Richard T. Flanagan

Today's News
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World-Gen was invited to attend the 2011 Governor’s Energy Conference in Oklahoma where
Governor Mary Fallin unveiled the Oklahoma First Energy Plan, a comprehensive blueprint for the
state’s energy future. Key strategies include: increase NGV’s; develop the Keystone XL Pipeline; support
safe hydraulic fracturing; implement a new energy efficiency initiative; increase energy production in
renewables and expand transmission.
In 2012, more than 3,000 veterans in Oklahoma’s National Guard are scheduled to return home.
As they return home from Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations overseas, she’ll work with career technology
centers to place them at good jobs in the energy sector, where many of their skills are transferable to
private sector jobs. Governor Mary Fallin is the first woman to be elected Governor of Oklahoma. She
served two terms in the Oklahoma House before becoming the first woman and first Republican to be
elected Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma in 1994. In 2006, she was elected to the US Congress.
Coverage starts on page 1.
Julia Hamm, CEO of the Solar Electric Power Association, led the SPI 2011 audience twenty years
into the future with her vision about solar energy in 2031. Hamm stressed the importance of collaboration
between the solar industry and utilities to make her vision of 2031 a reality, on page 1.
Lyn Corum reports on page 13 that California needs peaker plants to handle the intermittency of
renewables. Utilities must bring 33 percent renewables into the state’s grid by 2020. 17,000 megawatts of
renewables are planned and Cal ISO manages twice that.
The Fukushima disaster will have some serious impact on the global nuclear industry, Jean-Louis
Poirier writes on page 14. He foresees three specific outcomes: a safer operating fleet, as a result of a
worldwide call for enhanced standards and plant reinforcements; a notable reduction in new reactor
building activity; and an interest in new reactor technology, including small modular reactors (SMRs)
and next generation (Gen IV) reactors.
The EV trends have been very much supportive, said Dan Potash who reported three years ago. One
of the trends supporting electric cars is the proposed curtailment rules for wind generators that reduce or
eliminate the market value of off-peak power. For that and other reasons, it’s time to take another look at
electric cars and consider if this is not the most significant development, and opportunity, facing the U.S.
power sector, he suggests on page 15.
Dennis McLaughlin, Class of 2001, covering Schneider’s Electric 2011 Energy and Distribution
Conference in Chicago points out on page 16 that the nation entered the electric economy. In 1950 only
20 percent of US GDP was dependent of electricity compared with more than 60 percent of the country’s
GDP reliance on electricity today. Just as the US economy grew with easy access to reliable, cheap petroleum
in the 20th Century, the nation will need to key-in on the value and role of electric power to maintain
its prosperity in the 21st.
Roger D. Stark and Darin Lowder write on page 17 that The U.S. Army announced plans to solicit
and award multiple indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts as the predicate for power purchase
agreement task orders in an aggregate amount of up to $5 billion (with individual task orders expected to
range from $50 million to $900 million each). The renewable or alternative energy projects will be
financed, constructed, operated and maintained by private contractors, and located on or near Army
installations.
David Owens of EEI explains on page 18 that the smart meters utilities are installing to replace the
traditional analog meters that have been in use for almost a century are a very visible feature of this new,
modern grid. A new survey by the Institute for Electric Efficiency (IEE) found that as of September 2011,
27 million smart electric meters have been installed. The IEE survey estimates that approximately 65
million smart meters will be installed by 2015. A growing area of concern for electric utilities is the
potential for technological obsolescence. In contrast to traditional utility investments that have long, stable
asset lives, smart technologies are anticipated to evolve rapidly over the coming years.
Paul Myrda numbers the initiatives EPRI is taking on smarter transmission applications on page
19. Asset management and the smart grid will be a powerful tool for electric utilities. It is one of the five
fundamental technologies that will drive the Smart Grid, according to the US Department of Energy
along with integrated communications, sensing and measurement, advanced control methods and
improved interfaces with decision support. Future research in asset management applications within the
smart grid should take place in two areas. The first should be with respect to specific assets, such as transformers,
circuit breakers, etc. The other area will need to enhance the computational capabilities to deal
with the large volumes of asset specific data and developing algorithms to adequately interpret the data
and turn it into actionable information.
At press time, Siemens dedicated its Charlotte, NC facility.
SIEMENS EXPANDS
CHARLOTTE, NC - Siemens Energy
completed the expansion of its Charlotte
hub with the opening of its new gas turbine
manufacturing plant. It took thirteen
months to build. The $350 million total
investment created more than 700 jobs. On
Nov. 16th, Siemens Energy, state and local
officials and the press, including World-Gen,
celebrated the official grand opening of the
new 450,000 sq. ft. gas turbine production
plant adjacent to its existing steam turbine
generator manufacturing plant. Randy
Zwirn, president and CEO of Siemens
Energy, said: “The first gas turbine leaving
the expanded facility, an SGT6-5000F gas
turbine will be exported to the 250mw La
Caridad 1 combined cycle power plant in
Sonora State, Mexico.” Zwirn also
announced that Siemens Energy and
Groupo Mexico signed another agreement
to supply a second 250 mw combined cycle
power plant for the La Caridad 2 project.
At a press conference, Xavier Garcia
de Quevedo, president of Groupo Mexico,
told World-Gen that Siemens won the RFP
based on being the only OEM able to turnkey
the plant.
Siemens will be responsible for the
full turnkey supply of the plant, which
includes plant engineering, procurement,
and construction. The main equipment to
be installed in the plant includes an SGT6-
5000F gas turbine, an SST-900 steam turbine,
an SGEN6-1000A generator, a heatrecovery
steam generator, and the complete
electrical and SPPA-T3000 instrumentation
& control equipment.
“The two combined cycle power plants
will provide Grupo México with significant
savings, as electricity is one of the main
cost factors at its coal mines,” said Xavier
Garcia de Quevedo. The La Caridad I and
II power plant projects will create over 1000
jobs during plant construction, and more
than 50 direct jobs during plant operation.
“With these two plants, Grupo México is
starting a series of energy projects in
Mexico in its infrastructure division, which
will also include renewables.”
EDITORIAL CALENDAR
February/March, 2012
CLASS OF 2012
Closing – February 1st
May/June, 2012
AMERICAN WIND ENERGYASSN. (AWEA)
EDISON ELECTRIC INSTITUTE (EEI)
POWER-GEN EUROPE (PGE)
ELECTRIC POWER (EP)
Closing – April 15th
Please stop-by PGI Exhibit 10013 in Las Vegas.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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August/September 2012
SOLAR POWER INTERNATIONAL (SPI)
GRID WEEK
Closing – July 15th
October/November 2012
POWER-GEN INTERNATIONAL (PGI)
Closing – September 15th
December 2012/January 2013
25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
Closing -- November 15th

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Bonus circulation is guaranteed at above conventions.

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