Technology Update
Transmission technologies can decrease the environmental impact of deregulated electric power As deregulation changes the way electricity is bought and sold, it is also jeopardizing the reliability of the nation's power grid, according to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a nonprofit organization based in Palo Alto, Calif. Technology currently under development should both improve the grid's performance and decrease the toll that electricity generation takes on the environment. The 50-year-old grid that transports electricity throughout North America "was simply never designed to handle the volume and frequency of power trades we're seeing today," said Kurt Yeager, president and CEO of EPRI, at a briefing on the topic in late October. Although local utilities are often blamed for the increased frequency and duration of severe electrical outages seen in recent years increased grid traffic resulting from deregulation is the real culprit, according to EPRI literature. The electricity delivery system was constructed around the idea that generators should meet the needs of their local communities, explained Mark Wilhelm, vice president of EPRISolutions, an EPRI spinoff with the mission of promoting new electricity technologies. The interconnections that join those local systems, and together form the North American grid, were only meant to be used in times of crisis, Wilhelm said in an interview. Deregulation is inspiring the system's interconnections to be used more routinely, which has increased the number of outages in the past five years, Wilhelm said. If the power supply to a chemical plant running a sensitive process were unexpectedly cut off, chemical releases could result, he noted. Concerns about the vulnerability of the nation's power supply are driving an increasing number of manufacturers to purchase gas tur-
bines and generate their own energy, Wilhelm said. This development worries environmentalists because it does not encourage conservation. EPRI is looking to counteract that trend by promoting longer-term solutions that encourage conservation in the electricity technology roadmap that it made public in September. Created with input from 150 stakeholders, including utilities, environmentalists, and businesses, the roadmap acknowledges that environmental issues will play 3. central role in energy development and use in the coming century.
Power outages have been occurring more frequently in recent years, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
The roadmap describes technologies that will reduce the environmental impact of energy generation by 2050, including a number of transmission technologies that should enable the electricity grid to meet the needs of the deregulated energy industry in the next decade. The potential benefits of these new transmission technologies include improving access to green power sources like wind turbines, which are sometimes located far from the communities they serve.
3 6 A • JANUARY 1, 2000 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS
Over the past few years, some of the nation's largest electricity generators, including American Electric Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority, have begun investing in one of the important new transmission technologies on the roadmap, flexible alternating current transmission systems (FACTS). By electronically governing how and where electricity flows, these systems allow power to be controlled much more quickly and precisely. In the process, they can decrease the amount of electricity that is lost as it moves across the grid Even a small electricity joss on m e or ( ier of a fraction of a Dercent translates into a substantial amount of energy Wilhelm said Unlike the electromechanical controllers currently in use, FACTS can eliminate botdenecks by "forcing" a line to carry power that would naturally flow elsewhere. In the process, the systems allow utilities to move more power over their existing transmission lines. Because this technology could prevent the construction of new transmission lines, "significant" land-use benefits could result, said Ralph Cavanaugh, codirector of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Energy Program, and one of the people who helped EPRI create its roadmap. The most ambitious FACTS project to date is the New York Power Authority's $48 million project to construct a "convertible static compensator" at a transmission control facility in Marcy, N.Y. EPRI and 21 North American utilities are helping to fund the construction of this latest FACTS technology, which will use advanced sensors, switches, and computers to constantly adjust the power flow for maximum efficiency. The New York Power Authority expects the new technology to provide unprecedented power flow control, allowing the power on overutilized lines to be transferred to underutilized lines, said Shalom Zelingher, the authority's director of research and tech© 2000 American Chemical Society
nology development. When the installation is complete in July 2002, the technology will enable the existing transmission lines to carry 240 MW of additional electricity. Later this year, superconducting transmission cables will be demonstrated at Detroit Edison, which is installing tire cables at its Frisbee power substation in Detroit, Mich., as part of a Department of Energy (DOE) demonstration. Because these cables nearly eliminate electrical resistance to the flow of current, they conduct electricity much more efficientiy than traditional copper cable; the utility's director of transmission planning, Bill Carter, expects that the cables will prevent 400 kilowatts of power from being lost as heat each hour when they are operational this summer The design of superconducting cables is complex: They consist of thin metal tapes, which are immersed in liquid nitrogen to maintain their -196 °C temperature, tiien covered by an insulated cable. Despite die insulation, tiiey are much more compact than copper cables. Because three superconducting cables can move as much electricity as nine conventional cables while taking up far less room, Detroit Edison should be able to expand its capacity to meet die city's resurging needs—two new stadiums are being built downtown—without digging up the streets Carter says Almough technologies like FACTS and superconducting cables have benefited from investments in research and development over the preceding decades, funding for some of the long-term technologies on EPRI's roadmap—such as the technologies tiiat could result in hydrogen-based metiiods of generating electricity by 2050—is in jeopardy, Yeager stressed in his October briefing. Because of the huge projected increases in worldwide demand for electricity by 2050, the world faces a "policy trilemma" in the coming century, Yeager explained. Electricity generation policies will have to balance three conflicting requirements: a drastically increasing population; an expanding appetite for electricity in the developing world where much of the growth will take place; and the pollution implications of using electricity-generating technology he said. Because both federal and utility investment in energy technologies has
Utility R&D is declining fast Utility investment in research and development has been declining in recent years. Annual R&D investment is shown in millions of dollars.
dropped off in die last decade, Yeager said that every country in the world should gready increase funding to develop technology that will reduce the environmental impacts of electricity use. He called on die United States to spend at least $5 billion more per year on research and development. And Cavanaugh, Wilhelm, and Yeager all expressed concerns that the increased focus on short-term profits expected to result from deregulation could derail that gready needed investment. —KELLYN S. BETTS
Detoxifying anti-NOx technology Removing oxides of nitrogen (NOJ from coal-fired power plants' smoke requires vast amounts of ammonia. A new technology able to quickly fabricate the highly toxic and hazardous chemical allows utilities to reduce die risk associated with storing and using ammonia. Controlling NOx emissions from a typical plant's 500-MW boiler using selective catalytic reduction— which EPA considers the best achievable control technology—requires 2000 lb of ammonia per hour, which equates to millions of pounds of die chemical per year, said Hamilton Walker, director of NO control marketing and sales for Environmental Elements Corp., a company selling the new technology. Because of ammonia's volatile nature the Clean Air Act requires many utilities that store it to file risk management plans with EPA. The new technology, called Ammonia on Demand, uses nontoxic urea as the basis for producing ammonia. Developed by Hera LLC of
Orange County, Calif., and Siirtec Nigi of Milan, Italy, the ammoniagenerating system dissolves the urea in water, then produces the gaseous form of ammonia needed by the selective catalytic reduction equipment by hydrolysis. Walker acknowledged that his company's new technology is "significandy" more expensive than the equipment tiiat is required to store ammonia in its pressurized anhydrous form, which is mainly used in more rural locations because of safety concerns. But the new technology's capital costs will be offset by saving anhydrous ammonia users from the costs associated with maintaining risk management plans and associated safety training programs Walker said. The other option for utilities is aqueous ammonia. Depending upon its concentration, the ammonia may not trigger EPA risk management planning requirements. In fact, many cities require utilities to use the aqueous form because it is much safer to store, said Jeff Clark, director of policy and communications for EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards. Environmental Elements Corp.'s calculations show tiiat the Ammonia on Demand system costs per ton are roughly the same as for aqueous ammonia, Walker said. The need to transport aqueous ammonia to utilities can spark community opposition to its use, however. Local resistance to having four ammonia-laden trucks travel through Cape Cod each week to clean up a 540-MW boiler's emissions inspired Soutiiern Energy, Inc, to become the first utility to purchase die Ammonia on Demand technology said Dean Brunton project manager for the company Because coal-fired power plants' emissions of nitrogen oxides— which contribute to ground-level ozone, acid rain, and eutrophication—have grown 40% since 1970, the increased use of NO control technologies by utilities is "inevitable", according to Clark. No matter what the fate of the disputed EPA Clean Air Act regulations that require 22 states to reduce their NO emissions, Clark said both EPA and the individual states are "only going in the direction of more control for nitrogen oxides from large power plants." KELLYN S. BETTS
JANUARY 1, 2000 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 3 7 A
