NEWS & TRENDS

ROTTEN OR SOUND?
Holding up power lines around the world are millions of wooden crossarms. Susceptible to rot, these structures must be inspected periodically. How do you do it? You climb the pole and hit the crossarm with a hammer—and you judge the condition of the wood by the sound the hammer makes. Imprecise, not to mention hazardous and time-consuming.

Entergy, which maintains 100,000 wooden crossarms in its territory, feels the same way. To find a better way, it provided funding to Georgia Institute of Technology researchers who have merged laser vibrometry and neural networks to create a remote inspection system.

It analyzes crossarms from the air, drastically reducing costs while boosting accuracy, according to the Spring 2000 Research Horizons, published by the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Paul Springer, a researcher in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, specializes in dynamics—how objects respond when struck or shaken. Drawing upon dynamics as well as his musical background, Springer began to think about the crossarms as a sounding board. He reasoned that a laser Doppler vibrometer mounted on a helicopter could measure crossarm response to the helicopter's engine and rotors, thus eliminating the need to make direct contact with the structure. It's similar to using a laser gun to detect the speed of a car—instead of measuring speed, the vibrometer detects the vibration of a surface by bouncing a laser beam off it. Damaged wood should give a different vibration spectrum than healthy wood.

But while the laser vibrometer can measure, it can't interpret the results. So Springer turned to James Mahaffey in the Georgia Tech Research Institute's Information Technology and Telecommunications Laboratory. Mahaffey studies neural networks, which are a type of artificial intelligence that attempts to imitate the way a human brain works. By harnessing the power of computers to sort massive amounts of data for patterns, neural networks create an algorithm of sorts. After "learning" from training data, they eventually can predict a reliable outcome from data never seen before.

Entergy provided the researchers with 15 crossarms. In a lab setting, an accelerometer measured crossarm vibrations while a gasoline engine operated nearby to simulate helicopter noise. After researchers recorded vibration spectra, they broke the crossarms to determine their condition.

Researchers then used the data from seven of the crossarms to train the neural network. They used the remaining crossarms to determine whether the neural network had learned to recognize crossarm condition.

The next step was to procure a laser vibrometer and test its ability to make remote measurements. Researchers had two goals for the field test—to determine whether the laser vibrometer would work from the air and to obtain a larger sampling of crossarms to finetune the neural network.

With data collected from 92 crossarms, the field test "far exceeded the most optimistic expectations," Springer said.

Springer, Mahaffey, and the Georgia Tech Research Corporation have filed a provisional patent application, and now the technology is almost ready for commercialization, but there are still a few considerations to address. There are no commercially available vibrometers with enough power to get a vibration signal from a long distance. Less expensive vibrometers require helicopters to fly in at closer range, which makes inspecting more time-consuming and cuts into the economic feasibility.

Yet even by conservative estimates, savings are impressive. Average costs for manual inspections are $50 per crossarm. Using a laser vibrometer and neural network, remote inspections would slice that to about $5 per structure.

For more information, contact Springer at 404/675-1815, or paul.springer@ee.gatech.edu.

LE NOUVEAU MILL€€NAIRE

During "Electricity: The New Millennium," last June's gathering of international electric utility organizations in Montr€€al, Edison Electric Institute (EEI) named PECO Energy Company and Union Fenosa as winners of the 41st annual Edison Award.

The Edison Award goes to the U.S. shareholder-owned member and international member making the most outstanding contributions to the advancement of the industry. The winners are chosen by a committee of national trade journal editors, and the nominees are reviewed by a panel of current and past EEI chairmen and academicians.

PECO Energy received the award for its commitment to growth and for transforming itself into an aggressive competitor. While PECO dealt successfully with massive hurricane-related outages in September during the third-worst storm in company history, it also announced its plans to merge with Unicom Corporation. The combination would create one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, mustering synergies and economies of scale to help the company succeed in the emerging competitive utility arena.

Also during 1999, the company's AmerGen nuclear generating company acquired two nuclear plants and announced plans to buy others, while its existing facilities reached new goals for efficiency and safety. PECO's Power Team became a leader in power marketing with sales volume of 43 million megawatt-hours in 1999. Its Exelon Infrastructure Services and Exelon Energy subsidiaries grew dramatically and became market leaders in creative ventures, from managing transmission and distribution systems to expanding telecommunications capacity and services. The company also invested heavily in its hometown commitment through community involvement, reliability assurance, and customer programs.

Union Fenosa, an EEI Spanish affiliate member, received the award in part for capitalizing on loosened restrictions in Spain's electricity market and parlaying its strengths to foster the company's global business and increase shareholder value. In 1999, the company moved dramatically forward in its mission to sell its expertise around the world by consulting, operating power systems, and investing in 37 countries.

Union Fenosa increased its share in competitive generation markets with investments in windpower, photovoltaics, biomass, and other advanced generation technologies. The company reorganized into divisions that tap market opportunities in generation, distribution, professional services, international investments, telecommunications, and industrial services. It made dramatic gains in customer service quality, establishing new internet-based customer services, and increased its investments in training its own professionals. At the same time, it has become the number-one ranked Spanish electric utility in delivering shareholder value, averaging 44.82 percent in annual return over the past five years.

During the Montr€€al meeting, the four electricity associations—EEI, Eurelectric (Europe), the Canadian Electricity Association, and the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan—and the International Energy Agency developed a set of principles to achieve "a common goal of providing reliable, reasonably priced electricity to meet growing needs in an environmentally responsible and economically sustainable manner":

• A reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible supply of electricity is fundamental to every nation's ability to meet the legitimate quality of life aspirations of its citizens. Without this basic element of modern society, disparities among the world's population will increase, leading to undesirable industrial and social effects in nations throughout the world.
• Governments should provide policy frameworks best characterized by open markets and avoidance of measures that distort those markets. Recognizing individual characteristics of their nations, policymakers and regulators should resist pressure to create specific outcomes where markets are chosen to replace regulation. They should rely on these markets to develop new, efficient solutions.
• Regulation of remaining monopoly components should recognize the need for long-term investment to develop, maintain, and expand electricity systems to customers' benefit. Competitive returns on investment are necessary to encourage innovation and development of robust, reliable electric systems.
• Development or expansion of electricity production or delivery systems requires governments to establish sound frameworks to encourage investment. Actions may include strategies and mechanisms to moderate the higher risks often present in developing countries in order to provide electricity at reasonable prices.
• Electricity remains the most versatile form of energy, offering production potential from many forms of indigenous and renewable sources both in grid-based and stand-alone settings. Policymakers should recognize the value of maintaining fuel diversity in supporting electric system economy and reliability.
• Governments and industry must continue to work cooperatively in the development of low-cost, efficient, and reliable technologies for production and delivery of electricity. Long-term public and private investment in technology research and development is essential and provides a valuable area for cooperation between government and industry.
• New and promising technologies may require special support to overcome hurdles based on technical development or economic scale in order to compete with historic technologies. However, experience has shown that mandating purchase or specific levels of market share tend to increase customer costs or distort the efficiency of electricity markets.
• Where societal goals, such as environmental protection, must be translated into costs reflected in the marketplace, governments and industry should strive together to find efficient, market-oriented solutions.

The June meeting also included the election of a new EEI chairman. John W. Rowe, chairman, president, and CEO of Unicom Corporation, was named to replace Public Service Company of New Mexico president and CEO Ben Montoya.

"The US electric utility industry is in the midst of a tremendous transformation that is rapidly changing the way we do business," said Rowe. "Of course, these changes are not unique to the United States, nor are the opportunities they present constrained by international borders. I cannot imagine a more exciting time to be assuming this leadership role."

Erle Nye, chairman and CEO of TXU, was elected EEI's first vice chairman, and Erroll B. Davis, Jr., chairman, president, and CEO of Alliant Energy Corporation, was elected second vice chairman.

PLAYING BY THE RULES

Edison Electric Institute's Alliance of Energy Suppliers recently released "Wholesale Markets: A User's Guide to Rules, Tariffs, and Agreements," a reference designed to help power generators and marketers save time and money in researching the rules and regulations of the rapidly evolving wholesale electricity markets.

"As regional transmission organizations and power exchanges are being negotiated and implemented," said Richard McMahon, group director of the Alliance, "developing new rules to ensure full competition and equitable access is proving to be a varied process." Having a guide to these rules, he said, will help the players compete more efficiently and effectively in the new markets.

The guide documents and analyzes the specific rules, tariffs, and agreements for each of the nation's regional transmission organizations and power exchanges. It also includes information about independent system operator corporate characteristics and operational responsibilities, as well as the rules governing capacity and energy markets, ancillary services, transmission access, and congestion management.

The guide is available to its sponsors via a searchable database on the Alliance website (www.eei.org/alliance) or in print. According to McMahon, the Guide is part of a larger initiative by the Alliance to help create a liquid, robust wholesale electricity marketplace. The information will be updated quarterly to keep sponsors current with the most recent market changes.

For more information about the guide or to become a sponsor, contact Jack Cashin with the Alliance of Energy Suppliers at 202/508-5499 or jcashin@eei.org.

CROSSING LONG ISLAND SOUND

Last May, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the request of TransEnergie US (a division of Hydro-Qu€€bec) to sell electric transmission capacity on a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) undersea link it plans to build between New Haven (CT) and Wildwood (NY), on Long Island.

The Cross Sound Cable Interconnector would link the New York independent system operator with the New England Power Pool, providing up to 600 megawatts of transfer capability and alleviating a transmission bottleneck between the two systems. Right now, the only route between them is through the western end of Long Island.

The starting point in New Haven will be near the United Illuminating Company's East Shore substation. After passing under Long Island Sound, the cable would link to the Long Island Power Authority's Shoreham substation. The 25-mile line, according to TransEnergie, would have minimal environmental impact, especially since both ends of the cable would terminate on existing utility property.

Studies on the feasibility of the line began in 1997; completion of the connection is scheduled for May 2002.

WIR FIGHTS NOX

At its Weatherspoon Plant near Lumberton (NC), Carolina Power & Light (CP&L) is witnessing 35-percent reductions in emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO_X) using a technology developed at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute in Russia. The system, known as Wir (or "vortex"), is operating in more than 20 coal-fired boilers in Central Europe, but CP&L is the first US utility company to use it.

The CP&L demonstration of Wir is in a tangentially fired boiler, which is shaped like a large metal can. Burners on the boiler's furnace wall blow pulverized coal and air into the furnace at an angle, creating a spinning effect and making combustion more efficient.

Wir involves re-aiming the burners and injecting new flows of air at the bottom of the can. These air flows produce a pair of horizontal vortices beneath the normal vertical one.

"This creates more turbulence, plus the ability to finetune the turbulence," said John Cleland, senior program director of energy and control systems at the Research Triangle Institute, which has developed Wir in the United States.

First, it makes a larger combustion region in which the coal remains for a longer time and burns at a lower temperature than normal. These conditions produce less NO_X than normal, without undue increases in other emissions such as carbon monoxide and fly ash.

Second, an oxygen-starved region forms in the lower part of the boiler furnace. Here, the chemistry of combustion breaks NO_X apart, destroying potential emissions.

"The idea is to send nitrogen back into the atmosphere," according to Cleland. Because air is 78 percent nitrogen, he explains, "we can't stop nitrogen from getting into the boiler, so we want it to just pass on through."

In addition to trying Wir in combination with other NO_X-control technologies, Research Triangle Institute wants to use it in wall-fired boilers, another common design.

PREMIUM POWER PARK

As computers and other electronics become more essential to manufacturing and business applications, voltage sags and spikes and the production downtime they create become more of a concern. Improving power quality on a customer-by-customer basis is the traditional route, but what about multiple customers in one area, like an industrial park?

Recently, EPRI awarded a contract to American Electric Power (AEP) and Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution to test whether new technologies can improve power quality at a reasonable cost for such aggregated customers. Premium power park technologies are designed to compensate for typical power delivery variations and to protect sensitive electronic devices. The concept requires integration within a utility's distribution system of several state-of-the-art power quality devices that previously have been used only as stand-alone pieces of equipment.

During the two-year experiment, AEP and Siemens will retrofit the Delaware (OH) Industrial Park, home to 11 manufacturing, warehousing, data processing, and assembly companies representing a variety of loads and power quality needs. As of June, four of the customers, representing approximately 70 percent of the load, had already agreed to participate in the project.

AEP will provide utility system expertise. Siemens will serve as the system integrator, performing investigation, coordination, and analysis work.

The research team will measure improvements in the park's power quality and reliability, as well as determine the customers' degree of satisfaction with the new system. The costs and benefits of serving multiple customers' power quality needs also will be evaluated.

"What makes this project unique is that it's the first time that multiple power quality technologies, utilizing a communications network between the devices, will be integrated into one plan and system" said Harry Vollkommer, AEP's project co-manager. "It also allows us to demonstrate that we can adapt existing systems with new technology."

MEETING OF INDUSTRY MINDS ON TAXES

Last July, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the American Public Power Association, and the Large Public Power Council reached an agreement supporting comprehensive tax legislation to facilitate competition for both publicly owned and shareholder-owned electric companies. The accord, capping a multi-year effort, addresses the tax portions of electric restructuring legislation under debate in the House and Senate.

For shareholder-owned utilities, the accord would eliminate taxes on contributions in aid of construction (which tend to discourage distribution upgrades). It would also defer taxes on the sale and eliminate taxes on the spinoff of electric transmission facilities (to streamline the formation of regional transmission organizations, or RTOs) and modify the tax treatment of nuclear decommissioning funds.

For public power, it would modify private-use provisions of the tax code so that such providers can provide open-access transmission and participate in RTOs.

"I'm pleased that the electric industry—both private and public entities—could solve this contentious issue for the benefit of all electric customers," said EEI president Tom Kuhn. He urged Congress to act without delay in enacting legislation that reflects the agreement. "These tax issues have become urgent for both shareholder-owned utilities and public power as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the states move forward with electric restructuring," he said.

TRANS-ATLANTIC TRADING

Canadian utility TransAlta and German electric company Hamburgische ElectricitatsWerke AG (HEW) recently announced the first ever transAtlantic trade of carbon dioxide (CO₂) reductions. The multi-year trade of 24,000 tons (equal to the annual emissions from approximately 3,000 cars) was brokered by New York-based Natsource; TransAlta is the buyer, and HEW is the seller.

"This deal is part of TransAlta's ongoing commitment to reduce our net greenhouse gas emissions and lead the way in proving that market-based mechanisms such as offsets and emissions reduction trading really work," said Bob Page, TransAlta's vice president of sustainable development.

"If Canada, and indeed the United States and Europe, are going to be able to meet Kyoto obligations without unduly harming our economies, making use of market mechanisms such as offsets and emissions reduction trading will be essential," he added.

"The trading mechanism ensures that greenhouse gas reduction projects are carried out where they
are the most cost-effective," said Helmuth Groscurth, head of the project group on environmental certificates at HEW. "At the same time, emissions reduction trading is an interesting new field of business for HEW. It may very well complement HEW's newly developed energy trading activities."

HEW's emissions reductions will be achieved by increasing production from its wind energy facilities in Hamburg. All the reductions will be verified by an independent monitoring organization.

TINY TRANSFORMERS

A technology licensed to Metal Oxide Technologies, Inc., from the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center (SVEC, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration facility) could shrink the size of electrical transformers by half. The technology uses high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires, and work is now underway on a pilot plant to produce the wires for use in powerline transformers. In conjunction with the Texas Center for Superconductivity, the SVEC team has developed a process for the rapid deposition of a very pure form of thin-film HTS material. With speeds exceeding 1 micron per minute, layer after layer can be deposited on flexible metal substrates to create thick HTS wires, which would be useful in several applications.

"HTS wire can carry extremely high currents with almost no loss, "said Dr. Alex Ignatiev, director of SVEC. "As a result, the size of a transformer can be reduced by approximately half, and there will be less loss. These transformers will have no need for oil cooling, eliminating environmental concerns with transformer fires, oil spills, and PCB [polychlorinated biphenyl] contamination from the oil."

The wires also would be useful in small motors and generators, large magnets, and transmission lines. Work is underway to find additional commercial partners interested in pursuing these applications. For more information, contact Ignatiev at the SVEC, spd@msfc.nasa.gov.

© 2008 Edison Electric Institute