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thermal power plant

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What’s on the Minds of Utility Consumer Advocates

By Energy Rant No Comments
This week I’m focusing on the concerns expressed by members of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, NASUCA, which met in parallel with NARUC in Austin, TX, a week before last. The topics of concern include outage risk, high prices, and related energy poverty. Outage Risk In the short term, this year or next year, I can only repeat what the experts are saying. Jim Robb, President of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), said the bulk power system has seen steady improvement . At the same time, the risk is “terrifying” due to peak load growth…
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What’s On the Minds of Utility Commissioners

By Energy Rant No Comments
Last week I attended the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Summer Policy Summit in chilly Austin, TX, where running shoes never dry. I also learned that the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) holds a conference in parallel in the same venue. This post begins to provide an overview of issues and concerns discussed at the conference, summarized in four words: rising rates declining reliability. Let’s get into it. Rapid Thermal Power Plant Retirement Results: Grid Stress This section may be summarized using the title of the Tuesday panel discussion, “On the Brink: Reliability Challenges and…
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Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant

Exergy, Easy – Heavy Savings

By Energy Rant No Comments
Exergy is a sexy word (maybe only to energy nerds), but it represents a vital class of measures and opportunities as we sprint head-on into the game changer (cliché alert) that will be the post-gravy-train-of-lighting-retrofit-era of energy efficiency. Pay attention!Exergy, also known as availability, is the total useful energy that can be captured before a system comes into equilibrium with the surroundings. Equilibrium can be as simple as a mass coming to rest. Potential Energy Consider a hydropower plant. The potential energy is in the form of elevated water on one side, the reservoir, and a shallow stream for whitewater…
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Combined Heat and Power Ins and Outs

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant 2 Comments
Combined heat and power (CHP) is quite easy to understand from an energy efficiency perspective.  Deploying policies to encourage it is very complex due to a number of things: What fuel type are we saving? What is fair for the utility? What are the public benefits? How should any incentives be derived? CHP Overview In a conventional thermal power plant fired by coal, roughly 20% of the energy is lost to the exhaust in the form of waste heat.  Roughly 45% of the thermal energy is rejected to the atmosphere or body of water – river, lake, or ocean.  This…
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