Blog - Post List

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Optimal Operation of Coal Plant Ash Hoppers

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas Morris One of the byproducts of a coal plant is fly ash, which is cleaned from flue gas before it reaches the stack in a plant. Most often, this ash is removed using an electrostatic precipitator or ESP. Since this is substance that doesn’t reliably flow out of a collection bin or silo, operating the system can be problematic and the consequences of poor operation are many. An article in Power Engineering…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Regulations and Coal-Fired Power Plants

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Dennis Tkacs By Wknight94 talk (Own work) [ GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons At the end of 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule to regulate mercury and other pollutants from coal and oil fired power plants. Last month, this Mercury and Air Toxics Standard or MATS was dealt a setback by a Supreme Court ruling . The Supreme Court ruled that the EPA erred in not…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Improving Plant Heat Rate with Better Heater Level Measurement

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas Morris Improving heat rate is something that most power generators consistently look to do because it translates directly into lower fuel costs. In India, there are government legislated heat rate targets for plants where financial penalties or rewards are available depending on which side of the equation a plant lands. As most know, there are many ways to go about improving heat rate. These range…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Reliability–A Strategy for Power Generators

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas Morris Where it is installed, renewable generation is altering the operating landscape for power producers. Wind and solar assets are typically placed into the power grid whenever they are available, but since they are intermittent, formerly base loaded power plants are cycled in order to balance the grid. Unfortunately, many plants were not designed to operate like this and the increased amount…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Safely Monitoring Gas Turbines for Leaks

    Jim Cahill
    The post Safely Monitoring Gas Turbines for Leaks appeared first on the Emerson Process Experts blog. Douglas Morris Director of Marketing, Mining & Power Industries Author: Douglas Morris Everyone knows that gas generation is becoming more and more common for baseload power. It’s a proven, reliable, and less carbon intensive fossil technology for generating electricity. Plants that use it are also subject to some…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Power-Gen International—Heightening Plant and Fleet Readiness

    Jim Cahill
    If you’re in the power generation industry and attending (or considering attending) next week’s Power-Gen International conference in Orlando, Florida USA, make sure to connect with the Emerson team in Booth 1849 . They are ready to listen to the challenges you face and offer ways to heighten your plant and fleet readiness to help improve availability and gain more efficiency from your operations and workforce. Register…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Power Plant Monitoring

    Jim Cahill
    Douglas Morris Director of Marketing, Mining & Power Industries Author: Douglas Morris Wireless measurement devices are nothing new and installations are in just about every industry, including power. From my experience, power plants don’t choose to use wireless technologies to replace wired devices, rather they are used to solve some of those monitoring applications where the cost of laying copper is simply too expensive…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Critical Infrastructure and Cybersecurity

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Dennis Tkacs Not a day goes by without mention of a new cybersecurity incident, the hack of a prominent organization’s website, a new security threat, or an attack that compromises consumer financial information. US based retailers Target...

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Critical Infrastructure and Cybersecurity

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Dennis Tkacs Not a day goes by without mention of a new cybersecurity incident, the hack of a prominent organization’s website, a new security threat, or an attack that compromises consumer financial information. US based retailers Target and Home Depot are recent examples of companies befallen by cyber-attacks. The number of malicious files is staggering; Kaspersky Labs, a leading security software firm…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Improving Reliability in Power Generation: A Competitive Advantage

    Jim Cahill
    Douglas Morris Director of Marketing, Mining & Power Industries Author: Douglas Morris Recently, the consulting arm of Black & Veatch published its annual strategic directions report for the US utility industry. In 2014 “reliability” was again identified...

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Improving Reliability in Power Generation: A Competitive Advantage

    Jim Cahill
    Douglas Morris Director of Marketing, Mining & Power Industries Author: Douglas Morris Recently, the consulting arm of Black & Veatch published its annual strategic directions report for the US utility industry. In 2014 “reliability” was again identified as the top industry concern. This report discusses how technology will play an important role for utilities as they look to improve upon asset reliability. The…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Renewables and the Cost of Electricity in the EU

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas Morris Germany has established itself as a leader in developing renewable power and has accelerated its efforts since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. To date, the share of renewable generation in Germany exceeds 25 percent. To...

  • Alternative Energy Blog: The Graying Workforce-Is It Really True in Power Industry?

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas Morris The discussion about the impact of changing demographics has been around for a long time, but is it really taking place? I think this fact courtesy of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2010) says it all: Half of the electric utility...

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Improving HRSG Availability by Better Steam Temperature Control

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas Morris A while back, I wrote about using advanced control techniques to reduce steam temperature swings which can lead to boiler unavailability. Control improvements are one method to address this problem, but so is evaluating the mechanicals...

  • Alternative Energy Blog: A Path for Cleaner Coal

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas Morris Coal fired power receives a lot of attention and is in the news again with the recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s ability to regulate air pollution from coal-burning power...

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Condition Monitoring of Hydroelectric Plants

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas MorrisThings are not getting easier for the power industry as it experiences increasing complexity with dispatching generating units. Because dispatching is determined by a host of factors including cost, demand, transmission, environmental...

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Energy Industry Leaders Gather at CERAWeek 2014

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas MorrisThe 33rd annual CERAWeek Conference, led by Daniel Yergin, was held this week in Houston, Texas USA. This year’s event very much echoed the theme from the last couple of conferences and focused on unconventional oil and gas. The...

  • Power Blog: Energy Industry Leaders Gather at CERAWeek 2014

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas Morris The 33rd annual CERAWeek Conference, led by Daniel Yergin, was held this week in Houston, Texas USA. This year’s event very much echoed the theme from the last couple of conferences and focused on unconventional oil and gas. The...

  • Power Blog: Energy Industry Leaders Gather at CERAWeek 2014

    Jim Cahill
    Douglas Morris Mining and Power Industries Sr. Manager Author: Douglas Morris The 33 rd annual CERAWeek Conference, led by Daniel Yergin , was held this week in Houston, Texas USA. This year’s event very much echoed the theme from the last couple of conferences and focused on unconventional oil and gas. The effects of these unconventional sources have global ramifications from both an energy and geopolitical standpoint…

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Knowledge Sharing at Ovation User Group

    Jim Cahill
    User group conferences are a tremendous source of peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. What’s learned at these conferences can be invaluable as a shortcut to learning what works well, what to avoid, and who has similar interests with whom you can connect....

  • Alternative Energy Blog: Improving HRSG Availability through Better Desuperheating

    Jim Cahill
    Thermal fatigue in heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) tubes can lead to lost electrical production. Emerson’s Douglas Morris, a member of the Power and Mining industry teams, recaps a presentation he attended by Emerson’s Mark Nord. Tube leaks in HRSGs...

  • Power Blog: Energy from Municipal Waste Project Update

    Jim Cahill
    In an earlier post, Plasma Gasification-Municipal Waste as a Power Source, we highlighted this process as an effective way to create energy from waste. I received news from Emerson’s Barbara Hamilton that the Industrial Energy consulting and global project...

  • Power Blog: Energy from Municipal Waste Project Update

    Jim Cahill
    In an earlier post, Plasma Gasification-Municipal Waste as a Power Source , we highlighted this process as an effective way to create energy from waste. I received news from Emerson’s Barbara Hamilton that the Industrial Energy consulting and global project services teams have been working on a project expected to come on line in 2014. The plant is being built near an existing landfill and is expected to divert 350…

  • Power Blog: Pressure Transmitters for Nuclear Power Plant Safety Applications

    Jim Cahill
    Rosemount pressure measurement instrumentation has been part of nuclear power plants’ process automation for more than four decades. The news item from last week, Emerson offers improved safety and performance solutions with new series of nuclear pressure...

  • Power Blog: Around the World in Power-The Challenges of Energy Policy

    Jim Cahill
    Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the Power and Mining industry teams, shares the latest trends in renewable energy in Germany in today’s post. It’s been an active week for stories about the power industry: the impact of renewable power in Germany; the nuclear...

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