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.
Start-up of the delayed 775MW Denizli power plant, developed at a cost of €600 million under a joint venture between RWE (70%) and Turcas (30%), is expected to take place as early as June, RWE confirmed. The combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant was initially planned to commence full commercial operation at the end of 2012.
Progress Power, a British power plant developer, has proposed to build a 299MW gas-fired power plant valued at £200 million for the Eye Airfield in Suffolk. Development of the project, however, hinges on forthcoming legislation on capacity remuneration mechanisms in the UK.
"In order to get project financing we need long-term revenue certainty by successfully participating in the capacity mechanism auction," said Chris McKerrow, project manager for Progress Power on the Suffolk project.
India's Central Electricity Authority (CEA), which oversees development of the national grid for the Indian Ministry of Power, has reduced its gas-fired generation target for the current year by almost 46 per cent amid gas supply shortages. Low natural gas production output last year is expected to continue through 2013, an official told The Economic Times, despite Reliance Industry's recent announcement of a "significant gas condensate discovery in deepwater KG D6 block".
The UK government is likely to oppose an EU renewables target for 2030 which is considered "inflexible and unnecessary", energy secretary Ed Davey said. He made the comment after the European Parliament on Monday extended a deadline for the submission of amendments to a proposal to intervene in the carbon market.
May 28 - Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and the California Energy Commission have launched a battery energy storage system pilot project in east San Jose to better balance power needs of the electric grid.
The project launch was made possible following a $3.3 million grant from the Energy Commission to PG&E that will help fund the installation and evaluation of the system.
Energy security, diversity and local reliability for cities and industries are critical features of clean energy infrastructure. An often overlooked feature, however, is the summer CHP load, which could be waste heat absorption chilling to prevent power use and to reduce fuel consumption, Manfred Klein, former chairman of the Industrial Applications of Gas Turbines (IAGT) Committee told Gas to Power Journal.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects the extension of the renewable electricity production tax credit (PTC), which Congress extended on 1 January as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA), will result in the addition of significant wind capacity in the US over the next three years. A higher share of intermittent wind energy will require flexible fossil backup capacity.