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AROUND THE WORLD

Alstom, Petrofac win Galloper electrical work  RWE Innogy has appointed Alstom and Petrofac to begin the detailed design of the electrical system for the 340MW Galloper offshore wind farm planned off the coast of Suffolk, UK.

 As part of the multimillion-pound contract, the UK-based consortium will provide the onshore and offshoresubstations and onshore cabling. It will also be responsible for ordering of some major electrical components suchas transformers, SVCs and offshore switchgear.

RWE says it expects the scope of the contact to be extended once a final investment decision is made forGalloper later in 2014.

Meanwhile, it says that enabling works for Galloper's onshore substation located near Sizewell in Suffolk are wellunderway with onshore cable installation works due to begin in early 2015. Further announcements are expectedshortly on the selection of preferred suppliers for other key contracts, says RWE 

US DOE funds six microgrid projectsThe US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced more than $8 million in funding for seven microgrid projects,

which it says will to help US towns and cities better prepare for extreme weather events and other potentialelectricity disruptions.

DOE is investing approximately $1.2 million in each of the seven projects, which are located in Alaska, California,Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee and Washington.

Each project also includes a company cost share ranging from 20 per cent to about 50 per cent, says DOE.

With the funding, Alstom Grid, Inc will research and design community microgrid systems in Philadelphia, usingportions of the former Philadelphia Navy Yard as a test bed; Minnesota-based Burr Energy will design and build aresilient microgrid for Olney, Maryland Town Center and Chicago-based ComEd will develop and test acommercial-grade microgrid controller that is capable of controlling a system of two or more interconnectedmicrogrids.

The US Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) project aims to develop a commercially viable standardisedmicrogrid controller that will allow a community to provide continuous power for critical loads, while GE GlobalResearch aims to develop an enhanced microgrid control system by adding new capabilities, such as frequencyregulation.

TDX Power, Inc. will engineer, design, simulate, and build a microgrid control system on Saint Paul Island, anisland located in the Bering Sea hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska.

Finally, the Advanced Power and Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine will develop and test ageneric microgrid controller intended to be readily adapted to manage a range of microgrid systems. With theCalifornia Independent System Operator Corporation providing technical advice, this project is expected to pavethe way for the development of open source industry standards, says DOE.

Microgrids are localised grids that are usually connected to the more traditional electric grid but can alsodisconnect to operate autonomously and help mitigate grid disturbances.

Atkins selected for SwanseaBayTidal Lagoon Swansea Bay Plc has appointed Atkins to act as client's engineer for its 320 MW Swansea Bay tidallagoon project in Wales, UK.

Under the contract, Atkins will provide specialist design and engineering support for the project, which will be theworld's first, man-made, energy-generating lagoon.

 Atkins' role includes producing outline designs for the breakwater, turbine house and ancillary works, as well assupporting the tender process by helping to develop documents, and reviewing responses and detailed designs.

Once a design and build contractor is appointed and construction work starts, Atkins says it will also provide arange of site supervision, auditing and technical checking services.

"This is a major civil engineering project which combines a wide range of disciplines from building services, powerand architecture to structural and marine engineering," says Mike McNicholas, managing director of Atkins' UKdesign and engineering business.

The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon is has been accepted for consideration as a Nationally Significant InfrastructureProject.

Construction is scheduled to start on Swansea Bay next spring, and it is slated to be connected to the NationalGrid in 2018. As planned it will be able to provide renewable power for over for 120 years, and make an importantcontribution towards the UK's carbon emission reduction targets.

Alstom sells steam auxiliary components business Alstom has completed the sale of its steam auxiliary components business to European investment firm, Triton for €730 million. 

The sale, first announced in November 2013, was part of Alstom's non-core asset disposal programme, and wasapproved by Alstom's board of directors in March 2014.

 Alstom says the corresponding activities, representing revenues in excess of €400 million have now been fullyseparated and transferred from Alstom to the newly fo unded ARVOS Group, with Triton as new sole sh areholder.The deal included transfer of the company's 1700 employees worldwide.

The steam auxiliary components business supplies air preheaters and gas-gas heaters for thermal powergeneration and industrial facilities, heat transfer solutions for industrial processes, and grinding mills used inindustrial applications and for power generation facilities below 100 MWe.

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 AVROS will be headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany with operations in Germany, the USA, Japan, China, India,Brazil, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. It will continue to be a major supplier to Alstom.

Power related mills activity above 100 MWe remains with Alstom.

Toshiba consortium to build Malaysian coal project

 A joint venture company created by Mitsui and 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has awarded aconsortium of Toshiba, IHI, Hyundai Engineering and Hyundai Engineering & Construction a contract to build a2000 MW ultra-supercritical power plant in Malaysia.

Under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, the consortium will supply and install two1000 MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired power units at the Jimah project in Mukim Jimah, Negeri Sembilan,including steam turbines, generators and related equipment.

The Energy Commission of Malaysia awarded the 1MDB-Mitsui joint venture, known as Jimah East Power, thecontract to develop, own and operate Jimah after a competitive international bidding process. The first unit isexpected to start commercial operation in 2018, and the second in the following year.

Power generated by the plant will be sold to TNB, Malaysia's national power utility, under a long term powerpurchase agreement.

CRWE to shut 1GW of coal plant 

RWE Generation plans to shut down a further three coal-fired power plants in Germany by 2017 if marketconditions do not change. In addition to the 1 000 MW of plant that will be taken offline, RWE has also announcedthat it is terminating supply contracts for 470 MW of capacity at the end of 2014.

RWE intends to take the 110 MW Goldenbergwerk lignite power plant in Hürth off the grid in the third quarter of2015, followed by Unit C of the Westfalen hard coal power plant (285 MW) in Hamm early in 2016. If marketconditions do not change, the part of Unit K fuelled by hard coal in the Gersteinwerk plant in Werne (610 MW) willcease to operate in the first quarter of 2017, when an extensive overhaul is scheduled. The plan ned upgrade workwould no longer be justifiable from an investment perspective under the current economic conditions, according toRWE.

RWE says it has already informed the network operators and the Federal Network Agency about these measures.It expects staff cuts to affect around 180 of the 640 employees at the three stations.

The closures bring the generating capacity of power stations that RWE is either totally or partially taking offline inGermany and the Netherland, or is no longer utilising on account of the difficult market conditions to around 9 000MW..

"Conventional power generation is losing ground - not just at RWE. Figures from the Federal Network Agencyindicate that, up to 2018, more secured power station capacity will have to be taken offline than is added throughcapital investment. This does not bode well for security of supply, to which wind and solar can make littlecontribution" says Peter Terium, CEO of RWE AG.

He expressed his support for a market design which compensates companies that keep secured generationcapacity on tap. "With a capacity market that is non-discriminatory and open to all technologies, Germany couldcreate an economically feasible basis to continue to operate indispensable generation facilities - and thussupplement the expansion of renewable energy."

The mild winter and the resulting low demand for heating, together with the continuing low level of prices on theelectricity markets, led to a significant decline in RWE's earnings for the first half of 2014. Compared to the first

half of 2013, EBITDA fell by 32 % to EUR 3.4 billion, while the operating result was down 40 % to EUR 2.3 billion.

Compact GIS switchgear promises to reduce offshorewind costs Siemens has launched what it describes as the "first compact gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) for high-voltagedirect current applications."

Describing the technology in a presentation to the recent Cigre conference in Paris, Siemens says its new 320 kVgas-insulated switchgear uses up to 95% less space compared to previous air-insulated equipment. When used inan offshore HVDC converter platform for offshore wind, "the platform size can thus be decreased b yapproximately 10%", the company says.

The DC direct current switchgear typically used in offshore converter stations uses air-insulated switchgear andthus requires a large amount of space because of air's relatively low insulating capabilities. The air-insulated DCswitchgear that has been used on Siemens' converter platforms until now occupies about 4000 cubic meters. Thecompany's new compact GIS switchgear needs only 200 cubic meters, for the same capacity. It believes thetechnology will establish itself as the standard for offshore converter platforms and thereby play a major role indecreasing costs for HVDC transmission grid connections.

While gas-insulated, three-phase current switchgear is well established there has not been a corresponding gas-insulated technology for direct current applications to date. Since controlling an electric field under direct current is

very complex, says Siemens, "it had not been possible until now to build gas-insulated, compact DC switchgearfor HVDC transmission applications." The development of a new isolator, which can permanently withstand thedemands of high-voltage direct currents, made it possible to develop the first DC GIS switchgear.

 A pilot station based on 320 kV DC components that simulates the connection of an offshore wind farm to the gridis currently being operated in a long term test run, Siemens says.

ABB completes HVDC link in Brazil  ABB has successfully commissioned what it claims is the longest transmission link in the world. The 2400 km-longhigh voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line will bring electricity from two hydropower plants in thenorthwest of Brazil to São Paulo, the country's main economic centre.

 ABB delivered two 3150 MW HVDC converter stations to Abengoa for the record-breaking Rio Madeira HVDCproject, which will deliver electricity from the Jirau and Santo Antonio hydropower projects.

The company also supplied an 800 MW HVDC back-to-back station that transmits power to the surroundingalternating current (AC) network in the northwest of Brazil

These are the fourth and fifth HVDC transmission links that ABB has delivered in Brazil, succeeding the two Itaipulinks (in 1984 and 1987), and the two interconnections between Brazil and Argentina (in 1999 and 2002).

Alstom wins HVDC trio worth €800M  Alstom Grid announced it has been awarded three major high voltage direct current (HVDC) contracts valued at €800 million. The contracts related to projects in India, South Korea and Canada. 

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Half of the order value was booked in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, and the remainder will be bookedin Q2, Alstom said.

In South Korea, Alstom has been a warded a HVDC Line Commutated Converter (LCC) project through its j ointventure, KEPCO-Alstom Power Electronics Systems (KAPES).

The project includes the design and supply equipment for a 33 km ±500 kV HVDC link with a power capacity of1.5 GW in the Seoul region. The system will transmit energy produced by the Dangjin power plant in the west ofSouth Korea, to the densely populated Pyeongtaek area, which lies to the east of Dangjin.

In Canada, Alstom has secured a turnkey contract from Nalcor Energy for the design, supply and installation of a±350 kV bi-pole HVDC LCC.The link will stretch 1 100 km from the 824 MW Muskrat Falls hydropower project in Labrador to Soldiers Pond,Newfoundland.

Finally, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) has contracted Alstom for the second phase of its ±800kV 3000 MW Ultra-High Voltage Direct Current (UHVDC) project, which will connect Champa to Kurukshetra.

 Alstom won the contract for the first phase of this project in 2012.With the two contracts, Alstom lines will enable transfer of up to 6 000 MW of power from central India to the northof the country.

ABB launches 525 kVunderground and subsea cable system 

 ABB has developed and tested a 525 kilovolt (kV) extruded high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable system,which it says will make renewable energy installations more efficient and cost-effective.

The new cable offers a 64 per cent increase over 320 kV, currently the highest voltage deployed for this type oftechnology. ABB claims this will more than double the power capacity from 1 000 MW to about 2 600 MW, andalso expand the cable's reach from less than 1 000 km to 1 500 kilometers, while keeping transmission lossesunder 5 per cent.

The system utilises cables with a new DC cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation material developed withBorealis, as well as termination and joints manufactured by ABB.

It can be deployed in subsea and underground applications, making it ideal for efficient power delivery throughdensely populated or environmentally sensitive areas or coastal and open-sea applications, ABB says.

The new system also supports the development of DC grids where ABB removed a key technology hurdle with thedevelopment of the hybrid HVDC breaker.

"This major technology breakthrough will change the feasibility of renewable energy projects and play a definingrole in using underground and subsea high voltage cables to integrate renewables over long distances," saidUlrich Spiesshofer, CEO of ABB.

Financial close for WestermeerwindConstruction of the 144 MW W estermeerwind wind farm in the Netherlands has started follo wing anannouncement by developer Westermeerwind that it has reached financial close.

Westermeerwind wind farm will consist of 48 wind turbines capable of producing over 500 GWh of renewableelectricity annually - enough for 160 000 households. It is part of the larger Windpark Noordoostpolder, whichconsists of three separate wind farms totalling 86 turbines on water and land.

The project will require a total investment of €400 million, of which €320 million will be provided by lendersincluding ING Bank NV and Eksport Kredit Fonden.

Siemens will provide the project's 3 MW turbines, which will be installed between 500m and 1100 m from the dikesof the Noordoostpolder. Dutch company VSMC has been awarded a contract for infield cabling.

Turbine installation is scheduled to start in March 2015 with the first machines expected to start delivering powerto the grid at the end of the year.

The turbines will be installed in water depths of 3-7 m in IJsselmeer, a freshwater lake in central Netherlands.

Solar Power Meets OilDrilling

 A company that uses solar energy to recover crude has scored big financing from some major oil players—andhighlights a growing niche of global oil exploration. soGlassPoint Solar last week landed a $53 million investmentfrom Royal Dutch Shell and the sovereign investment fund of Oman for its enhanced oil recover y (EOR)technology. In a twist of irony, GlassPont's technology runs on solar power, which produces steam to help pumpmore fossil fuel from conventional crude plays.

GlassPoint has been using this technique in Oman since 2012, and it helped the firm score more than double itsinitial funding. Given the age of its oil fields, Oman relies on EOR—a complex process that extracts more oil thantraditional drilling—to boost production.

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Gujarat solar power model for Odisha

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 After making solar power a success in its own state, the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute(GERMI) has decided to support other states in replicating similar models.

The autonomous body will provide technical support to the Odisha government to generate five MW of electricitythrough roof-top solar power plants in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. The rooftop plants will be set up on top of 120buildings in the twin cities by Green Energy Development Corporation of Odisha Limited (GEDCOL). "In the firstphase, the rooftops of government buildings will be used for setting up rooftop solar projects. A detailed projectreport is being prepared for harnessing sunshine on rooftops in the twin cities," said managing director ofGEDCOL Hemant Sharma. read more → 

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India Pushes Ultra-Mega Scheme to Scale Solar PV

With over 15% of the world’s population, India has lots of people. It also huge potential for solar power. A newproposal by India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) wants to wed those factors into a self -sustaining formula for steep and sustained economic growth. The scheme is called “Ultra Mega Solar” and thesecret ingredient is economies of scale.

The scheme envisions establishing 25 “solar parks” in the next five years, which would allow for the deployment of20 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic systems. Each individual solar park would have space for installation ofbetween 500 megawatts and 1 gigawatt of capacity. India will need to expand its power generating capacity toachieve its ambitious growth projections over the next decade. read more → 

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Shell Looks to Solar Power to Lift Oil OutputIn an unusual alliance of old and new energies, Royal Dutch Shell, the European oil group, and a sovereign

wealth fund from Oman are leading an investment of $53m into a small solar power company that uses itsrenewable energy to increase crude oil production.

Glasspoint, a California company, uses rows of curved mirrors in greenhouses to turn water into steam, which isthen injected into oilfields to heat heavy crude so it will flow out more easily. The company and its backers say thetechnology has great potential in oil-producing areas, especially in the Middle East. Even resource-rich countriessuch as Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are being forced to develop more challenging heavy oilfields, and alsohave many competing demands for the gas that is burnt to make steam.

Google Invests $145 Million in New 82MWSouthern California Solar Power PlantGoogle has agreed to invest $145 million in a 82MW solar power plant project in Kern County, California. Set ontop of a former gas and oil field, the 737-acre facility will be loaded with over 248,000 SunEdison mono-crystallinesolar PV modules. Once up and running, the Regulus power plant will crank out enough energy to power more

than 10,000 homes.

 As part of Google’s pledge to fund over $1.5 billion in renewable energy, this deal marks the search giant’s 17theco-friendly investment. In addition to a surplus of clean energy Regulus will create 650 jobs for Kern Countyresidents. read more → 

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Solar3D Announces Battery Storage Solutions forSolar Energy SystemsSolar3D, Inc., a leading solar power company and the developer of a proprietary high efficiency solar cell, todayannounced that its SUNworks division is now offering "Battery Storage Systems" with its solar electric systems forcustomers seeking solar power solutions optimized for increased cost efficiency and reliability. SUNworkspreviously announced its entry into the battery storage market through a solar implementation project withJackson Family Wines in Santa Rosa, CA.

 Although not yet ideal for every solar system owner, battery storage will play a significant role in energylevelization and system outage protection. Drawing energy from the power grid during peak hours is extremelyexpensive, even just for a little bit of energy. The premise behind a battery storage system is that when rates areat peak pricing during the day, the system owner can draw from the battery storage unit instead of from the grid,then pull from the grid again as rates go down. rea

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Japan Plans to Construct Great Solar Power Plantsthat Are Going To FloatJapan has started construction of 2 floating alternative energy plants, which can become a part of a large, sixtypower unit floating renewable energy network. These are simply the primary 2 of a planned network of aroundthirty floating two power unit (MW) power pla nts.

The first of those floating star farms to be build can have 1.7 MW of power capability, creating it the world’s largestfloating alternative energy plan. The second can have a capability of 1.2 MW and can be engineered onDongpingLake read more → 

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ABB achieves breakthrough in green switchgeartechnology

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 ABB, the power and automation technology group, says it has achieved a significant breakthrough in gasinsulated switchgear technology with the development of a solution that deploys a new insulation gas mixture as asubstitute for sulphur hexafluoride (SF6. The new technology will be deployed for the first time at a substationlocated in Oerlikon, Zürich, as a pilot installation for the leading Swiss utility, ewz. In addition to the 170 kV highvoltage GIS, ABB will also install medium voltage GIS with the new gas mixture.This alternate product has similar insulation properties to the SF6 gas now used in switchgear, but has asubstantially lower environmental impact owing to its extremely low global warming potential. ABB's gas-insulatedswitchgear with the new gas has the potential to lower carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by up to 50 % throughthe lifecycle of the equipment, compared to its predecessor with the same rating.

"This is a significant achievement and can pave the way for more eco-efficient switchgear in the years ahead,"said Bernhard Jucker, head of ABB's Power Products division.SF6 gas is been used extensively in the electrical industry for dielectric insulation and current interruption owing toits physical properties. Pressurised SF6 gas aids the safe and reliable operation of gas-insulated switchgearbecause it has a much higher dielectric strength than other insulation media, making it possible to significantlyreduce the size of switchgear installations without the danger of arcing and enabling installation in areas wherespace is at a premium. However, SF6 is a known greenhouse gas and its lifecycle management requires carefulhandling for utility and industrial users. The cost of managing it in a compliant manner can also be substantial,particularly when decommissioning aging substations.

 ABB pioneered high-voltage GIS in the mid-1960s. It now has a global installed base of more than 23 000 bays.The latest breakthrough is said to enable further reductions in carbon emissions without compromising efficiencyand reliability.