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Articles by James Schetter
How to Select Candidate Fossil Plants for Improved Flexibility
WARNING: SIGN-IN You need to be a member of Energy Central to access some features and content. Please sign-in or register to continue. Copyright by Renewable Impacts LLC As reported by KPMG, coal plants in India are expected to see decreasing plant capacity factors and increased ramping. Increased plant flexibility is identified as one strategy to cope with these conditions.
Duke Energy Application Points Finger at Solar for Increased Pollution!!!
This recent article published by the North State Journal (https://lnkd.in/et_mCjY) states "increase solar power might be leading to an increase in the very emissions alternative energy sources aim to reduce." This assertion is connected to cycling of Duke Energy natural gas plants as they "must scale back electric generation to accommodate solar energy surging onto the system when the sun rises, and power back up when the sun sets and solar energy dissipates." This and any other assertion...
A New Push for Electric Resilience and Reliability
Copyright by Renewable Impacts LLc The recently published DOE, Office of Electricity report "North American Energy Resilience Model" ,makes the case for new advanced modeling and quantitative tools to address not only energy resilience but also reliability. Those that understand these 2 concepts also understand that calls for higher and higher renewable penetrations also brings the threat that variable resources will also bring complicated reliability issues.
Can predictive analytics predict the degree of fossil plant future cycling?
Anonymous June 19 2019 It’s a complex challenge but I can say yes, predictive analytics can predict the degree of fossil plant future cycling. However there would have to be much live and historical data available to analyze. I did such a study for a rather large utility with multiple OEM Generating Assets in the Northeast region with good success. I was considering marketing a similar package to other power generators.
Using Power Plant Cycling Trends to Screen for Improved Reliability
Public Domain Interest in power plant flexibility projects is increasing. But which plants are your best candidates for improved flexibility? Before running your production costing models for every specific plant and flex project why not use a simple screening analysis first to see which plants can deliver in terms of min load, ramp rate and start up time. A good screening metric is plant movement density. This annual metric is defined as total plant movement (cycling) divided by total generation.
Power Plant Flexibility Project Evaluations Using Cost of Cycling Data
Public Domain The rush to reach 100% renewables is pushing plants to look for ways to increase plant flexibility. Economic analysis is needed to determine best options. Flexibility projects are different from other improvement projects in that they involve plant cycling operations and therefore involve the economics of cycling. For these projects knowing the cost of cycling becomes a key issue. Steps for a rough estimate of project value: 1. Define the cost of the flexibility project. 2.
Power Plant Flexibility Project Evaluations Using Cost of Cycling Data
The rush to reach 100% renewables is pushing plants to look for ways to increase plant flexibility. Economic analysis is needed to determine best options. Flexibility projects are different from other improvement projects in that they involve plant cycling operations and therefore involve the economics of cycling. For these projects knowing the cost of cycling becomes a key issue. Steps for a rough estimate of project value: 1. Define the cost of the flexibility project. 2.
It Is Time to Look At a Power Plant Cycling Tax to Address Increasing Plant Cycling?
On-and-Off Wind and Solar Power Pushing Coal Plants to the Brink More reported information, from Bloomberg, about the impacts to fossil plants from increased cycling including the claim by the AES Corp CEO that "ramping a facility’s output up and down could take a decade off its useful life." Isn't it time to look at a proactive approach to this issue. Consider the concept of a power plant cycling tax.
Free Mini-Webinars Covering Power Plant Cycling Measurements and Cycling Causality
Are my power plants cycling more? What causes my power plants to cycle? These 2 questions are important for every power plant owner/operator in today’s energy world where variable resources are increasing. Renewable Impacts LLC is pleased to announce two free mini-webinar sessions to address these questions and related cycling impact mitigation strategies.
New Power Plant Cycling Performance Benchmark Report Identifies the Best/Worst CT Plants in Colorado
Renewable Impacts (RI) announced today that it has recently completed a cycling performance benchmark assessment of gas fired combustion turbine (CT) power plants. The study looked at a sample of 28 CT plants operating in 2017 in the State of Colorado.
Renewable Impacts to Attend the RMEL Cycling Symposium in Omaha this June 14th
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Renewable Impacts to Attend the RMEL Cycling Symposium in Omaha this June 14th
Welcome! This community is the default community for every Energy Central registered member. We discuss and share a variety of topics related to the global power industry. We welcome intelligent, insightful contributions and conversations. 200,182 Subscribers
New Power Plant Cycling Performance Benchmark Report Identifies the Best/Worst CC Plants in Colorado
Renewable Impacts (RI) announced today that it has recently completed a cycling performance benchmark assessment of gas fired combined cycle (CC) power plants. The study looked at a sample of 23 CC plants operating in 2017 in the State of Colorado.
New Power Plant Cycling Performance Benchmark Report Identifies the Best/Worst ST Plants in Colorado
Renewable Impacts (RI) announced today that it has recently completed a cycling performance benchmark assessment of coal fired steam turbine (ST) power plants. The study looked at a sample of 16 ST plants operating in 2017 in the State of Colorado.
A complicated calculus keeps the remaining coal fleet alive
James (Jim) Schetter Mr. Schetter has 40 years of electric utility sector experience as an engineering/financial analyst and consultant. The last 10 years of his career was with Xcel Energy as a principal asset analyst. He is currently owner of Renewable Impacts LLC.
Renewable Impacts at the IEEE PES T&D Conference/Expo in Denver this April 17-19 to Discuss Power Plant Cycling Causality
An opportunity to learn about the emerging topic of Power Plant Cycling Causality is coming up. As the developer of the Renewable Impacts Cycling Causality methodology, I will be attending the IEEE PES T&D conference/expo in Denver this April 17-19 and would like to see you there. If you or your staff are planning to attend, this would be a great opportunity to have a one-on-one discussion covering the RI Cycling Causality approach and have all of your questions answered on this key topic.
Colorado Coal Power Plants Cycle More and Gas Plants Cycle Less As Colorado Renewables Surge
Renewable Impacts (RI) announced today that it has recently completed an initial assessment of power plant cycling in Colorado. The study spanned the 10 year period 2007 to 2016 and used the RI developed “movement” metric to assess cycling activity at fossil power plants in the State. The assessment addressed 50 coal and gas-fired units in 2007 and 66 coal and gas-fired units in 2016 using hourly production data from public sources.
Upcoming IEEE Session to Address the Topic of "Power Plant Cycling Causality"
Renewable Impacts LLC (RI) announced today that James R. Schetter, its President, will be a presenter at the upcoming IEEE PES Joint Technical Committee Meeting. Mr. Schetter will present on Tuesday January 9th on the topic of power plant cycling causality at the "J18 Impact of Inverter-based Sources on Rotating Machinery" session.
Using Power Plant "Movement" Analysis to Justify Higher Budgets
The cycling or movement of existing fossil power plants is well understood but demonstrating the level of cycling and a cycling trend is difficult. Asserting that your plants are being damaged by cycling is often not enough to convince management that your operating or capital budgets need to be increased. An easy to apply analysis based on hourly data has been developed by Renewable Impacts LLC (RI) to address this situation and give you the ammunition to argue your case.
Renewable Impacts LLC Forms the Power Plant Cycling Causality Collaborative Network™ | Energy Central
Sign in to Vote 0 Principal, Renewable Impacts LLC Renewable Impacts LLC Forms the Power Plant Cycling Causality Collaborative Network™ | Energy Central The transition to 100% renewables is under way. What role will you play? The new Power Plant Cycling Causality Collaborative Network™ offers you a chance to be an innovative leader in a new energy market. See www.renewableimpacts.com for details.
Renewable Impacts LLC Forms the Power Plant Cycling Causality Collaborative Network™
Renewable Impacts LLC (RI) announced today that it has formed the Power Plant Cycling Causality Collaborative Network™ to gather energy professionals eager to expand their analysis and consulting practices to cover power plant cycling causality work. The march toward 100% renewables is well underway and, if achieved, the US could see the retirement of 800,000 MWs of fossil generation in the next 25 years.
ESNA 2017: How storage enables SCE to avoid siting new gas plants
Can Variable Resources and Storage Overcome the Big Issue of Lossing Grid Inertia? It is not until the very end of this article that the big rub is discussed by Ron Nichols, President SCE. He states, “Now the big question that still exists … how quickly and how extensively can you eliminate rotating mass for inertia in the system to be available to meet really big loads as they come up?” This is the big reliability question that needs to be addressed.
Battery Storage for Flexible Power Generation ~ EUCI
Sign in to Vote 0 Principal, Renewable Impacts LLC Battery Storage for Flexible Power Generation ~ EUCI The Power Generation Flexibility and Cycling Learning CurveThis upcoming EUCI symposium looks to be a strong and focused experience for all concerned with the key electric grid issues of variable generation and the use of battery resources. Much is to be learned here about new power plant flexibility technology.
Battery Storage for Flexible Power Generation ~ EUCI
Sign in to Vote 0 Principal, Renewable Impacts LLC Battery Storage for Flexible Power Generation ~ EUCI The Flexibility and Cycling Learning CurveThis upcoming EUCI symposium looks to be a strong and focused experience for all concerned with the key electric grid issues of variable generation and the use of battery resources. Much is to be learned here about new power plant flexibility technology.
Can the U.S. Grid Work With 100% Renewables? There's a Scientific Fight Brewing
This article recounts the back and forth by opposing authors of energy models that try to depict the US with 100% renewables. Invalid modeling tools, modeling errors, etc are asserted on both sides. Of interest are the opinions late in the article that claim that what the grid needs is flexibility, not baseload power plants. Before signing up for more flexibility I think it would help everyone to start to measure power plant flexibility and understand just what this will lead to.
Renewable Impacts Released Its 2017 Cycling Causality Training Schedule
Renewable Impacts (RI) is pleased to announce its summer 2017 schedule of 1-day public training sessions covering the breakthrough topic of Power Plant Cycling Causality. These in-depth training sessions are designed to help you understand cycling causality fast. Learn how to use the cycling causality methodology developed by RI and how to expand the free RI causality analysis model into your own specific cycling causality analysis tool. The training schedule for 2017 is as follows.
The Carbon Consensus: Generators, analysts back CO2 price at FERC technical conference
If FERC decides to include different power supply attributes in wholesale power market prices the door is open for many adders - not just CO2. There are many price attributes including diversity, environmental, reliability, infrastructure, cost, etc. Not all of these would benefit renewables i.e. added cycling costs and reliability.
The Institute of Asset Management Addresses Power Plant Cycling Causality
Renewable Impacts (RI) announced today that its’ development of power plant cycling causality analysis has been recognized as a very timely topic for electric power asset managers by The Institute of Asset Management (IAM). As reported in their February issue of “Assets” magazine, IAM reviews the connection between power plant cycling, plant damage and how to identify specific causes or drivers of that damage based on a breakthrough analysis approach called power plant cycling causality.
Knowledge Is Power
The failure events listed in the linked article should raise the question of why would so many plants experienced reliability issues like "unavoidable maintenance","failure to start","forced outages","reduced output", etc? The NSW situation may be due, in part, to excessive power plant cycling. Cycling induced wear and tear is well documented and can degrade power plant reliability. In 2015, NSW was powered by renewables at a 7.7% penetration but would be much higher now.
Could Increasing RPS Goals Drive Unintended Power Plant Cycling Consequences?
Variable generation has and is causing power plants to cycle - but it is hard to detect at low penetration levels. As these levels increase the cycling consequences will be hard to overlook. Our studies of the CAISO BA suggest that penetration of renewables, such as solar, is increasing at a fast pace. If this trend continues solar will be responsible for more cycling causality than system load in the near future. Solar cycling causality was found to be 7.6% in 2013 and growing at 200% per year.
Can Cycling Causality Analysis Improve Power Plant Reliability?
Power plant cycling causality analysis identifies the causes or drivers of plant cycling. For example, it can tell you if and which wind farms are playing havoc with the operation of your fossil plants. The connection between plant cycling and equipment damage is well documented by organizations such as EPRI and NREL. But can the same be said for plant cycling and reliability?
Uptake in rooftop solar in SA 'poses risk to energy system security'
Sign in to Vote 0 James (Jim) Schetter Principal, Renewable Impacts LLC Uptake in rooftop solar in SA 'poses risk to energy system security' Will Australia's solar experience be in your future? Good article about one possible end game with solar and what we do not know about the impacts to system security and reliability. When the sun goes down will the backup power be available or will it have been cycled to death. Start understanding cycling causality. For more info see: www.renewableimpacts.com.
Uptake in rooftop solar in SA 'poses risk to energy system security'
Sign in to Vote 0 James (Jim) Schetter Principal, Renewable Impacts LLC Uptake in rooftop solar in SA 'poses risk to energy system security' Will Australia's solar experience be in your future? Good article about one possible end game with solar and what we do not know about the impacts to system security and reliability. When the sun goes down will the backup power be available or will it have been cycled to death. Start understanding cycling causality. For more info see: www.renewableimpacts.com.
Uptake in rooftop solar in SA 'poses risk to energy system security'
Sign in to Vote 0 James (Jim) Schetter Principal, Renewable Impacts LLC Uptake in rooftop solar in SA 'poses risk to energy system security' Will Australia's solar experience be in your future? Good article about one possible end game with solar and what we do not know about the impacts to system security and reliability. When the sun goes down will the backup power be available or will it have been cycled to death. Start understanding cycling causality. For more info see: www.renewableimpacts.com.
Are Renewables Damaging Fossil Power Plant Assets?
A key issue facing many large fossil power plants running today in America is that they are being asked to operate substantially different from their original base load designs. Power plant owners and operators are under increasing pressure to cycle or change the output of their boiler and other systems to meet instantaneous system demands.
Are Renewables Damaging Fossil Power Plant Assets?
A key issue facing many large fossil power plants running today in America is that they are being asked to operate substantially different from their original base load designs. Power plant owners and operators are under increasing pressure to cycle or change the output of their boiler and other systems to meet instantaneous system demands.
Are Renewables Damaging Fossil Power Plant Assets?
A key issue facing many large fossil power plants running today in America is that they are being asked to operate substantially different from their original base load designs. Power plant owners and operators are under increasing pressure to cycle or change the output of their boiler and other systems to meet instantaneous system demands.
What can power plant cycling causality tell you about wind induced cycling?
The connection between wind and power plant cycling, while often asserted, was only recently documented by Renewable Impacts' (RI) research of the California ISO balancing authority. In addition to telling you if wind induced cycling at major fossil plants was occurring, the RI approach to cycling causality can also tell you: 1. If and which individual wind farms add to or reduce cycling problems. 2. If and how much wind curtailment adds to or reduces cycling problems. 3.
Power Plant Cycling Causality - A Sequential Flow Chart
The attached flow chart details the process and data needed to conduct a power plant cycling causality study. Key to this process is the identification of cycling Drivers and select power plants to study or Reactors. After collecting the hourly data the process requires the calculation of movements from the hourly data and then the application of the causality expectation logic to synch the Reactor movements with Driver movements.
Power Plant Cycling Causality - A Sequential Flow Chart
The attached flow chart details the process and data needed to conduct a power plant cycling causality study. Key to this process is the identification of cycling Drivers and select power plants to study or Reactors. After collecting the hourly data the process requires the calculation of movements from the hourly data and then the application of the causality expectation logic to synch the Reactor movements with Driver movements.
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