Siemens Energy has launched a free online game that allows the player to design a sustainable energy system for a city, whereby the energy manager is challenged by the immediate influence of changes in weather conditions on the performance of renewables.
Investment in new gas-fired power plants in the UK is "critical" in the upcoming years, especially if the country is to transition to a low carbon economy, Jonathan Holyoak, Head of Gas Generation at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) told the Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum's keynote seminar in London. "There is a remarkable amount of political consensus about the need to do something about [building new] gas generation...as over time we see the capacity outlook deteriorating," he said.
Capstone Turbine Corporation, manufacturer of microturbine systems, has won an order to supply three Hybrid UPS units to create a combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) that will supply critical power load for an US data centre in Monterey Park, belonging to gas utility Southern California Gas Company.
New investments in gas-fired capacity in the UK are being put on hold until there is clarity surrounding the government's ongoing Energy Market Reform (EMR), George Grant, Director at Stag Energy told Gas to Power Journal at the Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum keynote seminar in London. "The industry acknowledges that we are waiting for the EMR, part of which is the capacity mechanism that's being talked about [and] there isn't going to be any new investment in gas until that's clarified. So the phrase that's being thrown out about there being a dash for gas is just incorrect," he said.
The power sector in Pakistan has seen nationwide load-shedding in the last week of May, leaving electricity production in an estimated 4,000MW shortfall, after the closure of the partially state-owned Qadirpur gas field for annual maintenance contributed to a gas shortage of reportedly 1.2 billion cubic feet a day (Bcf/d).
Tamarete Energia, a special purpose company owned by power and water utility HERA Group, BKW Italia and Odoardo Zecca, has started commercial operations of its new 104-megawatt combined-cycle power plant (CCPP) near the city of Ortona, using two GE gas turbine generators and one steam turbine generator.
Appalachian Power, a unit of American Electric Power (AEP), has sought approval to start a $65 million project to convert the coal-fired Virginian Clinch River Plant to run on natural gas, to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Rule introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA).
If the project goes ahead, AEP aims to complete the entire conversion before 2016, while units 1 and 2 scheduled to be re-fuelled with natural gas by end-2014.
Sembcorp Industries (Sembcorp) has been given the green light by the Vietnamese government that its 1,200-megawatt (MW) project in central Vietnam will be included in the country's national power development plan for the 2011-2020 period.
The implementation of a capacity mechanism as part of the UK's Energy Market Reform (EMR) should be done "as soon as possible" in order to spur investment and prevent electricity shortfalls in the coming decade, Stephen Davies, Energy and Environmental Policy at E.on UK told Gas to Power Journal at the Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum keynote seminar in London. "From our point of view a capacity mechanism is necessary. It's very difficult for any investor to build right now and looking at the spark spread, the market is very challenging for gas," he said.
Upgrade works at RWE npower's combined-cycle gas-fired Little Barford Power Station, located on south of St Neots, have been completed and, following a year-long £100 million upgrade, the plant is now operates with an higher efficiency of 55 percent and reduced carbon and nitrogen oxides emission, the operator confirmed.
Discoveries of offshore gas field in Tanzania are expected to prompt the government to help expand the market share of gas-fired power generation with a view to decreasing dependence on hydropower to reduce risk exposure to drought, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts.
Brunei's national energy company Berakas Power Company (BPC) has commissioned GE Oil & Gas to install its ORegenTM waste-heat recovery systems to increase the output and efficiency of four GE LM2500 aeroderivative gas turbines at the Berakas Power Station, located outside the capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan in the Sultanate of Brunei.