ABB

ABB Wins GIS substation Order for PPL’s Sunbury Project

ABB provided a 500kV turnkey gas insulated switchgear (GIS) substation to upgrade the existing PPL Electric Utilities’ Sunbury Substation located north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. ABB is providing all engineering, equipment and construction for the project, including the GIS switchgear, its associated foundation and enclosure and the GIS bus work that will be extending from the enclosure to the existing transformer and 500kV lines.

Digest

DOE funds B&W to develop and license small modular reactor technology; Panda awards 758-MW combined cycle contract to Bechtel; AEP picks Open Systems International to manage SPP and PJM generation assets; GDF Suez teams up with Viridity Energy for DR services; NRG and PJM go live with University of Delaware V2G project; Minnesota Power energizes new substation serving taconite mine; FP&L completes 4.5-million smart meter rollout; plus contracts and announcements from Duke, FirstSolar, Iberdrola, SRP, ABB, Elster, Siemens, and others.

Digest

Abengoa and BrightSource Energy agreed to jointly develop, build, and operate what the companies say will be the world’s two largest solar power towers. GE began operating a prototype of what it calls the world’s most efficient high-output wind turbine. Hawaiian Electric Co. dedicated the new 5-MW Kalaeloa solar farm in West Oahu, Hawaii. And more...

Digest

TVA moving ahead with Babcock & Wilcox mPower small modular reactor; Bechtel begins refueling and uprate work at Xcel's Monticello plant; NRG starts operations at 66-MW PV facility; NIST starts developing cybersecurity framework under presidential order; BPA to upgrade HVDC converter station; PacifiCorp working with CAISO to create real-time energy market; Cupertino Electric to install 230-kV line for 200-MW PV plant; plus contracts and announcements from Alstom, Siemens, Echelon, EPRI, Sempra, and others.

ABB to Upgrade HVDC Converter Station

NB Power awarded a contract to ABB to upgrade to the Eel River high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter station, located near Dalhousie, New Brunswick. The bidirectional station transfers up to 350 MW and is one of two facilities allowing power exchange between New Brunswick and Quebec, providing access to Maritime and New England markets. 

ABB to Deliver Subsea Link to Iceland

Landsnet, the Icelandic transmission system operator, awarded $10 million order to ABB to supply a high-voltage submarine and underground power-cable system that will transport electricity from the mainland to the volcanic island of Heimaey. The new 72-kV line will replace an existing cable that is approaching the end of its operating life. The 17.5-km line will include a 13-km submarine section, a 4.5-km underground section, and an integrated fiber-optic cable for telecommunications and temperature monitoring.

Digest

Duke installed a 36-MW energy storage facility at the Notrees wind farm; Ameren Illinois plans to deploy a Landis+Gyr mesh network; GE and Toshiba formed a strategic alliance to develop combined-cycle power projects; Alberta Newsprint contracted Caterpillar to supply gensets totaling 65 MW; Duke Energy plans to retire two coal-fired stations; EDF started operations at a 150-MW wind project; Sempra completed the first 150-MW phase of the Mesquite solar complex; Atlantic Wind selected Bechtel to build an offshore HVDC transmission line; Alstom Grid and Capgemini allied to offer smart grid solutions; plus contracts and announcements from Itron, Qualcomm, Echelon, Siemens, Portland General Electric, Pattern Energy, Juhl Energy, Honda, and others.

ABB wins $260 million order to upgrade BPA power station

ABB won an order worth around $260 million from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to upgrade the existing Celilo HVDC (high-voltage direct current) converter station in Oregon. This station is part of the electricity link between the Pacific Northwest and Southern California commissioned in 1970. The Celilo converter station is located at the north end of the Pacific DC Intertie, also known as Path 65, which has a capacity of 3,100 MW, and originates near the Columbia River. The order was booked in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Echelon selected for Swedish smart grid

Echelon was selected to provide smart grid systems for the Smart Grid Gotland project, a large-scale, technology demonstration on the island of Gotland, Sweden. The project is sponsored by a joint venture between Vattenfall, Gotland Energy, ABB, Swedish National Grid, Schneider Electric, and the Royal Institute of Technology, and and is partly financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. Echelon will provide its edge control node, its control operating system (COS) -based application platform, and 3,000 advanced grid sensors, which also provide smart metering functionality.

Very Roughly Commensurate

Analyzing the Order 1000 comply filings from non-RTO regions.

Last fall, utilities across the country began filing tariffs with FERC to explain how they’ll comply with Order 1000. That’s quite a handful, but maybe not a stretch for the RTOs. Not so for the non-RTO regions.