specific updates to all stakeholders to ensure that they all understand the plan the team has for managing AEP resources. This approach allows questions to be
Strategies for Better Outage Management

Because coal fuels the vast majority of AEPs fleet and coal-fired plant outages are more complex than those for gas-fired plants, the company is applying its outage management process first to coal-fired plants. Our goal is to optimize generation assets by executing outages in a safe and productive manner through detailed planning and scheduling that begins 18 months prior to the outage, Ranegar said. We are able to accomplish this goal through a series of readiness assessment activities that are held periodically during the 18 months prior to the outage start date. These readiness assessment meetings bring together all stakeholders to determine how well the team is progressing against a well-understood readiness template of key outage readiness milestones that we have developed over time. He described how this readiness template is dynamic and is modified as we identify learning opportunities. Learning a lesson one time (as opposed to repeating an error) is the key philosophy of consistent outage readiness. Each targeted outage is periodically evaluated to determine how well the team is doing in the planning, scheduling, and preparation phases. The team determines the actions that need to be taken during the next period, as well as owners of those actions. This method allows the entire team to see where the energy and effort needs to be applied. The information is communicated freely, resulting in understanding and transparent accountability within the team. Transparent communication about outage schedules allows each organization to reduce costs by eliminating overtime required for critical path activity support. If we all understand what we have to do and we all understand who needs help, it makes it easier for all of us to get on that rope together. This drives extraordinary team results, Ranegar said.
POWER March 2012
2. Top turbine talent. The AEP turbine coordination team consists of 12 full-time AEP employees with extensive technical knowledge from years of experience and technical training. The team assisted in the installation of the MTU110 LP1 turbine at the 1,300-MW coal-fired Moutaineer Power Plant near New Haven, W.V. The upper half of the turbines casing has been removed and the area barricaded so work can be performed. Courtesy: American Electric Power
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OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
Working on day-to-day issues can distract personnel from longer-term goals such as outage planning and preparedness. This process forces the team to regularly refocus on outage readiness. The process also requires the team to perform periodic risk assessments, resulting in a risk register and associated action plans. These risk assessments culminate throughout the process in confidence reports that are communicated throughout the corporation, allowing all parties to understand both budget and schedule risk associated with outage completion. This process transparency allows the team to react appropriately to identify risks, resulting in resource optimization in all aspects of the business, Ranegar explained. During the execution phase, the team participates in a daily update process to review critical outage metrics, including safety, schedule, and budget. These metrics are published in a daily status report. The daily meetings highlight process execution barriers associated with the project, allowing all parties to react before a crisis point is reached. Ranegar pointed out that The process also measures unit post-outage performance. That is the real indicator of how well the team prepared the unit for service. These metrics monitor unit performance for a specific period to ensure that any capacity-reducing issues that should have been identified and remediated during the outage are identified. Processes then can be improved, thereby setting the team up for success in the future. Monitoring of outage execution success metrics only ends when the unit is released to full-load dispatch. Ranegar added that this philosophy improves unit post-outage start-up focus among all parties, resulting in optimized unit start-up support, hence optimizing the generation assets. Lessons learned from outages are captured, compiled, and utilized to minimize the same or similar errors or impacts on subsequent outages across the fleet.
Cost-Cutting Benefits
The Field Services group provides a number of critical functions, including planned and forced outage work by the RSO team, shop support for major equipment repair, and turbine coordination support for turbine component repair. These functions pay huge dividends from a cost perspective, Osborne said. AEP Field Services provides services at a significantly reduced cost per hour while also providing much better productivity rates compared with other contract labor. We track our value added annually based on our discounted rates and benchmark other projects to ensure the discounted rate represents the real bottom-line impact associated with our work. The RSO team also has a significant advantage reacting to emergent work such as forced outage equipment repair, according to Osborne. The team can mobilize and be working much more quickly than other entities by the nature of the teams structure. Consequently, the teams rapid reaction time adds significant value when it comes to equipment turnaround associated with unit availability. Our team is ready to react, and we understand how our actions add that incremental commercial value to the company bottom line, he said. We are AEP employees and therefore have a much greater sense of ownership. We also understand our equipment due to the fact that we work on it frequently, and our processes revolve around our equipment, really driving much better equipment understanding and a more consistent result.
INTELLECTUALS SOLVE PROBLEMS. GENIUSES PREVENT THEM.
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1879-1955 Dont let surprises extend your outage. Structural Integrity has been helping power plants solve outage problems for nearly 30 years. And as Experts in the prevention and control of structural and mechanical failures, we can also help you prevent them. Our engineering experts help with: Planning Nondestructive Examination Condition and Failure Assessment Repairs Stress and Fracture Analyses/Life Assessment
Looking Forward
In 2012, AEP is developing a business plan to apply the outage management process to its combustion turbine fleet while its Fossil Fleet Outage Management Organization continues to improve the effectiveness of outages for coal-fired units. During this transitional period associated with new environmental regulations, our generating fleet will see units being operated and maintained in a different fashion, including unit retirements, Osborne said. We will be asked to react to new challenges within those facilities and, due to our dynamic way of doing business, our team will be able to help our fleet work through issues that they have not experienced before. Staffing levels in facilities will soon be changing due to a large number of workers who are starting to retire, and the RSO team will provide some relief when called upon to optimize affected units performance. Osborne emphasized that this dynamic reaction capability from our team provides significant added value.
Our expertise encompasses many plant components and systems, as well as comprehensive, innovative solutions including Guided Wave Testing, Direct Assessment, Root Cause Analyses, Welding Engineering, Linear Phased Array NDE and more. Call us today at 877-474-7693 for a quote or for help immediately during your outage. Were experts you can rely on.
Improving Environmental Compliance

The greatest advantage of integrating the RSO with the outage management process is realized with AEPs environmental retrofit program, which has required significant capital investment. Outages associated with environmental equipment process tie-in have been some of AEPs most critical due to their duration, work scope, and associated capital expense. These outages demand our most disciplined efforts to ensure success, Ranegar said. These all have been targeted outages utilizing the outage management processes we have discussed.
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Angela Neville, JD, is POWERs senior editor.

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March 2012 POWER
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OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
Achieving Sustainable Performance Improvement

Well-organized operations and maintenance (O&M) and outage efforts enable power plants to reduce overall operating costs, improve equipment reliability, and increase long-term productivity. Experienced contractors can help plant staff maximize the success of their outages and O&M endeavors.
f you fail to plan, you are planning to fail goes a popular adage attributed to Benjamin Franklin. The absence of proper planning can detrimentally affect the success of outages and regular operations and maintenance (O&M) conducted at power plants. Contractors, such as Fluor, that specialize in such tasks can help ensure effective planning and execution. We try to help our clients define the scope of their outages by getting involved at the conceptual stage, Rick Graves, senior vice president at the Fluor Power Group, told POWER in January. Fluor is a leading provider of outage planning and O&M services to U.S. power generation facilities and has experience providing these services in the areas of nuclear, gas, coal-fired, and hydroelectric power generation.
Early Involvement Is Key

When Fluors representatives interface with power plant managers, they can offer to provide O&M services ranging from operational readiness, asset performance improvement, and outage execution to total O&M support. In order to help clients, the company has developed tools that help to improve plant performance. For example, Fluor provides O&M services to Luminants fleet of fossil-fuel units, including the Oak Grove Power Plant. (For more information, see Luminants Oak Grove Power Plant Earns POWERs Highest Honor, in our August 2010 issue or online at www.powermag.com.) By getting involved during the conceptual stage of the outage planning process with clients, the Fluor staff can use their benchmarking data to identify potential improvement opportunities in existing plant schedules and maintenance techniques (Figure 1). These opportunities can be realized through use of subject matter expertise and lean technologies, supplemental maintenance and contractor management, or total program management
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and execution. Graves pointed out that the planning phase also includes thorough inspections of the plants and equipment condition, which is key to reducing discovery work and unplanned activities. Every facility has its own outage planning process, Graves said. Whether it is an in-and-out job or a long term relationship such as Fluors Alliance clients, full integration with our clients in order to provide a seamless process is the goal. The integration of planning is crucial. Fluors project team executes a scope of services with the plants it serves. That plan is executed in detail in order to maximize the efficiency of the work performed during an outage. Promoting efficiency is an important objective for Fluor because it helps clients optimize the cost of execution. Fluor has routinely experienced significant craft productivity improvements
with this approach, resulting in substantial cost savings for its clients.
Putting Safety First

When it helps plant operators implement new outage management policies, Fluor emphasizes that the first goal should be to complete the outage in a safe manner. The safety of all workers at the site is the top priority with our people, Graves emphasized. When our clients use our teams, it improves safety at their facilities. Fluors outage planning procedures include lockout/tagout procedures and other safety measures, which are built into the outage plan and schedule. Fluor also utilizes a formal lessons learned process for continuous improvement and incorporates those lessons into future outage planning.
Practice to Achieve Success

Graves explained how outage planning and
1. A plan is the first structure. By getting involved during the conceptual stage of outage planning with its clients, Fluor maximizes the success of their efforts. Recently, Fluor completed an environmental improvement, construction, and small capital construction maintenance program for two units owned by a southeast U.S.-based utility. Courtesy: Fluor
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POWER March 2012
OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
2. Getting the job done. Fluors services
range from operational readiness, asset performance improvement, and outage execution to total O&M support. The company has grown its ongoing O&M services Alliance program to cover all fossil units for this Southwest power generation provider. Courtesy: Fluor
management strategies can help power plants comply with environmental regulations. For starters, outage planning is important when dealing with environmental processes and equipment installation because the scope and execution of that planning will affect a facilitys future ability to comply with environmental regulations at the required levels. Fluor staff use detailed inspection of key
equipment, among other techniques, to ensure that required equipment is able to meet or exceed its expected level of performance. The biggest thing that would help power plants save money is to reduce the learning curve of the outage craft workers (such as boilermakers, tube welders, and millwrights) and supervision as they go through the outages at their clients facilities, he said. Each time this group of outage craft workers and supervision goes through an outage, they learn to improve their performance through the execution of the plan and thereby lower the costs of the outages. These are incremental improvements because of the quality practices and experience that are put in place. Fluor has a number of clients with coalfired and gas-fired power plants in the South and Southwest that have achieved notable improvement in their fleets (Figure 2), for example, with safety performance. Its clients also see significant improvements in reducing the costs of outages. Graves pointed out that these improvements are especially likely where teams do some types of work over and over again: We have helped our clients achieve significant operating performance by lowering the incidence of rework. We also have a
number of clients where we are incentivized to meet their reliability and operational metrics.
Challenges Ahead for Outage Planning

In the short term, during the next five years, the new environmental equipment that coalfired and gas-fired plants must now have due to recent environmental regulations has expanded the volume of work related to outage planning and plant O&M, Graves said. This also changes the scope of our services that we provide to our clients. He emphasized that in the long term with changes in equipment technology and environmental regulationsthe skills needed by craft workers will continue to increase. To continue our success as an outage service provider, our company and the industry need to improve our ability to attract new craft workers such as pipe fitters, boilermakers, tube welders, and electricians with high skill levels, he said. Unfortunately, the pool of resources for such skilled craft workers is dwindling, so we must recruit new workers and train them for the industry.
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45
OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
Optimizing Outages with Outage Readiness Analysis

In order to ramp up the success of planned outages at its power plants and lower the risk of unexpected and costly problems, OG&E management has begun using the outage readiness index process. This method identifies and defines the scope of the work needed prior to the commencement of an outage and quantifies the amount of preparedness needed to implement the outage in the most cost-effective manner.
n the current challenging financial climate, U.S. power plants are trying more than ever to maximize the work their personnel carry out during planned outages. In addition to trying to execute routine outage work in the most efficient way, plant staff often have to deal with adding technological modifications such as air pollution control upgrades in order to comply with new environmental regulations. At OG&E, we currently are in the process of implementing the outage readiness index (ORI) process, which commences the outage planning effort one year in advance of the scheduled outage start date, Ken Johnson, vice president of OG&Es Power Supply Operations, told POWER in January. OG&E has a service area that covers 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas and a generation fleet that consists of five coal-fired units, six combined cycle units, nine conventional gas-fired steam units, nine simple cycle gas turbines, and three wind farms with 222 wind turbines. Total fleet capacity is approximately 6,300 MW.
How the ORI Process Works

Johnson explained that the ORI process was adapted from similar work done by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) for project planning. The CII, based at the University of Texas at Austin, is a consortium of more than 100 leading owner, engineering-contractor, and supplier firms from both the public and private arenas. (See Real-time Proactive Safety in Construction in the Jan. 2012 issue of POWER for more information about the CII.) These organizations have joined together to enhance the business effectiveness and sustainability of the capital facility life cycle through CII research, related initiatives, and industry alliances. In simple terms, CIIs planning process consists of a series of weighted checklists
46
specific to each project milestone (360, 270, 180, 150, 120, 90, 60, 30, and 14 days ahead of an outage). The ORI checklists touch on each aspect of outage planning in increasing detail as the outage date nears. A scoring scale indicative of the status of each item in terms of completion or readiness is used to calculate a score at each milestone, which can then be compared with an optimum score. This gives the outage manager and plant management a quantitative indication of the planning processs progress. The intent of the ORI process is consistency in planning outages, Johnson explained. Some flexibility is afforded plants based on plant-specific needs, but consistency in the process is the intent. The ORI process requires routine meetings during the course of the year-long planning cycle, and these meetings are conducted at each plant by the assigned outage manager. After each outage season, a meeting is conducted with all plants and outage managers in order to discuss lessons learned and potential refinements to the process. Johnson described how the staff at OG&Es plants are selected to be the leaders who implement the ORI process. Typically, a member of the plant staff is designated by management to function as the outage manager for the outage and is
tasked with leading the planning and execution effort utilizing the ORI process. The outage manager is responsible for assembling the outage team, consisting of a variety of personnel from the plant, including from the technical services support organization, the supply chain, the safety division, and, in many cases, primary contractors. The ORI process provides structure and rigor to the planning process, including scoring at each planning meeting to gauge readiness to execute the outage and quality of the planning effort, Johnson said. A specific outcome of each ORI meeting is the generation of an action list related to any deficient areas, with assignment of responsible individuals to deal with such deficiencies and due dates required to recover prior to the next milestone meeting. Currently, OG&E is implementing a target score vs. an optimal score for the 2012 goals at each plant, Johnson explained.
Boosting Plant Performance

Johnson said that OG&Es improved outage planning approach has contributed to the utilitys overall success. In simple terms, better quality advance outage planning translates into higher quality and more efficient management of planned outages. To OG&E, this means that the
Another Outage Management Tool

Ken Johnson, vice president of OG&Es Power Supply Operations, told POWER that in addition to improved outage planning practices, another way of improving plant performance is the use of fleetwide maintenance agreements, which are common in the electric utility industry. OG&E is currently pursuing two key strategic contracts: scaffolding/insulation, and maintenance and construction, he said. The benefits include consistency in performance; securing expertise in estimating, planning, managing, and performing the work; and, when done correctly, value-added services such as project controls capabilities.
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POWER March 2012
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OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
optimal amount of necessary work gets accomplished during the planned outage window, and that ensures that the unit is reliable over the next overhaul interval. Well-organized outage planning and management also helps OG&E power plants save money because better planning translates into more efficient performance of the outage work. Johnson added that,
Imagine how your productivity could soar
Higher quality advanced planning tends to potentially lower the number of craftsmen required for an outage.
in an environment where the availability of skilled craftsmen can be an issue, higher quality advanced planning tends to potentially lower the number of craftsmen required for an outage. More effective outage planning does more than just help the bottom line. Johnson pointed out that it also enables OG&E power plants to better comply with environmental regulations. Higher quality outage planning and execution favorably influences unit reliability, he said. As a result, the performance of all plant systems, including boiler and environmental controls systems, is improved as far as supporting compliance. He emphasized that to the extent that improved unit reliability has a favorable influence on unscheduled outage rates, the potential for adverse impacts on environmental compliance due to unit startups and shutdowns is avoided.
Hi, my name is Bob, Senior Marketing Support Specialist at Atlas Copco Compressors. Talk about sustainability... for the last 38 years, I've been part of the team taking care of our valued customers in the United States. At Atlas Copco, our culture is built around the customers needs and minimizing our impact on the environment. Sound too good to be true? Let us prove it. Weve been named one of the top 100 most sustainable companies in the world for the past five consecutive years while continuing to invest in growing our local support and service for the U.S. market. For instance, just this past year, weve built a new 131,000 sq. ft. distribution center in Charlotte, NC increasing our spare parts stock by 80%, all to better serve our customers. Oh, and did I forget to mention our products? Whether you need air compressors, low pressure blowers, dryers and filters, compressed air piping, or nitrogen generators, we have the perfect product for you. Just log on to www.atlascopco.us/bobusa or call 866-688-9611 to learn more about us, our products, and how we have earned and will continue to earn our reputation.
New Directions in Outage Planning

Looking ahead, Johnson sees a couple of trends in the power generation sector that should make outage planning more effective: The name of the game is improved advanced equipment condition assessment coupled with a solid, rigorous planning process to ensure optimal duration and quality planned outages supporting unit reliability.
Copyright 2011 Atlas Copco Compressors LLC. All rights reserved.

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CIRCLE 27 ON READER SERVICE CARD 48
POWER March 2012
wind | wave | tidal | current | thermal | solar | hybrids
Uniting All Segments of the Offshore Renewable Energy Industry

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June 19-21, 2012

BOSTON, MA | Doubletrees Coco Key Hotel
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OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
Enhancing Plant Performance Through Formal Outage Planning and Execution

By thoroughly planning their outage strategies well in advance, Southern Company personnel are better able to achieve a number of important objectives, including improving unit economic performance, reducing unplanned maintenance outage hours, completing outages on time and within budget, and ensuring that outage workmanship is of the highest quality.
outhern Company owns and/or operates more than 280 generating units at more than 70 power plants in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina. They account for a combined capacity of more than 42,000 MW. The companys energy sources are 58% coal, 25% natural gas, 15% nuclear, and 2% hydroelectric. The long-term success of Southern Company, the ability to safely provide reliable, low-cost energy to our customers, and the preservation of our assets depends on proper outage planning and execution, Kim Flowers, vice president of Technical Services at Southern Company, told POWER in January. She emphasized that every member of the Southern Company fossil-hydro generation organization understands the importance of the companys outage approach.
1. Working together. In Southern Companys outage planning and management model, the Technical Services group is responsible for consistency and best practices. Plants are accountable for budgets and performance, while regions (shown in blue) are responsible for outage planning and execution, contracting, and regional system owners. Source: Southern Company
2.
3.
4.
APC Birmingham
5.
GPC Western Technical services Coastal
operator data, past outage reports, and subject matter experts. Plan all work to a level of detail that limits the nonproductive time of craft employees. Schedule contract and plant work into an integrated construction project management schedule to optimize contractor and plant resources. Execute the work in a manner that allows for quick adjustments in the work flow to ensure schedule and budget compliance is maintained. Close out and fully document the outage, including all relevant information regarding the outage process and recommendations for future outages.
Benefits of a Regional Maintenance Approach

GPC Southern GPC Northern
Outage Planning and Management Model

Southern Companys generating plants, regional management teams, and Technical Services organization all have important roles to play in outage planning and maintenance, Flowers explained (Figure 1):

Currently, Southern Companys regional maintenance program is focusing on the following four key areas to optimize performance at a reduced cost:

The generating plants are accountable for outage budgets, cost management, and asset performance. Within each of five regions, a regional planning manager is responsible for outage planning, execution, and contracting strategy. These regional teams work together to ensure maintenance strategies are developed and executed consistently in plants across each region and the fleet. The Technical Services organization governs consistency, provides technical expertise, and defines best practices for outage management.
Our outage philosophy is customized to unit size rather than the individual plant, and is driven primarily by pressure rating and type of outage work to be performed, Flowers said. Plant management, regional planning managers, and Technical Services employees meet monthly to discuss tactical and strategic outage management opportunities. Southern Company employs an outage management model that consists of two main elements: management control (before, during, and after the outage) and a five-step process for identifying, planning, scheduling, executing, and closing out work: 1. Identify outage work using all available tools. This includes, but is not limited to, using condition-based maintenance data,
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Component benchmarking. Contracting philosophy and volume procurement. Outage planning and execution. The living maintenance program, a multi-step process used by the outage team. First the team puts together a maintenance strategy, which requires identifying the outage work to be carried out and planning how the work will be performed. Then the team supervises the actual execution of the work. Finally, the team reviews the completed outage work for lessons learned that can be used in planning future outages.
Flowers said that the regional maintenance approach has been instrumental in
POWER March 2012
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OUTAGE MANAGEMENT
optimizing the operations and maintenance of Southern Companys assets. This approach provides a structured way to effectively ensure consistent application of cost containment and process improvement best practices across the fleet. This strategy has resulted in a reduction of planned outage days, improved contractor productivity, and increased reliability. For example, for contracting and procurement purposes, the regional approach allows the Southern Company fleet to leverage its buying power and size. In past years, the cost of equipment and labor differed from location to location, even with the same vendors providing services at several locations, Flowers said. At times, however, the work performed was consistent, but the price of labor and equipment were not. By pooling their efforts, Southern Companys regional negotiators have achieved more consistent pricing and contract execution. Likewise, savings have been realized for the procurement of large pieces of equipment through volume procurement contracts. Better upfront project identification and planning through the regional structure have enabled such success. ther reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and mercury. This significant investment has almost doubled the amount of equipment that the companys fossil plants must maintain in order to comply with environmental regulations. Flowers emphasized that certainly, the traditional power plant that we are all familiar with is changing. Southern Company expects that the amount and complexity of equipment its fossil plants must maintain and operate in order to comply with changing environmental regulations will increase in the future. However, by leveraging our outage philosophy and regional maintenance approach, and building on our employees commitment to superior performance, we believe the Southern Company generating fleet will continue to safely provide highly reliable and affordable energy for our customers, Flowers said.
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Effective outage planning is the most costeffective way to run our business, Flowers said. A well-managed planned outage ensures that we are able to operate our units in such a manner as to be able to satisfy customer demand when needed, be reliable when in service, and optimize costs to achieve reliability targets. As a result of its consistently exceptional reliability performance, Southern Company is able to leverage both unit availability and reliability to economically commit and dispatch its fleet, which ultimately translates into lower costs to its customers and more market sales opportunities for the company.
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Southern Companys outage planning and management process has been instrumental in the successful construction, maintenance, and operation of its environmental control equipment, Flowers said. The companys outage management process fosters the correct maintenance at optimal frequency to reduce equipment down time, which enables its fleet to meet or exceed all environmental regulations. The company has invested $8.1 billion in environmental controls since 1990, and management plans to invest at least an additional $1.2 billion through 2013 to furMarch 2012 POWER
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51
POWER IN VIETNAM
Vietnam Works Hard to Power Economic Growth

For the past 15 years, Vietnam has enjoyed enviable gross domestic product increases, averaging 7% annually. That kind of economic growth increases power demand, but financing new capacity remains a challenge. Reaching its ambitious capacity growth goals will require Vietnam to expand its financing and vendor base, attract foreign investment, and ensure future fuel supplies in a region thick with competition for those resources.
By Sonal Patel
he decade after the Fall of Saigon in April 1975 was for reunified Vietnam a period of repression, economic hardship, and international isolation. Behind the Iron Curtain, the country scarred by 21 years of civil war was shunned by the worldincluding former North Vietnam ally China, whom it fought and defeated in a 29-day war in 1979, and South Vietnam ally the U.S.for its decade-long occupation of Kampuchea (Cambodia) and violent removal of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. Backed only by the Soviet Union, the battered country saw foreign aid needed for restructuring evaporate and membership in the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Asian Development Bank denied. In 1986, after domestic policies proved ineffective in stimulating economic growth, the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam cast off the Soviet model of central economic planning, and Vietnam began to embark upon reforms transitioning it to a market economy. The end of the VietnamCambodian conflict in the early 1990s accelerated this process. As Vietnam devalued its currency and decontrolled most prices, a U.S. trade embargo was lifted, the country reestablished formal relations with China and member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and it obtained access to concessional international finance. Those actions bore fruit. Vietnam, now a nation of 88 million people, has for the past 15 years seen dizzying gross domestic product (GDP) growth at an average annual rate of 7%. In 2011, despite the global economic slowdown, the country recorded a 6.5% GDP increase, making it the 35th largest economy in the world, according to Goldman Sachs. But now the country faces a new critical problem. Development at such an accelerated pace has left Vietnam struggling to upgrade its infrastructureeven though over the past 12 years, the nation invested 10% of its GDP into infrastructure improvements. Though its paved
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roads have increased in length threefold and the percentage of rural households connected to its power grids has improved from 2.5% in 1975 to 96% in 2009, the country continues to battle widespread, crippling power shortages, particularly in the dry season (December to April). Power demand has outpaced supply by about 3% in the past five years, and consumption is expected to double to 175 billion kWh in 2015, from 98 billion kWh in 2011, and then taper off to 11.15% growth per year from 2016 to 2020 and 7.4% to 8.4% per year from 2021 to 2030. Commercial usage in particular has seen a sharp increase, skyrocketing 9.8% to 94 billion kWh in 2011 compared with 2010 levels (Figure 1). The demand surge last year prompted officials to slash power usage in the manufacturing sector, inciting public outcry. Meanwhile, the country generated 109.29 billion kWh in 2011, up 9.2% from 2010. In 2012, if Vietnam is to sustain GDP rates of between 6.5% and 7%, the Ministry of Trade and Industry has warned state-owned entities that they will need to generate 120.795 billion kWh to ensure supply. The government, which routinely drafts plans that serve as a roadmap for the countrys energy future, is acutely aware that financing will be its foremost challenge. Improvements to Vietnams power sector will require massive investment of nearly 2.359 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND, $123.8 billion) over the next two decades, it says. About 66.6% of this funding is earmarked for new power sources and the remainder for improvements to the grid.
and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN). By 2005, EVNa vertically integrated corporation produced 80.6% of the nations electricity, 40% of which came from hydropower. The National Assembly then passed the 2005 Electricity Law in accordance with Vietnams Strategy for Electricity Development set out by the prime minister in October 2004. This strategy seeks to incentivize privatization of EVN power generation assets and provide domestic and foreign investors a chance to capitalize on increasing energy demand and sets ambitious targets for electricity output up to 2020. Change has been swift. Today, independent power producers (IPPs) own about 29% of Vietnams power capacity, and the remaindera growing shareis held by a number of state-owned enterprises such as PetroVietnam and VinaComin. However, EVN still controlled about 71% of Vietnams power capacity, transmission lines, and electricity distribution and retail systems in 2010. EVN will restructure in 2012, the company said in January; it plans to divest capital in sectors such as real estate, securities, and banking and pour it into power projects. EVN
1. Electricity consumption by sector, 2010. Source: Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade Agriculture 1% Other 4% Service 5%
Restructuring the Power Sector

Vietnams government concedes that the bulk of the countrys power woes stem directly from how that sector, which is still dominated by public ownership, is structured. In its push for private sector participation, the country split energy sector operations into three state-owned companies in 1995: PetroVietnam, Vinacomin (former Vinacoal),
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Residential 38%
Commercial & industrial 52%
POWER March 2012
POWER IN VIETNAM
also plans to revamp its industry, ownership, and administration structures. raise retail prices by 5%, to 1,304 VND (6.2 cents)/kWh, to offset costs incurred last year. State media reported that Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has promised retail prices would see a steeper hike, to 10%, in 2012. The measures have so far had a modest impact. Foreign build-operate-transfer (BOT) and domestic IPP projects account for 62% of the total new thermal capacity planned from 2007 to 2015. Unlike foreign BOT projects, though, domestic IPPs typically only have short-term power purchase agreements with EVN, without government guarantees and no fixed annual capacity charge in the form of a take-or-pay agreement. priorities are to increase power prices and create a competitive power market; this includes relinquishing state control of power generation, though Vietnam intends to continue holding a monopoly on the transmission network. The country will need to increase its total of imported and produced power from 194 billion kWh to 210 billion kWh by 2015, 330 billion to 362 billion kWh by 2020, and 695 billion to 834 billion kWh by 2030. Vietnam also plans to embark on a rural electrification program, putting 800,000 more households on the grid. Finally, the plan calls for reducing the electricity elasticity coefficient/GDP from the current average of 2.0 to 1.5 in 2015 and 1.0 in 2020.
The Bane of Low Power Prices

Several organizations and businesses say that the availability of capital to develop power projects, which require large investments, remains modest, because selling prices of electricity remain low. [With such a] low selling price of electricity of some 5.5 US cents/kWh, no private investor dares invest in the sector, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Huu Hao was quoted as saying in a July 2010 EVN news release. Hao noted that it was hard to raise power prices to 9 to 10 cents/kWh so that investors can make profit. As a result, the power sector will still face difficulty in calling for local and foreign investors to pour money into it. Renewables in particular will be affected. The lowest price for 1 kWh of wind power is at least 9 to 10 U.S. cents, equivalent to the cost of nuclear power but much higher than hydropower (3 to 4 cents) and coal-fired power (5 to 6 cents). Low power prices have proven costly to EVN itself. During periods of intense heat in 2008 and 2009, EVN was forced to pay 120 billion VND ($5.7 million) each day for losses to maximize the capacity of coal- and oil-fueled power plants such as Ca Mau and Nhon Trach to meet demand for electricity, Hao said. Key players in Vietnams power sector have urged the government to adjust power prices, and the government has considered asking international credit institutions to invest in the power sector and issuing government bonds to fund important projects. The government also has called on Vietnams industries to cut down on energy use, saying steel, cement, ceramic, and frozen food sectors could save 20% to 30% while the service sectors could cut up to 25% to 30%. Reform here, too, is budding. The Electricity Law that became effective in 2005 sets out a three-phase plan for a competitive power generation market. The first phase was expected to begin in January 2012 and end in 2014, but it has been delayed until April because generating units had yet to install technology for the collection and processing of information to calculate their power prices. The second phase, from 2014 to 2022, involves the introduction of a competitive wholesale power market. The third phase, starting in 2022, will introduce a new competitive retail power market. Meanwhile, a 15% hike in wholesale power prices in March 2011 (though retail prices were not raised, to help curb inflation) was followed by a new law in September that will allow EVN to adjust monthly pricing so that it is in line with foreign currency fluctuations, fuel prices, and power output levels. In late December, EVN announced it would
March 2012 POWER
Increasing Power Capacity

In 2010, Vietnams installed capacity and power imports totaled 21,297 MW, but available capacity was just 19,713 MW. About 36% of the countrys capacity was sourced from hydropower in that year, 18% was coal-fired, 37.2% was oil- and gas-fired (including 30% from gas turbines and 2.5% from diesel), 3.2% came from renewables, and 4.8% was imported. Under the July 2011approved Master Plan VII, power capacity is expected to increase to between 69,000 MW and 75,000 MW by 2020 and to between 139,000 MW and 146,800 MW by 2030 (Figure 2). Among the plans other
Growing the Grid

Among Vietnams more prominent plans is an overhaul of the national grid. Its 500-kV transmission network and a 220-kV line are managed and operated by EVNs National Transmission Power Corp., while regional power utilities manage smaller lines of 110 kV, 35 kV, and 6 kV. The Master Plan specifically calls for investment in the national power grids to bring their development in line with national and local power development plans, increase reliability, reduce power losses, and enable mobilization of power sources in the rainy and
2. How the Master Plan VII envisions capacity growth between 2010 and 2030. Coal is poised to provide a significant share of short-term capacity increases. Source:
Vietnam Ministry of Science and Technology Nuclear 160,000 140,000 Renewables Import Oil & gas-fired Coal Hydro/pumped storage
Total capacity (MW)
120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030
Table 1. Grid support. Vietnam plans to overhaul its national grid to support ambitious
plans to increase power capacity from 21 GW to 75 GW by 2030, increase reliability, and reduce power losses. This table shows the countrys plans for building out its high-voltage and smaller lines over that period. Source: Vietnam Ministry of Trade and Industry 2009 Station 500 kV Station 220 kV Line 500 kV Line 220 kV 7,500 MVA 19,094 MVA 3,438 km 8,497 km 20112015 17,100 MVA 35,863 MVA 3,833 km 10,637 km 20162020 24,400 MVA 39,063 MVA 4,539 km 5,305 km 20212025 24,400 MVA 42,775 MVA 2,234 km 5,552 km 20262030 20,400 MVA 53,250 MVA 2,724 km 5,020 km
Notes: km = kilometers, MVA = mega-volt ampere.

www.powermag.com 53
POWER IN VIETNAM
dry seasons (see table). This includes building out the 500-kV grid, though the state said it would research development of power networks at voltages of 750 kV, 1,000 kV, and high-voltage direct current after 2020. A notable aspect of the plan includes cooperation with other Southeast Asian countries for an interconnection of Vietnams grid through transmission networks at voltage levels of 110, 220, and 500 kV. who published a paper in the Journal for Vietnam Studies on the matter last summer, said. The projects will boost Vietnams economy, but they will place a high toll on citizens living along the rivers, particularly those in the northwest, who face displacement, heightened pollution, and reduced water supplies. A less-obvious impact is that costs of hydropower construction have been systemically underestimated, because, simply put, project bottom lines do not reflect reality, she said. The country is also prone to droughts, such as the one that afflicted the country in 2010 and 2011 and forced the government to take severe water consumption mitigation measures such as rationing power and increasing electricity prices by 15%. Vietnam also routinely competes with its neighbors on the lower Mekong River for water, making its reliance on hydropower a contentious political issue (see sidebar). These reasons considered, once Vietnam reaches its hydropower potential, it plans to diversify its power generation profile, reducing hydros share to 16% by 2030.
3. Big hydro. While commissioning the

first of six Son La units in 2010, Russian engineering firm Institute Hydropowers chief design engineer, Alexander Volynchikov, said that designing the dam required several unconventional layout alternatives because engineers had only six years to put the first unit into commercial operation. The projects unique river diversion method is said to enable spillway capacities of 38,000 cubic meters (49,702 cubic yards) of water per second, exceeding those of even more massive Russian plants, like the 6,400-MW Sayano-Shushenskaya, whose maximum discharge is 15,900 cubic meters per second. (See a story about the disaster at that Russian facility in our Dec. 2010 issue.) Courtesy: Institute Hydropower
A Water Constraint
Today, roughly 36% of Vietnams electricity is generated by hydropower, and the long and narrow country through which course the mighty Red and Mekong Rivers and wellknown smaller waterways including the Ka Long O River and Huong River (Perfume River) continues to have colossal hydropower potential. Since Vietnams independence in 1954, the governing Vietnamese Communist Party has actively promoted development of hydropower, spurring construction of 1,021 large and small hydropower projects in 36 provinces and cities, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Hydropower potential is concentrated along the countrys 10 largest river systems: Da (Black), Lo-Gam-Chay, MaChu, Ca, Vu Gia-Thu Bon, Tra Khuc-Huong, Se San, Ba, Serepok, and Dong Nai. Vietnams power plan calls for rapid hydropower development for the next five to 10 years. Under Master Plan VII, hydropower resources will be expanded to 17,400 MW by 2020. Over the period 2016 to 2030, project development will also focus on pumpedstorage projects: Vietnam plans to increase its pumped storage capacity from 1,800 MW in 2020 to 5,700 MW by 2030. The Dong Nai River Basin, in particularwhich originates in the central highlands of the southern portion of the country and runs 586 km (364 miles) across 11 provinces and citieshas a total of 17 hydropower projects under construction with a total designed capacity of 3,000 MW. Among the projects under construction is one of the largest in Southeast Asia: the 2,400-MW Son La project on the Da River in the north, which features a roller-compacted concrete gravity dam that is 138 meters (453 feet) high. The second of six 400-MW units at this plant was commissioned in August 2011 (Figure 3). Construction of new hydropower on such a massive scale will introduce critical new problems, Nga Dao, cofounder and director of the Center for Water Resources Conservation and Development in Vietnam, told POWER. Problems with technical and socio-environmental issues, such as floods downstream or resettlement difficulties, are readily observed, Dao,
54
Damming the Mekong

The 3,050-mile-long Mekong River that courses through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam (Figure 4) has long been called by the peoples of Southeast Asia the Mother of Water. Because the Mekong provides critical water supply for the riparian countries and gives birth to equally important tributaries, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam in 1995 established the Mekong River Commission to help manage use of the rivers resources. The most recent scuffle dealt with by the commission involves construction of the $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam in Laos, which was suspended on Dec. 6, 2011, pending further impact studies by Japan of the 1,285-MW, 2,600-foot-high project. Vietnam has been the most vocal in its opposition to the Thai-financed dam (and 11 other dam projects proposed on lower reaches of the river), saying it would unleash massive ecological changes and threaten fish population and delivery of nutrient-rich silt to the Mekong Delta (China already operates four dams on the rivers upper reaches). Project proponents, including the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, say that the dam
4. Mother of water. Arising from Chinas Tibetan Plateau, the Mekong River courses through Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. It then widens into the nine channels of the Mekong Delta once it crosses the border into southern Vietnam and drains into the South China Sea. The river is the blue ribbon running south from the top edge of this NASA false-color Terra MODIS image from August 2003. Source: NASA
would be a critical energy source for the power-starved region as well as a potential source of income that would spur the economy of Laos.
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POWER March 2012
IS YOUR PLANT OR SMART GRID PROJECT A WINNER?

2011 PLANT OF THE YEAR:
Kansas City Power & Lights Iatan 2
Nominate it for a Award today!

If you know of a power plant or upstream smart grid project thats worth bragging about, nominate it for one of POWER magazines annual awards. Projects anywhere in the world are eligible.
The Plant of the Year award will be presented to a plant that leads our industry in the successful deployment of advanced technologymaximizing eciency while minimizing environmental impact. In short, the Power Plant of the Year, featured in the August issue of POWER, is the best of class over the past year. The Marmaduke Award, named after the legendary plant troubleshooter whose exploits have been chronicled in POWER since 1948, recognizes operations and maintenance excellence at existing power plants. The Marmaduke Award winner will also be proled in the August issue. The Smart Grid Award will go to the project that best demonstrates the benets of smart grid technology implementation upstream from the end user. The winning project will be proled in the August issue. Top Plants Awards recognize the best in class over the past year in each of four generation categories: gas (September), coal-red (October), nuclear (November), and renewable (December). For award criteria details, see the online nomination forms. Award nalists and winners will be selected by the editors of POWER based on nominations submitted by you and your industry peerssuppliers, designers, constructors, and operators of power plants and smart grid projects.
2011 MARMADUKE AWARD:
CFEs CTG Universidad Unit 2
NOMINATIONS ARE DUE MAY 21, 2012.

Read about all the 2011 winners and download entry forms from www.powermag.com (under Also from POWER Magazine).
POWER IN VIETNAM
The Coal Conundrum
Vietnams ambitious plans to increase power capacity are marked by a proposed rapid build-out of thermal power plants: By 2020, total coal power capacity is expected to surge to 36,000 MW (or about 50% of total power production), consuming 67.3 million metric tons of coal. A further expansion of coal capacity is expected by 2030 to about 75,000 MW (52.3% of total power production), requiring 171 million metric tons of coal. The government has already reportedly earmarked $83 billion to build 90 new coal power plants with a combined capacity of 106,000 MW by 2025, which could boost coal demand beyond 100 million metric tons. However, due to the countrys artificially capped power prices, it continues to have difficulty attracting foreign investment to fund power infrastructure improvements. Nevertheless, billions of dollars of contracts have been awarded over the past three years for new thermal plants. Among numerous notable projects is a $1.5 billion long-term construction contract awarded by Vietnamese state-owned PetroVietnam to its subsidiary Petrovietnam Technical Services Corp. for the development of the 1,200-MW Song Hua 1 coal power plant in Hau Giang. AES Corp. recently closed on another $1.5 billion long-term contract for the 1,200-MW Mong Duong II coal plant in Quang Ninh provincea build-operatetransfer (BOT) joint venture between AES Corp. and Vietnam Coal and Mineral Corp. And Malaysia-based JAKS Resources Berhad Group broke ground in September 2011 for construction of the $2.25 billion 1,200-MW Hai Duong thermal plant in the northern province of Hai Duong. These plants could be operational by the second quarter of 2017. But even this massive addition in new capacity is not guaranteed to alleviate shortages, the government acknowledges. The Ministry of Industry and Trade admitted in an August 2011 report following up on progress made on the sixth Master Plan that of 42 power plants, including hydropower and coal facilities, scheduled to go online between 2010 and 2012, 28 were going to be late by one or two years. Those plants include EVN projects Quang Ninh 1 and Hai Phong 1 (Figure 5)both delayed by more than 27 months. The same report suggests that eight power plants with a total capacity of 3,410 MW, which should have begun generating power in 2010 or 2011, wont be operational until at least this year. Meanwhile, a government update at the end of 2011 showed that of 33 power plants under construction, only 11 were on
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schedule. Factors causing delays ranged from unprejudiced or subjective reasons, to carelessness in the implementation, management or supervision, the government says. Vietnam Energy Association Chair Tran Viet Nghia, who last September pointed out that many of the projects that were delayed were being carried out by Chinese contractors, urged the government to limit those contractors participation in future projects. Besides lacking better technology and equipment, Chinese construction standards werent high enough, and Chinese projects used only Chinese personnel, he said. Nghia suggested that existing bidding laws be changed because they barred investors from choosing vendors from the U.S. and European Union.
From Coal Exporter to Importer

Perhaps the most prominent challenge is that, with massive new coal facilities, Vietnama country that in 2008 produced 40 million metric tons (mt) of coal a year and exported nearly 80% of itwill see swelling domestic demand for coal but cannot guarantee its future fuel supply. To meet this demand, which is set to increase from 42 million mt in 2010 to 171 million mt by 2030, experts project that the country will
cease exporting coal altogether as soon as 2025 and begin competing for imported coal with energy-hungry coal power users like China and India. In 2012, according to state-owned coal producer Vinacomin, the country plans to slash exports by 18.2% from 2011 numbers, to 13.5 million mt, and then cut exports to 8 million mt in 2013 and 4.5 million mt in 2015 to save supplies for domestic consumption. Additionally, in June last year, on what Vinacomin called a trial basisthat is, without an official import planthe country imported its first thermal coal shipment from Indonesia. Import coal volumes are expected to reach 28 million mt by 2015. Vietnam supposedly has vast coal resources, but its proven reserves (in the northern Quang Ninh province, the countrys main coal mining and processing zone) are only 150 million mt. Over 30 billion mt have been said to be located in the northern Red River basin, but these are largely untapped not only because the region is the countrys largest rice-growing area after the Mekong Delta but also because Vietnam doesnt have the capital to develop new mines. Experts also point out that Vietnams coal is primarily anthracitewhich as of Jan. 1, 2012, cost $230/
5. Delays and doldrums. When construction on the 1,200-MW two-unit Hai Phong coalfired power plant in Thuy Nguyn, Hai Phong, began in November 2005 by Chinas Dongfang Electric Corp. and Japans Marubeni Corp., the project was hailed as one of the largest thermal power plants in the nation, and the largest contract between China and Vietnam at the time. Overshooting their completion deadline by more than 27 months, the first two 300-MW units of Hai Phong 1 were expected to join the national grid in mid-2011a milestone POWER could not confirmand the second two units, part of Hai Phong 2, are scheduled to start operations in April 2013 and September 2013. Courtesy: Panaromio
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POWER IN VIETNAM
mt compared with $109.29/mt for steam or thermal coal. While it is possible to use hard coal for power, it is a little like feeding caviar to chickensit works but is not a good idea, says David Dapice, an economist at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Vietnam Program. If anthracite can be exported from Vietnam at premium prices, it would certainly make sense not to become self-sufficient in coal, but rather to export the high priced coal and import the cheaper coal. and Vinacomin to address future coal and gas shortfalls, officials have urged the government to further raise electricity prices to enable EVN to buy the supplies it needs and to tackle site clearances for electricity network projects with exigency. port, Toshiba-owned Westinghouse, AREVA, the Korea Electric Power Co., and Chinas Guangdong Nuclear Power group. Under terms of an October 2010 contract, Russia will finance at least 85% of Vietnams nuclear projects, and Russian state company Atomstroyexport will build the first project at Phuoc Dinh in Ninh Thuan province for Electricity Vietnam, using a VVER-1000 or 1200 design, starting in 2014. The turnkey project could come online in 2020. An agreement signed with Japan will see two other reactors built at Vinh Hai in Ninh Thuan province by a consortium of Japanese companies; Japan is expected to finance 85% of that project. As well as supplying Vietnam with nuclear fuel, Russia is expected to reprocess fuel used by the Russian-built plants, though wastes will be returned to Vietnam eventually. Vietnam is also reportedly prospecting for uranium in the central Quang Nam province, where resources of 8,000 mt of uranium have been reported as being recoverable. Fuel supply and waste storage aside, the countrys nuclear ambitions could be hampered by several critical challenges, as Doan Phac, deputy director general of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Agencyan entity overseen by the Ministry of Science and Technologytold attendees at an International Atomic Energy Agency forum for small and midsize nuclear reactors in Vienna last October. First, Vietnam lacks the human resources in almost all rel-
An Atomic Future
Among Vietnams broader ambitions is its goal to introduce nuclear power to its supply portfolio. That goal, which dates back as far as the early 1980s, includes developing 8,000 MW of nuclear capacity by 2025 and 15,000 MW by 2030 at up to eight sites in five provinces. Following passage of a general law on nuclear energy in mid-2008, the country made public that it would begin building two reactors (Russian-built VVER-1000s, totalling 2,000 MW) at Phuoc Dinh in the southern Ninh Thuan province by 2014 for operation by 2020 and 2,000 MW more (Japanese Gen III reactors) at nearby Vinh Hai, which could come online as soon as 2021. The government then plans to add four more units to these two sites and to build six units at three or four central sites in the provinces of Quang Ngai (Duc Thang or Duc Chanh), Binh Dinh (Hoai My), and Phu Yen (Xuan Phuong). According to the World Nuclear Association, that could mean at least one reactor coming online each year from 2020 through 2027. The new build plans have generated heated competition among Russias Atomstroyex-
Gas Power Poised to Increase

About a third of Vietnams capacity is generated by oil- and gas-fired power plants, and by 2020, gas-fired plants will total 10,400 MW of installed generation capacity, accounting for 17% of the nations power production, according to the National Gas Master Plan issued in March 2011 (Figure 6). By 2030, gas capacity will increase just a fraction, to 11,300 MW, making up about 10% of total capacity. To diversify fuel sources for power, Vietnam plans to develop power plants using liquefied natural gas (LNG): 2,000 MW worth to be built by 2020 and 6,000 MW by 2030. The Master Plan VII also foresees building new pipelines to supply new power plants, a majority of which are planned for the southern part of the country. This means that gas demand for power generation could triple to between 22 billion and 29 billion cubic meters by 2025, compared to just 8 billion cubic meters in 2010. As with its coal problem, Vietnam may need to overcome a gas supply challenge to ensure reliability. Current and probable gas reserves fall short of the nations growing gas demand, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been studying the costly possibility of importing LNG. Some experts opine that Vietnam has enough gas to fuel future supply, pointing out that PetroVietnam produces about 9 billion cubic meters of gas per year. They say that the problem resides in a lack of coordination between Vietnams power sector and its gas sector to achieve common objectives toward competitive energy supply. Records show that PetroVietnam only sells 5.7 billion cubic meters to EVN for power generation, for example, not the 6.6 billion cubic meters EVN said (at a Dec. 7 meeting discussing future power supply) it needs to ensure that state-owned power plants are adequately fueled. EVN added that it has been using oil at a steep price to run power units to make up for the gas shortfall, and it will continue to do so if it cannot get more gas. As well as ordering PetroVietnam, EVN,
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6. Stepping on the gas. One of Vietnams newer gas plants is the 760-MW Nhon Trach 2 combined cycle power plant in the south of Dong Nai province. It started commercial operation on Oct. 16, 2011, after a construction period of only 28.5 months. This made it one of the fastest-track projects in Asia, according to Siemens, which supplied the power block. Courtesy: Siemens
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POWER IN VIETNAM
evant aspects, such as policy setting and regulation, management, and technology. Second, Vietnams education and training institutions are still limited, he admitted. Then the country must overcome the hurdle of developing nuclear plants from scratch; improving infrastructure; and establishing a competent regulatory body (and one that will oversee myriad projects with several partners, requiring different technical regulations), a technical support organization, and research and development organizations. Besides assessing and choosing thirdgeneration technologies (of 1,000 MW or largerthough Vietnam has not excluded small modular reactors from its plans), the country must iron out how it will finance the new plants and related infrastructure, Phac said. Meanwhile, in the shadow of the Fukushima accident, Vietnam will have to garner public support and pay particular attention to ensuring safety and security, which will, in turn, require it to join international nonproliferation organizations. Vietnam continues to charge ahead despite these issues, Phac said, because if it doesnt include nuclear power in its future energy strategy, it will face critical energy shortfalls. If there will be no new resources added, the Ratio of External Dependency will be 36% in 2020 and up to 57% in 2030 and continues to increase. In this context, nuclear power development is a sound decision, he said. The nation is already making progress. In May 2010, the government established a steering committee, and it has embarked on a state-funded training program that includes upgrading five universities and establishing a nuclear training center. Site preparation and the creation of a legal framework and development are also of high priority, Phac said. increase their share from 3% in 2010 to 5% by 2020. According to Vietnams Institute of Energy Director of the Center for Renewable Energy Nguyen Duc Cuong, the country must embark on a gradual removal of institutional and financial barriers. Cuong noted at a June 2011 workshop on obstacles preventing renewable energy development in Vietnam that investors in wind and biomass power found it difficult to conclude power purchase agreements
A Small Role for Nonhydro Renewables

Vietnams hunger for power has limited its focus to thermal, hydropower, and nuclear power in the short to medium term, but to satiate needs for a more diversified energy mix and investments, the country has initiated preliminary steps for adopting
If Vietnam doesnt include nuclear power in its future energy strategy, it will face critical energy shortfalls.
nonhydro renewable power. In 2005 the country passed a law requiring environmental assessments for new projects. At the end of 2009, the Ministry of Industry and Trade established design principles for implementation of the Vietnam Competitive Generation Market. And in 2011, the government launched pilot deployment of the market, allowing 48 out of 73 plants with a capacity of more than 30 MW to make direct offers in the market. Even though the government has neglected to ensure practical application of these legal tools, experts say there is new momentum for broader investment in a sustainable energy supply chain, and the country has vast natural resource potential. However, many experts agree that Vietnam has a long way to go before non-hydro renewables can make up a sizeable portion of its power profile, despite its plans to with EVN because the utility only bought renewable power at prices comparable to power from fossil fuelswhich it subsidized. Meanwhile, as rural electrification remains a government priority, no mechanisms exist to support off-grid distributed generation, he said. An overview of renewable projects and plans follows. Solar Energy. Though Vietnams climate varies considerably from the north to the south, the country averages 2,000 hours of sunshine a year with an average solar radiation of 4.5 to 6.5 kWh/square meters daily (about two-thirds the amount available in the southwestern U.S.). By 2011, 1.5 MW of solar power had been installed, mostly photovoltaic panels in rural communities. Vietnam had also actively backed a massive photovoltaic panel manufacturing facility in Ho Chi Minh City that would have begun operating in 2012, but its owner, U.S. firm FirstSolar, halted construction of the factory, citing a demand slump in late 2011. Wind Energy. Vietnam is also strategically located in a monsoon zone, where the cold northeast monsoon wind from Siberia and China wafts across the nation during winter and the warm, southwest and southeast monsoon blows in from the equator during the summer. The total potential of wind energy is estimated at 713 GW, about 510 GW on land and the remainder on outlaying islands. About 42 wind power projects ranging from 6 MW to 150 MW are at different development stages, but only one project has been connected to the national grid (Figure 7). The off-grid 800-kW Bach Long Vy power plant has been in operation since the end of 2004. Under Master Plan
POWER March 2012
7. Testing the wind. The Vietnamese Renewable Energy Joint Stock Co. (REVN) connected 20 1.5-MW wind turbines in Binh Thuan province to the national grid in March 2011. Local developer Cong Ly Co. Ltd. is planning a second phase to add 80 more turbines and bring the farms total capacity to 120 MW. The project, which supplies power to Vietnams Mekong Delta in the south, is the countrys first grid-connected wind farm. Courtesy: REVN
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POWER IN VIETNAM
VII, Vietnam will expand wind capacity to 1,000 MW by 2020 (0.7% of total power production), and to about 6,200 MW by 2030 (2.4% of total power production). Small Hydro. Vietnams small river basins consisting of short rivers and high river bed grades have enabled the building of 200 small hydropower plants of between 0.1 MW and 30 MW, and 800 more are in planning stages. Most projects are in the Son La, Kontum, and Lao Cai provinces. Biomass. An age-old agricultural nation, Vietnam long ago adopted biomass for fuel, burning forestry, solid waste, and agricultural byproducts. The country produces nearly 53 million tons of agricultural waste, including rice husk from paddy milling stations, bagasse from sugar factories, coffee husks from processing plants in the Central Highlands, and wood chips from wood-processing industries. However, no projects set up to produce power using rice husk in the Cuu Long Delta localities of Can Tho, Dong Thap, and Tien Giang have succeeded so far, officials note. The Go Cat landfill 1-MW waste-to-energy plant has been operating since 2005 in Ho Chi Minh City, and two 40-MW power plants burning solid waste are in the pipeline. Future plans call for 500 MW of new biomass power in sugar mills by 2020, which will be expanded to 2,000 MW by 2030. Geothermal. More than 300 hot streams with temperatures from 30C to 148C (86F to 298F) traverse northwestern and central Vietnam, but only about 400 MW of the countrys 1,400 MW potential could be exploited by 2020. No geothermal power installations have yet been reported in the country. was also unconvinced that the country would reach its basic goal, citing a failed previous master plan. From 2001 through 2010, under Master Plan VI, the countrys capacity grew just 3,870 MW annually. Meanwhile, several challenges will need to be overcome, including diversifying its energy mix, securing future fossil fuel supplies, rooting out corruption, and raising enough capital to build new projects. Making strides in these realms will require a reasonable energy pricing mechanism, a phase-out of energy subsidies to achieve market prices, and improved coordination between government policy-making entities to implement policies. The nation has made marked progress in several aspects of its power sector over the past two decades, and in two more decades, much more could certainly change. An old Vietnamese saying puts it best: Sharpen an iron rod enough, and it will become a needle.
Sonal Patel is POWERs senior writer.
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Sharpening an Iron Rod

According to Vietnams Master Plan VII, during the 20062015 period, and looking toward 2025, energy growth is forecast, in a baseline scenario, at 17% percent annually and in a high scenario at 20% per year. As Vietnam energy expert Nga Dao puts it, For every one percent increase in GDP, therefore, power output must increase by at least two percent. But even if Vietnam were to meet its goals to build as much as 75,000 MW of capacity by 2020, as ordained by its master plan, it wouldnt be enough, Tran Viet Ngai, chair of the Vietnam Energy Association, told English online newspaper Vietnam Net last August. If the economic growth rate is higher, at 78 percent per annum and the living standards get improved, the capacity would not be able to meet the demand, while rural areas would face electricity shortage, he said. Ngai
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Ensuring Resource Adequacy in Competitive Electricity Markets

Planning for resource adequacysomething that was relatively simple in the context of vertically integrated utilitiescontinues to be a difficult issue in competitive electricity markets. Whereas state public utility commissions used to have exclusive authority to determine what generation needed to be built and when it was to be available, this responsibility has been assumed by RTO/ISOs in regions with competitive markets. Each region approaches resource planning differently, and each region faces unique problems.
By Brian R. Gish, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
esource adequacy for an electric power system means that there are sufficient generation and demand-side resources available to meet customers current and projected electricity needs, including a reserve margin. A number of recent events have demonstrated that, despite extensive efforts over a number of years, the regions of the country that have embraced competitive electricity markets are still struggling to find the best method to ensure resource adequacy. Before the era of competitive electricity markets, resource adequacy was relatively straightforward. Vertically integrated utility companies had state-imposed legal obligations to maintain sufficient power resources to serve all customers connected to their systems. Utilities benefited from having generation assets earning a return in their rate bases and therefore had an incentive to propose new generation whenever they could justify the need to their state utility regulators. Some states still follow this model.
Forming Electricity Markets

Beginning in the 1990s, competitive electricity markets began to be adopted as a way to reduce electricity costs for consumers. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its Order No. 888 in 1996 requiring transmission-owning utilities to provide open access transmission services so that wholesale power sellers could compete for a large pool of buyers. Following FERCs lead, a number of states required their regulated utilities to separate their generation from transmission and distribution functions for the purpose of allowing retail customers to choose from whom to buy electricity. In these retail choice states, the traditional public utilities are no longer required to build generation to meet load growth, because their only remaining supply obligation
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is to purchase energy sufficient to serve customers on their systems who have not chosen an alternate supplier. How to ensure resource adequacy when no single entity has a build obligation has been an issue since the beginning of competitive markets. Almost all of the states that have adopted retail competition are within regions that have formed Independent System Operators (ISOs) or Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs). In those regions, utilities have given control over their transmission lines to an independent entity whose task is to operate one transmission system for the region. These system operators have set up organized markets where buyers and sellers can trade energy the day before and the day of the scheduled delivery. The ISOs/RTOs have also assumed the dominant role in establishing resource adequacy constructs for their regions, although not all states in ISOs/RTOs have abandoned the traditional build obligation for utilities. The rest of this article discusses the different approaches to resource adequacy that have been taken and the challenges they continue to face, with a focus on three of the ISO/ RTOs. It also briefly discusses two other ISO/ RTOs that are still trying to resolve resource adequacy issues and looks at how resource adequacy was recently addressed in the context of power system reliability standards.
PJM: Mandatory Capacity Auctions

PJM Interconnection LLC (PJM) provides transmission service in all or parts of 13 eastern states (Figures 1 and 2). In 2004, FERC found that PJMs electricity market design (which had price caps on certain generators and a day-ahead capacity requirement) was not offering adequate compensation for generators to recover costs, thus raising concerns about future generation adequacy. After extensive stakeholder discussions, FERC in
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2006 approved of PJM establishing an electric capacity market called the Reliability Pricing Model (RPM) to address resource adequacy. Generally, capacity is a resource that can be called upon to generate electricity or reduce demand as directed, although regions have specific criteria as to deliverability and availability to qualify as a capacity resource. Under RPM, an annual May auction for capacity is held three years before each Juneto-May Delivery Year, and incremental auctions are held closer to the Delivery Year. The auction establishes capacity prices that will be paid to resources committed for the Delivery Year, including localized prices for transmission-constrained delivery areas. The auction prices are generally valid for the Delivery Year only, but certain new generation can get a two-year price commitment. Owners of most generation resources located within PJM are required to offer their capacity into the auction, and load-serving entities (LSEs) are assigned a capacity obligation by PJM based on their loads. There is an exception from auction participation for certain LSEs that plan to serve their entire load with identified resources. Demand response and efficiency resources may voluntarily participate in the auction. Offers in the auction are accepted based on where they fall with respect to a downward sloping line on a graph known as a demand curve. The vertical axis of the graph represents a price range for supplying capacity expressed in $/MW-day. The horizontal axis represents the quantity of capacity PJM has determined is needed for the Delivery Year to serve load and a reserve margin. The sell offers are stacked until they reach a point on the demand curve that represents PJMs capacity need. All offers that clear receive the clearing capacity price for the Delivery Year. A unit of PJM is the counterparty to sellers in the aucPOWER March 2012
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tion and bills the LSEs for their capacity obligation at the auction clearing price. PJM calculates a value called the cost of new entry (CONE), which is an estimate of the cost of installing a new combustion turbine, and is a significant parameter used to establish both a price ceiling and a price floor for certain aspects of the auction. The ceiling is intended to prevent market manipulation by sellers who wish to inflate capacity prices, and the floor is intended to prevent market manipulation by sellers with affiliated capacity buyers that could benefit from driving capacity prices lower. The RPM auction is governed by numerous rules, some of which have been the subject of vigorous debate, that are intended to ensure that the auction produces a capacity price high enough to incentivize the maintenance and new entry of generators in both constrained and unconstrained areas. The price also must protect consumers from unreasonably high charges, and there must be sufficient monitoring and controls to prevent market manipulation by those who may want to increase or decrease the auction price. The RPM model has both supporters and detractors. PJM asserts that RPM has successfully maintained ample reserves for the PJM area and has allowed for the construction of significant new capacity. Detractors argue that RPM is overly complex, has not provided adequate incentives for new capacity where it is most needed, and overcompensates existing inefficient capacity to the detriment of more efficient new entrants. Others have argued that the one- and two-year price commitments for capacity that clears the auction are insufficient for developers and lenders to invest in new resources. This past year saw direct challenges to the RPM model by two states within PJMNew Jersey and Marylandwhich contend that RPM is not producing enough generation capacity within their states to ensure reliability and keep local capacity prices reasonable. In early 2011, New Jersey enacted legislation that required the states local distribution companies (LDCs) to enter long-term contracts with developers of new in-state generation at capacity prices set by bidding. The developers were required to offer all of their new capacity into the RPM auction at a price ensuring it would clearfor example, $0so that they would receive the RPM clearing price. If the RPM price received by the developers was above or below the contract price, the differences would be settled by the developers and the LDCs exchanging funds. The Maryland Public Service Commission in September 2011 also found that RPM failed to attract new generation within that state, and it required LDCs to issue RFPs for capacity and energy from new in-state natural gas generators that would be bid into RPM. These plans by the states collided with an RPM auction rule, recently amended by PJM to apply to state-sponsored resources, which requires that planned new gas-fired generators must offer their capacity into the auction at a price no lower than 90% of the CONE value, unless the generator could show special circumstances. This rule is intended to prevent market manipulation by those who might wish to depress capacity prices. However, the new gas generators sought by New Jersey and Maryland may not clear the auction at an offer price of 90% of CONE, which would undermine those states efforts to build new local generation. FERC issued two controversial orders in 2011 that upheld the RPM rule, finding that the states programs would subsidize the proposed new plants, which would depress price signals in the auction. The states argued that FERC was interfering with their traditional resource management responsibilities; FERC responded that it had statutory responsibilities to govern capacity markets. Those states and others have appealed FERCs orders to court, which may present the issue of whether ISO capacity market rules under FERCs jurisdiction have priority over state resource planning jurisdiction.
1. PJM service territory. Courtesy: PJM Interconnection LLC
ERCOT: The Energy Only Approach

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT, Figure 3), which is not under FERCs jurisdiction, is the ISO that operates the transmission system for most of Texas. It has taken an approach to resource adequacy completely different from PJMs. ERCOT has embraced retail competition, but it has no capacity requirements for load servers and no capacity market. Rather, ERCOTs approach to resource adequacy is known as an energy only market. LSEs in
2. The PJM control center. Courtesy:

PJM Interconnection LLC
March 2012 POWER
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3. ERCOT service territory. Courtesy: ERCOT
January 2011 report, Scope of Competition in Electric Markets in Texas, Report to the 82nd Texas Legislature, [t]he supply of generation relative to demand will influence energy prices, which in turn can serve to encourage or discourage development of new generation. To facilitate market transparency, the Texas PUC requires ERCOT to make available a wide range of information about the status of the ERCOT system, including long-, medium-, and short-term projections for load, resources, and transmission. Some economists believe that energy-only market structures with uncapped energy prices can support resource adequacy because prices during scarcity would provide sufficient price signals and compensation to justify new construction. However, most regulators, including those in Texas, are unwilling to allow energy prices to be totally uncapped. Energy prices in ERCOT are currently capped at $3,000/MWh. Until recently, there has been sufficient generating capacity in Texas to maintain a comfortable reserve margin. However, during the past year, questions have been raised about whether ERCOTs resource adequacy approach will continue to be sufficient given load growth and generator retirements for en-
ERCOT must purchase energy as needed to supply their customers through bilateral contracts or energy markets. The energy price
alone is relied upon to provide resource adequacy. As the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) describes this system in its
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POWER MARKETS
4. MISO service territory. Courtesy: MISO
acquired sufficient PRCs to meet their PRMR obligation. LSEs may self-supply their PRCs, buy them through bilateral transactions, or obtain them in MISOs voluntary capacity auction. In the event that an LSE does not obtain enough PRCs to cover its PRMR for a month, it is subject to a deficiency charge that must be paid to MISO, which then distributes it among LSEs that were in compliance. MISOs voluntary capacity auctions for PRCs, which started in 2010, are held monthly, shortly before the upcoming Planning Month, and all cleared PRCs receive the auction clearing price. MISO settles the auction by charging buyers and crediting sellers. The voluntary auction was quite controversial when proposed to FERC. Some stakeholders opposed any a centralized capacity market in MISO, and others contended that the voluntary auction should be mandatory. In reality, MISO has a capacity surplus that has resulted in very low auction prices. MISO has continued to try to improve its model for resource adequacy, and in July 2011 it proposed to FERC to totally revamp its model effective October 1, 2012. MISO claims its proposed enhancements will implement new market mechanisms that recognize the physical location of resources, make it easier for load-modifying resources to participate, and establish a new category for an Energy Efficiency Resource. MISO proposed seven zones to provide market signals that show the locational value of capacity. The existing monthly voluntary auction would be dropped in favor of an annual Planning Resource Auction that would provide clearing prices for each zone. Under the proposal, all LSEs will meet their PRMR obligations by participating in the Planning Resource Auction, by selfscheduling their own resources in the Planning Resource Auction, or by using certain opt-out procedures. Resources that clear the auction would be dedicated to MISOs resource adequacy for the entire Planning Year. An LSE with a resource plan that fully covers the LSEs PRMR for a zone will be able to opt out of the auction for that Planning Year. MISO insisted that it was not trying to create a mandatory forward capacity process, as in PJM, but was merely supplementing the largely bilateral market for capacity in MISO. This filing has faced extensive criticism. A large number of parties, representing many different interests, have protested it on various grounds, including that it is too complex, too vague, unnecessary to ensure resource adequacy in MISO, impinges on state authority, and its auction rules do not promote forward planning. As of the date this article was written, FERC had not issued an order in response
POWER March 2012
vironmental reasons. In December 2011, ERCOT announced that it was very concerned about the significant drop in the capacity reserve margin, projecting that it will likely fall below the 13.75% minimum target beginning with summer 2012. However, ERCOT has since indicated its reserve margin could now be met because a generator reversed its decision to mothball two coal units. When stating its concern about reserve margins in a December 1, 2011, news release, ERCOT noted that its role in the competitive market is to inform policymakers and the market of the need for increased generation resources or demand response efforts, but ultimately ERCOT does not control the supply of electricity needed to meet the demands of our growing economy. However, despite this hands-off approach to resource adequacy, when load requirements threatened to overtake supply in August 2011 because of extreme hot and dry weather, ERCOT contracted to bring some mothballed generating plants back into service. This action caused controversy because it changed the market dynamics in the energy markets without notice. In early 2012, ERCOT has been developing rules under which it may call mothballed plants back into service. The most recent report by ERCOTs independent market monitor (2010 State of the Market Report for the ERCOT Wholesale Electricity Markets, prepared by Potomac Economics Ltd., released in August 2011) found that, because of market regulations and ERCOTs curtailment activities at peak loads, the market clearing price in ERCOT during scarcity events has not produced sufficient revenues required for new entry in three out
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of the four years from 2007 to 2010. Accordingly, it remains to be seen whether an energy-only market that includes a price cap and other controls to prevent outages due to insufficient capacity can successfully ensure resource adequacy in the long term.
MISO: Capacity Requirements Plus a Voluntary Auction

The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Inc. (MISO) operates the transmission system in all or parts of 11 Midwestern states (Figure 4). MISO began developing a resource adequacy plan in 2004, and by 2008, FERC approved of its basic approach, subject to certain market monitoring adjustments that were still ongoing in 2011. MISOs resource adequacy construct establishes a reserve margin for each LSE for each zone the LSE serves, although MISO defers to a reserve margin mandated by a state for an LSE. Based on an LSEs forecasted peak demand, demand-side resources, and reserve margin, MISO annually establishes the Planning Reserve Margin Requirement (PRMR) that each LSE must have during the next Planning Year that begins June 1. Those owning resources that can be delivered into MISO may dedicate them to meeting resource requirements in MISO if they convert the capacity value of such resources into Planning Resource Credits (PRC) in MISOs capacity tracking system. A PRC represents one MW-month of capacity for a specified month during the Planning Year, and the energy from capacity converted to a PRC must be offered into day-ahead and day-of energy markets for the Planning Month. LSEs must demonstrate on a month-ahead basis during the Planning Year that they have
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POWER MARKETS
to the proposal, but it seems clear there will be significant litigation over this proposed new resource adequacy construct. addressing concerns about the demand curve and CONE values that were being used to produce capacity prices. In January 2012, those orders were appealed to court. that resource adequacy raises complex statefederal jurisdictional issues, held that resource adequacy concerns are relevant to bulk power system reliability. Furthermore, FERC said, the standard proposed here requires only that a specified analysis be performed; it does not require any entity to secure resources, nor does it preempt state action in that regard. Thus, FERC approved the reliability standard but did not determine the merits of the one day in ten year analysis criterion. NERC has also been considering a nationwide reliability standard addressing resource adequacy, but nothing has yet resulted from that effort.
ISO-NE and NYISO: Variations on Capacity Markets

Two other RTOs/ISOs are briefly noted here because each has distinct approaches to resource adequacy, and like those discussed above, each continues to revise its structures after years of efforts. ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE) has a Forward Capacity Market (FCM) with an annual auction that sets prices for capacity three years in advance. In 2011, FERC issued a lengthy order addressing significant proposed revisions to the FCM market rules, and after continued protests, issued an order on rehearing in January 2012 that discussed, among other things, buyer-side market power mitigation measures in the auction. A generators group has since appealed that order to court. In the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) region, LSEs are assigned locational capacity requirements. Monthly installed capacity markets are held and prices are established through the use of PJM-like demand curves. FERC issued orders in 2011
Resource Adequacy and Mandatory Reliability Standards

In 2011, the issue of whether resource adequacy could and should be addressed through electric reliability standards was raised. In 2005, Congress required FERC to implement mandatory electric reliability standards for the bulk power system, which it has done in conjunction with the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) and regional reliability organizations (RROs). One of the RROs, Reliability First Corp., proposed a mandatory standard for its region that would require entities responsible for evaluating transmission and resource plans to annually calculate the reserve margin for their respective areas using a specific day in ten year loss of load probability criterion. NERC then asked FERC to approve the standard. State utility commissions objected to FERC that resource adequacy was not intended by Congress to be addressed as a reliability standard, and that setting reserve margins was traditionally a state concern. FERC, noting
No End in Sight
Ensuring resource adequacy is difficult but critically important for grid reliability. It also affects significant revenues for capacity sellers and costs for buyers and raises jurisdictional issues between FERC and the states. Given those stakes, it is perhaps not surprising that, despite years of efforts, debates continue over the best approach to ensure resource adequacy in competitive markets.
3266 MetFab 4c ad_Layout 1 11/3/11 10:03 AM Page 1
Brian R. Gish (briangish@dwt.com) is of counsel in Davis Wright Tremaines Energy Practice Group.
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65
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
EEI Proposes Road Map for Electric Vehicle Integration

Several new models of plug-in electric vehicles will enter the market in 2012, joining the Nissan LEAF and Chevrolet Volt. The Edison Electric Institute has prepared four suggestions to help utilities smoothly handle the introduction of these vehicles to roads and grids.
By Rick Tempchin, Edison Electric Institute
his is an important year for electric transportation. Following late-2010 introductions of electric vehicles by Nissan and General Motors, other major auto manufacturers and several startups will be offering their customers a plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) in 2012. Among the new PEVs being introduced this year are the Toyota Prius Plug-in, Mitsubishi i, Ford Focus Electric, smart fortwo electric drive, and the Tesla Model S (Figure 1). From compact two-seaters to hatchbacks and luxury sedans, PEVs will soon be coming to car dealerships nationwide. To help electric utilities get themselves and their customers ready for these new electric cars and trucks, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has produced The Utility Guide to PlugIn Electric Vehicle Readiness. The Guide builds on lessons learned by utilities serving the cities and regions where the Nissan LEAF and Chevrolet Volt were introduced just over a year ago. It also includes advice and insight from automotive and utility industry leaders, as well as groups such as the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Electric Drive Transportation Association. The Guide identifies four main issues that every electric utility will need to address to make sure it is ready for PEVs to plug into its service areas grid.
lyze their environmental benefits in light of future carbon credits and emissions actions. Utility Fleet PEVs. Adding PEVs to a utilitys fleet can return a number of benefits, such as gaining direct, valuable experience in PEV technology, test-charging infrastructure, and demand response systems. It can also make a positive public statement about the companys position on clean transportation. Several types of PEVs can be added to the fleet, including PEV bucket trucks, delivery vans, SUVs, and 4-door sedans. Some are available commercially, while others are only available through demonstration projects or trial programs. To fund PEV additions, some utilities have used traditional means or have used them as components of a research project on smart charging, demand-side management, grid modernization, emissions, or load. Funding from Clean Cities, the Department of Energy, or other sources may be available to offset the PEV cost premium.
Other PEVs, like the Chevy Volt, use a hybrid of gasoline and electricity to power the vehicle. As with non-plug-in gas-electric hybridssuch as the Toyota Priusthe Volt uses battery power in addition to a gasoline engine to supply power. But unlike non-plugin hybrids, the hybrid PEV (depending on the model) can drive between 10 and 40 miles on its electric charge alone before gasoline is consumed. Once the battery charge is depleted, the gas engine allows the car to drive about another 300 miles. When the owner gets home, the hybrid PEV can be plugged into an outlet to recharge its battery, just like the LEAF. Cost Benefits. Either type of PEV is good news for consumers. Research shows that the typical driver travels an average of 32 miles a day. This means that the majority of PEV owners will be able to operate on battery power with minimal or no gasoline usageto meet their daily driving needs. And when they need to recharge, the cost of an equivalent electric gallon of gasoline is about $1.00.
Environmental and Employment Benefits. As more and more PEVs take to the road,
Enhance the Customer Experience

The second consideration is the customer experience. For PEVs to be a success, customers must be happy. They will need to know about the benefits that PEVs can offer and experience them firsthand. To help ensure a positive customer experience, education and outreach will be essential, beginning with information about the differences among PEVs. Types of PEVs. One type of PEV is the battery or pure electric car, like the Nissan LEAF. It uses a battery and an electric motor to supply all of its power; there is no supplemental gasoline engine. When the battery gets low, the car can be plugged into an ordinary outlet for a recharge. The LEAF and other pure electric PEVs have a driving range of up to 100 miles on a full charge. All-electrics with a larger battery, such as the Tesla Roadster, can travel more than 200 miles on a single battery charge.
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Get Up to Speed
The first thing to realize is that PEVs will affect nearly all aspects of a utilitys business. Here are just two aspects of preparedness.
Utility Structure and Organization.
Customer-facing employees and media staff will need training. Regulatory and policy staffs need to understand how PEVs can impact rates and legislation. Engineers and planners may need new tools for forecasting loads and managing distribution systems. PEVs may also involve demand management programs, grid modernization initiatives, and customer information and billing systems. PEVs are cleaner than gasoline-powered vehicles; therefore, utilities may wish to ana66
the country will benefit as well. By using less gasoline than regular cars, PEVs can help to reduce our nations dependency on foreign oil. This in turn will increase our energy independence and reduce vehicle emissions. And as the nation transitions to a new era of electric transportation, demand for jobs in this new technology sector will continue to increase. From manufacturing batteries to building the charging infrastructure, PEVs will create high-quality job opportunities throughout the country. Communicating the Benefits. Utilities will want to present a uniform set of basic PEV facts to the public, supplemented with their own rates, incentives, and program information. Heres what theyll need to provide to various stakeholders:

Utility customers will need to know about the availability and benefits of specific PEV rates, vehicle fueling costs, and basic charging information.
POWER March 2012
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
1. Major 2012 EV introductions.
From top to bottom: Toyota Prius Plug-in, Mitsubishi i, Ford Focus Electric, smart fortwo electric drive, and Tesla Model S. Courtesy: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.; Mitsubishi Motors; Ford Motor Co.; Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC; Tesla Motors

Commercial and governmental fleet managers will want guidance on how to best integrate PEVs into their fleets. Local media will want to report what the local utility is doing to enable the new technology. Local government agencies will be seeking guidance on best practices.
agencies, utilities, automakers, environmental groups, commercial interests, and local communitieshave become a best practice way to educate a broad audience, foster the adoption of favorable PEV policies, and remove many policy barriers to PEV adoption. We recommend that electric utilities participate actively with these groups, taking a leadership role or forming new groups where needed.
To get the word out about PEVs, electric utilities are using a wide variety of communication channels. These include the traditional bill inserts, brochures, public events, and speeches, along with a host of electronic methods, including websites, email, and social media. It is important to note that PEVs are a technology that utility customers believe their electric utility should be encouraging. In fact, in a survey from the third quarter of 2011, EEI found that 65% believe that electric utilities should [be] working and investing now to assure [sic] that the proper infrastructure [is] in place for convenient recharging of electric vehicles. Furthermore, a majority (56%) want to see their utility take a leadership role in encouraging a shift toward electric transportation.
Plug into the Grid

As more and more PEVs are purchased, utilities must be proactive to ensure that customers get the charging network they need. To ensure that new PEVs in their service area run smoothly for both themselves and their customers, utilities will have to address the following issues. Power Usage. Unlike other electric appliances, PEVs vary greatly in how much electricity they use and when and where they use it. Charging Location. Studies have shown that in terms of generation, transmission, and distribution, widespread PEV adoption will have little to no effect on the electric system for many years. EPRI has done studies that indicate distribution systems are unlikely to have any major problems, even if PEV sales grow at moderate levels. Two big mitigating factors will be when and where customers recharge their PEVs. In one scenario, where home and workplace charging were available to all vehicles, the average load per PEV peaked below 0.75 kWh. Charging Infrastructure. Next to the PEV itself, the system for charging it is most important. Utilities can fill several key roles to ensure that both conventional and critical charging infrastructure is in place when their customers need it. Electric companies are also exploring a variety of rate options that will provide consumers with appropriate price signals. An Integrated Future. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, EPRI, The Society of Automotive Engineers, and other groups are collaborating on the development of smart charging standards that will integrate PEVs with utility meters and smart grid systems.
Include Very Important Passengers (VIPs)

Successful introduction of PEVs requires the support of many different groups and stakeholders. Below is a quick look at these groups and the issues and activities that utilities must consider when working with each. State Regulators. For utilities governed by public utility commissions, educating and informing regulators about the need for appropriate PEV rates and programs will be essential. Other issues that utilities will most likely need to address with state regulators include: adequacy of resources to serve PEV loads; rate impacts and cost allocations of PEV infrastructure and programs; the use of smart metering and communications technologies to manage, track, and bill for PEV energy usage; and new PEV rates or programs to encourage off-peak charging. Federal and State Legislators. Electric utilities around the nation will be the fuel providers of the future PEV fleet. This will have wide-ranging policy impacts at federal and state levels. To ensure the success of PEV technology, utilities should broadly support policies that offer incentives for vehicle purchase and homecharging installations, as well as incentives for investment in research and manufacturing of vehicles, batteries, and components. Important Stakeholders. Many states have established regional or statewide working groups to address the many issues and barriers surrounding transportation electrification. These broad stakeholder collaborative groupswhich typically include state
March 2012 POWER
Download the Guide

Electric transportation offers consumers and the nation tremendous opportunity. The new EEI Guide gives utilities an important tool to help them support, encourage, and enable electric transportation to reach its full potential. Download a free copy of The Utility Guide to Plug-In Electric Vehicle Readiness from www.eei.org/newsroom/energynews/ Pages/20111115.aspx.
Rich Tempchin (rtempchin@eei.org) is executive director, Retail Energy Services for the Edison Electric Institute.
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PLANT OPERATIONS
Automating Crew Callouts

Progress Energy has adopted an emergency worker callout program that has eliminated manual dialing, improved work acceptance rates, and increased the speed of worker reporting. The standardized process also complies with union work rules that require equality in overtime opportunities, by seniority. The business case for automating the worker callout process is compelling.
By Scott Retter, Progress Energy
he Crystal River Energy Complex, owned by Progress Energy Inc., is located on a 4,700-acre site north of Crystal River in Citrus County, Florida. On that site are five units situated in three distinct areas (Figure 1). Crystal River 3 is an 860MW nuclear facility that began operation in 1977. The North Plant (center right in Figure 1) consists of the identical coal-fired Crystal River Units 4 and 5, each rated at 717 MW. These two units entered commercial service in December 1982 and October 1984, respectively. The older South Plant (top of Figure 1) comprises the 373-MW Crystal River Unit 1, which began operation in October 1966, and the 469-MW Crystal River Unit 2, which entered service in November 1969. With a combined capacity of nominally 3,150 MW net, the complex is among the top 10 largest electricity-generating facilities in the U.S. Fossil operations, the focus of this article, include the North and South Plants and two coal yards with six miles of conveyors. Each plant and the coal facility has an assigned operations and maintenance organization managed by a reporting headquarters. Shift supervisors, Progress Energy employees, have the primary responsibility for day-to-day plant operations. The remainder of the fossil staff consists of 350 bargaining unit employees. The maintenance organization is staffed 24/6 in 8-hour shifts; operations run 24/7 with 12-hour shifts.
Further complicating the callout process was the inconsistency across the sites different fossil organizations and the fact that there were seven different groups performing callouts, sometimes twice a day. Also, if the callouts occurred when a maintenance foreman was not on site, then the operations shift supervisor was tasked with that callout. In other words, managing callouts across such a complex site was complicated. The bargaining unit contract requirement that overtime was to be fairly distributed also introduced a number of challenges. Inconsistencies with callout prioritization and with how the contract was interpreted resulted in numerous bargaining unit grievances, which consumed more shift supervisor and valuable plant and union management time. A better callout process was needed to increase efficiency and satisfy all of the stakeholders.
1. Top 10 plant. Progress Energys Crystal

River Energy Complex consists of a nuclear plant and the fossil-fired North and South Plants. The combined output of the complex is about 3,150 MW. The complex is one of the 10 largest power-generating facilities in the U.S. Courtesy: Progress Energy
Making the Business Case

A few years ago, fossil operations began developing a business case for investing in callout automation software. The first step was to understand the automated callout experience of the energy delivery side of the business. The energy delivery organization, well experienced with calloutsparticularly during storm seasonhad already implemented ARCOS Inc.s automated crew callout and scheduling system with great success, and use of the software was now firmly embedded within that organizations work practices. In fact, the energy delivery organization reported that, although there was some resistance at introduction, the organization today would get a bargaining unit grievance if it were not using the software, although the company maintains the right to perform manual callouts should the need arise. An expected benefit of the investment in the ARCOS software was consistent compliance with the bargaining unit contract requirements for equal distribution of overtime. Having a historical record of callouts would make it simple to demonstrate the companys compliance with those contract requirements. Shift supervisors also supported the new automated process because it meant they were
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spending less time dialing for dollars and more time supervising plant operations. Making the business case to upper management became easier when the effects of labor reporting times on replacement power costs during forced outages was included in the evaluation. The time supervisors spent on manual callouts also had a significant financial impact.
Automating Callouts
The ARCOS web-based automated callout solution, selected by plant management for the two Crystal River Energy Complex fossil plants, was launched on August 30, 2011. Implementation of the program began a few weeks earlier with about one hour of user instruction and assignment of PIN numbers to the 350 bargaining unit employees. In addition, badge cards, refrigerator magnets, and a Q&A sheet provided instruction on how to use the system. Later, a Sharepoint site accessible to all supervisors was added containing FAQs, training materials, and user manuals. Supervisors were provided eight hours of training to learn how to manage the employee lists, implement callouts, and perform other software management functions. Managers at the complex attended a two-hour overview of ARCOS. One feature of ARCOS was of particular interest to shift supervisors: web access. The web-based software allows a supervisor to initiate a callout from any location, even from home
POWER March 2012
Filling the Gaps

One of the less-desirable responsibilities of a shift supervisor used to be tracking down replacement operators or maintenance craft employees when someone called in sick, when there was emergent work (such as a forced outage with a need for immediate repairs), or for routine shift replacements, such as vacation fills. In past years, a callout for the first two categories of callouts required a shift supervisor to make dozens of phone calls and then wait for returned calls (if the calls were returned at all). Depending on the number and type of skills required, this process routinely took four to six hours of a supervisors time, which was better spent monitoring operations.
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PLANT OPERATIONS
2. Launch a callout. A single form is
used by a shift supervisor to initiate a callout. Courtesy: Progress Energy
tion. The software confirms selection keystrokes to eliminate selection errors.
Tangible Results
Since the software solution went live last August, the shift supervisor time to initiate a callout has dropped from up to six hours to less than 30 minutes. Just as importantly, since the system went live, there have been no bargaining unit grievances contesting the fairness of overtime assignments. The entire ARCOS system upgrade paid for
itself in eight months with the reduction in shift supervisor labor alone. Today, supervisors have more time to focus their expertise on recovering from a forced outage, inspecting systems, or mentoring operators rather than worrying about employee callouts.
Scott Retter (andrew.retter@pgnmail .com) is a continuous business excellence lean leader with the Power Operations Group at the Progress Energy Crystal River Energy Complex and has 25 years of plant operating experience.
3. Callout history. One of the desirable

features of the ARCOS software is that a complete history of each callout is kept online so that a shift supervisor or a union representative can audit callouts to ensure work rule compliance. Courtesy: Progress Energy
(Figure 2). Since the first software release, a number of improved work practices have been implemented that benefit employees. Transparency in Operation. The callout priority list configuration developed by ARCOS is designed to comply with overtime order requirements and other callout equal distribution rules in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement. When a callout is required, the supervisor specifies the skill requirements, and then ARCOS generates the priority lists and makes the calls according to the agreement (Figure 3). Follows Work Rules. If an employee tells ARCOS he is unavailable during a particular period, the system will not include that employee on the callout list during that time. For example, employees can remotely set their availability to unavailable for callout if they are out of town during days off or may tell the system they have a personal commitment affecting their availability. However, employees who intentionally pass an assignment will be redlined or charged for any potential overtime they may have been called out for, according to the collective bargaining agreement. ARCOS also knows not to send a callout to an employee who just completed a callout. The time between callouts is user-defined. User-Friendly Interface. Users can respond to callouts using individual PIN numbers and a pushbutton phone, much as they would when refilling a pharmacy prescripCIRCLE 31 ON READER SERVICE CARD March 2012 POWER
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NEW PRODUCTS
Certified Zero Air Material for CEMS Reporting
Air Liquide introduced Scott brand 72.2 Certied ZAM (zero air material) to meet 40 CFR Part 75 regulations, which call for a continuous emission monitoring (CEM) system to be exposed to zero air material during testing protocols in order to qualify the accuracy of the instrument. Air Liquide achieves a balance between regulatory compliance certainty and cost-effectiveness by offering three types of Part 75compliant zero air materials: 72.2 Certied ZAM Air, 72.2 Certied ZAM Nitrogen, and 72.2 Certied ZAM RATA Class Oxygen EPA Protocol. By using these certied zero products, the risk of faulty calibration due to biased zero readings is eliminated. Zero air material is available from Air Liquide in three cylinder sizes with Part 75compliant Certicates of Analysis. (www.alspecialtygases.com)
TO POWER YOUR BUSINESS
Fill-Level Measuring Device for Coal Mills

KIMA Echtzeitsystemes ll-level measuring device, used for ball mills in the cement industry for over seven years, has now been adapted and developed for use in coal mills. A new ll-level sensor enables reliable ll-level measurements, even with uctuations in coal quality or moisture levels. Tested over a period of several months, the SmartFill for Coal has proven itself able to take precise ll-level measurements reliably and without errors. The technology helps to achieve homogenous degrees of neness, thereby improving the combustion properties of the coal. This, in turn, leads to a reduction in unburned coal and, consequently, better energy efciency, the company says. (www.kimae.de)
Flowmeter for Custody Transfer of Compressed Natural Gas

The new CNGmass Coriolis owmeter series from Endress+Hauser is approved by the National Type Evaluation Program (NTEP) in the U.S. and ve other international standards organizations for custody transfer of compressed natural gas (CNG) and for fueling vehicles with CNG. Available in three common sizes from 3/8 inch to 1 inch, the CNGmass measures mass ow up to 330 pound/min (150 kg/min) at uid temperatures up to 257F (125C) and pressures to 5,080 psi (350 bar). The instrument measures direct mass or corrected volume ow with 0.5% accuracy to meet custody standards. It also outputs temperature and density. Because the Coriolis owmeter is a balanced two-tube design, it is insensitive to pipeline vibrations and can be installed without taking inlet or outlet runs into consideration. When used for custody transfer, the owmeter is veried on site using reference measurements approved by the local authority for legal metrology controls. The owmeter must be locked for custody transfer measurements and sealed by authorized personnel, but it can easily be converted back to normal measurements. (www.us.endress.com)
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POWER March 2012
NEW PRODUCTS
Fully Automatic Sodium Analyzer

METTLER TOLEDOs Process Analytics Division announced the 2300Na sodium analyzer, which can be used in pure water treatment and power generation applications. The design of the METTLER TOLEDO Thornton 2300Na sodium analyzer is based on extensive instrumentation experience and is optimized to handle measurement challenges. Features of the sodium analyzer include fully automatic, unattended calibration, which ensures reliable operation while saving time; reagent addition confirmation by pH to ensure consistent measurement results; and convenient grab sample measurement for additional samples and quality control checks from other areas of the plant. The analyzer simultaneously displays sodium, adjusted pH, temperature, and calibration. (www.mt.com/ pro_power)
New Capacitive Accelerometer Modules

Silicon Designs, a designer and manufacturer of highly rugged industrial-grade MEMS capacitive accelerometer chips and modules, has introduced a 5 g model to its 2011 industry best-selling 2210 accelerometer series. The lownoise, single-axis model 2210-005 accelerometer module incorporates high-quality MEMS capacitive sensing elements. Sensing elements are packaged within a compact, lightweight, anodized epoxy-sealed aluminum housing measuring just 1 square inch. The accelerometers feature a simple four-wire connection and internal voltage regulator to minimize supply voltage variation effects. The high-drive, low-impedance units are relatively insensitive to temperature changes and offer quick, easy self-calibration. (www.silicondesigns.com)
Continuous Duty Industrial Vacuum

Manufacturer of heavy-duty industrial vacuums and vacuum systems VAC-U-MAX introduces its updated Model 1020 Continuous Duty Industrial Vacuum. The VAC-U-MAX Model 1020 features a powerful positive displacement pump designed specifically for high-volume recovery of up to 5 tons per hour. It is also used in the recovery of heavy materials, including steel shot, foundry sand, metal powders, sludges, and other materials of a similar nature. It is available in either 10 or 15 horsepower. (www.vac-u-max.com/vacuum)
Inclusion in New Products does not imply endorsement by POWER magazine.

March 2012 POWER
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71
Where does the Industry nd its best people?
POWER magazine has served the generation industry for more than 128 years. Now POWER is making it easier than ever for industry professionals to nd career opportunities and for hiring authorities to nd the best candidates for open positions. The Careers-in-POWER job board on powermag.com allows visitors to post resumes anonymously, view the latest job positions, post job listings, and set up personal job alerts.
JOB SEEKERS:
Access the most recent positions available to engineers, operations and maintenance managers, and corporate and general managers at coal, nuclear, combined-cycle, and renewable power plants.
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Advertisers index
Enter reader service numbers on the FREE Product Information Source card in this issue.
Page www.ameristarbiofuels.com www.atlascopco.us www.baldor.com Reader Service Number www.naes.com Page Reader Service Number
Ameristar Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 . . . . . . . . . 29 Atlas Copco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 . . . . . . . . . 27 Baldor electric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 . . . . . . . . . . 9 Benetech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 . . . . . . . . . 28 Beumer Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . 8 Brand energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 . . . . . . . . . 25 Breen energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . . . . 20 Carboline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 . . . . . . . . . 15 Carver Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 . . . . . . . . . 23 Chromalloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . 4 ConocoPhillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . 2 day & Zimmerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 4 . . . . . . . . . 32 diamond Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 . . . . . . . . . 14 Fenner dunlop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 . . . . . . . . . 21 HACH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . . . . 11 Harrington Hoists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . 12 Metalfab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 . . . . . . . . . 30
www.metalfabinc.com www.harringtonhoists.com www.hach.com www.fennerdunlopamericas.com www.diamondpower.com www.dayzim.com www.conocophillipslubricants.com/PowerMag www.chromalloy.com www.carverpump.com www.carboline.com www.breenes.com www.beis.com www.beumer.com www.benetechusa.com
nAes Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 . . . . . . . . . 31 nol-tec systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 . . . . . . . . . . 6 Passavant-Geiger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 . . . . . . . . . 13 Pennsylvania Crusher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 . . . . . . . . . 19 PiC Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 . . . . . . . . . . 7 Prize Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . . . . 10 roberts & schaefer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 . . . . . . . . . 18 siemens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 2 . . . . . . . . . . 1 structural integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 . . . . . . . . . 24 swagelok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 . . . . . . . . . 16 team industrial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 . . . . . . . . . . 5 tyco Flow Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . . 3 victory energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 . . . . . . . . . 17 Williams Patent Crusher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 . . . . . . . . . 22
www.williamscrusher.com www.VictoryEnergy.com www.tycoflowcontrol.com www.teaminc.com www.swagelok.com/connections www.structint.com www.siemens.com/energy/solutionsets www.r-s.com www.prizecapital.net www.picworld.com www.penncrusher.com www.passavant-geiger.de www.nol-tec.com
ClAssiFied AdvertisinG
Pages 73-74 . to place a classified ad, contact dianne Hammes, 713-343-1885, dianeh@powermag .com
POWER
From the editors of POWER: The online magazine devoted to the coal-fired power generation industry
Te c h n o l o g i e s f o r c o a l - f i r e d p o w e r p l a n t s a r e e v o l v i n g ra p i d l y , a n d COA L P O W E R h a s e v o l v e d t o o . I n i t s l a t e s t o n l i n e f o r m a t y o u g e t everything you valued in print and so much more:
A c c e s s t o COAL POWE R w h e r e v e r y o u c a n u s e a b r o w s e r. Te c h n i c a l a r t i c l e s , c o a l p o w e r n e w s , b l o g s , o p i n i o n , a n d i n f o r m a t i o n . E a s y r e t r i e v a l o f a r c h i v e d COAL POWE R f e a t u r e s . Instant access to our advertisers for more information about their products. The ability to comment on stories and share your knowledge with the c o a l - b u r n i n g p o w e r p l a n t c o m m u n i t y. Job board.
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March 2012 POWER
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75
COMMENTARY
Has the Dust Settled?

By Bob Taylor
pring is around the corner. For many, spring marks a time when we are glad that those dreary winter skies are replaced with partial cloudy, rainy ones. In some areas, it is the rain that washes away salt, ash, and residues from roadways and aids in suppressing pollen in the air from blooming flora. Spring cleaning often occurs to ensure our house is in order. Plant outages are in bloom, and workers say farewell to wintertime blues. As our seasons transition, so may the fire and deflagration hazards from coal and combustible dust that once were visible and now may be out of sight. Yet often, what is out of sight presents the greatest hazard and risk. So has the dust settled?
The Dangers of Combustible Dust The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) started reviewing the hazards associated with combustible dust after a series of lethal fires and explosions occurred in 2003. In 2006, the board published a study that found at least 281 dust explosions and fires occurred in the U.S. between 1980 and 2005. They killed 119 workers and injured 718. As part of the report, the CSB urged the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) to enact regulations for controlling dust hazards. OSHA, however, did not begin the process of developing regulations until 2009. Recently, the CSB released its new findings based on its latest review of serious industrial events. According to its review, there has been no change in the frequency of deaths and injuries from dust accidents, despite more inspections and the implementation of an OSHA education program. The CSB report points out that there appears to be a trend related to many of these incidents. Often, personnel are not sufficiently trained in hazard recognition and analysis techniques. In addition, there frequently is complacency about the hazards of combustible dust. When these conditions exist, history repeats itself and new industrial accidents happen. OSHAs Combustible Dust Standard: Still a Work in Progress OSHA continues down the path toward enacting a combustible dust standard that would require many industries to better control combustible dust hazards. Its a long, winding, and tiring pathway, and it may take years before the standard is enacted. Recently, OSHA officials moved the proposed combustible standard to its long-term agenda, despite pleas from the CSB to put it on the fast track. In January, when OSHA published its twice-yearly regulatory agenda, it included a note about combustible dust regulations that reads next action undetermined. One hurdle OSHA has to overcome in passing the new standard is to document its economic impact. Part of OSHAs
76
rulemaking process under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) review is to give small businesses the ability to participate in the process and give their feedback about the financial impact of complying with the proposed rule. Improvements to dust control systems and other facility upgrades to help control combustible dust typically require significant financial investment, which can be a tough sell to businesses during these challenging economic times. Meanwhile, OSHAs Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program (NEP) is very much alive. Under the NEP guidelines, OSHA personnel are encouraged to inspect facilities that generate or handle combustible dusts that pose a deflagration or other fire hazard. OSHA can cite facilities using standards defined by its NEP CPL 03-00-2008, including electrical installations, housekeeping, hazard labeling, personal protective equipment hazard assessment, and the employers duty to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards. Currently, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has a number of combustible dust standards that are specific to certain industries or commodities such as metal or wood. However, the association has identified that there is a great need for an overarching fundamental combustible dust standard. Consequently, the NFPA has assembled a new technical committee that is focused on developing a new standard that deals with the fundamentals of combustible dust. Even though the proposed standard is likely to be fast-tracked, it may take several years before it actually comes to life.
Promoting Safe Practices in the Meantime During the upcoming PRB Coal Users Group annual meeting, which will be colocated with the 2012 ELECTRIC POWER Conference & Exhibition in Baltimore in May, attendees will hear more specifics about the regulatory processes related to combustible dust, learn about actions that may be taken to prevent or control fire and deflagration hazards, and hear from those who have been impacted by serious incidents involving combustible dust. For example, attendees will be able to meet Tammy Mizer, whose brother died in a combustible dust event and find out how family, friends, coworkers, and communities are affected. Her story is real and personal, and its a springboard to why the subject of safety is so critical. During the first 30 days of 2012, our industry was impacted by an average of one fire or deflagration per day. For many reasons, little is known about these incidents, let alone shared, but they continue to happen. Is it time for spring cleaning? The dust hasnt settled, and if it has, its likely to be a deflagration risk. Bob Taylor is chairman of the PRB Coal Users Group (www.prbcoals.com).
POWER March 2012
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March 2012

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Vol. 156 No.

Coping with Coal Dust

Solutions for combined heat and power plants

A city full of energy

Established 1882 Vol. 156 No. 3

COVER STORY: PLANT DESIGN

40 Regional Service Organization Provides Supplemental Maintenance Support

44 Achieving Sustainable Performance Improvement

46 Optimizing Outages with Outage Readiness Analysis

50 Enhancing Plant Performance Through Formal Outage Planning and Execution

52 Vietnam Works Hard to Power Economic Growth

60 Ensuring Resource Adequacy in Competitive Electricity Markets

March 2012 POWER

66 EEI Proposes Road Map for Electric Vehicle Integration

68 Automating Crew Callouts

28 Rethinking Security Requirements for Generation Developers

70 NEW PRODUCTS COMMENTARY

76 Has the Dust Settled?

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THE BIG PICTURE: Dammed Dams

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4. Testing the water. Shell is constructing a floating liquefied

SOME THINK LONG-DISTANCE TRANSPORT IS INFRASTRUCTUREINTENSIVE. WE THINK DIFFERENT

High-Temperature Superconductor Technology Stepped Up

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5. A freezing current. A 10-kV high-temperature superconductor

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