Arc Light, Gramme Machine, The Great Train Robbery
April Birthdays
Charles Brush, Zenobe Gramme, Edwin Porter, Hydro-Quebec, Guglielmo Marconi
Hydro-Quebec
Digest (June 2014)
Algonquin Power & Utilities enters partnership with Siemens Canada for 10 wind turbines expected to start operation early next year; Strata Solar installs nine utility-scale solar projects in North Carolina; Ontario Power Generation establishes agreement with Westinghouse to consider nuclear plant refurbishment, decommissioning and remediation; JinkoSolar successfully connects solar power plant in Jiangsu Province; El Paso Pipeline acquires 50 percent interest in Ruby Pipeline from Kinder Morgan
Hydro-Quebec and Sony Form Joint Venture for Large-Scale Energy Storage Systems
Submitted by aburr on Tue, 2014-04-22 11:41Hydro-Québec and Sony Corporation (Sony) established a joint venture to research and develop a large-scale energy storage system for power grids. The new company will utilize Hydro-Québec's operation and control technologies for electric power supplies as well as its lithium-ion battery material technology, together with Sony's control technologies for reliable, olivine-type lithium-ion iron phosphate rechargeable batteries and highly scalable module systems.
Digest
ComEd selects GE for 4 million smart meters; Duquesne contracts Itron for 625,000 smart meters; Consumers Energy plans 700-MW combined-cycle plant; Phoenix Solar contracts for 39-MW PV plant; NRG starts operation at two 20-MW PV plants in California; Edison files suit against Mitsubishi for SONGS defects; FirstEnergy plans 2 GW of coal-plant shutdowns; FERC approves PacifiCorp tie-in with Cal ISO; PSEG commissions EV-charging facilities; plus announcements and contracts involving Toshiba, Direct Energy, Alstom, and others.
Alstom to Supply Turbine-Generators to La Romaine 3 Hydroelectric Station
Submitted by aburr on Mon, 2013-08-05 22:09Alstom was awarded a contract worth more than $90 million CA for Hydro-Québec’s La Romaine 3 power house, one of four new power houses that make up the 1,550-MW La Romaine hydroelectric complex, located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. The scope of the contract includes the supply of two 200-MW vertical Francis turbine-generator units complete with butterfly valves and regulation systems. Alstom will install and commission the equipment at the La Romaine 3 site. This contract was booked during first quarter of fiscal year 2013/2014.
Vendor Neutral
(July 2012) NRC renews Entergy Pilgrim nuclear license. San Francisco selects EnerNOC. Entergy contracts with Comverge. FPL adds Quantum Ford F-150 PHEVs to its fleet. Lincoln Renewable Energy dedicates 12.5-MW NJ Oak solar project.
Vendor Neutral
(December 2011) Lafayette Utilities System selects Elster’s EnergyAxis as its AMI system; ABB wins contract from Hydro-Quebec; Sapphire Power Holdings acquires gas-fired power generation from Morris Energy Group; Consumers Energy awards contract to Babcock & Wilcox; plus announcements and contracts involving BP Wind Energy, Abengoa Solar, Samsung C&T and others.
Deal Friction
Why the green grid might do better without open access.
Are the Feds at war with green power development? You might have thought so, if you had sat through the conference held March 15, 2011, at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where the consensus seemed to be that FERC’s policy of granting open-access rights on electric transmission lines is problematic for green power projects. In short, when wind and solar developers choose to build their own local tie lines to link their projects to the larger grid, FERC policy forces them to make extra line capacity available to rival developers. That requirement doomed the novel Wind Spirit Project, and continues to complicate the job of project financing.
Vendor Neutral
Generation
FEI Company, a diversified scientific instruments company providing electron and ion-beam microscopes and tools for nanoscale applications, completed a multiple system installation at the Materials Ageing Institute (MAI) in France, a utility-oriented research center financed by Electricite de France, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Kansai Electric Power Co. and the U.S. Electric Power Research Institute.
Federalizing the Grid
Renewable mandates will shift power to FERC but pose problems for RTOs.
A recent survey conducted by the U.S Office of Personnel Management and reported by the Washington Post on March 13 ranked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as eighth best of some 37 federal agencies in terms “talent,” and third in “leadership and knowledge.”