BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY FOR THE GLOBAL GENERATION INDUSTRY SINCE 1882

Vol. 161 No. 3 March 2017

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 ON THE COVER
Challenges in sourcing water for power plant
cooling and makeup continue to grow, forc-
ing plant owners and managers to become
ever more creative with solutions. Photo of
Frances Chooz Nuclear Power Plant. Cour-
tesy: Mossot/Wikipedia Creative Commons
Established 1882 Vol. 161 No. 3 March 2017

SPEAKING OF POWER
The Changing of the Guard 6
GLOBAL MONITOR
Europe Tackles Cybersecurity 8
Low LNG Prices Fuel Interest in LNG-to-Power Projects 9
UAE to Rely on Renewables Over Long Term 9
THE BIG PICTURE: Shunning Coal 10
New Construction Milestones for AP1000 Units 12
Big Winds for Big Offshore Wind Turbines From Siemens, MHI Vestas 13
HECO Tests Virtual Power Plant in Hawaii 13
POWER Digest 14
FOCUS ON O&M
Eddy Current Tube Inspections Efficiently Find Defects 16
Protecting Critical Infrastructure 18
LEGAL & REGULATORY 12
Trumps Two-for-One Special on Federal Regulations 20
By Thomas W. Overton, JD

COVER FOCUS: WATER & WASTEWATER

Lowering Cost and Waste in Flue Gas Desulfurization
Wastewater Treatment 22
New technologies are changing the options available for flue gas desulfuriza-
tion wastewater treatment. One innovative solution that has reduced costs
and the amount of waste generated combines electrodialysis and reverse
osmosis in a novel system.

Cooling Towers: Efficiency Waiting to Happen 28

Sustaining excellent cooling water system performance is important because
a one-degree increase in water temperature can cause a 2% increase in en-
ergy usage. Proper maintenance and a few upgrades could improve a cooling
towers efficiency, while also saving water in the process.

Using Reclaimed Water in Power Plant Cooling Applications 34

13
Using treated municipal wastewateralso known as reclaimed wateras a
makeup supply for cooling tower systems can be a great option, but there
are challenges due to varying concentrations of problematic contaminants. A
unique stress-tolerant terpolymer could provide a solution.

Reclaimed Water Reduces Stress on Freshwater Supplies 38

When evaluating whether or not to utilize reclaimed water at a plant, there
are several questions that must be asked. The answers drove one facility to
implement a two-stage process that uses a proprietary microsand to floc-
culate incoming solids for phosphorus removal, and rotating screens for ad-
ditional filtration.

A Comparison of ELG Compliance Options for Flue Scrubber Wastewater 42

Both biological treatment and zero liquid discharge approaches have been
used to meet the requirements of Effluent Limitations Guidelines. However,
the decision on which to use requires careful consideration. Future flexibility
could be more important than initial cost.
22
|
March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 1
 SPECIAL REPORT: MANAGING RISK
New and Improved Insurance Offerings Provide Power Plants
with More Options 48
Insurance may seem expensive when things go right, but when things go
wrong, having the right coverage can pay dividends. With weather risks and
cyber threats becoming more prominent, it may be time for managers to
consider the latest insurance options.

RENEWABLE ENERGY
A 100% Renewable Grid: Pipe Dream or Holy Grail? 54
Solar and wind power capacity continues to grow exponentially, leading
some to wonder: Could the world eventually be powered solely by renew-
able energy? One series of studies suggests it could, with some significant
48 stipulations.

POWER MARKETS
Duck Hunting at the California Independent System Operator 57
The duck curve depicts the mismatch between Californias solar power sup-
ply and the grids power demand. Could a larger western wholesale market
solve the problem? Perhaps, but getting all the players on the same page
could be problematic.

COMMENTARY
Progress on GHG Emissions Reduction in Canadas Electricity Sector 64
By Graham Campbell

54
VISIT POWERMAG.COM DAILY FOR NEWS AND INFORMATION

Explosion Rocks Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant in France

Trumps Regulatory Rollback May Hit Roadblocks
2017 Will be the Year for North American CCS, Expert Says
Republicans Take Aim at EPA in Science Hearing, New Bill to Abolish Agency
GOP Statesmen Pitch Carbon Tax at White House
DONG Energy to Phase Out Coal Use in Power Plant Fleet
As Trump Takes Over, Who Wields Power?
Energy Industries Look Forward to Regulatory Relief under Trump
AEP Sells Competitive Natural Gas, Coal Power Plants
Explosion and Fire Forces Gas-Fueled Combined Cycle Power Plant Offline

57

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2 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017
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POWER March 2017
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 SPEAKING OF POWER
The Changing of the Guard
heres a new sheriff in townWash-
T ington, D.C., that is. President Don-
ald Trump has taken the reins from
Barack Obama, and hes come out with
guns blazing. Its truethe new admin-
istration has wasted little time shaking
things up since taking office.
While hundreds, if not thousands, of
pages have been written by the media
about President Trumps selections of Exx-
onMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for Secretary of
State, billionaire Betsy DeVos to run the
Department of Education, and Sen. Jeff
Sessions (R-Ala.) as the new U.S. Attor-
ney General, the nomination of Oklahoma
Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is
probably the pick that will have the great-
est influence on the power industry.
An Industry Friendly EPA
Many environmental groups and left-wing
politicians point to the 14 lawsuits Pruitt
has filed against the EPA as a reason for
concern. Yet, Pruitt has suggested, to any-
one who will listen, that he was just doing
his job. While being grilled by Democratic
senators during his confirmation hear-
ing, Pruitt said, The efforts that I took
as attorney general were representing the
interests of the state of Oklahoma. Re-
gardless of all of the partisan rhetoric, it
is very likely that Pruitt will be confirmed,
because Republicans control the process.
But no matter who is in charge of the
EPA, the power industry can expect some
significant changes to take place under
the Trump administration. One of its first
moves after the inauguration was to order
a freeze on federal grant spending by the
EPA and to stop all of the agencys exter-
nal communications, both of which have
since been relaxed, at least to some ex-
tent. The administration also performed a
near-total scrubbing of the words climate
change from the EPAs website.
Soon after Trump took office, the White
Houses website was updated too, add-
ing An America First Energy Plan to its
pages. The plan says, President Trump is
committed to eliminating harmful and un-
necessary policies such as the Climate Ac-
tion Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.
6 www.powermag.com
It also says the administration is com-
mitted to clean coal technology, and to
reviving Americas coal industry.
However, one executive thinks reviv-
ing the coal industry will be a tall task.
In December, I spoke to Robert Murray,
CEO of Murray Energy Corp., the largest
underground coal mining company in the
U.S. Murray said he asked then President-
elect Trump to temper his comments about
bringing coal miners back and bringing
coal back. It will not happen, Murray
said. The destruction that has happened
is permanent.
While its true that countless coal-min-
ing jobs have already been lost, rumors are
that many EPA jobs may also be in jeop-
ardy. Myron Ebell, President Trumps EPA
transition team leader, told the Associated
Press that slicing the 15,000-person staff
in half would be a good start. Of course,
Ebells opinion is not policy, but The New
York Times reported that Pruitt has a blue-
print to cut staffing levels and close some
regional offices so its very likely to be a
leaner EPA in the near future.
Power Employment
Jobs around Washington arent the only
ones that have been changing. A week
before President Trump took office, the
Department of Energy released its 2017
U.S. Energy and Employment Report.
The report notes that 860,869 workers are
directly employed in the electric power
generation industry, which covers all util-
ity employment across electric generating
technologies including fossil fuels, nucle-
ar, and renewable energy. It also includes
firms engaged in facility construction,
turbine and other generation equipment
manufacturing, as well as wholesale parts
distribution of all electric generation
technologies.
One of the most surprising things
to me was the number of solar employ-
ees373,807tallied by the authors.
The figure was 154,631 more than the to-
tal number of workers employed in the nu-
clear and fossil fuel (coal, oil, and natural
gas) electric power generation subsectors
combined. Solar employment had grown
by nearly 25% year-over-year, with many
of the jobs being construction related,
resulting from the significant buildout of
new solar generation capacity. Job growth
in the wind category was even stronger
about 32%but total employment in
wind energy was only slightly more than
a quarter that of solar workers (101,738).
POWER Employment
Just as change seems inevitable through-
out the power industry, change is also
a fact of life in the media business. For
regular readers of this column, Im sure
it hasnt gone unnoticed that long-time
POWER editor Gail Reitenbach is not the
author of this months edition. It is with
some regret that I announce that she is no
longer a member of the POWER team.
Gail spent about 14 years with the
magazine. She is a dedicated professional
and was a great mentor to me personally.
Her keen attention to detail and interest
in the power industry made her a valuable
resource not just for staff, but also for all
POWER readers. She will be missed.
For those who dont know me, my back-
ground is in operations and maintenance.
I spent about 25 years (including time in
the U.S. Navy) working in the industry at
nuclear, biomass, and coal power plants. I
have been with POWER magazine for more
than three years now and look forward to
taking on my new role as executive editor.
Dorothy Lozowski has assumed the role
of editorial director for POWER magazine,
as well as for Chemical Engineering maga-
zine, where she has been editor in chief.
She holds both bachelors and masters de-
grees in chemical engineering and will be
a great new resource for the POWER team.
Reporter Abby L. Harvey has also been
added to the lineup. Abby has been cov-
ering energy and climate change for GHG
Monitor and is heavily involved in the
Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage
Conference, which is co-located with the
ELECTRIC POWER Conference & Exhibition
in Chicago, Ill., April 1013, 2017. Abbys
first POWER article, Cooling Towers: Ef-
ficiency Waiting to Happen, can be found
starting on page 28 of this issue.
Aaron Larson is POWERs executive
editor.
|
POWER March 2017
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Europe Tackles
Cybersecurity
Several European countries have moved to
adopt distinct cybersecurity measures as
a result of the increased interconnectiv-
ity within Europes energy system along
with a changing paradigm that includes
decentralized power sources, the integra-
tion of electric vehicles, new digital in-
frastructure, and connected operational
technology.
According to a 2016 survey by the Eu-
ropean Commission, at least 80% of Eu-
ropean companies have experienced one
or more cybersecurity incidents. While the
commission has adopted a series of mea-
sures to tackle cybersecurity, it did not en-
act the European Unions (EUs) first broad
legislation on cybersecurity until August
2016. Member states have until 2018 to
adopt the directive on security of network
and information systems (NIS), which es-
sentially creates a network of computer
security incident response teams across
the EU to react to cyberthreats. It also
establishes cooperation between member
states.
The NIS directive will be integral to
addressing some jurisdictional challenges
that plague the industry in Europe, indus-
try trade group Eurelectric said in a De-
cember 2016 report.
Europe lacks critically needed cross-
border coordination, which lead[s] to
an inefficient global response to cyber
security related incidents, the group
that represents more than 3,500 compa-
nies in power generation, distribution,
and supply said. Meanwhile, it is often
not clear which authority is in charge of
smart grid cybersecurity, the report notes.
And, while most network operators seem
to tackle this challenge effectively, many
others lack the incentive and expertise,
and many National Regulatory Authorities
(NRAs) lack the mandate to take on this
responsibility.
However, Eurelectric also said that a
number of pressing cybersecurity chal-
lenges faced by European power com-
panies remain unaddressed by the NIS
directive. The biggest challenge relates to
long investment cycles that make technol-
ogy assessments difficult and have led to a
time lag between implemented and up-to-
date solutions, the report says. Likewise,
informational technology and operational
technology environments have mis-
matched life cycles and diverging prac-
8 www.powermag.com
1. Floating LNG power plant package. Wison Offshore & Marine, a firm based in
Shanghai, China, in January unveiled a plug-and-play floating power supply that integrates the
functions of liquefied natural gas (LNG) loading and storage facilities, regasification, and power
generation. Courtesy: Wison
tices in terms of design, qualification, and
maintenance, which can lead to a dif-
ferent approach regarding the security of
each technology, creating gaps that can
be maliciously exploited, it notes. Also,
cybersecurity offered by commercial off-
the-shelf products to keep up with smart
grid development can be insufficient,
while tailor-made solutions can lead to
financial and technical inefficiencies.
The organization called for national
authorities to set security baselines that
equipment and service providers would
have to follow. These entities should also
provide security certifications that dis-
tribution system operators (DSOs) could
use on their networks or for products that
could be used by third-party companies on
customer premises.
However, Eurelectric noted that a num-
ber of countries have moved to adopt im-
portant initiatives that could help address
larger concerns.
Denmark. The country encourages a
close exchange of data between grid op-
erator Energinet.dk, and generators, DSOs,
and retailers via a data hub.
Norway. Companies must report major
incidents to national authority NVE. In
2014, the country also set up KraftCERT,
a tool for the entire power industry that
helps handle and prevent security inci-
dents. It specializes in monitoring, coun-
seling, and incident response.
Austria. The country has established
public-private cooperation to set up vol-
untary national security standards for the
power sector and carry out a risk assess-
ment.
France. The government has issued a
decree that obliges some companies to
declare security incidents to the national
cybersecurity authority ANSSI. It also
has a basic certification (Certification de
Scurit de Premier Niveau) for black-box
testing of product cybersecurity.
Sweden. A common security website
(https://www.energisakerhetsportalen.
se) curates relevant information for the
energy sector.
Portugal. A national cybersecurity
center coordinates crisis management
and operational response to cyberat-
tacks, including initiatives for the energy
sector.
Germany. The country enacted the
national IT-Security Act in June 2015,
a law that obliges operators of energy-
related critical infrastructure to report
network and informational security inci-
dents. Transmission operators and DSOs
must comply with the ISO/IEC 27001
certification standard while generators
will be required to comply with standards
that are currently being drafted by the
national regulatory authority.
|
POWER March 2017
Low LNG Prices Fuel
Interest in LNG-to-Power 2. Barakah (Growth, prosperity, and continuity). The Barakah nuclear power
Projects plant in the United Arab Emirates is slated for full operations by 2020. Courtesy: IAEA
Stricken by falling prices, producers of
liquefied natural gas (LNG) are looking to
exploit an emerging trend that integrates
the fuel source with power generation.
According to Houston-based interna-
tional law firm Baker Botts, an increasing
number of LNG power projects are emerg-
ing worldwide as a new, viable medium
that offers a rapid but long-term power
solution. Last year, Sri Lanka moved to
finalize its first LNG power plant, though
that 300-MW project proposed for Ker-
awalapitiya hadnt been approved as of
January. Last year, Chile also approved
an initial 600-MW gas-fired power plant
that will use LNG exported from the U.S.
by Cheniere Energy. In November, the
government of Pakistan invited bids for a
1,200-MW LNG-fueled power plant at the
existing Muzaffargarh thermal power sta-
tion. And in early February, the South Ja-
maica Power Co. signed an engineering,
procurement, and construction contract
with Spanish firm TSK Group for a turnkey
190-MW LNG-fueled plant. Meanwhile,
LNG producers Cheniere Energy Inc. and
Total SA are separately looking to pack- gas trade. The company projected that UAE to Rely on
age LNG production with power genera- by 2035, LNG could account for around Renewables Over Long
tion, Bloomberg reported in January. half of all globally traded gasa fairly Term
Interest in the latent market is also significant increase from the current 32% A long-term energy strategy unveiled by
evident by recent technology develop- share it has today. leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
ments. Chinese firm Wison Offshore & However, Baker Botts cites several in early January suggests that the fed-
Marine in January unveiled a range of other critical drivers behind the LNG-to- eration on the Arabian Peninsula will in-
floating solutions that integrate LNG power trend. These involve a lack of gas creasingly rely on renewables to power its
loading and storage facilities, regasifica- infrastructure to support conventional soaring economic growth.
tion, and power generation (Figure 1). independent power projects, technical The UAEs energy strategy was unveiled
The smallest unit starts at 10 MW and the evolution, environmental protection, and by Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin
largest accommodates an 800-MW power the need to meet demand for gas-fired Rashid Al Maktoum, who is prime min-
plant. We can see increasing demand power generation. ister of Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed noted
from the regions in South East Asia, West Developing countries, especially, could that the plan was the nations first uni-
Africa, Caribbean areas, West Coast of benefit from the trend, the law firm fied energy strategy based on supply and
India etc., where electricity demand is noted. However, it presents new and demand. The Gulf countries are similar
growing and onshore solutions may not interesting challenges to those involved in their economic structure, and we hope
be commercially feasible or preferable, in this gas value chain as LNG to power that we will one day have a unified [Gulf
said Wison CEO Ying Cui. combines certain traditional elements of Cooperation Council] energy strategy in
A prominent driver behind the project the LNG value chain with a potentially order to ensure sustainable growth for our
development is a global plunge in LNG new and different element, the down- people and global influence for our econo-
prices since mid-2014 that has moved in stream power market, noted Mark Rowly, mies, he added.
tandem with oil prices, to which many a Baker Botts partner in the London of- Under the strategy, the UAE will seek
LNG contracts are tied. Global dynam- fice. Robin Mizrahi, another partner in to increase the contribution of clean
ics have improved lately, though prices London, explained that the integration energynonhydro renewables and nu-
remain well below previous peaks. An of LNG and power could create a new clearin the total energy mix from the
influx of U.S. LNG supplies, as well as inter-disciplinary area of work with po- current 25% to 50% by 2050. In 2050, the
new market entrants, notably from East tentially wide-reaching business and eco- countrys power mix should comprise 44%
Africa, could put more pressure on the nomic implications. Its not just buying renewables, 38% natural gas, 12% clean
market. Meanwhile, forecasts show global LNG, its selling electricity as welland coal, and 6% nuclear. The UAE will also
LNG supplies could see explosive growth in many respects the power market and embark on stringent energy-efficiency
through 2035. According to BPs Jan- the LNG market may reshape each other, measures to slash residential energy con-
uary-released energy outlook, LNG will which could have a major impact on their sumption by 40%.
grow seven times faster than pipeline future direction, he said. The UAEs reliance on clean energy will

|
March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 9
THE BIG PICTURE: SHUNNING COAL
In the wake of the Paris agreement in December 2015, a number of governments are
implementing (or considering) a phase-out or cut-back of coal-fired power generation.
Percentages show coals share of total generation in 2014.
Sources: POWER, The Shift Project Data Portal
Copy and artwork by Sonal Patel, a POWER associate editor

Chinas National Energy Administration in January ordered the cessation or

postponement of 104 coal-fired power projects in 13 provinces scattered around the
country. The order affects projects totaling 120 GW. About 54 GW of that capacity is
CHINA reportedly from projects already under construction. It is the latest effort by Chinas
72% of 5,144,950 GWh government to reign in a coal capacity glut stemming from falling power demand
on the back of an economic slowdown.

NETHERLANDS
39% of 92,910 GWh
A non-binding motion by the Dutch parliament in September 2016
to cut the countrys carbon emissions 55% by 2030 has spurred
lawmakers to contemplate retiring five remaining coal units in the
Netherlands. The decision has been postponed until after the
March 15 general election.
INDIA
72% of 1,118,060 GWh BELGIUM
A draft national electricity plan published in
9% of 68,760 GWh
December suggests India will refrain from
building any new coal capacity after 2022. In May 2016, Belgium closed its last coal plant, joining
Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and
Malta, countries in Europe that have no coal plants.
CANADA
12% of 649,700 GWh
FINLAND
In early November 2016, Canadas Liberal government
17% of 60,610 GWh
announced a nationwide phase-out of coal power without In November 2016, Finland announced a plan to
carbon capture and storage by 2030, though it later said it will phase out all coal burning by 2030.
allow the province of Saskatchewan to keep running coal plants
under an equivalency agreement. The provinces of Ontario and PORTUGAL
Alberta have already implemented actions to phase out coal. 18% of 59,360 GWh
Portugal has eyed a 100% transition to renewables.
GERMANY
45% of 572,530 GWh DENMARK
After Germany pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide 32% of 32,830 GWh
emissions by up to 95% compared to 1990 levels by 2050, it
Denmark is mulling phasing out coal by 2025. In
set a hard timetable for domestic hard coal mining to cease
February, DONG Energy said it would quit coal and
by 2018. While initial proposals called for a coal-fired power
is working to convert all of its coal plants to
production exit well before 2050 as part of a national
biomass.
climate plan, the government hasnt yet set a deadline.

FRANCE
3% of 546,190 GWh KEY
France in October 2016 said it would shut down
all its remaining coal plants by 2023. Power Generation (GWh) in 2014
Coal
UK Oil
32% of 310,810 GWh Gas
In November 2016, the UK government recommitted
Solar and ocean
to restricting the use of unabated coal generation Geothermal
by 2023 and ending it altogether by 2025. Wind
Hydro
SWEDEN Waste and biomass
1% of 152,970 GWh Nuclear
In November 2016, Swedens finance ministry
outlined plans to use only clean energy by 2040.

10 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017
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3. Nuclear milestone. Americas first-ever AP1000 steam generator (the brown cylinder
at center) was lifted into place at the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant this January. The steam
generator, including the integral reactor coolant pump casings, weighs more than 600 metric
tons and is about 24 meters (m) tall and 6 m in diameter. Courtesy: SCE&G
help it save $190 billon, the strategy
says. Meanwhile, the nation will invest
$163 billion to meet growing demand
and secure economic growth.
The nation is on track to begin op-
erating the Middle Easts first nuclear
power unit at the Barakah Nuclear Energy
Plant by May (Figure 2). On January 7,
the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. said
that completion of the full projectfour
APR1400 reactors whose construction
began in 2012is slated for 2020. The
project is being built by a consortium led
by the Korea Electric Power Corp. Unit
1 is more than 93% complete, Unit 2 is
81% complete, Unit 3 is 67% complete,
and Unit 4 is 38% complete, it said. The
state-owned entity is now focusing on re-
cruiting, training, and mobilizing nuclear
energy professionals for the estimated
2,500 personnel positions it will need to
fill to safely operate the plant by 2020.
New Construction
Milestones for AP1000
Units
Construction of four AP1000 unitsthe
first new nuclear reactors in the U.S. in
decadesis moving along at Vogtle 3
and 4 in Georgia and at the V.C. Sum-
mer nuclear power plant in South Caro-
lina. In January, Westinghouse, which is
spearheading construction of the units,
marked a key milestone as it placed the
12
first steam generator at V.C. Summer Unit
2.
The steam generator, supplied by
South Korean firm Doosan, is a major
component for the plants steam-supply
system (Figure 3). According to West-
inghouse, AP1000 plant steam genera-
tors are based on a proven design with
multiple enhancements, including anti-
vibration bars and a primary-side channel
head that provides easy access for robot-
ic tooling to improve plant performance
and maintenance. With its placement,
4. Ivory tower. Siemens 8-MW offshore wind turbine prototype installed at a test center
in sterild, Denmark, will be used for both mechanical and electrical testing until type certifica-
tion next year. Courtesy: Siemens
www.powermag.com
Westinghouse will now embark on reactor
coolant loop piping installation.
Westinghouse in December placed the
second containment vessel ring at Vogtle
3. Other recent milestones at the Vogtle
site included placement of the Unit 3
reactor vessel on November 23 and the
Unit 4 CA01 structural module on Novem-
ber 21.
The milestones are notable for the two
projects, which have suffered delays and
cost overruns. Construction at Vogtle be-
gan in 2013. Vogtle 3 is now scheduled
to start operations in 2019, while Vogtle
4 is expected to be operational in 2020.
Construction kicked off at V.C. Summer in
2013, too. Unit 2 is expected to enter
operations in 2019, and Unit 3 in 2020.
Westinghouses construction of four
AP1000 reactors in China, two each at
Sanmen in Zhejiang province and Hai-
yang in Shandong, are reportedly near-
ing completion, though they too have
been beset by delays ranging from three
to four years, mostly owing to design
changes. While construction kicked off at
Sanmen Unit 1 in April 2009, and in Sep-
tember 2009 at Haiyang, all four reactors
are slated to be operational by the end
of this year.
In January, the China National Nuclear
Corp. reported that installation of the
fourth and final reactor coolant pump
had been completed at Sanmen 2, mark-
ing a milestone toward the start of cold
commissioning tests. Three weeks later,
the China Nuclear Engineering Corp. an-
nounced that coolant pumps from the
U.S. had reached the construction site at
Haiyang.
|
POWER March 2017
5. The sea of giants. Installation of MHI Vestas 32 V164-8.0-MW
turbines at the 258-MW Burbo Bank Extension off the coast of Liver-
pool in the UK wrapped up in December 2016three months after the
first 8-MW offshore turbine was erected. The project is scheduled for
completion early this year. Courtesy: MHI Vestas

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Big Winds for Big Offshore
Wind Turbines From
Siemens, MHI Vestas
Siemens has installed the prototype of
its towering 8-MW offshore direct-drive
wind turbine at a national test center in
sterild, Denmark, marking the compa-
nys foray into the global race to develop
megawind turbines.
The new offshore turbine was installed
on a steel tower at a hub height of 120
meters (m) in late January (Figure 4). The
final type certificate is expected in 2018.
The prototype is based on Siemens 7-MW
model, which already has first orders to
be installed in early 2018 in the Walney
Extension East project in the UK.
According to the Global Wind Energy
Association (GWEA), relatively higher
costs and installation complexity com-
pared to onshore wind have posed barriers
for widespread offshore wind develop-
ment. Turbine makers are working to re-
duce costs by deploying larger turbines to
increase energy capture, along with keep-
ing volumes up and tackling supply-chain
challenges. While GWEA notes, citing a
2011 study, that wind turbines of up to 20
MW could be constructed using existing
materials, such behemoths are not yet
economic, it says. [It] will probably not
be long before well see 10, 12 and 15 MW
machinesand if there are fundamental
limits, theyre not yet clear. As materials
science continues to advance, who knows
how large offshore machines will be in 20
years time? it says.
For now, the largest offshore wind tur-
bines hover over the 7-MW to 8-MW range.
However, MHI Vestasa joint venture
between Vestas Wind Systems and Mit-
subishi Heavy Industrieson January 26
unveiled an uprated version of its 8-MW
medium-speed geared commercial turbine.
The company said the prototype installed
at sterild produced 216,000 kWh over a
24-hour perioda record for a commer-
cially available offshore wind turbineon
December 1. Like the original model, the
V164 prototype weighs about 35 metric
tons and has 80-m-long blades, but it is
about 35 m taller with a hub height of
140 m, and it can reach a rated power of 9
MW depending on specific site conditions.
MHI Vestas began commercial operation
of the first V164-8.0-MW machine in Sep-
tember 2016 at the 258-MW Burbo Bank
Extension, a wind farm owned by DONG
Energy, PKA, and KIRKBI A/S, 7 kilome-
ters off the coast of Liverpool in the UK
(Figure 5). MHI Vestas also noted that it
has a firm order book of more than 1.6
GW for the turbine model.
Other notable prototypes include Game-
sa and AREVAs jointly developed 8-MW
Adwen AD-180, which is undergoing test-
ing in Bremerhaven, Germany. Meanwhile,
Enercons E-126 model, a 7.5-MW onshore
model, has been installed at the Noor-
doostpolder site in the Netherlands.
HECO Tests Virtual Power
Plant in Hawaii
The Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) and
technology service company Stem Inc.
have successfully tested nearly 1 MW of
energy storage systems at 29 commercial
sites on Oahu, the companies said on
January 30.
The novel pilot project, which sought
the ability to connect many customers
energy storage with the utility, compris-
es an energy storage fleet of different
sizes that is installed at small businesses
and local institutions, along with Stems
predictive, cloud-based PowerScope soft-
ware to help the businesses predict when
their electric use will peak (Figure 6).
Stem synchronizes the PowerScope infor-

|
March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 13

6. Load explorer. Using site-specific weather information, renewable forecasts, and his-
torical and real-time usage data, Stems PowerScope software helps businesses predict when
their electric use will peak. It then responds to spikes in electricity demand by drawing on
stored power to reduce peaks in customer use without requiring operational changes. The soft-
ware is part of a pilot project recently tested in Hawaii. Courtesy: Stem Inc.
mation with data from HECOs renewable
generation monitoring and forecasting so
the utility can schedule stored power at
the varied customer sites for added sta-
bility during times of solar variability or
peak demand.
The virtual power plant, is providing
better real-time grid operations, HECO
added. These customer-sited solutions
are an important piece of Hawaiian Elec-
trics strategy, said Dora Nakafuji, HECOs
director of renewable energy planning.
This shows we can scale behind-the-
meter energy storage to create a more
stable and efficient grid as we provide
customers with higher levels of renew-
able energy to reduce fossil fuel use and
greenhouse gas emissions. Stem, which
said it pioneered the subscription-based
storage-as-a-service model, said inter-
est is poised to grow. The company has
secured more than $350 million in proj-
ect financing from partners that include
Generate Capital, Starwood Energy Group,
and Clean Feet Investors.
The project is also supported by Ha-
waii-based startup funding company En-
ergy Excelerator and the Department of
Energys Sustainable and Holistic Inte-
gration of Energy Storage and Solar Pho-
tovoltaic initiative.
14
POWER Digest
Rolls-Royce SMR Design Gets Re-
search Centers Technology Support.
Efforts to bring a proposed small modular
reactor (SMR) developed by Rolls-Royce
to the UK market will have the backing
of the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing
Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC), a col-
laboration of academic and industrial
partners underpinned by the University of
Manchester, and other industry partners,
including Amec Foster Wheeler, Nuvia,
and Arup. Nuclear AMRC said on January
16 that it will carry out desktop studies on
potential methods of manufacture for the
new design as well as assess the UK supply
chains capabilities to ensure the reactor
can be built to required standards. Rolls-
Royces SMR could have a capacity of be-
tween 220 MWe and 440 MWe depending
on configuration but would still be com-
pact enough to be transported by truck,
train, or barge. Over 75% of the design by
cost is modular, Nuclear AMRC said. In its
2016 budget, the UK expressed support for
SMRs and is reportedly seeking to identify
the best-value design through an open
competition. The 2016 budget also includ-
ed an allocation of at least 30 million for
an SMR-enabling advanced manufacturing
research and development program to de-
velop nuclear skills capacity.
www.powermag.com
ABB Bags Contract for 800-kV UH-
VDC Link in India. ABB will supply an
800-kV ultra-high-voltage direct-current
(UHVDC) transmission link for a $640 mil-
lion project spearheaded by Indias na-
tional electricity grid operator Power Grid
Corp. of India Ltd. The 1,830-km two-way
link connecting Raigarh in central India
to Pugalur in the southern state of Tamil
Nadu will have a capacity of 6,000 MW.
For ABB, the turnkey project is expected
to be completed in 2019. The contract
encompasses design, engineering, supply,
installation, commissioning, and supply
of major equipment, including complete
UHVDC stations, transformers, converter
valves, cooling systems, as well as control
and protection technology.
India Puts Online 648-MW Solar Fa-
cility. The Adani Group has inaugurated
a 648-MW solar photovoltaic project in
Indias southern state of Tamil Nadu. One
of the worlds largest solar power plants
in a single location, the $661 million Ra-
manathapuram plant, which extends over
10 square kilometers (km), was built by
8,500 workers over eight months. It com-
prises 2.5 million solar panel modules,
576 inverters, and 6,000 km of cables, the
company said.
EnerNOC Signs First Commercial
Contract for Demand Response in Ja-
pan. EnerNOC, a firm that provides en-
ergy intelligence software and demand
response solutions, on February 2 signed
its first commercial-scale contract with
Kyushu Electric Power Co. for 60 MW of
turnkey demand-response capacity start-
ing this summer. The company said that
the deal follows successful pilots with
several Japanese utilities. The company
has partnered with Japanese conglomer-
ate Marubeni Corp. (their joint venture
company is EnerNOC Japan) to scale up
demand-response operations in Japan,
where the government in April 2016
implemented energy reforms that liber-
alized electricity markets traditionally
dominated by 10 regional monopolies. En-
erNOC noted that revenues from the global
demand-response market are expected to
soar from less than $2.5 billion in 2017 to
more than $6.5 billion in 2025, driven by
activity in Asia Pacific.
GE Snags Orders in Iraq, Bahrain.
GE on January 28 struck lucrative deals
valued at more than $1 billionwith
the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity for a set
of technological solutions and upgrade
projects to add 700 MW to the national
grid in time for the summer period. The
technology upgrades include, among oth-
ers, heavy fuel oil conversions (due to
|
POWER March 2017
the scarcity of natural gas resources), Energia has signed a long-term supply five-year extension. The contract covers
advanced controls software, and an Ad- contract with Internet giant Google for the supply of up to 80 MW of power per
vanced Gas Path solution, which entails power from its 196-MW El Romero Solar annum through Chiles main power grid,
hardware design and materials improve- Photovoltaic (PV) plant in Vallenar in the Central Interconnected System, to
ments to the components of GEs gas the Atacama Desert, an area that report- which the photovoltaic plant and Googles
turbine hot gas path system. In Janu- edly has some of the worlds highest in- data center in Quilicura are both connect-
ary, GE Power also announced an order solation. The $343 million project, which ed. It is one of 13 Google data centers
from Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) comprises 776,000 PV modules and boasts worldwide. Google is looking to supply all
for a turnkey 1,792-MW combined cycle a solar capture area of more than 1.5 mil- its operations worldwide with renewables
power plant, including three GE HA gas lion square meters, entered service at the by 2017.
turbines, which will power the worlds end of 2016. ACCIONA will supply power Sonal Patel is a POWER
largest single-site smelter. The so-called to Google until 2030 with an option for a associate editor.
Line 6 Expansion Project to expand the
smelter is currently underway. When com-
plete in early 2019, it is expected to add
540,000 metric tons per annum (mtpa)
to Albas current production, bringing its
total production capacity to 1,500,000 Achieve Legendary Success
mtpa.
Switzerland Starts Operations
of Expanded Pumped Storage Unit
Project. Two new pumped storage units
added to the four-unit Forces Motrices
Hongrin-Lman (FMHL) power station in
Veytaux, Switzerland, began operations
in early January, after more than 10 years
of planning and construction. The project
doubled the FMHL pumped storage sta-
tions capacity from 240 MW to 480 MW
and includes a 60-MW reserve. It entailed
installing two 120-MW turbines in a new
cavern. The pumped storage plant will
help balance fluctuations triggered by
renewables, said the projects partners,
which include Romande Energie, Alpiq, CHANGE YOUR WORLD WITH CONCO
Groupe E, and the City of Lausanne. At
peak times, the water from the Hongrin With Conco Tube Cleaning,
reservoir will be channeled through the Eddy Current Testing and
turbines at the power station, which is Leak Detection Services
located 800 meter lower, while during customers have realized:
off-peak times, excess energy will be
used to pump water from Lake Geneva up Reduced costs
to the Hongrin reservoir. Decreased unit downtime
Major Nuclear Vendors Indicate In- Greater profitability
terest in New South African Nuclear Increased productivity
Builds. About 27 companies intend to
provide a response to a request for in- Greater reliability
formation (RFI) issued by Eskom for its The next time your condenser
proposed nuclear new build program, the needs servicing, do what smart
South African utility said on February 1.
Major nuclear vendors that responded engineers do and call Conco.
include Chinas State Nuclear Power Achieve Legendary Success
Technology Co., Frances EDF, Russias by putting over 90 years of
Rosatom Overseas, and South Koreas experience to work for you.
Korea Electric Power Corp. While a re- Change Your World with Conco.
sponse to the RFI does not commit com-
panies to submit future proposals, the
quantum of the response to Eskoms RFI
shows the level of competitive interest Conco Services Corp.
in the South African Nuclear New Build 1-800-345-3476
Program, Eskom noted. www.conco.net
Solar Plant in Chiles Atacama Des-
ert to Supply Google. Spains ACCIONA

|
March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 15
Eddy Current Tube
Inspections Efficiently 2. Preparing for success. Clean tubes are essential for accurate eddy current testing.
The graph on the left displays data from a dirty tube, which shows a poor signal-to-noise ratio,
Find Defects while the graph on the right was obtained from a clean tube, which exhibits a good signal-to-
noise ratio. Courtesy: Conco Services Corp.
Eddy current testing is a well-established
method of nondestructive testing that is
used to examine nonferrous/nonmagnet-
ic materials such as condenser and heat
exchanger tubes in power generation
plants. Eddy current testing reveals dis-
continuities in tubing, provides plant en-
gineers with an accurate assessment of a
units condition, and is a tool for predict-
ing the remaining useful life of the tubes.
Along with condenser and heat exchanger
tube cleaning and leak detection applica-
tions, many power generation plants with
aging units include eddy current test-
ing in plant maintenance programs in an
overall effort to maximize the efficient
life of their units.
The power generation industry is but
one of many sectors that benefit from
eddy current and other nondestructive
testing applications. Some common ap-
plications of eddy current testing outside
of power generation are inspections of
aircraft sections, automotive components,
and machined parts to search for surface with plant unavailability. Early detection analyst.
and subsurface cracks and corrosion. of potential failure mechanisms enables Single Frequency Versus Multiple
Eddy current testing can be a powerful plants to develop operating strategies, Frequencies. With eddy current test-
tool in a power plants maintenance pro- perform preventive maintenance, and ing, more is betterfrequencies, that
gram. Every year in the U.S. there are an more accurately budget for equipment is. The American Society of Mechanical
estimated 7,000 plant outages attributed repair and replacement, because the re- Engineers (ASME) code on eddy current
to tube failures, and such outages are maining useful life of the unit is better testing requires only the use of the prime
expensive and disruptive. Regular tube understood. frequency needed to obtain a desired
inspections can detect failing tubes (Fig- response, but it allows for the use of
ure 1) before they become catastrophic, Obtaining Accurate Eddy Current additional frequencies. The use of mul-
and it can minimize the losses associated Test Results tiple testing frequencies is an essential
There are many variables that influence element in testing because it allows for
1. Finding problems before they the capabilities of an eddy current test. complete penetration of the tube wall
find you. The pitting defect visible in this In any given inspection, the probe that from various perspectives.
image was detected using eddy current test- is used will affect resolution, and the Multiple frequencies are required to
ing. Courtesy: Conco Services Corp.
data that is collected will depend on the gain accurate and detailed data on sus-
characteristics of the equipment being pected defects, and to maximize the abil-
tested. ity of the technology to better detect,
While features of condenser or heat measure, and confirm flaws in all areas
exchanger tubing, like permeability and of a tube wall. Subsequent frequencies
conductivity, are beyond the control of each have their strengths for detection
the eddy current technician, appropriate and allow for signal mixing to eliminate
choices about the coil size, coil type, and unwanted interference like tube support
the test frequencies that will be used can plate signals. Todays eddy current instru-
ensure that the most conclusive data is ments have the capacity to employ eight
collected. Other factors that influence or more frequencies, but, more commonly,
the eddy current inspection process are analysts are utilizing a minimum of four.
the calibration standard, fill factor, tube Good Preparation: The Importance
cleanliness, and probe speed. As is often of Clean Tubes. For an accurate and suc-
the case, successful and accurate analy- cessful eddy current inspection of your
sis is often based on the expertise of the condenser and heat exchanger tubes, ef-

16 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017

3. Graphic results. The condenser
tubesheet map shown here is color coded
with eddy current testing results. Courtesy:
Conco Services Corp.
fective tube cleaning must first be per-
formed. Fill factor is the volume at which
the eddy current probe occupies the inner
diameter of the tube being tested, and it
is an important variable in the quality of
an eddy current inspection. Fill factor is
reduced when tubes are not clean.
For an inspection to have high accu-
racy and repeatability, the eddy current
probe must be able to achieve a fill factor
of 85% or higher, with the probe occupy-
ing as much of the diameter of the tube
as possible. High fill factor provides bet-
ter magnetic coupling with the tube and
superior data acquisition. Fill factor that
is too low will reduce the quality of the
data and increase the likelihood of false
signals and masked defects. Along with
fill factor, dirty tubes increase the signal-
to-noise ratio that is a vital component
of the eddy current inspection (Figure 2).
Whatever cleaning method is utilized,
condenser and heat exchanger tubes
should be cleaned as close to the tube
surface as possible. The silver lining for
the plant is that the return on invest-
ment associated with tube cleaning is
significant. Tube fouling and corrosion
can cause major loss of heat transfer and,
if left unattended, even tube failure.
In preparation for eddy current test-
ing, a common practice is for plants to
contract with a tube-cleaning special-
ist. Tube cleaners are inserted into the
tubesheet in the inlet waterbox. Then,
pressurized water is used to shoot the
cleaners through the tubes. Debris and
obstructions are flushed from the tubes,
making them ready for eddy current test-
ing. Typically, metal tube cleaners can be
used eight to twelve times before they
become ineffective, so an investment in
mechanical cleaners will usually be re-
couped quickly.
|
March 2017 POWER
The Eddy Current Process at a
Glance. After the condenser or heat ex-
changer tubes have been cleaned and are
prepared for testing, a certified nonde-
structive testing technician chooses one
of a variety of probes that is appropriate
for the testing application. Once insert-
ed into the tube, an alternating current
flows through a wire coil in the eddy cur-
rent probe and it generates an oscillating
electromagnetic field. As the probe and
its magnetic field are brought close to
the conductive material of the tube, the
circular flow of electrons, also known as
the eddy current, begins to move through
the tube like water swirling through a
pipe.
The interaction of the eddy currents
flowing through the tube metal and the
magnetic field of the coil will provide the
valuable data points that tell the story of
the tubes condition. Changes or varia-
tions in the eddy currents are caused by
defects in the tube wall, such as near-
surface cracks and inconsistencies in
metal thickness. The eddy current instru-
ment records the pattern of variations
and they are analyzed to draw conclu-
sions about the condition of the tubes.
Over time, results can be compared and
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any trends or progression in the defects
can be observed, which will guide main-
tenance decisions (Figure 3).
Remote Field Testing
While both eddy current and remote field
testing (RFT) are nondestructive exami-
nation methods that rely on the science
of electromagnetic induction, they are
very different in operation and applica-
tion. Eddy current testing relies on di-
rect coupling between the inspection
coil and the test material. It is effective
with nonferrous tubing, such as copper,
brass, and titanium. RFT is a method used
to inspect ferrous tubes, such as carbon
steel and ferritic stainless steel. It was
developed to overcome the permeability
effects in ferromagnetic tubing.
The RFT inspection process uses slow-
er probe speeds, and it is less sensitive
to local defects than conventional eddy
current testing. Yet, it still provides
valuable information on tube condition.
Higher fill factors are not as critical in
RFT as in eddy current testing, with 60%
to 70% fill factor being commonplace.
Although RFT can detect both internal
and external defects, it cannot distin-
guish between them.
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17
Tube Plugging
If the results of eddy current or RFT in-
spections indicate that a tube is badly
compromised, it should be plugged. The
generally accepted tube plugging thresh-
old for throughwall penetration is >60%,
but it can vary given risk tolerance. Choos-
ing to plug tubes proactively is preferred
by most over having to respond to a tube
leak or a catastrophic tube failure. In ei-
ther scenario, the plant will need to have
tube plugs in inventory.
A good rule of thumb is to maintain an
inventory of tube plugs equal to two per-
cent of your tube quantity. For example, if
a plants condenser has 10,000 tubes, it is
recommended that 200 tube plugs be kept
in inventory. When selecting tube plugs,
purchasing personnel will need accurate
information on the size of the tube to be
plugged, the tube material, and whether
or not the tube plug will be temporary or
permanent.
Preventing tube fouling and failures
in your plant is a worthy objective. Pre-
ventive maintenance could be the path
of least resistance toward achieving that
goal. Equipment repair and replacement
costs the industry hundreds of millions of
dollars annually, but with a more proac-
tive commitment to ongoing maintenance,
costly unplanned outages and equipment
replacement can be avoided. Eddy current
testing is an impressive tool that can help
in this effort.
Beth Foley-Saxon is a staff writer in the
Marketing department at Conco Services
Corp.
Protecting Critical
Infrastructure
Society is highly reliant on the safety and
stability of critical infrastructure. From
boiling a kettle to maintaining national
security, an interruption in the electricity
supply can cause serious damage to busi-
nesses and the economy.
There are many potential threats to
power sector infrastructure including
malicious vandalism and theft of es-
sential equipment from electricity gen-
eration or distribution sites. The effect
of an unplanned shutdown at a power
station could be enormousnot to men-
tion the negative impact it could have
on business reputation and the poten-
tial damage to stakeholder confidence
and value.
To complicate matters, potentially vul-
nerable sites are often at remote loca-
tions; they tend to be dispersed and are
serviced by a combination of employees
and contractors to keep them operating
18
effectively. Physical security at these
sites can be especially challenging, but
crucial (Figure 4).
Although power companies need to
guard against vandalism, theft, and tres-
pass, access must be granted to those
who need itoften on short notice at
any time of day. So which security sys-
tems offer a solution to these issues?
A Secure Solution
Electro-mechanical locking systems are
one solution to the problem. New systems
are available, such as PROTEC2 CLIQ from
Abloy UK, which combine the highest
standards of electronic and mechanical
security. The systems can be programmed
by an administrator to open only the
locks for which specific users have access
authorization.
Keys for such systems can have re-
placeable batteries that power both the
key and the cylinder when the key is
inserted. Communication between cyl-
inder and key is encrypted to ensure a
high level of security. Because the locks
are wireless, installation time and onsite
maintenance are minimal, making it ideal
for the power industry.
The PROTEC2 CLIQ solution is ful-
ly scalable and can be configured
to suit smaller installations as well as ex-
tensive master-keying solutions that can
have over 50,000 locking points spread
over a wide geographic area.
4. Remote access made easy. Physical access to power plant and substation areas
must be restricted for safety and security reasons, but authorized workers must be allowed entry
when required. New electro-mechanical locking systems are one viable solution. Courtesy: Abloy
UK.
www.powermag.com
Access Rights and Audit Trails
Authorized administrators control the
access rights of every key so staff can
only open specific locks at a facility.
They can also grant access rights for
specific time periods, allowing security
and site managers to implement explic-
it permissions for employees, service
crews, and contractors.
The entire access rights for a key can
be revoked immediately if it goes miss-
ing. This eliminates the risks and costs
associated with a lost key that could un-
dermine the security of traditional me-
chanical locking solutions.
A single CLIQ key offers a streamlined
solution with substantially improved
security that also overcomes the need
for staff to carry a cumbersome bunch
of keys. Administrators can program,
amend, or delete keys remotely and in-
stantly via web management software.
They can also generate audit trails for
any lock or key.
Remote programming devices enable
users to update keys conveniently, and
the latest version of the system, CLIQ
Connect, utilizes wireless Bluetooth
technology to enable keys to be updated
via a smartphone (Figure 5). Using CLIQ
technology not only improves security
substantially, it also helps companies
save money with significant operational
efficiency benefits.
|
POWER March 2017

5. Smartkey. CLIQ Connect utilizes wireless Bluetooth technology to update access param-
eters using smartphones. Courtesy: Abloy UK.
Success in the Field
Electricity North West is the distribution
network operator for a large part of North
West England, Manchester, and Carlisle. It
sought a solution to control access at its
sites, which are spread across urban and
remote rural locations.
To date, Electricity North West has
been fitted with almost 15,000 locking
cylinders at its multiple sites. The in-
stalled CLIQ system offers high flexibil-
ity, as mechanical cylinders and padlocks
were installed in conjunction with the
electro-mechanical CLIQ cylinders across
all sites.
Electricity North West is also using
almost 2,000 CLIQ user keys and more
than 40 CLIQ programming devices to
update access rights of keys remotely.
The old brass padlocks had been targeted
by thieves for their scrap value. The new
CLIQ padlocks meet all required security
criteria, and have been tested and cer-
tified in accordance with building hard-
ware and padlock standards.
CLIQ software supports the complex
workflow of a power company by enabling
audit trails to be generated for individual
locks, keys, and system users. Instances
where a key is not returned or is lost no
longer present a major security risk, be-
cause it can be invalidated immediately
using the CLIQ web manager software.
The solution has proven to enhance key
management for Electricity North Wests
widespread access points both on-site
and in the field.
Steve Wintle is head of Critical National
Infrastructure at Abloy UK.

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March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 19
 Trumps Two-for-One Special
on Federal Regulations
Thomas W. Overton, JD
n January 30, as part of a flurry of new policies, President
O Donald Trump signed the Presidential Executive Order on
Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs.
The stated purpose of this order is to reduce the federal regula-
tory burden on the U.S. economy. The outcome, at least in the
short term, is likely to be the exact opposite.
The order states, Unless prohibited by law, whenever an ex-
ecutive department or agency . . . publicly proposes for notice
and comment or otherwise promulgates a new regulation, it shall
identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed. In oth-
er words, to issue any new rule, no matter what it may address,
the federal agency proposing it must eliminate two others. The
net incremental cost of new regulations must also be zero, offset
by eliminating at least two existing regulations.
To anyone with any familiarity with the federal rulemaking
process, Trumps order is an astonishingly ham-fisted approach
more suited to an internet comment section than the serious
business of running the federal government. Lets accept for
the purpose of this column that the U.S. economy is overregu-
lated and that reducing that burden is a worthy goal. But the
burden of those regulations is not necessarily correlated with
their number.
Most federal regulations are actually narrow in scope and
have limited to negligible economic impact. A few, like the
Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS)to name just one
with an impact on the power sectorare very broad in scope
and have very large economic impacts. Eliminating a few trivial
regulations to enact a broad one isnt going to do anything to
reduce regulatory burdens.
Its unclear what, exactly, qualifies as repeal of an existing
regulation. Suppose an agency wants to scale back a current reg-
ulation but not repeal it because it has burdensome elements but
also beneficial ones. Under the law, this requires a new rulemak-
ing process. But is this less burdensome rule a new regulation,
a repealed regulation, or neither?
Impact Arguments
The next problem is that calculating the economic impact of a
proposed regulation is far from an exact science, and there is a
great deal of disagreement on methodologies and assumptions.
Congress usually provides guidance on what factors may and may
not be considered, but there is always some agency discretion
and often a great deal of it.
Typically when a new regulation is proposed, estimated costs
are entirely offset by projected benefits. Consider the debate in
the run-up to the Obama administrations update to the Nation-
al Ambient Air Quality Standards in 2015. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) estimated $40 billion in health ben-
efits against $15 billion in compliance costs. By the EPAs math,
this regulation had a net positive impact on the economy. The
National Association of Manufacturers, however, argued that it
20 www.powermag.com
would have $46 billion in annual costs and negligible health
benefits, making it a net negative.
Then theres the issue that benefits and impacts dont fall
equally. Costs often fall most heavily on businesses while ben-
efits accrue to consumers, and such benefits are often difficult to
quantify when it comes to issues like public safety.
Its not at all clear how the two-for-one cost calculus would
work, and the order just punts the issue to the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget for guidance. Estimates of economic impacts
are made when regulations are promulgated, but those estimates
are not updated. If an agency proposes eliminating a pair of
regulations that have been in force for 20 or 30 years, how is the
net cost to be calculated?
Then we come to the fact that the executive branch cannot
necessarily just eliminate regulations on its own initiative. The
executive, after all, doesnt make the law, Congress does. The
authority to issue federal regulations stems from some enabling
legislation, which often does not give federal agencies a lot of
discretion about issuing them or sometimes any discretion at all.
One lament Ive heard from lawyers who work for the EPA is
that people dont realize the EPA very often does not have the
option to refrain from issuing a regulation. The Clean Air Act and
Clean Water Act, for example, mandate that the EPA regulate vari-
ous pollutants, and these mandates have been given extra force
by decades of legal precedent. Executive order or not, Trumps
EPA cant simply throw out these regulations.
Litigation Bonanza
Add all this up, and what you get is one of the most common
complaints about federal regulation: uncertainty. The order cre-
ates enormous uncertainty about the future regulatory environ-
ment and its impacts, and one thing uncertainty guarantees is
litigation. The federal regulatory process is already an enormous
source of litigation, and the order ensures the situation is about
to get a whole lot worse.
Changes to published regulations, including repeal, require a
rulemaking process. This means that instead of one such process,
any new rules will apparently now require three of them. Rest as-
sured that special interest groups will be suing not just over the
new regulation but also over the two (or more) being eliminated.
Finally, leaving aside all these problems, theres a fair argument
that the order itself may be illegal, because it injects an addi-
tional balancing factor into the federal rulemaking process over
and above what Congress has already specified.
President Trump could have taken a more rational approach
and ordered a top-to-bottom review of the federal regulatory
regime to identify the most burdensome regulations and those
most ripe for rollback. That would not, however, have fit into the
broad-brush, 140-character limitation of Twitter through which
he appears to prefer promulgating his policy initiatives.
Thomas W. Overton, JD is a POWER associate editor.
|
POWER March 2017
 WATER & WASTEWATER

Lowering Cost and Waste in Flue

Gas Desulfurization Wastewater
Treatment
Courtesy: Saltworks Technologies

Many informative articles have been published about options for treating flue gas
desulfurization wastewater, but new technologies are rapidly changing the treatment
possibilities. This article reviews key economic considerations and introduces an in-
novative treatment solution that lowers costs and the amount of waste generated.
Mitchell Frank, Ben Sparrow, Joshua Zoshi, and Megan Low

Conventional Treatment Processes

F
lue gas desulfurization (FGD) waste-
water varies widely depending on the
source facility, the type of coal burned,
and the FGD system employed. However, al-
most all FGD wastewater is highly scaling.
To achieve compliance with treatment regu-
lations, operators must successfully manage
scaling and they need to understand the dif-
ferent types of scaling. This is especially im-
portant for zero liquid discharge (ZLD) ap-
plications, where scaling is of great concern.
FGD wastewater contains the following
types of scalants:
Low-solubility metals, such as iron, nickel,
cobalt, and aluminum. These can create
scaling compounds, but raising pH via
caustic or lime addition can readily pre-
cipitate them.
Low-solubility anions, such as fluoride,
phosphate, and sulfate. These can com-
bine with calcium to create scale. They
cannot be readily removed to reliable lev-
els through precipitation, therefore further
management is required.
Divalent cations responsible for high hard-
ness, primarily calcium and magnesium,
as well as barium and strontium. Elevating
pH will precipitate magnesium, but it has
little effect on calcium, barium, or stron-
tium, unless carbonate is present, which
is uncommon in FGD wastewater. That is
why conventional treatment processes add
carbonates in the form of expensive soda
ash (sodium bicarbonate).
Although FGD wastewater chemistry varies
between facilities, there are common treat-
ment systems employed.
Lime (Calcium Hydroxide) Softening.
This system removes magnesium hardness
and heavy metals. Some calcium is removed,
but only calcium that is associated with
carbonate.
Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate) Soft-
ening. This system removes calcium hard-
ness. Soda ash is one of the most expensive
processes for FGD wastewater treatment.
Costs are often about $4 per cubic meter (m3)
inlet, accounting for more than 20% of the
total cost of ownership (capital plus operat-
ing cost) of the treatment. Some waters are
higher in magnesium and lower in calcium,
so costs vary.
Ion Exchange. This system employs
resins to absorb calcium, reducing calcium
levels to less than 50 milligrams per liter
(mg/L). However, the resins are not effec-
tive in high salinity FGD water and must be
regenerated with acid, resulting in high op-
erating costs and acidic chemical waste that
requires disposal.
Reverse Osmosis (RO). This is the most
dominant and widely practiced desalination
technology for removal of total dissolved
solids (TDS). RO is low cost, but requires
notable chemical pretreatment to be reliable
on FGD wastewater. On scaling ion chemis-
try, RO is susceptible to fouling and does not
concentrate well past 60,000 mg/L, that is,
about 50% to 65% recovery on FGD water.
This results in low recoveries and high brine
volumes (or requires very frequent chemical
cleaning). Advancements in modified RO
units, such as New Logic Research Inc.s vi-
bratory shear enhanced processing (VSEP)
fouling-resistant membrane filtration product
line, reduce the need for chemical pretreat-
ment and boost recovery, but operators need
to plan for chemical cleaning to maintain op-
erations. Any RO unit can be hybridized with
the innovative treatment system presented in
this article, but a VSEP unit will add a further
boost to recovery.
Thermal Brine Management (Evapo-
rator, Crystallizer, SaltMaker). Evapora-
tors concentrate the final brine waste and
crystallizers produce solids. These systems
are required for brine management and
ZLDand are the most expensive process
equipment in the treatment train in terms of
both capital and energy cost. The required
capacity and energy used by these systems
can be reduced if the recovery of upstream
membrane systems is increased. Membrane
systems are often one-fifth to one-tenth the
cost per unit volume processed; therefore, it
makes sense to maximize their recovery.
Reducing Treatment Costs
In smaller power plants and lower flow FGD
systems, such as less than 50,000 gallons per
day (189 m3/day), it may not be economical
to include an upstream membrane system
to reduce volume prior to the evaporation

22 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017
 WATER & WASTEWATER
stage. However, in larger flow systems, an
1. Solubility of salts in water. This graph shows the solubility of calcium sulfate
upstream membrane system offers economic
(CaSO4), calcium chloride (CaCl2), and sodium sulfate (Na2SO4). Less soluble compounds have
advantages. a greater risk of scaling. Courtesy: Saltworks Technologies
Nevertheless, both conventional mem-
brane and evaporation systems require
expensive chemical softening to ensure reli-
ability. There are cases of past FGD systems

Grams per 100g of water

that did not employ soda ash, only to later
require retrofitting at much expense and dis-
ruption. Designers should therefore plan for
calcium and other scalant management at the
start of their project, either through inclusion
of a soda ash softening step or consideration
of the technology presented herein.
Designers should also plan for final dis-
posal of the residual waste produced from the
treatment process, because the waste can be
considered hazardous in some jurisdictions.
Hazardous waste results in high disposal
Temperature (C)
costs as conventional landfills cannot be
used. Disposal cost and risk can be reduced
by adding fewer treatment chemicals overall, Reducing soda ash softening while main- An Innovative High-Recovery FGD
as well as recovering by-products of value taining reliability in process equipment Wastewater Treatment System
from the residual waste for reuse, such as so- Increasing membrane system recovery to A solution that accomplishes the above three
dium sulfate. reduce the capacity of downstream brine goals was developed by Saltworks Technolo-
Plant designers can most effectively lower management systems gies. It builds on the past work of Toshikatsu
treatment costs by focusing on the biggest Reducing the overall mass of residual Hamano and Thomas Davis. In 1993, Ha-
cost levers. Some worthy objectives include: waste and the mass of hazardous waste mano developed a desalination process with
two electrodialysis stages that permanently

Together,
We Can.
One size does not always fit all -
your challenges are unique and
your solution should be too.

U.S. Water works as a member of your team to

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and dynamics. By combining our innovative
equipment and sustainable chemical programs,
we are able to offer integrated water treatment
solutions designed to prevent unscheduled
downtime, improve system reliability
and support your environmental goals.

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|
March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 23
 WATER & WASTEWATER
changed low-solubility calcium sulfate into
2. Stacked for success. The Salt Splitter stack arrangement produces calcium chloride
highly soluble calcium chloride and sodium
(CaCl2) and sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) from calcium sulfate (CaSO4) present in FGD wastewater.
Courtesy: Saltworks Technologies sulfate. Solubility of these ion pairs is shown
in Figure 1 (low solubility means greater
scaling risk). Davis worked on a similar pro-
cess in 2008, when he developed an electro-
dialysis metathesis (EDM) process for feed
waters comprised solely of calcium sulfate.
Saltworks further innovated on top of Davis
excellent work and has an exclusive license
to Davis patents.
Saltworks system, trade named Salt Split-
ter, expands on this work with several pro-
prietary innovationsmonovalent selective
ion exchange membranes, process, and con-
trolsthat enable an industrially applicable
treatment plant. Salt Splitter is built around
the two most common desalination technolo-
gies: electrodialysis and RO.
The advanced salt splitting electrodialy-
sis unit acts as a turbocharger for the RO.
It removes scaling limits by permanently
Table 1. Salt Splitter-RO system analytics. The parameters shown here are from changing water chemistry. Divalent scal-
an actual field test. An optional upstream precipitation step was employed in this example. ing low-solubility ion pairs, such as calcium
Therefore, the reject brine has less silica and transition metal load, and excess calcium mass sulfate, are split into nonscaling high-sol-
relative to the raw water. Courtesy: Saltworks Technologies ubility ion pairs, such as sodium sulfate and
RO blow- calcium chloride.
down to The RO unit operates on an electrochem-
Raw FGD CaCl2 brine ically-softened feed, at a greater reliability
Parameter (mg/L) wastewater or other CaCl2 brine Na2SO4 brine RO permeate level and lower pressure than convention-
Total dissolved solids 19,300 28,900 220,700 209,700 120 ally possible. The combined Salt Splitter-RO
Aluminum 0.04 0.01 0.01 <0.01 <0.0001 hybrid produces two highly soluble output
brines with a combined average brine con-
Arsenic 0.45 4.22 3.06 0.85 <0.0001
centration of about 210,000 mg/L TDS.
Barium 0.65 1.19 8.11 0.09 <0.0001 These can be sent to separate downstream
Bicarbonate (as CaCO3) 120 <1 <1 <1 <1 processing stages for volume reduction or so-
Boron 175 16,400 1,190 1,240 77 lidification. A simplified electrodialysis stack
arrangement diagram, showing how the ions
Cadmium 0.11 0.02 0.02 <0.01 0.0001
are selectively transferred into separate brine
Calcium 3,290 310 73,230 768 6 compartments to produce nonscaling Na2SO4
Carbonate (as CaCO3) <1 <1 <1 <1 <1 and CaCl2, is shown in Figure 2.
Chloride 11,050 4,150 140,300 93,100 23.2 The Salt Splitter-RO system provides the
following benefits:
Chromium 0.05 0.01 0.01 <0.01 <0.0001
Fluoride 9 3.4 7.8 0.34 <0.05 Recovery of the membrane system is 85%
Iron 0.11 0.02 0.02 <0.01 <0.01 to 95% versus 50% to 65% for RO alone,
Lead <0.0002 <0.0002 <0.0002 <0.0002 <0.0002 resulting in a two-thirds reduction in brine
volume relative to that of chemically soft-
Magnesium 1,850 173 1,580 17.4 2.2
ened RO, while eliminating the need for
Mercury 0.1 0.02 0.02 0.0002 <0.00001 expensive soda ash softening
Nickel 1.32 0.25 0.22 <0.01 <0.01 Improved RO reliability and reduced op-

Nitrate (as N) 61 1,145 940 115 0.3 erating costs from lower pressure require-
ments
Phosphorus 26.8 402 7.77 375 0.07
The nonscaling, lower volume brines re-
Potassium 22 412 375 4.14 0.1 duce the need for chemical softening of
Selenium 0.28 5.25 0.1 4.9 <0.0005 the evaporator inlet and allow downsizing
Silica (reactive) 40 150 <1 <1 <1 of brine management assets
Less residual waste mass is produced be-
Sodium 663 3,500 2,400 77,400 9.3
cause soda ash addition is eliminated and
Strontium 15 56 266 2.82 0.0306 because useful by-products, such as so-
Sulfate 1,945 2,190 352 36,620 3.1 dium sulfate, can be recovered from the
Zinc 1.52 0.28 0.26 <0.01 <0.0001 waste.

24 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017

3. The Salt Splitter-RO hybrid. Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater is pro-
cessed first in the electrodialysis unit, which produces separate sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) and
calcium chloride (CaCl2) streams, and then through reverse osmosis (RO). Courtesy: Saltworks
Technologies
In sum, Salt Splitter-RO is a membrane
system that can change the cost equation for
FGD wastewater treatment. The Salt Splitter
stack does consume electrical power, which
is accounted for in the economic analysis that
follows. On feed water with an imbalance of
monovalent ions to scaling divalents, such
as waters supersaturated in calcium sulfate,
monovalent ions in the form of sodium chlo-
ride must be added. However, sodium chlo-
ride (NaCl) is low cost, widely available, and
safe to handle. NaCl costs are also accounted
for in the economic analysis that follows.
RO permeate may contain residual boron,
which is generally not a challenge for reuse
regulations, if the water is used on-site for
cooling tower make up. If off-site surface
discharge is desired, depending on the FGD
wastewater, a second stage RO operating at
elevated pH and around 98% recovery may be
required to polish boron, with the second stage
RO brine sent to the evaporation system.
Splitting calcium sulfate into separate so-
dium sulfate and calcium chloride streams
also benefits solidification in downstream
evaporation and crystallization systems, and
provides greater flexibility in managing re-
siduals. A series of customizable options are
available to plant designers. They include:
Sodium sulfate and calcium chloride brines
can be recombined to produce gypsum
(CaSO4(s)), widely used in building ma-
terials. The resulting brine reject will be
rich in sodium chloride and can be further
concentrated. However, many will find the
next two options to be better alternatives.
Sodium sulfate brine can be separately con-
centrated and readily precipitated due to
|
March 2017 POWER
its steep solubility curve with temperature.
In fact, some systems have produced as
high as 90% pure sodium sulfate. Sodium
sulfate of this purity can be used in a wide
range of industries including detergent
manufacturing, pulp and paper, and glass
making.
Calcium chloride brine can be separately
concentrated and used industrially as a
heavy brine for oil and gas well comple-
tions or for hardening concrete, roads, and
bricks. Calcium chloride rich brines can
be readily solidified and encapsulated by
mixing with fly ash and cement, offer-
ing the advantage of reducing long-term
leaching risks and enabling safe disposal
of a solid waste.
Regardless of the option selected, design-
ers can use Salt Splitters elegant chemistry
and ion separation to design and adjust pro-
cesses to meet specific site needs.
Putting Theory into Practice
A fully automated Salt Splitter-RO pilot
plant (see opening photo) was operated on
FGD wastewater from a coal-fired power
plant. The objectives were to confirm treated
discharge water quality; confirm membrane
system recovery, reliability, and chemical
and energy consumption; and to develop the
economics for a full-scale system, including
a downstream evaporator-crystallizer.
The treatment process is shown schemati-
cally in Figure 3. Pretreatment for the RO unit
was required, such as multimedia filtration
or ultrafiltration. Detailed analytics for all
streams are shown in Table 1. A proprietary
precipitation step was employed to reduce
www.powermag.com
WATER & WASTEWATER
transition metals and silica load, while pro-
ducing a solid sludge for solidification. This
precipitation step reduces transition metals
and silica mass in the respective brines.
The Salt Splitter-RO system successfully
treated the FGD wastewater to meet both
Chinese and U.S. discharge regulations. The
pilot plant operated continuously for 90 days.
Freshwater recovery of 90% was achieved
from the membrane system, with no soda ash
softening. In comparison, chemically soft-
ened RO system projections showed a recov-
ery of approximately 70%.
Put another way, the Salt Splitter-RO sys-
tem produced one-third of the brine reject
volumeor 67% less brinerequiring a 67%
smaller evaporator system. Salt Splitter-RO
generated nonscaling, high-concentration,
low-volume brines. The RO unit produced
an extremely low-volume blowdown stream
(about 0.27% of inlet flow), which was high
in silica, boron, and any organics not removed
by pretreatment. The RO blowdown was sent
and mixed with the CaCl2 brine or it could
be separately concentrated, if CaCl2 reuse
had been preferred. Most importantly, two
nonscaling brines were produced in excess of
200,000 mg/L, which is brine concentration
territory normally reserved for evaporators.
Salt Splitters highly selective monova-
lent ion exchange membranes and RO unit
performed reliably with no performance or
membrane scaling/degradation. A small-
scale evaporator-crystallizer was operated
to further concentrate the low-volume brines
and generate sodium sulfate with a purity of
85% to 90%, which is suitable for industrial
reuse. These results are consistent with other
Salt Splitter-RO trials ranging from a U.S.-
based coal-fired power plant to a Canadian-
based coalmine. All wastewater had one
common theme: It was saturated in CaSO4,
which previously limited recoveries and re-
quired extensive chemical pretreatment.
The FGD wastewater tested had moderate
salinity compared to some sites. The tested
wastewater had a TDS of about 19,000 mg/L,
whereas other sites can be as low as 5,000
mg/L to more than 30,000 mg/L. FGD waste-
water of all salinities is applicable to the
Salt Splitter-RO process; however, recovery
changes with inlet TDS.
For example, RO systems with a 1,000-psi
operating pressure are often osmotic pressure
limited to a practical brine concentration of
about 85,000 mg/L; however, scaling ions
can prevent reaching this limit. Electrodialy-
sis is not limited by osmotic pressure, as it is
not an osmotic pressure driven process. Elec-
trodialysis can also be scaling ion limited, but
once those limits are removed, electrodialysis
is limited by the osmosis of the water being
sucked across ion exchange membranes
25
 WATER & WASTEWATER
4. Linear recovery. Raw wastewater with high salinity will have a lower recovery rate than
low-salinity wastewater. Courtesy: Saltworks Technologies
due to brine concentration gradients.
If scaling limits are removed, such as in
the Salt Splitter-RO process, the systems
brine concentration is limited by osmosis
of water from the treatment circuit into the
concentrated brines. Results from three tri-
als reveal that the upper brine concentra-
tion limit of the Salt Splitter-RO process is
about 210,000 mg/L TDS. Previously, no
membrane system could achieve such high
brine concentrations, with the exception of
forward osmosis including a thermal regen-
eration step and soda ash softeningthe Salt
Splitter-RO process requires neither.
Due to the upper limit of brine concentra-
tion being about 210,000 mg/L TDS, higher
salinity inputs will result in lower recoveries.
For instance, if the inlet water were already
at 210,000 mg/L TDS, the system would not
be able to recover any water. Likewise, for
waters with lower inlet TDS, system recover-
ies would increase. The relationship between
system recovery and inlet TDS is depicted in
Figure 4. Readers can roughly estimate mem-
brane system recovery for their system by di-
viding their wastewaters raw TDS in mg/L
by 210,000 and subtracting the value from 1.
Comparison and Economics
The first step in a typical conventional treat-
ment train for highly scaling wastewaters,
such as FGD wastewater, is chemical pretreat-
ment including lime and soda ash softening
to reduce the scaling potential of the water.
An RO unit is then used for initial desalina-
tion. The RO brine reject is then directed to an
evaporator for volume reduction, followed by
a crystallizer in ZLD systems. Lime and soda
ash softening may also be required upstream
of the evaporator to manage scaling, depend-
ing on the equipment being used.
A comparison of the costs associated
with the conventional treatment train and the
Salt Splitter-RO-crystallizer treatment train
was completed (see the online version of
this article to view a spreadsheet containing
the detailed analysis). The design basis for
comparison assumed 200-gallon-per-minute
26
(1,090 m3/day) inlet capacities, with the FGD
wastewater chemistry shown in Table 1. It also
assumed that true ZLD was required, mean-
ing only solids and treated water would be al-
lowed to leave the plant.
Capital costs were based on U.S. market
prices for chemical softeners, industrial re-
verse osmosis, and evaporator-crystallizers.
Only process equipment costs were accounted
for in both options. Building and installation
costs were not accounted for and assumed to
be the same for both options. Capital costs
were amortized over 10 years at an 8% dis-
count rate. Plant availability was assumed to
be 95%, allowing 5% for maintenance and
downtime. Power costs were assumed to be
$0.065/kWh and thermal energy costs were
estimated to be $3/MMBtu, although low-
pressure steam (<5 psi) may be lower cost in-
side coal-fired power plants.
The Salt Splitter option assumed that so-
dium sulfate was produced and provided to
industry at no cost or revenue addition. The
calcium chloride brine was concentrated to
about 80% total solids by mass in an evapo-
rative-crystallizer and then solidified with the
addition of fly ash and cement. Similarly, for
the conventional treatment train, the crystal-
lizer discharge was concentrated to about
80% total solids by mass and then solidified.
Solidification agent and tipping fee costs for
both options were not included due to opera-
tors having very different methods.
The Salt Splitter-RO system resulted in
capital cost savings of 25% compared to the
conventional treatment train, saving the opera-
tor $2.2 million in capital cost on the process
equipment for a 200-gallon-per-minute plant.
In addition, by eliminating soda ash softening,
the Salt Splitter-RO option resulted in operat-
ing cost savings of 37%, saving the operator
roughly $1 million per year. Ultimately, the
Salt Splitter-RO system resulted in a total cost
of ownership savings of 45%. In addition, the
Salt Splitter option resulted in a lower regula-
tory risk profile due to reduced risk of hazard-
ous waste generation, and lower transportation
and safety risk due to reduced chemical (soda
www.powermag.com
ash) usage. However, all projects are unique, so
economic results may vary.
The Salt Splitter-RO system required addi-
tion of sodium chloride in this particular case
due to insufficient monovalent ions in the raw
solution. That added $14,000 per year in oper-
ating cost but removed the cost of adding soda
ash, saving $1.2 million per year. Salt Splitter
also consumes electrical power to move ions in
the process, but less than an evaporator, which
achieves similar brine concentration. Total sys-
tem electrical power savings were calculated to
be 38%.
Final solids mass was reduced by 30% due
to eliminating soda ash addition and the oppor-
tunity to beneficially reuse solid sodium sulfate
produced. Solidification agent costs were not
included, such as fly ash or cement for both
scenarios. As such, savings from the calcium
chloride brine benefiting solidification were not
accounted for, but will further benefit Salt Split-
ter-RO economics. Future work will focus on
increasing the beneficial reuse of the produced
solids and lowering solidification costs.
A Viable Treatment Option Worth
Considering
Changing regulations are driving both in-
novation and the uptake of FGD wastewater
treatment solutions. Treatment approaches
vary widely depending on the facility and
its particular water chemistry, flow rate, and
discharge regulations. However, to optimize
treatment economics, there are steps an op-
erator or plant designer can take that are con-
sistent across all facilities. They are:
Eliminate soda ash softening
Increase membrane system recovery to re-
duce the size of thermal evaporation tech-
nologies
Minimize overall residual waste and mini-
mize the amount of hazardous waste
The case study and economic comparison
presented in this article demonstrates the Salt
Splitter-RO systems ability to achieve these
objectives. The system also provides opera-
tors and plant designers with flexible options
for managing residual waste, including the
ability to beneficially turn waste into reus-
able by-products. The Salt Splitter-RO sys-
tem has been utilized in other highly scaling
industry applications, such as mine discharge
water treatment, and it can be applied any-
where reverse osmosis recovery is limited by
scaling ions.
Mitchell Frank is science and knowl-
edge manager, Ben Sparrow is chief
engineer, Joshua Zoshi is a senior techni-
cal leader, and Megan Low is process
engineering manager for Saltworks
Technologies Inc.
|
POWER March 2017
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 WATER & WASTEWATER

Cooling Towers: Efficiency

Waiting to Happen

Courtesy: GE Water & Process Technologies

Cooling towers serve the vital role of cooling water for power plant heat exchange
equipment. Sustaining excellent system performance is important because a one-
degree increase in water temperature can cause a 2% increase in energy usage.
Proper maintenance and a few upgrades could improve a cooling towers efficiency,
while also saving water in the process.
Abby L. Harvey

T
he smallest inefficacy in a power plant
can cost a generator greatly, and many
energy generators need to look no fur-
ther than their aging cooling towers to find a
hotbed of potential inefficacies, slowly leach-
ing their profits. As the efficiency of a cool-
ing tower stumbles, the temperature in the
tower rises, increasing energy consumption
in the unit by as much as 2% per one-degree
increase. The good news is, from the fans to
the nozzles, to the fill media, and even the
water itself, opportunities to ramp up the ef-
ficiency of a cooling tower abound.
Film Fill for the Win
Of course, nobody intends to build an inef-
ficient system, but many of todays cooling
towers are relics of the past, and while they
may have once been state-of-the-art, they fall
far behind todays standards. One of the main
areas that older plants lag behind in is fill
material. Some decades-old cooling towers
still in use continue to use plastic, fiberglass,
or wood splash fill. This system positions
splash bars to break falling water into drop-
lets. Splash fill is better suited for crossflow
towers, according to SPX Cooling Technolo-
gies Inc., because the air can easily flow
horizontally through the vertical full-height
fill. Newer counter-flow towers can integrate
splash fill or newer film fill systems.
Around the 1980s, cooling tower efficien-
cy efforts got a boost with the development of
better performing fill media. A breakthrough
for the counterflow fills of the 1980s was the
introduction of PVC film fill packs, Terry
Dwyer, director of field erected products for
SPX, said. These new fill types increase the
surface area of the fill in a given cubic foot
of the cooling tower, so the PVCthe plastic
fill packsincrease the surface area, which
increases the heat transfer.
In fact, according to Dwyer, the easiest
way to increase a cooling towers efficiency
quickly is to change out the fill media. We
have other, higher performing fills today than
we had many years ago, Dwyer said. Its
kind of like with a car, the fuel economy of
a car today is better than it was 20 years ago.
A lot of that is the engine design and technol-
ogy.
Todays high-performance film fills boast
nearly twice the thermal performance of
splash fill. Film fill consists of stacks of lab-
yrinth-like material through which the water
and air flow in opposite directions. Film fill
increased greatly the exposure of the water

28 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017

1. Turning tides. More efficient cooling towers reduce the amount of water withdrawn
from lakes, rivers, or the ocean for thermal power plant cooling needs. Courtesy: GE Water &
Process Technologies
surface to the air, resulting in a much more
efficient transfer of heat.
However, film fill isnt without its disad-
vantages. As noted, while splash fill works
to break water into droplets byas the name
suggestsmaking it splash off relatively
wide-set bars within the tower, film fill di-
rects the water through small funnels. Un-
fortunately, and unsurprisingly, most cooling
towers arent running with filtered water. The
water being used in these towers is gener-
ally pretty dirty, full of mineral and biologi-
cal sediment that can easily clog the fill with
microbiological growth, fouling, or scaling.
Rough Waters
While splash fill is at a disadvantage to more
modern fill styles in cooling efficiency, its
not without its upsides. Splash fill is less
dense, and thus more forgiving of difficult
water. Water heavy in sediment can clog film
fill far more easily than splash fill, but in gen-
eral, the tradeoff is not worth it as chemical
treatments to help deal with difficult water
are advancing quickly.
The four main water quality issues power
generators face in keeping their towers run-
ning in top shape are corrosion, scaling, foul-
ing, and microbiological activity.
Corrosion occurs when chemicals in the
water eat away at the components of the
cooling tower. This can result in a loss of heat
transfer, and in turn decreased efficiency.
Corrosion can also lead to equipment failure,
which in turn can lead to plant downtime and
equipment replacement costs.
Scaling is the buildup of dissolved miner-
als on equipment. This too can result in the
reduction of the heat exchange ability of the
|
March 2017 POWER
system as the scale can act as insulation,
making it much more difficult for the system
to effectively cool.
Similar to scaling, fouling is the buildup
of suspended particles. While scaling is lim-
ited to minerals, however, fouling applies
to anything from organic matter to oils. At
best, fouling inhibits heat transfer the same
way scaling does, by acting as an insulator.
At worst, fouling can completely plug fill,
reducing the evaporative areas of the system,
dealing a blow to the efficiency of the sys-
tem.
Finally, microbiological activity refers to
the impact that any microorganism living in
the system has on the plant. The microorgan-
ism can be suspended in the water or may
grow on the surfaces of the cooling tower
equipment, again resulting in reduced heat
transfer due to the insulation and blockage of
the fill material.
Cooling towers use massive amounts of
water, so its no surprise that municipali-
ties and states have in many cases delegated
the lowest quality of the resources for use
by power generators. In 2010, water with-
drawals for thermoelectric power accounted
for 45% of total withdrawals in the United
States, according to the U.S. Geologic Sur-
veys most recent national water use report.
However, water usage for thermoelectric-
power generation has been on the decline
(Figure 1), the report notes. Between 2005
and 2010 water withdraws in that category
decreased 20%.
To preserve freshwaters, some areas of
the country require cooling towers to use
municipal gray water or to cycle their tow-
ers more (see Reclaimed Water Reduces
www.powermag.com
WATER & WASTEWATER
Stress on Freshwater Supplies in this issue
of POWER). This was the case for a client of
GE Water & Process Technologies.
Our customers were asked to use munici-
pal gray water. This is the wastewater from
a municipal plant. When they were zoned
and started up they could not use fresh water
from the river or the lake, and these are very
tough to treat waters, Peter Macios, execu-
tive product manager for the company, said.
GE Water & Process Technologies offers
a wide range of customizable chemical and
equipment treatment options for generators
dealing with difficult waters. We were able
to develop and design programs that allowed
our customers tonumber oneoperate as
efficiently [as possible] with the use of that
water and negate all the effects on micro-
biological controls, disposition, and corro-
sion, Macios said.
Chemical treatment of cooling tower wa-
ter is a complex balancing act. Unfortunately,
many chemical treatments to address one is-
sue negatively impact chemical treatments
to address another. Fortunately, GE believes
it has found the right balance, developing
chemical treatments that do not adversely
interact.
With traditional programs, when you
set a biocide or microbiological control, it
always degraded the corrosion inhibition
and deposit control, Macios said. In other
words, the programs are always at odds with
one another. At GE, were able to keep both
microbiological deposit control and corro-
sion in check without affecting any of the
programs.
GEs GenGard water treatment technol-
ogy works across the pH spectrum to inhibit
corrosion, while GEs Spectrus microbiolog-
ical control agent keeps microbial species,
including bacteria, algae, yeast, and fungi,
under control. Unlike other chemical treat-
ment options, the two technologies can be
used together. The beauty of the program is
theyre synergistic. The oxidizer [Spectrus]
doesnt degrade the GenGard program. Spec-
trus doesnt have an effect on the GenGard,
Macios said.
Moving Parts
Even when a cooling towers fill is clean and
operating efficiently, inefficiencies may still
be lurking. One efficiency issue that often
receives little attention is the performance of
the spray nozzles at the top of the tower.
It has generally been accepted that a water
spray is going to take the shape of an um-
brella, resulting in a circular spray pattern.
The problem with that is that it is difficult
to line up circles to evenly distribute water
over a surface. If the circles are lined up to
just touch, entire areas of the fill media are
29
 WATER & WASTEWATER
2. Square-spray nozzle. Curtis Technologies has developed a nozzle with a square spray
pattern, improving the water distribution in the fill media. Courtesy: Curtis Technologies
left dry.
To fix that problem, tower designers move
the nozzles closer, overlapping the spray.
However, that action plan still results in an
uneven water distribution, flooding the fill
media in the areas of overlap. When a part
of the fill becomes flooded, air cannot travel
through, which reduces the efficiency of the
plant.
The quality of the air over water mix-
ture determines the efficiency of that heat
transfer. Of course, I think the industry has
known that forever, Howard Curtis, inventor
of Curtis Technologies variable flow nozzle
(VFN, Figure 2), said.
Curtiss VFN allows for an even distribu-
tion of water and in turn, better cooling effi-
ciency. We developed a nozzle that produces
a square water pattern, and its hydraulically
balanced, so we get better water balance over
the fill media, which means youre going to
get better air to water contact, Curtis said.
The most economical thing you can do is to
change out your nozzles to bring sometimes
10 percent or more thermal efficiency.
Another piece of equipment that often gets
overlooked in the search for low-hanging
fruit is the cooling tower fan, Dwyer said.
The important part of the heat transfer is the
air movement through the fill media, he said.
If you can increase your airflow through the
media it really very directly impacts the heat
transfer. So, the more air, the more cooling,
the more cooling, the more efficient. If you
can take an old fan that isnt very efficient
and put a more modern design in there, you
should be able to increase your airflow and
with your increased airflow have better cool-
ing and better efficiency.
Identifying the Problem
As with most things in life, the first step to
addressing a cooling tower efficiency prob-
lem is to identify where the problem is. When
a power generator is feeling the effects of an
inefficient cooling tower, pinpointing the
30
source of the problem quickly and accurately
is vital to developing an effective game plan.
Thats where companies like Quantum
Technical Services come in. The company
offers a cooling tower efficiency study per-
formed during peak operation to determine
the thermal operating condition of the cool-
ing tower. Such an audit studies the air and
water flow of the unit, an evaluation of the
heat transfer area, and infrared thermal scans
of the tower to identify any potential prob-
lems.
When possible the company also tries to
take into account the original design of the
tower in determining if it is operating as it
was intended. I believe this is the best thing
to do, Paul Chila, an engineering consul-
tant with Quantum Technical Services, said.
When [the tower] was built it was designed
to run under certain percent efficiency. What
we do is, wherever I can, try to dig up those
3. Some assembly required. SPX Cooling Technologies NC Everest factory assem-
bled cooling tower can be shipped to a power generator in just a few pieces, requiring minimal
field assembly. Courtesy: SPX Cooling Technologies
www.powermag.com
old design sheets, and once we get our picture
in place, compare the measured efficiency
versus what the design was to let them know
where theyre at and we compare everything
on the spec sheets.
Taking the original design specifications
of a tower into account allows the company
to first determine if the plant is operating as
it should be, before determining how well it
could be operating. We had one fairly re-
cently where ... they were so far off spec on
the flow rate being supplied to the tower that
we told them, you need to fix this problem
first, and then we can come back and reevalu-
ate the tower, Chila said. It can be a process
where you need to say, you need to address
this, this is a big factor.
For counterflow towers, the companys
GamaScan technology can offer a helpful
picture of what is happening inside the fill
material. GamaScan takes a look literally
through the fill, and it gives us a density pro-
file, Chila said. From that, we can tell if
the film fill is being fouled and if it is foul-
ing fairly uniform across the cell. That alone,
just by the amount of fouling that we have
the ability to measure, thats obviously going
to affect the efficiency of how that tower is
performing.
Regularly assessing cooling tower perfor-
mance, no matter how old or new equipment
may be, allows the operator to determine if
their treatment programs are working. Ive
got quite a few that are the newer stylewith
the film fillthat were built within the last
two to three years, and they just brought us
out and said, Come and get the baseline,
Chila said. Establishing such a baseline
|
POWER March 2017

4. Sizing Up. Like SPX Cooling Technologies NC Everest cooling tower, the companys F400 tower also comes largely assembled. However,
because of the towers larger size more field-assembly is required. Courtesy: SPX Cooling Technologies
makes it easier for an operator to determine
if their tower is starting to drag.
GE also offers regular maintenance and
monitoring of their treatment programs. Us-
ing a water monitoring system called InSight,
GE can track in real time what is happening
inside a customers cooling tower. The prod-
uct allows customers to quickly react to any
problems that may arise. Before such real-
time tracking technology became available,
operators were forced to be reactive instead
of proactive when issues threatened their
tower efficiency. If you think about it, when
you do it manually, its always a rearview
mirror look. You get the data, you assess it,
and its already passed, Macios said. The
idea is: Can I pull the data, run the analyt-
ic, and know whats going on in my system
now?
Saying Goodbye to Inefficiency
While there are many options for upgrad-
ing cooling towers to improve efficiency, at
some point it might be time to trade your
1975 crossflow in for a shiny new counter-
flow model. Replacing cooling towers is not
a decision taken lightly of course, but should
|
March 2017 POWER
a tower become so degraded or inefficient
that the generator risks being taken offline
or worse, suffering a collapse, the pros may
outweigh the cons.
While cooling tower technology and de-
sign has improved significantly in the last
several years, many generators have opted to
upgrade their older towers instead of starting
from scratch. There are thousands of cool-
ing tower cells that were built in the 60s and
70s that were an older style cooling tower,
primarily crossflow cooling tower with
splash fill, Dwyer said.
Replacing a cooling tower doesnt always
mean replacing the whole thing from the
ground up. It is possible to gut a crossflow (Figure 4). Because of the larger size of the
tower and convert it to a counterflow unit.
That can be a bit of a challenge, because
sometimes its hard to fit the counterflow
cooling tower into the same footprint, and
you have to do a bunch of piping modifica-
tions, but even if you had an old counterflow
cooling tower, you can replace the fill in it
with a more modern heat transfer media,
Dwyer said.
However, if it becomes clear to a genera-
tor that their old, inefficient cooling tower
www.powermag.com
WATER & WASTEWATER
has to go, options for replacement are not as
burdensome as they once were. SPX offers a
line of factory assembled cooling towers that
can be shipped largely complete to a site. The
smaller line, the NC Everest (Figure 3), can
be shipped anywhere in the country in just a
few pieces. Once the tower arrives at the site,
it is bolted together with minimum field as-
sembly required. Those six large pieces bolt
together in the field in hours. What weve
basically done is moved the long duration of
field assembly into a factory environment,
Dwyer explained.
SPX also offers a larger version of their
factory assembled cooling tower, the F400
tower, however, shipping of the factory-as-
sembled pieces becomes expensive quickly.
The decision to upgrade or replace usually
boils down to dollars and cents. If it costs
$10,000 to fix your car and its only going
to last two more years, youll probably just
decide to go ahead and buy a new car for
$15,000, Dwyer said. The same methodol-
ogy can often be used when cooling tower
choices are evaluated.
Abby L. Harvey is a POWER reporter.
31
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29544
 WATER & WASTEWATER
Using Reclaimed Water in Power
Plant Cooling Applications
Using reclaimed water as a makeup supply for cooling tower systems has become
a popular option for reducing impacts on local water resources, but it comes with
its own challenges because of its unique chemistry. Use of a novel terpolymer can
greatly reduce the operational costs involved.
Robert A. Hendel, Caroline Sui, and Jeffrey Melzer
M ounting trends in global water
stresses are creating an urgent
need for water conservation
strategies across industries that depend on
large volumes of reliable supplies. The power
industry, one of the heaviest users in the U.S.,
requires tremendous amounts of water for
use in cooling towers. Based on heightened
concerns related to water scarcity, greater
competition for limited freshwater resources,
and driven by the need to minimize risks re-
lated to water supply disruptions, the power
industry is increasingly being forced to turn
to non-traditional resources.
One option is treated municipal waste-
water, or reclaimed water, which can help
relieve strains on diminishing freshwater
supplies. In recent years, the use of reclaimed
water as a makeup water source in power
plants has become more prevalent, especially
in drought-prone areas such as the Southwest
and water-challenged regions like Florida.
Indeed, reclaimed water is becoming the
standard for new power plant construction
as well as a viable alternative makeup water
source for existing facilities that are looking
34
to expand production. (For one recent ex-
ample of such a retrofit, see Tampa Electric
Co.s Polk Power Station, a 2015 POWER
Top Plant.)
However, the use of reclaimed water for
cooling tower applications represents a dra-
matic departure from freshwater. Not unex-
pectedly, reclaimed water presents a number
of operational risks and challenges related to
the propensity for elevated and variable con-
centrations of phosphate, ammonia, organics,
chlorine, select metals, and other potentially
problematic constituents. In particular, the
phosphate concentration is a key factor that
can dictate process requirements and opera-
tional parameters of the cooling water system
in large part due to its tendency to form scal-
ing species such as calcium phosphate.
High-phosphate reclaimed water can also
exert additional challenges on cooling water
chemistries, dictating the need for pretreat-
ment/treatment steps, limiting attainable
cycles, and impacting overall performance.
In some cases, the level of phosphate con-
centration is a primary factor in determining
whether a wastewater source is a suitable
www.powermag.com
Courtesy: Jir Sedlcek/Wikipedia
makeup water option.
This analysis explores the key drivers,
risks and challenges, and treatment ap-
proaches in using reclaimed water as a cool-
ing tower makeup supply in power plants.
Particular emphasis is placed on an advanced
chemical treatment program that allows for
reclaimed water with variable and elevated
phosphate levels to be used in a cooling
tower system. This chemical approacha
novel terpolymerhas demonstrated that
high-concentration phosphate waters can be
successfully maintained in a cooling tower
without the need for additional unit opera-
tions and pretreatment/treatment steps, thus
eliminating capital- and operational-inten-
sive processes and increasing the applicabil-
ity of available reclaimed waters that can be
used as a makeup water supply.
Reclaimed Water Characteristics
Reclaimed water refers to municipal waste-
water that has been treated to meet specific
water quality criteria with the intent of be-
ing reused for a range of beneficial purposes.
Widely available in sufficient volumes across
|
POWER March 2017
 WATER & WASTEWATER

Table 1. Chemistry of reclaimed water. Source: GE and risks must be considered and addressed.
Even though governmental regulations pre-
Parameter Unit Secondary treated Tertiary treated scribe water quality parameters, not all re-
claimed water is created equal. Depending
Conductivity uS/cm 6002,700 6001,900
on the source and the pretreatment meth-
Cl ppm 60400 100400 ods used, the concentrations of problematic
SO4 ppm 30120 20170 contaminantssuch as iron, phosphate, and
Turbidity NTU 112 110 ammoniacan vary significantly. More-
over, each water source can have different
M-Alkalinity ppm as CaCO3 70180 30145
concentrations of hardness, silica, and other
Ca ppm as CaCO3 80240 70220 contaminants that may limit the maximum
Mg ppm as CaCO3 30120 30110 concentration ratio (cycles of concentration)
o-PO4 ppm 235 0.520 at which cooling towers may safely operate.
The chemistry of reclaimed water can also
Al ppm 02.6 0.42.1
vary significantly over time, with fluctuat-
Fe ppm 02.2 0.46.7 ing levels of problematic contaminants that
Zn ppm 02.4 0.1 increase the tendency for deposition/scaling,
Ammonia, free ppm as N 015 015 corrosion, and microbiological growthall of
which can directly damage cooling water sys-
Ammonia, free and fixed ppm as N 221 221
tem components or impede the ability of tra-
Nitrate ppm as NO3 50170 50170 ditional cooling water treatment chemicals to
Chemical oxygen demand ppm O2 10220 1065 function effectively. The risks (and their causes)
Total organic carbon ppm as C 252 110 associated with the use of reclaimed water for
tower cooling are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2. Asset risks of reclaimed water. Source: GE Of particular concern is the possibility of
elevated phosphate concentrations, which
Asset risk Cause present a severe risk of calcium phosphate
Deposition & scaling High and varying phosphate levels deposition in the cooling system. Reclaimed
water can also carry high amounts of fine
High levels of calcium hardness, alkalinity, and silicon dioxide
particles and heavy metals/metals, which
Presence of silt, iron, aluminum, manganese, and copper increase the tendency for scale formation
High total dissolved solids, sulfate, and chloride (pitting corrosion on and fouling. The presence of copper, even at
stainless steel) a very low levelas low as 0.1 ppmcan
Corrosion Presence of ammonia (attacks copper, causing pitting and cracking) cause significant pitting corrosion of low-
carbon steel. Manganese may create special
Presence of copper (pitting of low-carbon steel)
concerns with respect to deposition and sub-
Presence of manganese sequent severe pitting corrosion on metals
Microbiological growth High chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand, pres- such as stainless steel. At concentrations
ence of ammonia, nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen), and bacteria higher than 0.2 ppm, manganese deposition
(biofilm formation, leading to pitting and deposition) is very likely in the absence of an effective
High demand for oxidant biocide (bleach), leading to chemical degrada- treatment. Reclaimed water at detectable
tion and high chloride concentration manganese concentrations (0.02 ppm) may
also cause manganese deposition problems.
the U.S., reclaimed water can be treated to secondary treatment level includes standards Another significant challenge includes the
secondary or tertiary levels, as well as to the that are placed on fecal coliform, five-day potential for microbiological activity in the
minimum requirements as specified by Title biochemical oxygen demand, residual chlo- circulating water system. In using reclaimed
22 of the California Administrative Code. rine, total suspended solids, and pH param- water, large populations and numerous types
The chemistries of these varying reclaimed eters. However, whats important to note is of microorganisms are carried to the cooling
waters are shown in Table 1. that secondary treatment does not set limits tower. With high levels of chemical oxygen
Secondary treatment includes oxidation or requirements on hardness, phosphate, or demand and total organic carbon loading, in-
and settlement processes to remove organics total dissolved solidsparameters that are cluding the presence of ammonia, nitrogen,
such as oil and grease, while tertiary treat- very important for cooling water treatment. and phosphate, cycled cooling water is an
ment adds precipitation and filtration steps Still, with only about 6% of the total avail- ideal environment for microbiological growth.
for addressing scale-forming species. Re- able municipal wastewater volume presently As such, effective microbiological control is
claimed water treated to Title 22 standards reused in the U.S., the opportunity to utilize extremely important for maintaining efficient
known as Title 22 Waterincorporates reclaimed water as a makeup water source and reliable equipment operation. If left un-
final chlorination to meet specific disinfec- for cooling towers is substantial. checked, microorganisms can rapidly accumu-
tion requirements. late and form biofilms and algae on tower fill,
Municipal effluent treatment is driven by Challenges and Risks decking, transfer piping, and heat transfer sur-
Clean Water Act regulations, which set dis- In evaluating the feasibility of using re- faces. This can diminish heat transfer efficiency
charge limits on a range of contaminants and claimed water as a cooling tower makeup and promote under-deposit corrosion. Some
pollutants. Wastewater treated to at least a water source, a range of unique challenges microbes also pose significant health concerns.

|
March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 35
 WATER & WASTEWATER
1. Sideways. This process schematic shows how one plant simplified its reclaimed water
treatment process and eliminated side stream softening. Courtesy: GE
Treatment Approaches
A cooling program that utilizes reclaimed
water as a makeup water supply must be re-
silient against the inherent risks and able to
cope with the extreme variability of the water
chemistry. Facilities also need to be prepared
to adapt to a stressed water condition and
implement a robust treatment approach that
includes close monitoring and an effective
control strategy that takes into consideration
the unique contaminant challenges of the re-
claimed water supply as well as the specific
materials of construction used in the cooling
water system.
To address water hardness, a softening
process can be utilized to precipitate species
such as phosphate, calcium, magnesium, and
silica in clarifiers. If phosphate levels need
to be further lowered in secondary-treated re-
claimed water, a biological phosphorous re-
moval process can be installed. When excess
nutrientssuch as ammonia nitrogenbe-
come a concern, an advanced biological nitri-
fication process can be added to remove the
ammonia-nitrogen by oxidizing it to nitrate-
nitrogen. While these supplemental process-
es can generate adequate water, they also add
significant capital and operating costs.
Likewise, side-stream processing of recir-
culating cooling water is able to successfully
remove contaminants from cooling water and
can be accomplished through processes such as
membrane filtration (such as reverse osmosis)
or by using softening (such as cold lime soften-
ing using clarifiers). However, these processes
are also very capital intensive and carry high
operating expenses because of requirements for
ancillary unit operations such as dewatering,
solids management, or brine disposal.
36
Chemical treatment programs repre-
sent another option for dealing with highly
stressed reclaimed water and protecting cool-
ing systems from corrosion and deposition.
Such an approach can allow power plants to
utilize low-quality watersincluding those
with elevated phosphate levelswithout the
need for costly operations, such as additional
makeup water softening and side stream
softening. Moreover, in addition to elimi-
nating the investment that would otherwise
be required for installing additional water
pretreatment/treatment processes, chemical
treatment programs also offer supplementary
benefits related to more streamlined and sim-
plified operations, reducing operating costs
further. An example of a successful chemical
treatment program for addressing high-phos-
phate, secondary-treated reclaimed water is
provided next.
Using a Terpolymer to Treat High
Phosphate Levels
At a 1,800-MW combined cycle natu-
ral gas power plant in the southern U.S., a
novel stress-tolerant terpolymer (STP) was
employed to prevent calcium phosphate
deposition in a cooling tower system that
uses highly stressed reclaimed water as a
makeup water source. The use of STP was
able to successfully eliminate a capital- and
operational-intensive side stream softening
process that was previously used to treat re-
circulating cooling water.
Two mechanical draft-cooling towerseach
of which comprises 11 cells, a high-efficient
film fill, and a recirculation rate of approxi-
mately 212,000 gallons per minuteare uti-
lized at the plant to meet cooling needs. A local
www.powermag.com
municipal wastewater treatment facility sup-
plies the plant with reclaimed water treated to a
secondary level, which accounts for the entirety
of the plants makeup water supply.
The reclaimed water contains an average
13 ppm ortho-phosphate (o-PO4) with a his-
torical maximum of nearly 30 ppm o-PO4.
Side stream softening units were originally
installed in the cooling loop to reduce o-PO4,
calcium, and magnesium concentrations so
that the cooling tower could operate at sev-
en cycles with o-PO4 controlled at about 25
ppm, calcium hardness at about 500 ppm as
calcium carbonate, and pH at around 7.
However, operation of the side stream
softening process was expensive, as lime,
soda ash, ferric chloride, and polymer had to
be added in order to reduce hardness. Acid
was also required at the effluent to control
post precipitation. The softening units also
required ancillary unit operations including
filtration, which demanded constant atten-
tion, and the solids that were generated re-
quired hauling for disposal.
In 2014, it was proposed that the plant
could operate the cooling water systems by
using STP and removing the side stream
softening units (Figure 1). This approach
promised significant operating expense re-
ductions, greater operational simplicity, and
better safety. Additionally, by eliminating
the need for sludge disposal, costs could be
reduced while improving the plants environ-
mental footprint.
Without the softening process, it was
clear the plant would face challenges related
to the high concentration of phosphate, cal-
cium hardness, and particulates present in
the secondary-treated reclaimed water. The
elevated phosphate concentration presented
the extremely high risk of calcium phosphate
deposition on condensers and tower fill, and
pH excursions at such high concentrations
could cause even more severe condenser de-
position issues.
To evaluate the feasibility of using the
STP, and enabling for cooling tower opera-
tion without the side stream softening pro-
cess, comprehensive studies were performed
addressing the inherent operational challeng-
es. As part of these efforts, a mitigation plan
was developed for high pH excursions so that
deposition could be effectively prevented on
the condensers in the event of a loss of acid
feed.
A laboratory evaluation demonstrated su-
perior performance of the STP for treating
worst-case scenario phosphate concentration
water, thus proving the feasibility to operate
the cooling tower without a softening process
under such conditions. Next, a test conducted
in a pilot evaporative research tower employ-
ing the actual reclaimed water used at the
|
POWER March 2017
 WATER & WASTEWATER
A delta PO4 target of less than 3 ppm was
2. Unfiltered. Use of the stress-tolerant terpolymer kept ortho-phosphate (o-PO4) in the
cooling tower within safe levels even without softening. Source: GE maintained with the average delta PO4 at ap-
proximately 1.2 ppm (Figure 2). Excellent
120
deposition inhibition performance was also
o-PO4 (UF) maintained throughout the trial with no signs
100 of any scaling issues. Discharge pH levels
PO4 (F) did not exceed permit requirements, and at
80 the end of the nine-month trial, a visual in-
o-PO4 (ppm)

spection and data review concluded that no

60
40
20
0 tional savings were calculated to be $750,000
3/1 4/10 5/20
Table 3. Operating cost analysis. Source: GE
Variable
Makeup water usage
Sulfuric acid (pH control)
Bleach (biological control)
Cooling water treatment (specialty) chemicals
Dechlorination
Cold lime softening chemicals
Lime
Soda ash
Ferric
Coagulant
Hydrochloric acid
Sludge handling and disposal
Labor
Maintenance
Operating cost savings per year
plant showed that the designed program met
all requirements for treating the reclaimed
water without the side stream process.
Following these evaluations, a nine-month
full-scale trial was completed in one cooling
system using the STP while the other con-
tinued to operate as normal. The goal of the
treatment program was to maintain equip-
ment cleanliness and optimal performance.
Bleach was added to control microbiological
growth, and non-oxidant biocide and bio-
dispersant were fed periodically to maintain
surface cleanliness of the tower fill and con-
densers. Controlling pH within the designed
range of 6.47.0 was a critical operating pa-
rameter to monitor, as high pH excursions
without the softening process would signifi-
cantly increase the chance of calcium phos-
phate deposition.
Guidelines were prepared for manag-
ing the plants cooling process without side
6/29 8/8 9/17 10/27 12/6
Date
Change
Slightly higher
Same
Same
Higher
Higher
Eliminated
Eliminated
Eliminated
Eliminated
Eliminated
Eliminated
Eliminated
Eliminated
$750,000$1,000,000
stream softening, and key performance in-
dicatorsincluding condenser backpres-
sure, condenser cleanliness, and water flow
through plate and frame heat exchangers
were monitored online on an hourly basis.
Basic wet chemistry tests on makeup and
tower water were routinely performed, and
full water analyses were conducted three
times per week. Microbiological activity was
monitored, and data related to water quality,
plant operation, and condenser performance
was uploaded to an online data management
system for further analysis and calculations.
Results of the full-scale trial demonstrated
that the STP treatment program maintained
the cooling system in excellent condition.
The o-PO4 in the makeup water cycled to
100% of what would be expected based on
hydraulic cycles, indicating that the STP
polymer was able to keep PO4 soluble even
when the towers PO4 level reached 100 ppm.
condenser scaling had occurred.
Removing the side stream softening pro-
cess simplified the cooling systems opera-
tion by eliminating chemicals and the need
for sludge disposal. Labor and maintenance
associated with softening were also elimi-
nated. The resulting annual overall net opera-
to $1,000,000 (Table 3).
Following the trial period, the plant con-
tinued with the STP treatment, and the sec-
ond cooling system was converted to the new
treatment program six months later, shutting
down the other side stream softening process.
Savings and Reduced Complexity
By employing STP, such low-quality stressed
water (with variable and high phosphate con-
centrations) may be treated without the added
capital expenditure for softening. In these
cases, the use of STP can lead to a capital cost
avoidance for applicable new construction fa-
cilities as well as facilities that are considering
expanding but do not have access to additional
freshwater supplies. For example, for the pow-
er plant discussed in this paper, it is estimated
that the associated installed capital cost for the
cold lime softening processincluding clari-
fiers, belt presses, and ancillary equipment
was $5 million to $10 million.
Reclaimed water offers tremendous poten-
tial as a viable and long-term supply option
for power plant cooling applications. But as
with any makeup water supply alternative, a
range of built-in risks and challenges exist
that must be addressed to achieve a success-
ful implementation.
Several treatment solutions are available
for managing the contaminant challenges as-
sociated with reclaimed water. As shown, the
proper cooling tower treatmentincluding
dosage, delivery, and controlcan lead to the
ability to treat harsh waters with elevated and
varying phosphate levels without the need to
invest in costly and more complicated pro-
cesses. Moreover, in more overarching terms,
a wider array of harsh reclaimed waters may
indeed prove to be viable for use as cooling
tower makeup water.
Robert A. Hendel is a senior engineer
cooling, Caroline Sui is a senior research
scientist, and Jeffrey Melzer is a water
services technology leader with GE Water
& Process Technologies.

March 2017 POWER| www.powermag.com 37

 WATER & WASTEWATER
Reclaimed Water Reduces Stress
on Freshwater Supplies
Power generation need not be another source of strain on diminishing freshwater
resources. Well-established water reclamation technologies are enabling producers
to conserve resourcesand money.
Michael Pudvay
M
eeting the needs of a planetary pop-
ulation expected to surpass eight
billion people by 2025 is requir-
ing more output from fewer resources. In the
case of dwindling supplies of freshwater, the
strain on the natural resource from economic
and population growth, and climate change,
can be exacerbated by other demands. One
example: producing enough food for the
growing population. Agriculture requires
large quantities of water for irrigation and
now claims close to 70% of all freshwater
appropriated for human use.
Power generation is another rising demand
drawing heavily on water resources. The en-
ergy sector is responsible for 10% of global
water withdrawals, second only to agricul-
ture, mainly for power plant operation as well
as for production of fossil fuels and biofuels.
As new power plants are built to accommo-
date the growing populations power needs,
increasing amounts of water will be needed
for power generation and cooling. By 2040,
16% of electricity consumption in the Middle
38
East will be related to water supply, accord-
ing to the International Energy Agency.
Interwoven Resources
In addition to waters importance to power
production, energy is also vital to providing
freshwater needed to power systems that col-
lect, transport, distribute, and treat it. Each
resource is thus interdependent onand
vulnerable tothe other. For the power gen-
eration sector, constraints on water can chal-
lenge the reliability of existing operations as
well as the physical, economic, and environ-
mental viability of future projects. Converse-
ly, the use of water for energy production can
impact freshwater resources, affecting both
their availability (the amount downstream)
and quality (their physical and chemical
properties).
In recognition of the vulnerability of wa-
ter, a resource critical to the future of power
generation, the industry is increasingly look-
ing to solutions that conserve water through
reclamation, recycling, and reuse.
www.powermag.com
Courtesy: Veolia Water Technologies
Multiple Solutions
A relatively easy way for the industry to re-
duce water consumption is to use water more
efficiently, such as by increasing the cycles in
cooling towers. Another method is identify-
ing nonfreshwater sources for cooling, which
accounts for most of the water usage in a
power plant. This can involve recycling and
reusing plant wastewater and/or using treated
sewage or industrial wastewater from an ex-
ternal source. Power unit efficiency can also
be improved to produce more megawatts per
gallon of water used, which also adds to both
sustainability and profitability.
One solution for power plants to reduce
freshwater usage that is proving increasingly
interesting is using reclaimed water or treated
municipal wastewater. Use of sewage efflu-
ent for cooling began in the U.S. in the 1970s,
and it is proven and safe. Today, more than 70
power sites in the U.S. are using treated, re-
claimed waterand not just in arid regions.
Highly available, sewage is a virtually
risk-free source. It has consistent quality and
|
POWER March 2017
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 WATER & WASTEWATER
1. Small but effective. The Hydrotech
Discfilter is a mechanical, self-cleaning filter
that offers a large filter area in a small foot-
print. Courtesy: Veolia Water Technologies
temperature compared to surface waters. Be-
cause secondary effluent is relatively consis-
tent in quality, the treatment process, and the
design and operation of the water treatment
system, become easier. In addition, the cool-
ing tower blowdown may be able to be re-
turned to the municipality, eliminating one of
the waste streams requiring treatment at the
power plant.
Reclamation Requirements
Several sets of regulatory requirements gov-
ern the use of reclaimed water for cooling.
Federally, the Clean Water Act requires a
permit, issued under the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
program, authorizing any discharges of
pollutants to surface waters. The U.S. En-
vironmental Protection Agency (EPA) im-
plements the NPDES program and has the
power to authorize states to issue permits
and administer the program.
NPDES permits contain discharge limits
determined by the treatment technology that
the EPA believes is available and affordable,
as well as by the states water quality stan-
dards and available dilution in the receiving
water bodies. State rules vary according to
factors such as the likely degree of public
exposure to reclaimed water. Where expo-
sure is high, reclaimed water must be highly
treated. States usually establish limits on
fecal or total coliform bacteria and may re-
quire that wastewater be filtered before it
can be reused as reclaimed water. Turbidity
standards are also frequently established.
On the operational side, unique treatment
issues posed by utilizing reclaimed water
include the need to determine cleanliness
levels that must be achieved to satisfy a
plants individual operational requirements.
Reclaimed waters chemical elements can
cause problems like mineral scaling, corro-
sion, stress cracking, and biofouling. These
40
problems can increase in closed-cycle cool-
ing systems when water evaporates and
leaves behind higher concentrations of con-
stituents.
To control the water quality, power plant
operators have a number of options, includ-
ing removal of some of the concentrated,
recirculating water. Flow volumes and
makeup can also be adjusted, and incoming
reclaimed water can be treated prior to be-
ing added to the recirculating system.
What Is the Best Option?
In determining whether use of reclaimed wa-
ter makes sense for a power plant, a series
of questions need to be asked about the cir-
cumstances.
Some questions to ask and items to con-
sider include:
Does the plant need to meet a specific
legal or regulatory performance require-
ment? It is imperative that plant manage-
ment understands all legal and regulatory
obligations before making modifications.
There is no excuse for breaking the law.
What are the costs? The costs of technolo-
gies can vary widely. Investment in disc
filtration, for example, even for a very
large flow may be as low as $500,000 to
$1 million. While ultrafiltration costs may
be three to four times as expensive, other
savings such as from running cleaner wa-
ter through the system or lowering chemi-
cal costs may favorably impact life cycle
costs. The costs of freshwater resources
also are rising in some places and begin-
ning to reflect the true costs of water.
What are the benefits? These may include
less immediately tangible, but still im-
portant, benefits to the power companys
image with key stakeholders. For exam-
ple, decreasing discharges of secondary
effluent and reducing pressure on water
resources to the benefit of local com-
munities could be a positive example of
corporate social responsibility for power
companies.
Are there publicly owned treatment works
(POTWs) nearby to keep the costs of
transporting wastewater sufficiently low?
A study by the University of Pittsburgh
found that 97% of power plants proposed
in the U.S. could meet their cooling needs
by utilizing secondary treated wastewater
from POTWs located within 25 miles.
What is the level of water risk in the lo-
cal area? As the effects of climate change
continue to manifest themselves, it is clear
that no place is safeeven in the histori-
cally rain-soaked Northwest, the states of
Washington and Oregon have been faced
with drought emergencies in recent years.
www.powermag.com
What technical option is the best ap-
proach? Alternatives could include clari-
fying systems, disc filters, biological
processes, submerged microfiltration, or
ultrafiltration membranes.
Are there special issues that need to be ad-
dressed? For example, some POTWs have
low ammonia levels, while others can be
quite high. Chlorine treatment is one op-
tion, but breaking down the ammonia
requires high levels of chlorine, creating
new risks and adding costs. Biological
systems may negate some of these con-
cerns although requirements to maintain
a minimum flow circulation even during
planned power outages can be a drawback.
Is the power company comfortable operat-
ing the water treatment system, especially
if its biological? If not, alternative solu-
tions may be possible, such as having the
POTW host and operate it, or outsourcing
the operation to the system supplier.
Based on the responses to these and other
questions, determining the right combination
of primary and secondary systems to provide
the appropriate level of water purity at a rea-
sonable cost can be determined with the help
of an expert systems solution provider.
Award-Winning Treatment
A pretreatment strategy was the approach ap-
plied in the growing city of Mankato, Minn.
The city installed a new water reclamation fa-
cility (WRF) to treat effluent from its waste-
water treatment plant (WWTP), which would
supply the cooling tower needs of an electri-
cal generation plant. In addition to providing
quality reuse water for the energy center, the
WRF needed to meet new state phosphorus
removal regulations.
2. Efficient filter media. Solids catch
on the inside of Hydrotech Discfilter panels.
As solids impede flow, water level increases,
triggering disc rotation and a backwash cycle.
Courtesy: Veolia Water Technologies
|
POWER March 2017

A Two-Stage Process
ACTIFLO Turbo technology (Figure 3) uses
a patented draft tube design to floccu-
late incoming solids with a proprietary
microsand. The dense microsand acts as
a ballast as flocculation occurs, and dra-
matically increases the settling rate of
the solids. This results in excellent sol-
ids/metals separation, using a very small
footprint. Hydrocyclones separate the
sludge from the microsand, and recycle it
back into the unit, adding to the sustain-
able operation of the unit by minimizing
sludge volume.
The Hydrotech Discfilter process offers
3. State-of-the-art clarification. ACTIFLO is a high-rate, compact water clarifi-
cation process in which raw water is flocculated with microsand and polymer in a Turbo-
mix draft tube reactor. Courtesy: Veolia Water Technologies
Hydrocyclone
To sludge
treatment
Polymer
Raw water/
Coagulant
The city turned to Veolia Water Technolo-
gies, a global expert in optimizing water use
and wastewater treatment. Veolia provided
a two-stage treatment process using a com-
bination of its ACTIFLO and Hydrotech
Discfilter (Figures 1 and 2) processes (see
sidebar). The first stage ACTIFLO process
is a compact, extremely high-rate clarifica-
tion system that utilizes the combination of
coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation,
using microsand as a seed for floc forma-
tion. The microsand provides surface area
that enhances flocculation and acts as a bal-
last or weight. This first stage was designed
to provide phosphorus removal for all of the
WWTPs current and future needs. The sec-
ond stage provides additional filtration to
meet the California Title 22 water reuse re-
quirements, which focus on suspended solids
and effluent turbidity reduction.
The system enabled the city to avoid
supplying water from its local surface and
groundwater supplies to the power facility
in order to accommodate the plants needs.
Annual savings for the city from the process
|
March 2017 POWER
the following benefits:
Low cost gravity filtration
Low power consumption
Small footprint
Continuous filtration
High water recovery
Low backwash rate (no large pumps or
sumps required)
Automatic backwash and flat panel de-
sign are easy to keep clean
Low installed cost (can use existing
basins for frame design or flat pad for
tank designs)
Treated
water
changes were estimated to be about 680 mil-
lion gallons of water and $1.5 million in po-
table water costs. In saving its natural water
supply and monetary expenses, the city was
able to turn waste into a resource.
The effluent water characteristics pro-
duced by the Mankato treatment facility are:
Total phosphorus <0.4 milligrams/liter
(mg/L)
Total suspended solids <5 mg/L
Turbidity <0.6 nephelometric turbidity
unit
Biochemical oxygen demand <2 mg/L
The water reuse project was the first of
its kind in the state of Minnesota and one
of the first in the nation. The Minnesota
chapter of the American Public Works Asso-
ciation gave the Mankato facility its Project
of the Year award following the treatment
process upgrade, and it was also honored
with a Minnesota Government Reaching
Environmental Achievements Together
(MnGREAT) award (see opening photo).
www.powermag.com
WATER & WASTEWATER
4. BIOSTYR. The BIOSTYR biological aer-
ated filter system removes ammonia and a
majority of solids from municipal wastewater.
Courtesy: Veolia Water Technologies
Replicated Success
Veolia has also helped clients in custom-de-
signing biological processes to resolve other
specific treated effluent challenges, such as
ammonia. In New Jersey, Veolia furnished
West Deptford Energy with a BIOSTYR
biological aerated filter and Hydrotech
Discfilter system, allowing effluent from a
municipal wastewater plant to be reused in
the operation of their new environmentally
friendly energy station.
The BIOSTYR process (Figure 4) com-
bines biological treatment and filtration into
one compact system, removing ammonia and
a majority of wastewater solids. The BIO-
STYR effluent is then gravity fed into the
Discfilters, which provide an ideal filtration
system for solids removal above 10 micron,
thus producing much cleaner water needed for
use in plant operations. The use of recycled
water has proven to be a win for the environ-
ment and for West Deptford Energy in saving
significant chemical oxidant costs while mak-
ing their power station a model of highly ef-
ficient and sustainable energy generation.
After the power plant was operating, West
Deptford Energy decided to add ultrafiltra-
tion (UF) to further treat the effluent from the
Discfilters. The UF treated water was a suit-
able source for their existing boiler feedwater
system, which further reduced their reliance
on city water and the cost associated with it.
As the strain on freshwater resources
intensifies and energy demand grows, the
power industry is increasingly turning to re-
claimed water as a highly valuable resource.
Reclaimed water offers a win-win solution
that ensures the continued ability to respond
to rising global demand by an inseparable
pair.
Michael Pudvay (michael.pudvay@veo-
lia.com) is an industrial projects business
development manager at Veolia Water
Technologies.
41
 WATER & WASTEWATER
A Comparison of ELG
Compliance Options for
Flue Scrubber Wastewater

Courtesy: Aquatech International

Meeting the requirements of the Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) means care-
ful consideration of the various options. Both biological treatment and zero liquid
discharge (ZLD) approaches have their place, but ZLD may offer more flexibility for
the future.
Dan Bjorklund

O
n September 30, 2015, the Environ- followed by biological treatment. The BAT and selection of the solution that meets the
mental Protection Agency (EPA) issued established for new coal-fired power plants stakeholders objectives (such as capital cost,
the final effluent limitation guidelines is evaporation treatment. The effluent limita- operating cost, and risk).
(ELGs) rule for steam electric power gener- tions for each source category are listed in The basics of biological and evaporator
ating point sources. These regulations have Table 1. Power plants must be compliant with ELG compliance solutions are described in
major impacts on power generating facilities the effluent limits by the date determined by Figure 1.
throughout the United States. The ELGs are each facilitys permitting authority within
technology-based regulations, which means a compliance period starting November 1, Table 1. Flue gas desulfurizer
the limitations set by the EPA under this rule 2018, and no later than December 31, 2023. effluent limits. Source: Aquatech
International
are established based on best available tech- There are a number of FGD wastewater
nology economically achievable (BAT). treatment technology solutions available for 30-day Daily
As a result of this rule, one of the prima- existing facilities. In addition to physical/ average maximum
ry challenges for coal-fired power plants is chemical plus biological treatment, the ELGs Existing sources
meeting new discharge requirements for flue provide incentives through deferred compli-
Arsenic 8 ppb 11 ppb
gas desulfurization (FGD) purge streams. As ance (December 31, 2023) for implementation
such, there has been considerable discussion, of zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technology Mercury 356 ppt 788 ppt
study, and planning in the marketplace rela- utilizing thermal evaporation systems. Power Selenium 12 ppb 23 ppb
tive to implementation of the ELGs. The im- plant specific design factors such as power Nitrate 4.4 ppm as N 17 ppm as N
pact of the ELGs and the plan for compliance plant rating, FGD scrubber design, coal type,
New sources
is specific to each site. There is no one size water quality, as well as other considerations
fits all solution. such as the age of the plant, economics, and Arsenic NA 4 ppb
The BAT established for existing coal- other factors must all be evaluated to deter- Mercury 24 ppt 39 ppt
fired power plants larger than 50 MW and mine the best solution. A successful ELG
Selenium NA 5 ppb
equipped with wet flue gas desulfurization compliance project is dependent upon an as-
scrubbers is physical/chemical treatment sessment of the technology solutions available Nitrate 24 ppm as N 50 ppm as N

42 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017
 WATER & WASTEWATER
quirements of the system. The biomass in a bi-
1. ELG treatment options. Existing coal plants may opt for either biological or evapora-
tor flue gas desulfurizer (FGD) wastewater treatment. Courtesy: Aquatech International ological system can die off due to a variety of
factors. These microorganisms require signifi-
cant time to grow and acclimate before being
placed in service. This risk necessitates that
redundancy be provided in the treatment train
so that an off-line biological unit can be placed
in service without interrupting FGD wastewa-
ter treatment. However, a redundant biological
unit does not provide additional availability if
the cause of biomass mortality is common to
the on- and off-line units, and this should be
considered in the design of the system.
Evaporator FGD treatment systems, when
properly designed and operated, are highly
tolerant of changes in the FGD wastewater
composition that may be caused by seasonal
shifts in plant make-up water quality, chang-
es in coal composition, and upsets in the
FGD scrubber. The availability of a properly
2. ZLD approaches. FGD wastewater can be directly concentrated without softening, designed system can be anticipated to ex-
followed by mixing in a pug mill with fly ash (and lime) to generate a solid mixture that fixates ceed 96%. In addition, the distillate produced
metals (options 1 and 2). Alternatively, pretreatment with lime soda can be followed by concen- by the evaporator system is of high quality
tration and/or crystallization (options 3 and 4). Courtesy: Aquatech International and can be recycled back to the scrubber as
makeup, which eliminates the risk of ELG
1 noncompliance.

2 Existing facilities may already have a physi-
3 current discharge permit requirements for
4
The biological solution is a scheme that
most plant operators seem to have comfort
with, as it is composed of multiple conven-
tional water treatment operations followed
by a biological system, also comprising
equipment with which plant engineers and
operators are familiar. Further, it may be
perceived by some in the industry that ELG
compliance via biological treatment is sim-
pler to operate with higher reliability, less
pretreatment, and is less costly to install and
maintain. These perceptions are the subject
of discussion below.
Comparing the Complexity of
Evaporator and Biological Treat-
ment Systems
The operational success of a biological sys-
tem is dependent upon the operators ability
to operate the physical/chemical pretreat-
ment system to remove total suspended
solids (TSS), mercury, and arsenic, and to
condition the FGD wastewater to the input
specifications of the biological treatment step
for selenium and nitrate removal. Careful at-
tention by the operator is required to ensure
that the ELG limits are achieved.
By contrast, evaporator systems are com-
paratively simpler to operate and more for-
giving to flow and chemistry variations, as
well as more tolerant to cycling operation. It
is relatively easy to change the feed rate, and
start and stop an evaporator system, whereas
biological systems are less tolerant of these
changes, and careful operation is required to
ensure the health of the biomass.
Pretreatment by physical/chemical treat-
ment may or may not be required (see dis-
cussion on pretreatment below). If necessary,
conventional lime-soda softening is em-
ployed to partially soften the FGD wastewa-
ter. A target range is given for softening, as
the process is tolerant to a reasonable varia-
tion. The evaporator equipment is fully auto-
matic with little operator attention needed on
a regular basis other than shift-wise sampling
and chemical analysis using test kits.
Operators unfamiliar with evaporator sys-
tem operation may believe it is more difficult
to operate. However, factors such as the right
training and utilizing operations and mainte-
nance services offered by the evaporation plant
supplier have changed operators perceptions.
Also to be considered is the availability re-
Pretreatment Options
cal/chemical treatment system to meet their
TSS and regulated pollutants. Therefore,
compliance with the ELGs for many plants
requires modifying the existing physical/
chemical treatment system and integrating
either a biological treatment system or evap-
orator system.
The biological option requires physical/
chemical pretreatment using lime, sulfide,
and iron treatment for mercury, arsenic, and
metals removal. Biological treatment is em-
ployed following pretreatment to reduce the
concentration of nitrate and selenium to the
ELG limits. For treatment by evaporation,
there are several schemes that need to be
considered, not all of which require physical/
chemical treatment, as shown in Figure 2.
Evaporative approaches to ELG compli-
ance are typically partial cold lime-soda
softening of FGD wastewater followed by
concentration and/or crystallization. Alter-
natively, FGD wastewater can be directly
concentrated without softening followed by
mixing in a pug mill with fly ash (and lime)
to generate a solid mixture that fixates metals
and can be disposed of in a landfill.
Comparing Costs of Evaporator
and Biological Treatment
It is very difficult to make absolute claims
regarding the total installed cost or life cycle
cost of either biological or evaporator-based
FGD wastewater treatment systems, as these

|
March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 43
 WATER & WASTEWATER
will be site specific. When comparing costs,
it is important to consider the various evapo-
rator configurations as discussed above as
well as redundancy requirements.
To account for less than 100% availability,
systems should be supplied with either 100%
redundant trains (very costly and unneces-
sary) or with some amount of storage of the
FGD wastewater to provide a buffer between
the FGD scrubber and the FGD wastewater
treatment system. The amount of storage nec-
essary to achieve the desired availability is
dependent upon a number of factors. Antici-
pated downtime due to single-point failures
of equipment and system design margins are
primary considerations. Decisions need to be
made as to the optimum configuration, and
such decisions are again site specific.
As an example, consider an FGD waste-
water treatment system to be rated for 100
gallons per minute. Based on operation at
other FGD evaporator installations, the clean-
ing frequency for the evaporator is once per
year of operation, and the downtime duration
is 10 days. If the plant maintenance sched-
ule is to be down for an equal period on an
annual basis, then the FGD wastewater tank
can be sized for a single point failure, typi-
cally one day maximum duration (144,000
44
gallons). Providing such a tank will always
be much less costly than a redundant train.
Nevertheless, the incremental cost of supply-
ing additional storage should be considered
in determination of the storage tank volume.
It is also important to consider the rated
capacity of the FGD treatment system versus
the expected normal capacity, as there can be
a large difference between the two. Such dif-
ferences can result from nonstandard operat-
ing scenarios. If these scenarios are of short
duration, then it may make sense to consider
storage based on the normal capacity. The rea-
son for this is that shutdowns can typically be
anticipated and scheduled to occur when the
FGD wastewater is generated at a normal rate
(as opposed to the rated capacity). In some
situations, such considerations may make the
difference between choosing a redundant train
or larger FGD wastewater storage.
It is also important to note that the ELG rule
defers compliance until November 2023 for in-
stallation of evaporator-based systems, whereas
facilities electing to comply using biological
treatment systems must be operational as early
as November 2018, or as determined by their
permitting authority. The economic impact
of the deferred investment must be evaluated
when comparing biological and evaporator-
www.powermag.com
based ELG compliance solutions.
Choosing the Best Fit
Biological treatment and evaporator treat-
ment schemes will both play roles in FGD
wastewater ELG compliance. There are no
one size fits all solutions, as the capital, in-
stallation, and operating costs are site specif-
ic. Both treatment schemes have advantages
and disadvantages that should be evaluated,
including alternative evaporator options
that may eliminate the need for pretreat-
ment, crystallizers, and salt cake dewatering
equipment. Further, redundancy require-
ments should be carefully evaluated for both
schemes. Consideration for providing buffer
volume between the FGD scrubber and the
wastewater treatment system should be con-
sidered in lieu of redundant equipment.
Finally, the risk of future tightening of
effluent limits should be evaluated relative
to the projected life span of the plant. The
evaporator treatment scheme eliminates
FGD wastewater from the plants effluent dis-
charge, whereas the biological scheme may
not be able to adapt.
Dan Bjorklund (bjorklundd@aquatech.
com) is vice president ICD at Aquatech
International.
|
POWER March 2017
 IS YOUR POWER
PROJECT A WINNER?
Find out by nominating it for a POWER award

The 2017 categories are:

Plant of the Year Award
Reinvention Award
(formerly Marmaduke Award)
Water Award
Smart Grid Award
Commercial & Industrial
Generation Award
Top Plants Awards (in gas, coal,
nuclear, and renewable subcategories)
COMMERCIAL &
INDUSTRIAL GENERATION

All nominated projects must be in commercial operation by

the nomination deadline of April 28, 2017. Youll ind award
information, lists of former winners, and nomination forms at
http://www.powermag.com/power-awards/

NOMINATION DEADLINE: APRIL 28, 2017

29171
 WAT E R
S P E C I A L A D V E RT I S I N G S E C T I O N

Aftermarket Retrofits Who,

What, Where, When, and Why?
he boom years of HRSG installations were undoubtedly
between 1999-2004, which makes them middle-aged for design
life criteria of 25-30 years. Most owners and operators learned the
operation by ire, often operating HRSGs ill suited to their market
(cycling or low load), or ill equipped from a chemistry perspective.
Fatigue, along with the incidence of FAC and other problematic
water chemistry issues has lead to the need for panel replacements.
he basic options for when and how to replace HRSG
components with the least cost and best possible outcomes is
critical information. Aspects of design, access, and operating proile
are also noteworthy considerations. Having an experienced team
to lead or determine the need for your replacement components
will make the project timely and successful.
Getting to the root cause of the failure and ensuring the
mitigating factors are included in operation and water chemistry,
or improvements are made to the panel/harp design to prevent
repeat failures is the irst step. It is widely accepted that reducing
agents contribute to single phase FAC and elimination of reducing
agents is critical in combined cycle facilities that have all ferrous
metallurgy. If ones metallurgy includes admiralty metals, then
the continued use of a reducing agent is necessary and a material
change to a low alloy carbon steel is a good mitigating solution. A
whole host of factors, such as temperature, velocity, impingement
and pH contribute to both single phase and two phase FAC,
with the later still a bit of a mystery as to the thresholds of those
contributors. FAC seems to
have an on/of switch in the two
phase where one tube will show
the typical pattern of wear and
adjacent to that tube another will
be perfectly passivated. his has been evidenced via borescope in
the upper headers of the LP Evaporator as in the photo.
In this case it has also been shown that a change of material is a
good mitigating factor.
Replacements are then necessary when:
FAC leads to thinning of LP Evaporators, and economizers of all
pressure levels, which subsequently can lead to -
Under deposit corrosion of HP Evaporators (>1000 psig).
Chanute Manufacturing, along with ALS Consulting LLC has the
design and analysis experience, to properly diagnose your failure
mechanism, and design a replacement to most economically meet
your needs, all with pricing direct from the manufacturer.
Call Amy Sieben (651-785-8516) or Kevin Brown
(918-671-3449) for assistance.

ELG and CCR Solutions

In 2015, the United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) inalized a rule revising the Eluent Limitation
Guidelines and Standards (ELGs) for the Steam Electric Power
Generating category. he rule prohibits discharge of ash transport
water and sets limits on the levels of toxic metals that can be
discharged from wet lue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems.
Along with coal combustion residual (CCR) regulations,
these new rules require coal operated steam generation plants to
consider ways to eliminate ash ponds and to minimize the use of
process water in handling CCRs and wet FGD systems.
Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) provides Allen-Sherman-Hof ly
ash and bottom ash conveying systems, and is a market leader in
providing material handling solutions which can help power plant
owners address these ELG and CCR regulations. B&W provides
wet FGD wastewater solutions, including salt drying technology
for zero liquid discharge, as well as ly ash system conversions and
bottom ash solutions to eliminate storage ponds. B&Ws remote submerged chain conveyor provides continuous ash
transport capability.
For more information, visit: babcock.com/ELG-CCR
 WAT E R
S P E C I A L A D V E RT I S I N G S E C T I O N

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26032
 MANAGING RISK
New and Improved Insurance
Offerings Provide Power Plants
with More Options
Risk is inherent in all businesses, but power plants face unique perils that re-
quire the right protection. Property and casualty insurance may not be
enough; equipment breakdown, business interruption, weather risk trans-
fer, and cyber coverage are just a few examples of insurance that may
also be worth considering. The right coverage could mean the difference
between success and failure.
Aaron Larson

I
nsuring a power plant is quite a bit dif- 1. All aboard! This locomotives boiler exploded on December 2, 1898, in Brisbane,
ferent from insuring a car or truck. Sure, Queensland, Australia. Boiler explosions were a fairly common occurrence in those days. Cour-
your Allstate or State Farm representative tesy: State Library of Queensland
may check your car for pre-existing damage
before initiating coverage, but in my experi-
ence, no agent has ever performed routine
inspections of my vehicles or offered engi-
neered solutions to make them safer or more
reliable. In fact, I suspect my auto insurance
agent knows much less about automobiles
than I do. For the most part, if a vehicle is
legally registered, the insurer will write you a
policy and gladly take your money.
Insurance companies that specialize in
power plant policies are much more proac-
tive. They often have a unique understanding
of the systems and components installed in
facilities, and they recognize the perils faced
by the technology being used. Most of the
power plant insurance representatives who
visit sites are not just salespeople, but often
full-fledged engineers with the knowledge
and experience to make valuable recommen-
dations. They visit many different facilities
and have a database full of claim informa-
tion, allowing them to share best practices
and catch little things that could lead to big However, when he asked his property insur- it right. We address property exposures, and
problems. ance company to decrease his premiums to we help our clients reduce their exposure to
match the reduced risk, it refused. So Allen lossreduce their overall cost of riskby
A History of Risk Reduction recruited other mill owners who shared his sending engineers out to the facilities and
The theory behind the process lies in the philosophy, and they created their own mu- focusing on practical solutions to reduce the
belief that most losses can be prevented. If tual insurance company. Today, more than a chance of loss as well as the potential sever-
appropriate actions are taken to mitigate haz- third of Fortune 1000 companies partner with ity of the loss.
ards and reduce risk, the likelihood of a claim FM Global for at least a portion of their in- There are other insurance companies with
decreases, and thats good for everyone. surance needs. similar philosophies. Hartford Steam Boiler
Its not a new idea. A textile mill owner Were a property insurance company. We (HSB)a 150-year-old businesshas a his-
named Zachariah Allen, for example, formed dont do the casualty, the liability, or many of tory that is just as interesting as FM Globals.
FM Global (originally known as Factory Mu- the other lines of insurance that are out there, When HSB was founded, the light bulb had
tuals), back in 1835. In an effort to reduce the Mark F. McAdams, high-hazard occupancy not yet been invented, but boilers were every-
risk of fire and increase his mills resiliency, specialist for FM Global, told POWER dur- where nonetheless. Steam was used to power
Allen made various property improvements. ing an interview. We do one thing and we do boats, locomotives, and industrial machines.

48 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017

2. 911 ... Whats your emergency? Insurance paid $17.5 million for covered dam-
ages resulting from a May 5, 2014, fire at the Martin Drake Power Plant in Colorado Springs,
Colo. Courtesy: Colorado Springs Utilities
But the boilers back then werent as safe and
reliable as they are today; explosions were
commonplace. In the 1850s, a boiler explo-
sion occurred about once every four days, ac-
cording to HSB.
Although many boiler owners simply con-
sidered explosionsand the damage and loss
of life that resultedas a cost of doing busi-
ness, a group of Connecticut businessmen
didnt think explosions were unavoidable.
The men formed a polytechnic club to find
a solution and what transpired was a boiler
inspection company that offered insurance as
an incentive. Today, HSB employs more than
1,200 engineers, inspectors, and technical
personnel around the globe.
The benefits provided by companies like
FM Global and HSB are quantifiable. Mc-
Adams said FM Global has documented a
reduction in the number of lossesand the
severity of the lossesthe longer a facility is
insured by the company and receives its en-
gineering services.
As a mutual insurance company, our
owners are our shareholders, so weve got a
built-in bias to do what we can to take care of
our clients, said McAdams. With a philo-
sophical foundation that most large losses
can be avoideda majority of loss can be
avoidedwe utilize our engineering service
to help them prevent the potential and reduce
the severity of the potential losses that are out
there.
Insurance Changes with the Times
Exploding boilers are much less likely today
than they were in the 19th century (Figure 1)
due at least in part to the work of companies
like FM Global and HSB, but now there are
|
March 2017 POWER
new risks that were never even dreamed of
back in those days. There are also new com-
panies serving the insurance needs of power
plants. The increase in providers with still
solid track records has helped to keep policy
costs in check.
Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty
(AGCS)a German-based companyof-
fers one example. With more than 100 years
of technical expertise in the business, Allianz
began investing heavily in the U.S. power
segment in 2003. Similar to FM Global and
HSB, AGCS offers property coverage (in-
cluding business interruption) and builders
risk policies (including delay in startup cov-
erage). It, too, has a loss control program,
which incorporates visits to facilities by
qualified engineers and the creation of loss
control reports with recommendations to re-
duce risks.
We as insurers have an overview of the
whole industry because we are insuring
multiple clients across the whole country
and all classes of power assets, so our engi-
neers have access to the best practices in the
markets, said Honorio Campos, engineer-
ing team leader for AGCS Americas. They
contribute by sharing those best practices as
recommendations.
Some common items addressed by AGCS
engineers in their reports include fire protec-
tion improvements (Figure 2), plant moni-
toring upgrades, and recommendations to
protect against natural hazards. For example,
if a plant is located in a flood exposure area,
AGCS engineers can use their expertise to
propose solutions to reduce the flood risk.
Campos suggested that whenever a natural
disaster strikes, clients rest easier knowing
www.powermag.com
MANAGING RISK
they have sound insurance protection. Hur-
ricane Sandy was an event that affected some
of our clients. We have had clients impacted
by tornados or most recently by wildfires on
the West coast. Those are all events where
clients appreciated having AGCS protec-
tion, he said.
Weighing the benefits provided by the var-
ious property insurers is certainly important,
but there are also other policy options that
must be considered. According to David Bar-
clay, senior vice president with the property
and casualty insurer Chubb, property and li-
ability policies form the heart of an insurance
program, but coverage must still be custom-
ized depending on the insureds particular
exposures.
Chubb can provide many insurance prod-
ucts for a power producer including property,
business income, general liability, automo-
bile, workers compensation, environmental,
umbrella, and many others. Mid-sized inde-
pendent power producers may find having
one insurance carrier is most efficient, Bar-
clay told POWER. It is important to look for
an insurance carrier that can grow with them
as they build more projects, he said.
Barclay suggested power producers
should consider broad business income cov-
erage that includes extra expense. One ar-
gument for such a feature is that it allows the
insured to use extra expense dollars to expe-
dite replacement equipment when an event
interrupts power production. It can also be
used to purchase replacement power from
third parties following an incident, thus re-
ducing losses and helping companies more
easily meet their customers needs.
Plant owners must consider all sources
of business income too. Barclay noted that
many power generation operations derive
revenue from capacity payments and tax
incentives. Losses of those revenue sources
should be contemplated when insurance
policies are designed. Many large power
companies can accept higher deductibles and
purchase higher limits because of their size,
but mid-sized independent power producers
probably shouldnt assume as much risk, so
smaller deductibles are often more appropri-
ate for them.
Other exposure that can often be over-
looked is the risk associated with interna-
tional operations and activities. Barclay said
its important for companies to have the
same protection in other countries as they do
at home. Environmental coverage is perhaps
a less well-known option that may be worth
considering for many power companies.
Those policies alleviate some of the risk as-
sociated with potential damage to land, wa-
ter, and other natural resources.
Lloyds, a London-based company that has
49
 MANAGING RISK
been providing specialty insurance since the
3. Grounded. A winter storm damaged one of the wind turbines at the Cronalaght wind
17th century, offers some of the most unique farm in Donegal, Ireland. Courtesy: Michael Murtagh/Creative Commons
policy options. The company says it has more
than 60 lines of insurance and reinsurance
from which it can develop tailor-made
policies for nearly any customer. It covers
such things as accident and health; crime;
contingency; cyber; directors and officers;
employers liability; energy; engineering;
extended warranty; legal expenses; medical
expenses; general liability; nuclear; political
risks, credit, and financial guarantees; power
generation; property; and terrorism.

Renewable Power Project

Insurance
Often, people think of renewable energy as
a recent phenomenon, but many renewable
projects have been around for more than
three decades. One company that specializes
in renewable energy insurance is GCube.
The insurer focuses solely on renewable en-
ergy projectsmainly wind and solar. Sam
Walsh, senior vice president with GCube, ment stage to protect against leased-land ex- owners. And its a risk that shouldnt be over-
noted that 2017 is the companys 25th year posure, among other things. looked.
of offering its WindPro product. Once a project comes to fruition, con- In 2015, there were large swathes of the
Were backed primarily by Lloyds of struction all-risk and liability policies are the U.S. that had much lower wind speeds be-
London paper, as well as Swiss Re, and that norm. Many things can go wrong while con- cause of El Nio, said Walsh. As a result,
allows us to write pretty much in any coun- struction is in progress, so lenders generally a lot of wind projects throughout the south-
try that they have the legal capability to write have very specific insurance requirements western U.S. under-produced by as much as
within, so that is the vast majority of the that owners must meet. Most wind farms 40%. For small- and mid-sized independent
world, Walsh told POWER. have a large number of turbines that make power producers, a lack of production such

In 2015, there were large swathes of the U.S. that had much
lower wind speeds because of El Nio, said Walsh. As a result,
a lot of wind projects throughout the southwestern U.S. under-
produced by as much as 40%.

GCube gets between 40% and 45% of its
business from U.S. projects, but it also has a
large presence in Europe, South Africa, and
Australia. Walsh said its business is growing
in the Middle East and in a few countries in
Asia (he specifically mentioned Thailand).
The companys goal is to offer as many insur-
ance options as possible for the full lifecycle
of a renewable energy project.
For a typical wind power project, for ex-
ample, a development policy will be the first
step. Usually, meteorological data will need
to be gathered from a site to gauge the viabil-
ity of a location. That doesnt involve a lot
of equipment, and potential losses are fairly
small, so the development policy offers rela-
tively inexpensive coverage to get through
the process. Companies are also wise to have
a general liability policy during the develop-
up the project. Naturally, they dont all get
done at the exact same time, so there is usu-
ally a clause in the policy that allows contin-
ued coverage of operational turbines on the
construction side, until the entire project is
complete.
The goal is to be as seamless and cohe-
sive as possible, so GCube can be a one-stop
shop for the insured, said Walsh.
Weather Risk Transfer
One of the complaints often railed against
renewable energy is that it doesnt generate
power when the sun doesnt shine or the wind
doesnt blow (or the rain doesnt fall, which
has affected some hydropower facilities).
Weather variability poses a problem not only
for the grid and those charged with keeping
the lights on, but also for renewable energy
as that can be a massive hit to the bottom line.
To provide some assurance of revenue,
owners have been searching for ways to
transfer that weather risk. One product that
GCube offers to address the problem is a
weather hedge mechanism for the wind and
hydroelectric energy markets. It enables
buyers to guarantee a floor on financial per-
formance and unlock additional value for
projects and their stakeholders.
It differs a little bit from insurance in the
sense that its more of a financial product
versus simply an insurance product, Walsh
said. But I think a lot of project owners are
looking to weigh whether thats a coverage
they now want to supplement a standard
property and general liability program with
to make sure that theyre getting enough rev-
enue in a given year.

50 www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017
 Content YOU Control
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27706
 MANAGING RISK
When Catastrophe Strikes
Partnering with companies that have proven
track records should be high on the list of re-
quirements when developing a project. That
not only extends to insurance providers, but
also to original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs).
For example, many wind turbine OEMs
offer a two or three year equipment warranty.
The first line of recourse following a com-
ponent failure is to submit a warranty claim.
Catastrophic losses, such as gearbox failures
or up-tower fires, can often be measured in
terms of millions of dollars. Working with a
bankable OEM that has a record of standing
behind their product can save a lot of head-
aches.
Having comprehensive insurance cover-
age should be next on the list of important
project musts. Generally speaking, if a broker
offers three policies for an owner to choose
from and one is significantly cheaper than the
other two, that should raise a red flag. The
cheaper policy may be excluding something
that could leave the insured with a significant
loss on its hands.
In the event that the manufacturers war-
ranty does not respond, our policy steps out
to make sure that the insured is made whole,
Walsh said. He also noted that even if the
manufacturers warranty does pick up the
physical damage loss, there could still be lost
revenue resulting from business interruption.
Our policy would step in and pay those out,
he said.
Although many projects are planned with
20-year lifespans, history has shown that
wind turbines on average are not lasting that
long before having breakdowns (Figure 3),
such as blade issues or gearbox problems.
The costs to fix those failures can be quite
significant. Cranes are often required, which
adds to the expense.
If fleet-wide defects transpire, owners
will appreciate having a reputable OEM. The
reason: Most insurance policies have serious-
loss clauses and/or defect exclusions. What
that means is coverage tapers off at some
point.
If you were to pick a manufacturer that
ultimately goes out of business and five years
down the line their equipment starts to fail
on a fleet-wide basis, theres going to be an
issue, Walsh said. Insurance will provide
coverage for the first set of losses, but after
that, the exclusions will start to step in.
Solar Power Project Hazards
While wind is a necessity for successful wind
power projects, it can be a real hazard for so-
lar projects. Once installed, solar panels are
generally designed to withstand relatively
high winds, but it is nearly impossible to
52
4. Were not in Kansas anymore. The National Weather Service confirmed that a
weak tornado was to blame for damage to a solar farm located at Camp Ripley, a training facility
operated by the Minnesota National Guard. Courtesy: Staff Sgt. Anthony Housey
fully protect a site against natural disasters,
such as hurricanes and tornados (Figure 4).
Last year, Hurricane Matthew resulted in
multimillion-dollar losses to power projects,
and Superstorm Sandy, as noted previously,
was a particularly devastating storm.
Its not always the wind that causes the
most damage, however; storm surges can
be even more destructive. Salt water is very
corrosive and can create a lot of problems.
Walsh suggested that projects are particu-
larly vulnerable while under construction.
They tend to perform better once theyre
operational versus during the construction
phase when not everything may be tied down
or theres loose equipment on-site, he said.
Stuff can be picked up by high winds and
cause a fair amount of damage.
Solar projects also seem to be more sus-
ceptible to contractor errors and theft. Walsh
said that most of the projects GCube has un-
derwritten in the U.S. havent experienced
huge losses, but the companys European
counterparts havent been as lucky. Not only
are thieves stealing solar panels, but theyre
also taking copper wiring from sites. Site
security and the steps that are taken to miti-
gate those types of losses are very impor-
tant, he said.
Although solar projects dont have the
large up-tower problems and the associ-
ated crane-type losses that wind projects
encounter, equipment does break down. A
couple of the more common failures are to
inverters and transformers, which can lead to
large financial losses. Some sites have been
designed with all power being offloaded
through a single-point transformer, so the
loss of one of those can take an entire site
down. GCube partners with a third-party en-
gineering service to look for that type of situ-
www.powermag.com
ation and to develop a plan, when necessary,
to mitigate the risk.
Cyber Protection
As power plants have become more connect-
ed with digital technology, the risk of cyber-
attacks has increased. Insurance companies
have come to understand the risk, however,
and many have developed policies to protect
customers against losses caused by hackers.
FM Global is one that began offering cyber
policies as far back as 2001, and McAdams
said the company recently expanded its cov-
erage.
FM Global says its all-risk policy has no
cyber exclusions for physical loss or damage.
Rather, it covers common cyber loss events
including damage to data, programs, or soft-
ware created by viruses or malware; com-
puter network service interruption caused
by malicious cyber activity; and third-party
data services interruptioncloud outages
leading to business interruption or property
damage.
If [hackers] were to get into the control
systems, they could potentially do physical
damage to your generators and other prop-
erty. Thats obviously a big piece of that ex-
posure, McAdams said.
In the end, however, AGCSs Campos sug-
gested that the most important thing is to have
a good broker. Finding a trustworthy agent to
help assess the coverage that is needed and
customize an insurance solution to mitigate
the exposure is invaluable. Walsh agreed. He
said nearly all of GCubes clients work with
a broker who will evaluate the coverage for
them and make sure the policy is comprehen-
sive and appropriate.
Aaron Larson is POWERs executive
editor.
|
POWER March 2017
Boiler Operations
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Boiler Tube Failure Thermohydraulic Analysis

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Order your copy at store.powermag.com 28968

 RENEWABLE ENERGY
A 100% Renewable Grid: Pipe
Dream or Holy Grail?
The boom in renewable energy, spurred by dramatically falling costs, has led
some experts and political figures to begin talking seriously about what
was once science fiction: A world powered entirely by renewable genera-
tion. But is it truly feasible or economic? One series of studies suggests it
iswith some important caveats.
Thomas W. Overton, JD
I n the first half of the 20th century, as
the world struggled to come to terms
with dramatic leaps in technology across
transportation, communication, and energy
production, one favorite activity of media or-
gans was speculating about what the world
would look like 50 or 100 years in the future.
Popular Mechanics magazine was a favorite
forum for such predictions, and in the Febru-
ary 1950 issue, Waldemar Kaempffert, then
science editor of The New York Times, took a
stab at describing what the cities of the 21st
century would look like.
Among some fairly eye-opening ideas (for
example, housewives of the 2000s throw ev-
erything awaylaundry includedinstead
of cleaning because synthetic manufactur-
ing has become so cheap and efficient),
Kaempffert offers some predictions on en-
ergy that, if inexact, are nevertheless aw-
fully prescient for 2017. It is a crime to
burn raw coal and pollute air with smoke and
soot, he writes, and [p]ower plants are not
driven by atomic power as you might sup-
pose. Why? Its too expensive: Because of gions with high renewable penetration, such
the heavy investment that has to be made in
a uranium or thorium power plant, he says,
attention would soon turn to solar energy.
Atomic power proves its worth in Canada,
South America and the Far East, but in tropi-
cal countries it cannot compete with solar
power.
In 1950, the idea of powering an entire
country with solar energy was science fic-
tion. But in 2017, its becomepaired with
wind and other renewable generationan
idea many experts and policymakers are talk-
ing about as an entirely feasible goal. Munic-
ipalities around the world have made 100%
renewables targets a matter of law, large
corporations like Google and Amazon have
declared intentions to source all their power
needs from renewables (Figure 1), and even a
few countries such as Denmark that currently
rely on fossil fuels for a substantial portion
54
of their power are targeting 100% renewable
generation in the next few decades. Most re-
cently, the COP21 Paris climate agreement
set a target of 100% renewables worldwide
by 2050.
1. Going green. The Amazon Fowler
Ridge Wind Farm (a 2016 POWER Top Plant),
which came online last year, is part of the
companys long-term plan to source 100% of
its electricity needs from renewable energy.
Amazon has power-purchase agreements
A Question of Labels with several other wind farms under develop-
But is it really possible, as a matter of eco- ment or construction. Courtesy: Amazon
nomics and engineering, to transition an
entire national grid from fossil fuels to re-
newables in just a few decades? At the out-
set, it needs to be recognized that multiple
national grids operating on 100% (or close
to it) renewable energy sources already exist.
But all of them are nations that benefit from
a combination of small populations and large
hydroelectric capacity: Iceland, Norway,
Costa Rica, Paraguay, and Uruguay (Figure
2). The south island of New Zealand also
gets virtually all of its electricity from hydro-
power. The largest of theseParaguayhas
a population smaller than New York City
or London, and far smaller than giant cities
like Shanghai or Delhi. Other nations and re-
as Germany and Portugal, have at times of
low demand and high renewable output met
or nearly met all electricity demand with re-
newable generation.
A few island grids have also gone 100% newable scenarios for a variety of reasons,
renewable, though not always with complete usually environmental but also including
success. The Spanish island of El Hierro in proliferation concerns. Many countries, es-
the Canaries announced with much fanfare in pecially in Europe, have grids that are deeply
2014 a scheme to generate all of its electricity interconnected with each other, and in these
from wind turbines and a pumped hydroelec- cases nations with high renewable penetra-
tric storage facility (see A Spanish Islands tion often rely on neighboring grids for bal-
100% Wind-and-Water Power Solution in ancing purposes, much as a home with a
the August 2014 issue). In practice, however, large solar array and no storage needs a grid
the project has struggled to meet expecta- connection even if its net generation may be
tions, generally supplying only a fraction of zero. Denmark, for example, met 52% of its
the islands demand. demand with renewables in 2015, but it also
Answering the titular question requires imported 20% of its electricity. Scenarios
agreeing on certain definitions. Nuclear is like the latter are not fairly viewed as 100%
generally considered low-carbon genera- renewable.
tion but is not usually included in 100% re- Corporate and municipal pledges to source
www.powermag.com |
POWER March 2017

2. Renewable powerhouse. The massive Itaipu dam, one of the largest in the world at
14 GW, on its own supplies 86% of Paraguays electricity demand. The nation shares the facility,
which straddles a common border, with its neighbor Brazil. Courtesy: Cesar I. Martins/Flickr
100% of energy needs from renewables also
need some context, as these are typically just
100% renewable equivalent. In Googles
case, the firm is actually buying and selling
renewable energy around the world in order
to earn renewable energy credits, then ap-
plying those credits to the regular grid con-
nections for its data centers. No Google data
center is actually operating entirely off a solar
or wind farm. Then theres the Silicon Valley
town of Menlo Park, not far from Googles
world headquarters. The municipality has
made a pledge to go 100% carbon-free by
2025, but this is actually zero net carbon. The
goal is to generate or procure 100% of the
citys electricity consumption from renew-
ables, but its still going to be connected to
the local Pacific Gas & Electric grid.
2.5 Million Wind Turbines
So what about transitioning the entire world
to 100% renewables, without relying on
offsets and shell games? The subject has,
not surprisingly, been a fertile ground for
academic study. Scientists have looked at the
possibility of 100% renewable generation for
decades, but until very recently such studies
have been mostly speculative because of the
lack of real-world data on how grids perform
with high levels of intermittent generation.
With the lessons of the past few years, how-
ever, a number of detailed scenarios have
been published.
Stanford University engineering professor
Mark Jacobson and University of California,
Berkeley researcher Mark Delucchi have au-
thored a series of studies laying out in detail
how both the world and the U.S. could meet
all energy needs (not just electricity but also
transportation and heating/cooling) with a
combination of hydroelectric, geothermal,
wind, and solar generation. A two-part 2011
study in the journal Energy Policy (see http://
stanford.io/2jIYd4L and http://stanford.
io/2ikU2a4) and an ongoing updated version
(see http://stanford.io/1lvUaVS) describe
how an estimated 20.6 TW of total world en-
ergy demand in 2050 could be supplied by
|
March 2017 POWER
RENEWABLE ENERGY
WWS) reflects the need for dispatchable
generation and that the most economic so-
lution will vary by location. The list above
includes already-existing resources, particu-
larly hydro (of which all the listed capacity is
currently in operation), but this accounts for
only 4.26% of the total. Notably, the scenario
does not include any stationary electric stor-
age batteries.
In this scenario, all uses that can be, have
been electrified, and the remaining needs are
supplied by hydrogen sourced from elec-
trolysis, either combusted directly or used
in hydrogen fuel cells. The estimate assumes
advances in energy efficiency, demand re-
about 52.1 TW of renewable capacity plus duction, and reduced energy usage in a world
storage and energy efficiency gains: without fossil fuels (for example, energy us-
age by petroleum processing is vastly lower,
2.5 million 5-MW wind turbines (60/40 while the use of centrally generated electric-
mix of on- and off-shore) (37%) ity is much more efficient than distributed
409,000 0.75-MW wave generators (0.5%) combustion) lower total energy needs to 11.8
935 100-MW geothermal plants (0.7%) TW (which suggests an average 22.6% ca-
1,058 1.3-GW hydroelectric plants (4%) pacity factor for the resources in the list
30,000 1-MW tidal turbines (0.06%) above). Under this scenario, the world would
1.8 billion 5-kW residential rooftop solar reach 80% renewables by 2030 and about
photovoltaic (PV) systems (15%) 95% by 2040 (Figure 3).
75 million 100-kW commercial PV sys- The 2011 study identifies a few bottle-
tems (12%) necks in terms of resources, one of which is
250,000 50-MW solar PV plants (21%) the availability of neodymium (Nd) needed
21,500 100-MW concentrating solar power for wind turbine generator magnetsworld
(CSP) plants with thermal storage (10%) production of Nd would need to be increased
13,000 100-MW CSP plants with thermal five-fold to meet demand, something that
storage (additional for grid support) may not be feasible. Thus, alternatives to
85,000 50-MW solar thermal storage plants Nd-based magnets would be necessary. Pro-
(for direct heating) duction of the necessary PV cells would not
challenge existing resources, but production
The mix of technologies (which the au- of electric vehicle batteries under this scenar-
thors refer to as wind, water, and solar or io could potentially exhaust known reserves
3. Big shift. A roadmap for transitioning to 100% renewable energy worldwide envisions a
world powered almost entirely by solar and wind, with small amounts of hydropower and geo-
thermal. Under this scenario, the estimated 11.8 TW global demand would be supplied by about
52 TW of installed capacity. Courtesy: The Solutions Project
www.powermag.com 55
 RENEWABLE ENERGY
4. Solar economics. The cost of solar
power continues to drop rapidly. The Crescent
Dunes concentrating solar power plant in Ne-
vada cost about $1 billion and required a loan
guarantee from the Department of Energy,
but follow-up projects from developer Solar
Reserve are expected to see about 30% low-
er construction costs and are being built with
100% commercial financing. Courtesy: Solar
Reserve
of lithium in as little as 20 years. The authors
suggest this is likely to drive up lithium pric-
es, incentivizing recycling and development
of possible new resources. Meeting demand
for platinum used in fuel cells would also re-
quire increased recycling.
Maintaining reliability on a grid with
greater than 80% intermittent resources re-
quires some additional changes, but the au-
thors argue that this challenge can be met
through a mix of approaches: greater in-
terconnection (including international su-
pergrids), smart demand response, better
forecasting, energy storage (including dis-
tributed thermal storage and vehicle-to-grid),
and oversizing generation capacity, with any
excess generation being directed toward hy-
drogen production. Absent the hydrogen pro-
duction, these are measures that a number of
other groups such as the World Energy Coun-
cil (WEC) have also discussed as necessary
for greater renewable integration.
A 2015 follow-up study (see http://stan-
ford.io/1IdZB0I) ran a model over six years
that demonstrated that such an approach in
the U.S. could meet conventional utility
standards for reliability. (For some recent
POWER articles on these subjects, see Utili-
ties Grapple with Storage Integration in the
December 2016 issue, The Future of Load
Control for Solar PV in the December 2015
issue, and Reducing Weather-Related Risks
in Renewable Generation in the January
2015 issue.)
The Price Tag
What would all this cost? A lot. The 2016
56
update estimates the total worldwide capital
cost at about $125 trillion in 2013 dollars.
(By way of comparison, the gross world
product in 2013 according to the World Bank
was a mere $75 trillion.) But much of that
money would be spent anyway on other en-
ergy resources under a business-as-usual
approach. How would the 100% renewable
scenario compare? For one thing, the study
argues, the levelized cost of energy in 2050
would be less expensive, though not by much
(roughly $85/year per capita worldwide).
The main benefit would be avoided health
and climate impacts of around $5,800/year
per capita.
There are other costs as well, particularly
a major shift in energy sector employment.
While the study estimates that transitioning
to 100% renewables would generate 25.4
million construction jobs and 26.6 million
new jobs, it would also eliminate 27.7 mil-
lion current jobs. These shifts would not be
evenly distributed, with countries that rely on
fossil-fuel extraction for a significant portion
of their economies suffering disproportionate
losses.
Another 2015 study looked at making
such a transition in the U.S. Under that sce-
nario, total U.S. generating capacity expands
from 1,167 GW in 2015 to 6,447 GW in
2050, with the relative percentages of each
type of generation slightly different from the
list above (more wind and less solar), while
total demand falls around 40%, as with the
global studies. The total cost of this capacity
would be about $13.4 trillion in 2013 dollars,
spread over several decades (the U.S. gross
domestic product in 2013 was a bit less than
$17 trillion).
By 2050, however, the levelized cost of
100% renewable generation, including addi-
tional transmission and storage, is predicted
to have fallen below conventional genera-
tion even without including external health
and climate costs. WWS energy in 2050
will save the average U.S. consumer $260
(190320) per year in energy costs ($2013
dollars), the study says. In addition, WWS
will save $1500 (2106000) per year in
health costs, and $8300 (470017 600) per
year in global climate costs.
Uncertainties and Caveats
Though Jacobson and Delucchi have bro-
ken ground in their degree of detail, other
researchers as well as entities such as the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the
International Renewable Energy Agency,
the WEC, and the World Wildlife Fund have
looked at what it would take to transition to
100% renewables worldwide. A 2013 study
by researchers at the University of Delaware
came to similar conclusions using perfor-
www.powermag.com
mance data from PJM, finding that 99.9%
renewables by 2030 was feasible but would
require substantial overcapacity and had
to include externality costs to be economic
compared to fossil fuels.
When speaking of targets decades out,
many of the predictions underlying these
roadmaps are necessarily speculative. Esti-
mates of savings in climate change impact
costs also necessarily have a high degree of
uncertainty because of the difficulties in pre-
dicting how changes in global temperatures
will affect human activity.
Its worth noting, though, that one rea-
son the Jacobson and Delucchi studies dis-
cussed have been updated repeatedly is that
the costs of wind and solar generation have
fallen faster than expected. The projections
in the original 2011 studies proved to be too
conservative, with the market in some cases
reaching 2020 estimates as early as 2016
(Figure 4).
Other critics have focused on the exclusion
of nuclear, arguing that simply displacing
what is already a low-carbon resource that
provides about 10% of the worlds electricity
in favor of another low-carbon resource isnt
the most efficient approach and unnecessar-
ily delays a transition to low-carbon genera-
tion (depending on what study you look at,
nuclear has about the same to slightly higher
carbon emissions than wind and solar, but far
less than coal or gas). These critics also point
out that nuclear achieves far higher capacity
factors than wind and solar, while also beat-
ing them by a large margin on power density.
While most of these studies recommend a
variety of policies to support the transition,
the question of whether such a program is po-
litically and socially feasible remains open.
Most of the policy recommendations are
broad, top-down approaches more suitable to
regions like China and the European Union.
As but one example, China has spent much
of the last year ordering halts to the develop-
ment and construction of hundreds of coal-
fired power plants, something that would be
far more difficult in the U.S. (and would also
result in protracted litigation). Yet even China
has run into substantial problems with unde-
rutilization of its vast wind capacityby far
the largest in the world at 145 GWbecause
of a variety of political and economic factors.
(And China is also highly unlikely to aban-
don its rapidly growing nuclear fleet.)
The U.S., with its much more decentral-
ized political structure is likely to move more
slowly, even without considering a national
political climate that has shifted repeatedly
on support for renewables. Whatever the pos-
sibilities, the reality is likely to take longer.
Thomas W. Overton, JD is a POWER
associate editor.
|
POWER March 2017
 POWER MARKETS
Duck Hunting at the California
Independent System Operator
Californias excess of solar power challenges the statewide independent sys-
tem operators ability to balance its system without curtailing low-carbon
supplies and ramping up natural gas generation. Its called the duck
curve. Is the regions growing energy imbalance market the solution, or
will it take a full-fledged independent transmission organization to slay
Californias electricity duck?
Kennedy Maize

T
he California Independent System Op- 1. If it quacks... This net load graph produced by the California Independent System Opera-
erator (CAISO), manager of the Gold- tor (CAISO) in 2013, which has become known as the duck curve, shows the effect of growing
en States wholesale electricity market, levels of solar generation on daily net load in CAISOs service territory. Note that the Y-axis is
in its 2015 strategic plan identifies overgen- truncated at 10 GW, which exaggerates the apparent impact. Courtesy: CAISO
eration as a major challenge. The ISO has
a lot of renewable generationparticularly
solarthat does not match when customers 28,000
need power. The problem is reflected in the
26,000
well-known duck curve (Figure 1), first
published in 2013. 24,000
The duck curve is a graphic representation
22,000
of a mismatch between the time when a large
supply of solar power comes onto the Cali- 20,000
MW

fornia grid and when the system demands

power. The duck curve shows a major drop
in electric load in midday when solar hits its
peak, swamping the grid at a period of low
demand and potentially pushing net load be-
low the point where older baseload plants can
ramp down to compensate. In the late after-
noon and evening, when solar begins to fade,
people are arriving home and boosting elec-
tricity use, ramping up demand. With the sun
going down, quick-ramping gas has to come
online in a hurry.
In its 2015 plan, CAISO said that overgen-
eration arises when there is more electricity
than there is demand to use it. . . . Current
studies show that this risk will grow quickly
after 2020 with higher levels of renewable
generation in the mixeven after fossil fuel
power plants have reduced output as much as
possible. When that occurs, some renewable
generation may need to be curtailed, which
would be a missed opportunity to use clean
power at a minimal marginal cost.
The downside of the duck, CAISO CEO
Stephen Berberich told POWER recently,
is turning off power that is clean, with low
marginal cost, and that people have paid for.
The solar generation gets dumped mid-day
because the states older fossil plants cant
cycle fast enough to deal with the late after-
noon shift. Come sundown, the demand neck
of the duck ascends as solar trails off. That
18,000
16,000
14,000
12,000
10,000
0
12 a.m. 3 a.m. 6 a.m. 9 a.m. 12 p.m.
requires ramping of the power systems fos-
sil generation to meet demand, Berberich
said. California has built some high-tech,
fast-responding gas plants recently, but that
runs counter to the states goal of reaching
50% renewables by 2030. We are relying
on gas plants here in California to meet the
afternoon and evening demand. Our goal is
to decarbonize the grid, and we dont want to
have to rely on gas.
So far, however, it is. California is de-
pendent on gas for about 56% (some 42,000
MW) of the states 75,000 MW of electric
generation, compared to 5,800 MW each for
solar and wind (and 10,000 MW of hydro),
according to Energy Information Admin-
istration (EIA) data. Those figures include
all of the states generation, from investor-
owned utilities, non-utility generators, and
public power systems.
3 p.m. 6 p.m. 9 p.m.
Hour
The problem may be growing faster than
CAISO estimated two years ago. An analy-
sis last fall by the Atlanta-based ScottMad-
den energy consulting firmRevisiting the
California Duck Curve: An Exploration of Its
Existence, Impact, and Migration Potential
(see http://bit.ly/2igDbFm)found that the
mismatch between load and generation is
growing faster than expected (Figure 2).
The analysis outlined surprising nuances in
the duck curve:
Power ramps between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.,
the neck of the duck, are increasing
yearly, indicating changes in system op-
erations are occurring in all parts of the
year.
The duck curve is most severe on week-
ends because of their lower system
loads despite consistent solar genera-

|
March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 57
 POWER MARKETS
tion. Conversely, higher system loads on
weekdays mitigate the midday decline in
net load and the impact of the duck curve.
The duck curve doesnt occur just in
sunny spring months, as earlier analyses
had assumed. CAISOs 2013 analysis that
first identified the duck curve was based
on data for March 31. The ScottMadden
analysis found the steepest ramps in 2015
came in December, November, and Janu-
ary, not March.
Utility solar, not rooftop panels, feeds the
duck. If the belly of the duck is formed
by less visible distributed resources, says
the report, one would see it manifested
in both the system load and the net load.
This is not the case in the California duck
curve. Instead, we see a smooth system
load and a concave net load, which is in-
dicative of the influence of utility-scale
solar rather than distributed generation.
ElectricityPolicy.com commented that, it
appears the famous fowl known as the Cali-
fornia duck curve is developing a deeper
belly, with steeper ramping that will require
more flexible and fast-responding resources.
Regional Balance
CAISO is leading the hunt for ways to slay
the duck, though the problem is not unique to
California (see sidebar, Is Californias Duck
Migratory?). In fact, Berberich sees the rap-
idly developing regional energy imbalance
market as key. CAISOs energy imbalance
market is a voluntary, real-time wholesale
market offered to utilities in the region in
2014 as a way to coordinate their generation
and loads more broadly. Oregons PacifiCorp
was the first participant.
The West has a surfeit of balancing au-
thorities, which isnt necessarily a good
thing. The EIA defines a balancing author-
ity as, The responsible entity that integrates
resource plans ahead of time, maintains
load-interchange-generation balance within
a Balancing Authority Area, and supports
Interconnection frequency in real time. The
western region has 38 different balancing au-
thorities by recent counts, and many analysts
view this as excessive and inefficient.
The idea behind the CAISO energy imbal-
ance marketwhich runs parallel to CAISO
but does not constitute a full-fledged regional
system operatoris to reduce the number of
balancing authorities in the region and make
the resources of various parties available to
each other with fewer jurisdictional seams.
Says Berberich, A portfolio effect across a
larger region dampens overgeneration. Lets
share the overgeneration and leverage re-
gional generation.
He adds that all of the states in the re-
58
2. Quack up. Analysis by energy consulting firm ScottMadden last year suggests the duck
curve is growing faster than CAISO anticipated in 2013. Source: ScottMadden
2011 2012 2013
26,000
24,000
22,000
20,000
MW
18,000
16,000
14,000
12,000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
gion except Idaho have some version of a
renewable portfolio standard. That means,
the more we collaborate across the region,
leaning on one another, we dont all have to
build new capacity. The larger grid network,
centrally controlled, becomes a partial equiv-
alent to energy storage.
Californias electricity market has un-
dergone several transitions over the past 25
years (see sidebar, The Roots of CAISO)
and seems poised for another as the CAISO
imbalance market expands. It has attracted a
growing list of non-California generating util-
Is Californias Duck Migratory?
The duck curve may not be limited to Cali-
fornia. Greg Litra, the ScottMadden partner
watching over renewable energy issues,
said, One of the most important implica-
tions is the duck curve may migrate to
other parts of the United States. Growing
numbers of utility-scale installations could
mean that the duck could migrate to
states like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North
Carolina, and Texas in the not-too-distant
future.
The ScottMadden analysis said, Many
parts of the United States are poised for
market-driven growth in utility-scale solar.
For example, North Carolina is already ex-
pecting solar to inject energy significantly
in excess of system needs by 2020. Ad-
ditional states to watch in the near term
include Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Tex-
as. Each of these states, including North
Carolina, may have more than 3,000 MW
www.powermag.com
2014 2015 2016
Hour
ities since Oregons PacificCorp became the
first. The current roster includes Puget Sound
Energy in Bellevue, Wash.; Arizona Public
Service; Oregons Portland General Electric;
Idaho Power; and Nevadas NV Energy. Last
October, the ISO said the benefits of the en-
ergy imbalance market for the third quarter of
2016 exceeded $26 million, bringing the sav-
ings since 2014 to $114.35 million.
CAISO late last year said two major Cali-
fornia public power systemsthe Balancing
Authority of Northern California (which in-
cludes the Modesto Irrigation District, City
of utility-scale solar by the end of 2021.
The duck may also appear in less obvious
environments, such as small balancing au-
thorities with high penetrations of utility-
scale solar.
In Hawaii, where solar is a big resource,
the duck curve is less likely, as the states
average system load has changed over
time due to much higher penetrations of
distributed generation, notably residential
solar. In 2015, the 305 MW of residential
solar operating in the state was equal to
9% of the front-of-meter generation ca-
pacity managed by Hawaiian Electric Com-
pany, the analysis found.
According to ScottMadden, compar-
ing California and Hawaii illustrated that
understanding the root cause of the duck
curve is essential before preparing for and
developing strategies to address the opera-
tional impacts.
|
POWER March 2017

The Roots of CAISO
The roots of the California Independent
System Operator (CAISO) date to the states
1990 gubernatorial election. Republican
Pete Wilson, a former San Diego mayor and
U.S. senator, succeeded outgoing two-term
Republican Gov. George Deukmejian. In
1991, Wilson named a University of Califor-
nia, Davis law school contracts professor,
Daniel Fessler, to run the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC).
California at the time had a conven-
tional, vertically integrated utility market.
The CPUC regulated the three large inves-
tor-owned utilities (IOUs), Pacific Gas &
Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edi-
son (SCE), and San Diego Gas and Electric
(SDG&E), while big public power systems,
including the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power and the Sacramento Mu-
nicipal Utility District, were not subject to
CPUC jurisdiction. Rates in the state were
well above the national average. Utilities
were not building new generation. Wilson
and Fessler believed the states stagnant
electricity market was a drag on Califor-
nias economic growth.
Fessler argued the solution to Californias
electric woes was to bring competition to
the investor-owned utility market, where
PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E had carved the state
up into regional monopolies. Bolstered by
the federal 1992 Energy Policy Act, which
encouraged electric competition, Fesslers
CPUC in 1993 began a three-year inquiry
into restructuring the states electric sys-
tem. The eventual outcome was state
legislation (AB 1890), which passed the
California Legislature unanimously in 1996.
The result was near-disaster. The edifice
that California erected as a result of AB
1890 collapsed in a political and economic
inferno just four years later, after Wilson
had vacated the governors office and Dem-
ocrat Gray Davis replaced him.
Stanford Universitys James Sweeney,
examining the failure of the California re-
structure soon after it cratered, said that
the final legislation was not bad, but
the implementation was severely flawed.
Those flaws caused the collapse of the
newly created wholesale competitive mar-
ket and led, as a result, to the current in-
carnation of CAISO.
The original restructuring created the
|
March 2017 POWER
3. Overwatch. CAISOs control center in Folsom, Calif., watches over a far-flung service
territory from the Mexican border to the Pacific Northwest. Courtesy: CAISO
California Power Exchange (PX) to man-
age the competitive auctions and the ISO
to dispatch the power that was success-
ful in the auctions. Following the lead set
by other states, the new law required the
investor-owned utilities to divest most of
their generation.
But problems arose quickly, including
confusion between the PX and CAISO. As
Sweeney diagnosed it, Utilities were re-
quired to sell what remained of their power
generating capacity and restricted them
from buying back that capacity, or any
other capacity, under long-term contracts.
This created a high-risk situation for the
investor-owned utilities.
In June of 2000, electricity prices on
the PX shot up. An April 2000 price of $30/
MWh spiked to $100 by June and to $450
by November. Yet it got worse. Sweeney
noted, The first five months of 2001 were
characterized by soaring wholesale prices,
energy emergencies, and a small number of
rolling blackouts. The pain was severe.
The utilities were bleeding money and
not credit-worthy. Without credit, they
couldnt buy electricity. Rolling blackouts
resulted. The state stepped in to become
the only buyer of power for the IOUs.
The problems were exacerbated by en-
ergy marketers, including the criminal
Enron Corp. (on the verge of one of the
largest business failures in U.S. history),
which were able to manipulate the opaque
PX to their financial benefit. Still, Swee-
ney argues that it wasnt marketers but the
failure of the states political leadership to
understand the situation that led to the
market collapse.
State officials, starting with Gov. Davis,
faced intense political pressure to correct
www.powermag.com
POWER MARKETS
the situation. They responded by capping
retail prices (which hamstrung utility in-
come) even as wholesale prices (where the
utilities had to spend their cash) contin-
ued to soar. California did not rise to the
challenge and allow price signals to pass to
the consumer, wrote Sweeney, thus cre-
ating a crisis. PG&E, one of the nations
largest utilities, had to file for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection; SCE came close,
avoiding filing only through a rescue from
the state government.
By June 2001, demand had dropped in
response to the extraordinary prices, new
gas-fired generation was coming online,
and the crisis finally abated. The PX died,
and its market-making functions were
moved to CAISO, which was able to create
a successful independent system operator
with well-understood policies and prac-
tices (Figure 3).
The political fallout essentially ended
Daviss career. Angry voters threw him
out of office in a special recall election in
2003, largely in reaction to the power cri-
sis and his ham-fisted responses, making
him only the second governor in U.S. his-
tory to be recalled.
Hollywood star and newly minted Re-
publican Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced
Davis in the special election. Since then,
noted Natural Resources Defense Council
California electricity maven Ralph Cavana-
gh in an interview, Californias governors,
who pick the ISOs board of directors, have
appointed experienced energy experts, not
figures with political agendas. Likely still
gun-shy after what happened to Davis,
the political system has not attempted to
influence the ISOs policies or operations
since.
59
 POWER MARKETS
4. Growing connections. The Celio
high-voltage direct-current converter station
in Oregon is the northern end of the Pacific
Intertie, which moves power between the Pa-
cific Northwest and Southern California. ABB
recently upgraded its capacity to 3,800 MW.
Courtesy: ABB
of Redding, City of Roseville, Sacramento
Municipal Utility District [SMUD], City of
Shasta Lake, and Trinity Public Utilities Dis-
trict) and SMUD itselfhad agreed to join
the imbalance market.
Gateway to an RTO?
Is CAISO morphing into a larger integrated
wholesale market for the western U.S.? Ber-
berich is cautious. Even a small sliver of
the market has significant value, he says.
He adds that collaboration in the West is
growing, but that the imbalance market is
not necessarily a gateway drug to a regional
transmission organization.
The Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) argues that the imbalance market
makes the case for a region-wide operator.
Ralph Cavanagh, co-director of NRDCs en-
ergy program and a long-time participant in
the shape of the California and western mar-
kets, told POWER in a January interview that
CAISO is too timid about the value of a full-
fledged ISO.
Cavanagh says the imbalance market is
helpful in combating Californias overgen-
eration. The imbalance market is a baby
step in the right direction, he said. But a
full-scale regional market is the way to com-
pletely doom the duck (Figure 4).
The imbalance market demonstrates a
small part of the benefits of full integration,
Cavanagh said. There is a strong indica-
tion that this is the direction that everyone is
prepared to go. He added that CAISO has
performed very effectively, and that it long
ago evolved into a western institution, not
just a California-centric operation. We do
have a western grid, he said. The question
is whether we should manage it effectively,
by which he means a regional transmission
organization.
A recent paper by NRDC attorney Al-
lison ClementsMaking Sense of Poten-
60
tial Western ISO Governance Structures:
The Role of the States (see http://on.nrdc.
org/2j1H4Qr)says, A broader regional
grid operator can provide substantial annual
savings for customers across Western states.
In California alone, for example, benefits
from grid regionalization are estimated to in-
crease over time from $150 million per year
to more than $1 billion in 2030. It also al-
lows for even more rapid and cost-effective
integration of wind and solar power than is
already happening and lowers the cost of sat-
isfying state and federal environmental regu-
lations with implications for the grid.
Clements adds, Developing wholesale
energy markets also provides an opportunity
for competition in the power industry that has
not existed previously across the Western In-
terconnection. Failure to build a region-wide
wholesale market will likely cost consumers
billions of dollars over time, require the de-
velopment of duplicative infrastructure and
generation because less resource sharing will
be possible, and make regulatory compliance
more difficult and expensive for states in the
Western Interconnection.
Steep Obstacles
Despite the supposed benefits, implementing
a new Western ISO could face political ob-
stacles among some of the electric systems
in its ambit and at the Federal Energy Regu-
latory Commission (FERC), which regulates
interstate electricity commerce. The NRDC
analysis says Section 205 of the 1935 Fed-
eral Power Act, which gives states the right
to participate in FERC proceedings to estab-
lish that wholesale rates are just and rea-
sonable, is a path for a western ISO. FERC
and the courts have said this provision gives
states the ability to participate in proceedings
establishing an ISO under federal law. The
Midcontinent Independent System Operator
and the Southwest Power Pool used Section
205 to establish who gets to run the systems
in the broader interstate wholesale market for
their regions.
In California, the Imperial Irrigation Dis-
trict (IID), a public power utility managing
water and electricity in the Southern Califor-
nia desert with 150,000 electric customers,
opposes a regional ISO. IID says a wholesale
market and integrated grid means that, Cali-
fornia could be forced to accept dirty [coal- wholesale independent transmission operator
fired] electricity generated in other states,
and federal lawsuits that could destroy years
of clean-energy legislation in California, due
to preemption by the Interstate Commerce
Clause and the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. CAISO nevertheless argues
that a regional ISO would follow the states
prohibition of coal-fired power from any-
where, including out-of-state generation.
www.powermag.com
This year could be crucial for the emer-
gence of a western system operator, accord-
ing to NRDCs Cavanagh. In order for the
fully integrated regional market to work,
governance must be region-wide, divorced
from parochial state politics, he says. Cali-
fornia would have to change its law covering
the ISO, as the governor now appoints the
ISOs board.
The California Legislature returned to
Sacramento in January and will be in session
into September. Cavanagh says the current
session is the time to act on legislation creat-
ing an independent board of governors as the
crucial step for a region-wide transmission
operator. Notably, Gov. Jerry Brown is back-
ing the plan to build out an ISO.
Meanwhile, a rival western regional
system operator could undercut efforts to
expand CAISO. The Mountain West Trans-
mission Groupseven Rocky Mountain
transmission-owning utilities working with
the Department of Energys Western Area
Power Administration (WAPA)are explor-
ing their own organized market that could
compete with a California-centric ISO. The
Mountain West footprint would encompass
Colorado, Wyoming, and pieces of Arizona,
Montana, New Mexico, and Utah, according
to the RTO Insider newsletter. The WAPA re-
lationship makes the proposed ISO attractive
to some utilities that view the CAISO expan-
sion as too California-oriented and to stake-
holders long wary of trends coming from the
Left Coast.
Utah Associated Municipal Power Sys-
tems (UAMPS), supplying power to eight
western states, is among those viewing a
larger California ISO skeptically and look-
ing at Mountain West. UAMPS CEO Doug
Hunter told Utah legislators last July that
CAISO is not the only game in town, say-
ing UAMPS likes the model based on WA-
PAs footprint. It runs right through us, he
said. It would be much better if the entire
west had access to it. Sources in California
told POWER that the Mountain West group is
looking at the Southwest Power Pool, head-
quartered in Little Rock, Ark., as a leader for
their alternative to the California proposal for
a regional ISO.
The market and political dramas could play
out this year. One outcome could be a new
in the West, built from the CAISO. Or there
could be two regional transmission operators:
a CAISO-oriented system including much of
the Pacific Northwest, and a Mountain West
system encompassing much of the Rocky
Mountain West. Both could compete for dom-
inance in the Western Interconnection.
Kennedy Maize is a frequent POWER
contributor.
|
POWER March 2017
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March 2017 POWER www.powermag.com 63
 COMMENTARY
Progress on GHG Emissions
Reduction in Canadas
Electricity Sector
Graham Campbell
educing emissions from the electricity sector continues as
R a primary transformational goal of government policy-mak-
ers, and the private and public companies managing elec-
tricity generation in Canada. Impressive progress has been made.
National Overview
Emissions from electricity generation made up just 11% of Can-
adas total in 2014. Over 79% of generation is non-emitting:
hydropower (63%), nuclear (13%), and renewables (3%).
More significantly, emissions from generation have been de-
clining steadily from 120 million metric tons (Mt) in 2000 to 78
Mt in 2014. Complete elimination of coal-fired generation from
Ontarios generation mix and lower demand due to the 2008 eco-
nomic downturn have been primary contributors.
GHG Mitigation PolicyNational and Provincial
Canada has implemented the full spectrum of climate policy tools:
carbon regulation, carbon pricing, cap-and-trade regimes within
Canada and linked to U.S. markets, significant investment in new
technology, and policy directives to green the generation mix.
In October 2016, the federal government announced plans to
implement a pan-Canadian carbon tax, beginning in 2018. Each
jurisdiction will be able to choose between a direct price on
carbon or a cap-and-trade system. All revenues will flow back to
the province or territory.
Canadas provinces have the lead role in all things related to
energy in keeping with their constitutionally assigned ownership
of resources within their boundaries. Not surprisingly, a variety
of emissions reduction policies have emerged; separate path-
ways, but with a common goal.
In 2009, Nova Scotia established greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-
sions regulations imposing caps on the electricity sector. As of
2014, Nova Scotia had already reduced emissions 17% below
1990 levels, and it was on track to reach 24% by 2020. An in-
ternal-to-Nova Scotia cap-and-trade system will retain revenues
and GHG reductions within the province.
In Ontario, elimination of coal-fired generation was set as a pro-
vincial policy goal in 2004, driven by health concerns. Coal-fired
generation was eliminated in late 2014, North Americas single
largest emissions reduction initiative. The 2009 Green Energy and
Economy Act provided for a succession of feed-in-tariff programs
incenting renewables, which now contribute 6% of generation.
To sustain nuclear powers 60% share of generation, plant re-
furbishments are in progress. Refurbishment of the four units at
Bruce A was completed successfully in 2012. Refurbishment of
the remaining units will commence in 2020. At Darlington, work
is now underway on a ten-year project to refurbish its four units.
Ontarios cap-and-trade program came into effect in July 2016,
linked with California and Qubec.
64 www.powermag.com
Following implementation of a sophisticated carbon regulation
regime in 2008, a first for Canada, Alberta launched its Climate Lead-
ership Plan in November 2015. Features are complete phase-out of
coal-fired generation by 2030, to be replaced by generation from
renewables and natural gas, and a target of 30% from renewables by
2030. Of the provinces 18 coal-fired plants, 12 are scheduled to be
taken off-line before 2030. An agreement has been reached between
three of the remaining plants and the Alberta government to com-
pensate owners for taking their plants off-line by 2030.
Marking recent technological progress are new electricity stor-
age services in Ontario, based on a variety of storage technolo-
gies. Saskatchewans world-first CO2 capture facility at SaskPowers
Boundary Dam plant began operation in late 2014, integrated with
use of the captured CO2 to enhance oil production at a neighbor-
ing oil field and disposal of the remainder in a deep geological
formation. To facilitate interprovincial electricity trade, increased
interconnection capacity has been installed between Qubec and
Ontario, and is being considered in other regions as well.
The Path Forward
Do issues remain? For sure: increases in electricity prices, meet-
ing Canadas 2030 target, and uncertainty about energy trade
have emerged as critical issues.
The recent increase in electricity prices has become a hot but-
ton issue in jurisdictions in the midst of greening their genera-
tion. Expect electricity prices to remain a political issue.
Second, there is a significant gap to be closed to meet Cana-
das national target of a 30% reduction in emissions relative to
2005 levels by 2030. According to government projections, an-
nual emissions will at best remain flat at roughly 750 Mt to 2030.
To reach the 2030 target, emissions will need to be reduced to
524 Mt, a decrease of more than 225 Mt. Recently-announced
policy actions will certainly help meet Canadas national target.
The impact of the emerging energy policies of the U.S. ad-
ministration on Canada is unknown at the time of writing (mid-
January 2017). Energy markets connecting Canada, the U.S., and
Mexico are highly integrated and mutually beneficial.
In addition to the generation story, we will see greater elec-
trification in end-use sectors, particularly in transportation, and
the beneficial impacts from utilities investment in decentralized
generation, smart grid networks, and demand side management.
In closing, Canadas electricity sector has already made a sub-
stantial contribution to GHG reductions, and it will continue to
do so as recently announced policies and further actions by elec-
tricity providers and distributors roll out.
Graham Campbell is president of the Energy Council of
Canada, which works with members from all energy sectors, and
the federal and provincial governments, and serves as Canadas
representative to the World Energy Council.
|
POWER March 2017
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