Hydroelectric power in New Zealand

Hydroelectric power in New Zealand has been a part of the country's energy system for over 100 years and continues to provide more than half of the country's electricity needs. Hydroelectricity is the primary source of renewable energy in New Zealand. Power is generated the most in the South Island and is used most in the North Island.
Early schemes such as the Waipori scheme commissioned in 1903 and the Lake Coleridge power station commissioned in 1914 established New Zealand's use of renewable hydro energy. By the early 1950s, over of installed capacity was from hydro energy. By the early 1960s, most North Island hydro sites had been developed while the South Island still had many potential sites. The commissioning of the HVDC Inter-Island link in 1965 made it possible to send large amounts of electricity between the two islands, and from that time hydro capacity in the South Island increased rapidly. Major developments included the 540 MW Benmore Power Station (1966), the 700 MW Manapouri power station (1971), the 848 MW Upper Waitaki River Scheme (1977–85) and the 432 MW Clyde Dam (1992). By the mid-1990s, hydro capacity had reached over 5,000 MW, and remains around this level today.
History.
The first industrial hydro-electric power plant was established at Bullendale in Otago in 1885, to provide power for a 20 stamp battery at the Phoenix mine. The plant used water from the nearby Skippers Creek, a tributary of the Shotover River.
Reefton was the first town with a reticulated public electricity supply from a significant hydroelectric plant after the commissioning of the Reefton Power Station in 1888. They were followed by Stratford in 1890.
The first hydro-electric power station constructed by the government was the Okere Falls Power Station near Rotorua. The plant began operating in May 1901. Electricity was transmitted at 3300 volts over a route to Rotorua, and was used to drive sewage pumps, and some public buildings including five thermal baths.
During the next twenty years private companies and local authorities established a number of stations, including Waipori in Otago and Horahora on the Waikato River. The first large scheme developed by the government was Coleridge in Canterbury, opened in 1914.
Other significant early stations include Mangahao (1924), Arapuni (1929) and Tuai (1929), connected to a single North Island grid in 1934, and Waitaki (1935) in the South Island.
The Waikaremoana cascade was completed in the 1940s with Piripāua and Kaitawa stations. A further seven stations were developed as a cascade on the Waikato River from 1953 and 1970. In the 1950s development of the Clutha River with Roxburgh Dam and the upper Waitaki in the MacKenzie Basin with "Tekapo A" was begun. With commissioning of the HVDC Inter-Island link in 1965, the Waitaki scheme was further expanded with Benmore Power Station (1965), Aviemore Dam (1968), and later Tekapo B, and Ohau A, B and C. In the North Island, the Tongariro Power Scheme was completed between 1964 and 1983.
The plan in 1959 to raise the level of Lake Manapouri for hydro-electric development was met with resistance, and the Save Manapouri Campaign became a milestone in environmental awareness. Later hydro schemes, such as the last large hydro to be commissioned, Clyde Dam in 1992, were also controversial.
Generation.
Hydroelectric power accounts for 11% of the total primary energy usage in New Zealand with imported oil and oil products making up 70% of the primary energy. Hydroelectric power accounts for 57% of the total electricity generation in New Zealand.
Over the decade from 1997 hydroelectric power as a percentage of total net electricity generated went from 66% down to 55%. An increase in coal and gas for electricity generation accounted for the reduction in hydroelectric power as a percentage of the total.
Large hydroelectric power schemes have been built in the Central Plateau region of the North Island and in the MacKenzie Basin in the South Island, as well as a series of power stations on the Waikato River.
In 2014, hydro generation produced of electricity, representing 57% of the total electricity generated. The percentage of New Zealand's electricity provided by hydro generation has been between 50% and 60% for the last decade, compared with a high of 84% in 1980. In 2015, the distribution of renewable energy in the total power usage of New Zealand was 80.2%. It ranks second to Norway in countries with official plans to increase renewable power usage to 90% by 2025. This is due to the hydroelectricity expansion from investments in geothermal generation.
In general, New Zealand has focused its hydropower production in the South Island and transports energy to the North Island across high voltage wires in a transmission grid. There is a higher demand for energy in the North Island due to several major cities located there.
From 2008 to 2018, hydropower has generated almost 60% of total electricity production in New Zealand, with 82% generation from renewable resources. Currently, New Zealand has over 100 hydroelectric power plants in use.
From the early 1900s to 2010, there has been a plateau in energy growth for hydroelectric power systems. There is room to expand on the current hydropower scales in New Zealand, however the industry will not change as drastically as it has in the 20th century. Small unit growth and large run-of-river plants are the most prominent examples for future hydroelectric developments. Many other renewable energy resources are competitors to hydroelectric because they are less expensive.
There are several barriers that prevent the development of hydroelectricity in New Zealand, including cost, geography, and systematic factors. For example, New Zealand hydroelectric systems are low in storage volume. This means that maximum storage of energy is 34 days during the peak of winter. If there is an unusual amount of precipitation one year, then there would be a shortfall in energy from the hydro system. In addition, the cost benefit of using hydroelectric power over wind or geothermal energy in New Zealand is highly debated.
Proposed projects.
There are a number of proposed hydroelectric power projects in New Zealand and, despite the demand for more renewable energy, there is opposition to some new hydroelectric projects.
Other proposals, at various planning stages, include schemes on the Matakitaki, Matiri, Waimakariri, Clutha, Kaituna and the Gowan Rivers.
In 2011, the New Zealand Energy Strategy (NZES) and New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy (NZEECS) were developed by the government to establish the main priorities of future hydroelectric power development. In 2016, the electric vehicle program was implemented. This program aims to double the number of electric vehicles used each year, with a target of 64,000 electric cars by 2021.
Environmental issues.
There has been opposition to hydroelectric power on environmental grounds for many decades.
The first nationwide environmental campaign in New Zealand was opposition to raising Lake Manapouri for a power station to supply electricity to an aluminium smelter. The Save Manapouri Campaign was a success and the power station was built without raising the level of lake outside of its natural range.
The highly endangered black stilt, which nests on the braided rivers beds of the South Island, is threatened by changes in river flows as a result of new hydro dams and changes in flow regimes for existing dams. The Upper Waitaki Power Development posed a threat to the black stilt habitat and a programme was set up to lessen the threats.
Because of opposition to new HEP stations New Zealand's demand for increased power has been met from coal and gas fired power stations. Engineers have fine tuned some HEP stations such as at Tokaanu to increase output by 20% with the same water use.


List of Canadian electric utilities

This is a list of the electric utilities in Canada.
List of electric utilities by province or territory.
This is a list of Canadian public and private electric utilities, by province.
Electric Transmission:
Investor Owned:
Municipals:
Rural Electrification Associations:
Sold to FortisAlberta:
Municipals:
Municipals:
Ontario’s electricity distribution consists of multiple local distribution companies (LDCs). Hydro One, a publicly-traded company owned in part by the provincial government, is the largest LDC in the province and services approximately 26 percent of all electricity customers in Ontario.
The other local distribution companies in Ontario may be municipally owned corporations or privately-operated entities, and include:


Z-pinch

In fusion power research, the Z-pinch (zeta pinch) is a type of plasma confinement system that uses an electric current in the plasma to generate a magnetic field that compresses it (see pinch). These systems were originally referred to simply as pinch or Bennett pinch (after Willard Harrison Bennett), but the introduction of the θ-pinch (theta pinch) concept led to the need for clearer, more precise terminology.
The name refers to the direction of the current in the devices, the Z-axis on a normal three-dimensional graph. Any machine that causes a pinch effect due to current running in that direction is correctly referred to as a Z-pinch system, and this encompasses a wide variety of devices used for an equally wide variety of purposes. Early uses focused on fusion research in donut-shaped tubes with the Z-axis running down the inside the tube, while modern devices are generally cylindrical and used to generate high-intensity x-ray sources for the study of nuclear weapons and other roles.
Physics.
The Z-pinch is an application of the Lorentz force, in which a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field experiences a force. One example of the Lorentz force is that, if two parallel wires are carrying current in the same direction, the wires will be pulled toward each other. In a Z-pinch machine the wires are replaced by a plasma, which can be thought of as many current-carrying wires. When a current is run through the plasma, the particles in the plasma are pulled toward each other by the Lorentz force, thus the plasma contracts. The contraction is counteracted by the increasing gas pressure of the plasma.
As the plasma is electrically conductive, a magnetic field nearby will induce a current in it. This provides a way to run a current into the plasma without physical contact, which is important as a plasma can rapidly erode mechanical electrodes. In practical devices this was normally arranged by placing the plasma vessel inside the core of a transformer, arranged so the plasma itself would be the secondary. When current was sent into the primary side of the transformer, the magnetic field induced a current into the plasma. As induction requires a "changing" magnetic field, and the induced current is supposed to run in a single direction in most reactor designs, the current in the transformer has to be increased over time to produce the varying magnetic field. This places a limit on the product of confinement time and magnetic field, for any given source of power.
In Z-pinch machines the current is generally provided from a large bank of capacitors and triggered by a spark gap, known as a Marx Bank or Marx generator. As the conductivity of plasma is fairly good, about that of copper, the energy stored in the power source is quickly depleted by running through the plasma. Z-pinch devices are inherently pulsed in nature.
History.
Early machines.
Pinch devices were among the earliest efforts in fusion power. Research began in the UK in the immediate post-war era, but a lack of interest led to little development until the 1950s. The announcement of the Huemul Project in early 1951 led to fusion efforts around the world, notably in the UK and in the US. Small experiments were built at labs as various practical issues were addressed, but all of these machines demonstrated unexpected instabilities of the plasma that would cause it to hit the walls of the container vessel. The problem became known as the "kink instability".
Stabilized pinch.
By 1953 the "stabilized pinch" seemed to solve the problems encountered on earlier devices. Stabilized pinch machines added external magnets that created a toroidal magnetic field inside the chamber. When the device was fired, this field added to the one created by the current in the plasma. The result was that the formerly straight magnetic field was twisted into a helix, which the particles followed as they traveled around the tube driven by the current. A particle near the outside of the tube that wanted to kink outward would travel along these lines until it returned to the inside of the tube, where its outward-directed motion would bring it back into the centre of the plasma.
Researchers in the UK started construction of ZETA in 1954. ZETA was by far the largest fusion device of its era. At the time, almost all fusion research was classified, so progress on ZETA was generally unknown outside the labs working on it. However US researchers visited ZETA and realized that they were about to be outpaced. Teams on both sides of the Atlantic rushed to be the first to complete stabilized pinch machines.
ZETA won the race, and by the summer of 1957 it was producing bursts of neutrons on every run. Despite the researchers' reservations, their results were released with great fanfare as the first successful step on the path to commercial fusion energy. However, further study soon demonstrated that the measurements were misleading, and none of the machines were near fusion levels. Interest in pinch devices faded, although ZETA and its cousin Sceptre served for many years as experimental devices.
Fusion-based propulsion.
A concept of Z-pinch fusion propulsion system was developed through collaboration between NASA and private companies. The energy released by the Z-pinch effect accelerates lithium propellant to a high speed, resulting in a specific impulse value of 19400 s and thrust of 38 kN. A magnetic nozzle is required to convert the released energy into a useful impulse. This propulsion method could significantly reduce interplanetary travel times. For example, a mission to Mars would take about 35 days one-way with a total burn time of 20 days and a burned propellant mass of 350 tonnes.
Tokamak.
Although it remained relatively unknown for years, Soviet scientists used the pinch concept to develop the tokamak device. Unlike the stabilized pinch devices in the US and UK, the tokamak used considerably more energy in the stabilizing magnets, and much less in the plasma current. This reduced the instabilities due to the large currents in the plasma, and led to great improvements in stability. The results were so dramatic that other researchers were skeptical when they were first announced in 1968. Members of the still-operational ZETA team were called in to verify the results. The tokamak became the most studied approach to controlled fusion.
Sheared-flow stabilized.
Sheared-flow stabilizing uses one or more high speed annular flowing plasma sheaths, surrounding a plasma filament, to stabilize the filament against kink and pinch instabilities.
In 2018, a sheared-flow stabilized Z-pinch demonstrated neutron generation. It was built by a fusion company, Zap Energy, Inc., founded via the University of Washington, and funded by grants from the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA–E). Flow stabilized plasma remained stable 5,000 times longer than a static plasma. A mix of 20% deuterium and 80% hydrogen by pressure, produced neutron emissions lasting approximately 5 μs with pinch currents of approximately 200 kA during an approximately 16 μs period of plasma quiescence. Average neutron yield was estimated to be (1.25±0.45)×105 neutrons/pulse. Plasma temperatures of 1–2 keV (12–24 million °C) and densities of approximately 1017 cm−3 with 0.3 cm pinch radii were measured.
Experiments.
Z-pinch machines can be found at University of Nevada, Reno (USA), Cornell University (USA), University of Michigan (USA), Sandia National Laboratories (USA), University of California, San Diego (USA), University of Washington (USA), Ruhr University (Germany), Imperial College (United Kingdom), École Polytechnique (France), Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Mexico), NSTRI (Iran).


GKK Etzenricht

GKK Etzenricht, an abbreviation of Gleichstromkurzkupplung Etzenricht, meaning Etzenricht HVDC-back-to-back station, was an HVDC back-to-back facility near Etzenricht in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria, Germany. It was built on the site of the Etzenricht substation, a 380 kV/220 kV/110 kV-substation, which went into service in 1970 and expanded afterwards several times. The facility was used between 1993 and 1995 for exchange of power between Germany and the Czech Republic, operated by Bayernwerk AG (now part of TenneT).
History.
Construction started April 26, 1991 and was completed September 1991. First power was achieved in May 1992 and a powerline to Hradec, Czech Republic was completed September 3, 1992.
Trial operation started January 27, 1993 with official opening July 9, 1993. It was shut down after synchronisation of the German and the Czech Power Grid on October 18, 1995.
After the synchronization of the power grids between Germany and Czech, the maximum amount of power which can be transmitted between Etzenricht and Hradec increased from 600 MW to 1316 MW. The inauguration of the second 380 kV-interconnection to Prestice substation on July 29, 1997 increased the transmission capacity from Etzenricht to Czech to further 1579 MW, so via Etzenricht substation today a maximum power exchange of 2895 MW between Czechia and Germany is possible.
In 1997, after inauguration of the second 380 kV-powerline to Czechia, which ends at Prestice substation, most external components of GKK Etzenricht were dismantled and stored on the area of the facility. Since beginning of this dismantling, the facility was not in working condition any more. Only the transformers, the smoothing reactor and one harmonic filter remained on their original sites. Since shutdown of the static inverter, it was planned to sell the installation to eastern Europe, where it would have allowed the construction of an HVDC back-to-back station for exchanging power between eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. As the static inverter went more and more out of date and one was meanwhile able to build static inverters like that of GKK Etzenricht much simpler by using photo thyristors, no such deal ever took place. In 2006 the facility was sold to IDPC, an Austrian recycling company, which wanted first to sell the installation completely and as this did not work, part by part. However, only a few components were sold. In spring 2009 all remaining components of GKK Etzenricht were dismantled and scrapped.
Technical features.
GKK Etzenricht had a maximum transmission power of 600 megawatts (MW) and worked with a DC voltage of 160 kV. The two static inverters are in a high hall with of surface area, which was built in a combination of local and finished concrete building method. Each static inverter consists of 432 thyristors, which are put in six thyristor towers arranged in a row. Each thyristor tower has 2 valve functions and consist of 8 thyristor modules, which are arranged one on top of the other. Each thyristor module consists of 9 thyristors switched in series and the necessary auxiliary equipment as the saturation coils, which are in series with
the thyristors. Parallel to each thyristor a series combination of a resistor and a capacitor is switched, which limits the speed of current grow. From this combination the power for the supply of the electronic used for thyristor steering is gained. The electronic used for thyristor steering has at operation a high voltage potential against ground. It is connected to the main control electronic on ground potential by fiber-optic cables, which allow a bidirectional data transmission. Parallel to each thyristor module a capacitor and parallel to each valve function a varistor is switched. As thyristors the model U78 S346 S34 manufactured by Siemens, which has a maximum power rating of 4100 amperes and which was when GKK Etzenricht was built the most powerful thyristor in the world. At both ends of the hall there are three bays for the accommodation of the static inverter transformers, which are built as single-phase units.
Power transmission line to the Czech Republic.
GKK Etzenricht was used in connection with the power transmission line between Germany and the Czech Republic. The single-circuit 380kV power transmission link runs from the (Ex) GKK Etzenricht to the Czech substations at Hradec u Kadaně. In 1997 a second single-circuit 380 kV-interconnection from Etzenricht to Přeštice substation was realized. Its conductors, which are of the same type as that used for the line to Hradec, are between Etzenricht and Straz installed on the same pylons. For overvoltage protection the whole powerline is equipped with two ground conductors, which are installed on a separate crossbar on the top of the pylons. One conductor contains a fiber optic cable for data transmission.
The link from Etzenricht to Hradec has a maximum power transmission capacity of 1639 MW at an operating voltage of 380 kV. However it is limited by substation equipment to 1316 MW. On the German section of the line the conductors are bundles of four ropes consisting of steel and aluminum. Each conductor has a cross section of 340 mm² aluminum and 30 mm² steel. Between Weiden and Etzenricht this line is installed on 14 pylons of the "Danube type". One of these pylons was built after the shutdown of the GKK, in order to run the line directly - past the static inverter hall - into the switchyard of the Etzenricht substation. By this the length of the German section of the line grow by 180 metres to 33.8 kilometres. Except of the first pylon, these pylons were used before 1992 for the 110 kV-powerline from Etzenricht to Weiden. In 1992 this line was rebuilt on pylons running parallel to the old 110 kV-powerline to Weiden, whose pylons were equipped with a third crossbar for the ground conductors and with the 380 kV-conductors for the line to Czech.
The section between Weiden/Oberpfalz and Eslarn consists of 60 pylons with a fourth crossbar under the crossbars for the 380 kV conductors in order to carry the two 110 kV circuits of the powerline Weiden/Oberpfalz - Vohenstrauss and the two 30 kV-circuits for the powerline between Vohenstrauss and Eslarn. This was necessary because, due to environmental protection, only one right of way was available. Therefore, the circuits of these lines, which existed in 1992 already since several years, had to be installed on the pylons of the powerline with the 380 kV-circuits to the Czech Republic. In Vohenstrauss the 110 kV-circuits run to the local substation, which is situated close to the right of way of the powerline to the Czech Republic.
Behind Vohenstrauss on the lowest crossbar the circuits of the 30 kV-line Vohenstrauss-Eslarn are installed. For a future upgrade of this line to 110 kV, the conductors of this line are mounted on insulators for 110 kV on the pylons. Near Riedlhof this line leaves the track of the line to Czech and runs on concrete pylons to Eslarn substation. From Riedlhof the 380 kV-line to the Czech Republic runs on 15 pylons of "Danube type" to the border between Germany and the Czech Republic. The border is crossed close north of the border crossing of the motorway A6 near Furth in Forest.
After the border the construction type of pylon does not change, but their design and the type of conductors. In the Czech Republic the line uses conductors, which are bundles of 3 conductors with a cross section of 450 mm² aluminum and 50 mm² steel. 31.5 kilometers behind the frontier near Straz the line splits off in two 380kV-lines with a single circuit. One of these lines is the long line section to Hradec in Northern Bohemia and the other is the line to Přeštice, which was built in 1997. Both lines are installed on Delta type pylons.
A very remarkable feature is, that the powerline to Hradec substation is implemented on its last section on the area of Hradec substation between the termination portal and the busbar as underground cable.
Directional Radio Tower.
South of the facility on a hill at 49°37'28" N and 12°6'55" E there is a 55 meters tall free-standing lattice tower, which was built in 1973. It is used for directional radio links for remote controlling Etzenricht substation and GKK Etzenricht, which are both not permanently manned.
Natural gas compressor station.
Southwest of the facility at 49°37'29" N and 12°7'33" E there is a compressor station for natural gas owned by MEGAL.


CEMIG

CEMIG is a Brazilian power company headquartered in Belo Horizonte capital of the state of Minas Gerais. The company is one of the largest power generators and distributors in Brazil being responsible for 12% of the national distribution. The company is the fourth largest electricity company in Brazil by revenue after Eletrobras, Energisa and CPFL Energia.
CEMIG is present in 22 Brazilian States and in Chile. With around 50 power plants in operation, most of them hydroelectric, the company owns around 6,000 MW of generation capacity. Cemig also owns a cable television, internet and telecommunications business called Infovias which uses the company's transmission and distribution lines. Also, a business called Gasmig supplies natural gas in Minas Gerais. Just over half of Cemig's stock is owned by the state of Minas Gerais.
The company is responsible for serving about 18 million people in 774 municipalities of Minas Gerais and for the management of the largest network of electricity distribution in South America, with more than 400 thousand km of lines.
The stock is traded on B3 where it is part of the Ibovespa index. It is also traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It's also part of The Global Dow and of the Latibex, an index for Latin companies in Madrid Stock Exchange.
The company owns 43% of Taesa, a Brazilian Electric Company.


Federal Columbia River Power System

The Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) is a series of multi-purpose, hydroelectric facilities in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, constructed and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and a transmission system built and operated by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to market and deliver electric power. The program is currently funded by the BPA's power and transmission rates.


Capital Power Corporation

Capital Power is an independent power generation company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Capital Power develops, acquires, owns and operates power generation facilities using a variety of energy sources. Capital Power owns approximately 5,100 megawatts of power generation capacity at 25 facilities across North America.
History.
The company history dates back to Edmonton Electric Lighting and Power Company formed in 1891. Previously named Edmonton Power, then EPCOR Generation (a division of EPCOR Utilities), Capital Power was created through issuance of a 25% IPO by EPCOR Utilities in 2009 and has assets in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and the United States.
The decision to split EPCOR Utilities into two separate companies (one publicly owned by the sole shareholder, City of Edmonton) was made at a special meeting of Edmonton City Council held on April 17, 2009.
The creation of Capital Power and the transfer of assets from the City of Edmonton-owned utility EPCOR resulted in debate by local citizens group "Our Power".
As of its initial public offering in 2009, Capital Power L.P. held a 49% voting interest and 100% economic interest in CPI Investments Inc., a holding company owning approximately 29.6% of the limited partnership units of Capital Power Income L.P.(CPILP), and 100% of the shares of the general partner of CPILP. CPILP held ownership interests in 21 power generation assets in Canada and the United States.
On November 7, 2011, Atlantic Power Corporation acquired Capital Power Income L.P (CPILP). As part of the arrangement, Capital Power acquired CPILP's Roxboro and Southport plants in North Carolina.
The Clover Bar Landfill Gas facility was commissioned in 2005. The facility utilizes landfill gas from the City of Edmonton’s Waste Management Centre. Output from the facility is sold to the City of Edmonton.
Capital Power developed and operates the Clover Bar Energy Centre, which features three highly-efficient natural gas turbines.
On October 19, 2010, Capital Power acquired the Island Generation Facility, a 275 megawatt (MW), gas-fired combined cycle power plant at Campbell River, British Columbia, from Kelson Canada Inc. closed on.
On September 1, 2011, Capital Power and TransAlta completed the 495 MW (gross) Keephills 3 generating facility, and announced the commencement of commercial operation at the facility. Capital Power led construction of the facility, and TransAlta, which will operate the plant. The facility is the most technologically advanced coal-fired plant in Canada.
On October 12, 2012, Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. acquired Capital Power's Brown Lake, B.C., and Miller Creek, B.C. hydro facilities.
Capital Power’s 142 MW Quality Wind project, located in British Columbia, began commercial operation on November 6, 2012. Construction of the project was complete on time and under budget.
On November 19, 2013, Emera Inc. acquired Capital Power's facilities in Connecticut: Bridgeport, Rhode Island: Tiverton, and Maine: Rumford, including certain emissions credits. These facilities were subsequently sold by Emera to the Carlyle Group.
On December 6, 2012, Capital Power and ENMAX Corporation announced the signing of a joint venture agreement to build, own and operate the 800 MW Shepard Energy Centre in Calgary.
On March 3, 2017, Capital Power and ENMAX Corporation announced that the Shepard Energy Centre was chosen as the test site for the natural gas track of the $20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a global competition to develop breakthrough technologies that convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable products. Shepard Energy Centre will host the new Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre, as well as provide the flue gas for testing during the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE and for future innovators.
On February 21, 2017, Capital Power entered into an agreement to acquire the thermal power business of Veresen Inc., consisting of two gas-fired generation facilities and two waste heat assets.
Capital Power’s Bloom Wind project, located in Kansas began commercial operation on June 1, 2017.
Economic interests in facilities.
Capital Power has economic interests in the following facilities, which are operated by other entities:
Projects in development or construction.
Genesee 4 & 5.
Capital Power is planning to develop the new natural gas-powered Genesee 4 & 5 generating station (formerly Capital Power Energy Centre) in Warburg, Alberta. On December 5, 2013, Capital Power entered into a joint-venture agreement with ENMAX Corporation to develop, construct, own and operate the project, which was renamed to Genesee 4 & 5.
Renewable assets in Canada.
In December 2017, the Whitla Wind project (Medicine Hat, AB) was awarded a 20-year contract by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) in the first round of its Renewable Electricity Program (REP). The wind plant is expected to start commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2019.
As of February 2019, Capital Power has the following renewables projects in consultation or planning:
Renewable assets in the United States.
In November 2014, Capital Power acquired 10 wind development sites and four solar sites in the United States through the acquisition of Element Power US, LLC.[20]
As of February 2019, Capital Power has the following renewables projects in consultation or planning:


Electricity sector in Bangladesh

The utility electricity sector in Bangladesh has one national grid with an installed capacity of 21,419 MW as of September 2019. The total installed capacity is 20,000 MW (combining solar power). Bangladesh's energy sector is booming. Recently Bangladesh started construction of the 2.4-gigawatt (GW) Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant expected to go into operation in 2023. According to the Bangladesh Power Development Board in July 2018, 90 percent of the population had access to electricity. However per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh is considered low.
Electricity is the major source of power for most of the country's economic activities. Bangladesh's total installed electricity generation capacity (including captive power) was 15,351 megawatts (MW) as of January 2017 and 20,000 megawatts in 2018.
The largest energy consumers in Bangladesh are industries and the residential sector, followed by the commercial and agricultural sectors.
As of 2015, 92% of the urban population and 67% of the rural population had access to electricity. An average of 77.9% of the population had access to electricity in Bangladesh. Bangladesh will need an estimated 34,000 MW of power by 2030 to sustain its economic growth of over 7 percent.
Problems in Bangladesh's electric power sector include high system losses, delays in completion of new plants, low plant efficiency, erratic power supply, electricity theft, blackouts, and shortages of funds for power plant maintenance. Overall, the country's generation plants have been unable to meet system demand over the past decade.
On 2 November 2014, electricity was restored after a day-long nationwide blackout. A transmission line from India had failed, which "led to a cascade of failures throughout the national power grid," and criticism of "old grid infrastructure and poor management." However, in a recent root-cause analysis report the investigating team has clarified that the fault was actually due to lack of coordination and poor health of transmission and distribution infrastructure that caused the blackout.
Sources of energy.
As of 2011, 79 natural gas wells were present in the 23 operational gas fields which produce over per day of gas. It is well short of over per day that is demanded, a number which is growing by around 7% each year. In fact, more than three-quarters of the nation's commercial energy demand is being met by natural gas. This influential sector caters for around 40% of the power plant feed-stock, 17% of industries, 15% captive power, 11% for domestic and household usage, another 11% for fertilizers, 5% in Compressed natural gas (CNG) activities and 1% for commercial and agricultural uses.
CNG is substituting more that US$0.8 billion worth of foreign exchange annually and is also used in most vehicles on the road. In addition to CNG, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is also demanded at around 0.1 million tons. The nation furthermore demands 3.5 million tons of oil imports in addition to almost 2 million tons of diesel to feed oil-based power plants being planned and built all around the country. The additional petroleum and coal imports are causing a disruption in the GDP by as much as 2% annually. The new purchases are affecting improvement initiatives in other sectors causing reduced export earnings and curtailing employment opportunities. This massive failure in the energy sector is mostly attributed to prolonged negligence, inappropriate implementation, inefficiency and lack of planning. To make matters worse, natural gas reserves are expected to expire by 2020. The only coal mine of the country is in the development stage, the reserve of which is also expected to dry up anywhere from 75 to 80 years after the start of their operations.
Efforts to develop an open-pit coal mine in Phulbari, Dinajpur District, have met with large, violent protests in 2006 because of feared environmental effects, and six people were killed and hundreds injured. At the time, the government closed the project, for which it was working with Asia Energy (now Global Coal Resources). It was encouraged in December 2009 to re-open it by the United States ambassador in private communication. In October 2010 protesters make a week-long march from Phulbari to Dhaka against the mine; a coalition of other groups protested at a Global Coal Resources meeting in London.
Renewable energy.
According to the Bangladesh's Power Sector Master Plan 2016 (PSMP–2016), the country has the potential to generate a combined 3.6 GW of electricity from renewable energy sources. Another research has estimated that the potential from wind power alone stands at 20 GW.
Bangladesh has 15 MW solar energy capacity through rural households and 1.9 MW wind power in Kutubdia and Feni. The government of Bangladesh has approved the construction by private developers of 19 on-grid solar parks, with would have cumulative generation capacity of 1070 MW.A solar power plant having a power generation capacity of 28 MW has recently started its operation in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar. Accounting this, the power generation capacity from renewable energy sources exceeds five percent of the country's total demand.
Technical Solartech Energy Ltd (TSEL) has installed this power plant in Teknaf utilizing a total of 116 acres of land. Currently, the power plant is feeding 20MW to the national grid.
Bangladesh has planned to produce 10% of total power generation by 2020 from renewable energy sources like wind, waste, and solar energy. The country plans to increase its renewable energy share to 17% by 2041 under its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5% until 2030.
The country's prospect of geothermal energy extraction has also been discussed by researchers. Studies carried out by geologists suggested geothermal resources in northwest and southeast region.
Recent plans.
The Ministry of Power and Energy has been mobilising BDT 400 billion ($5.88 billion) to generate 5,000 MW of electricity to reduce load shedding into a tolerable level within next four and half years during the term of the present government. Under the plan, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) would produce 500 MW gas-fired electricity between July and December 2009 to over come load shedding within December. The PDB would hire furnace-oil based 1,000 MW of electricity from private sector from January to June 2010, the plan said. In 2011, the government would install furnace-oil based 800 MW capacity of power plant.
The PDB officials would seek suitable place to establish the plant, a senior official of the PDB said. Besides the government would also hire another diesel- or furnace oil-based power plant having capacity of 700 MW in 2012 to keep load shedding into mild level, the official said. However, the government also contemplates to establish four coal-fired-based power plants with capacity of producing 500 MW of electricity each with public and private partnership (PPP) in Rajshahi and Chittagong region.
The government has initially tried to create fund of BDT 60 billion ($1 billion) to implement the plan, sources said. The power division has tried to use the government's budgetary allocation of BDT 20 billion for PPP in this regard, sources added. "If we can create the fund of BDT 60 billion, it would be possible also to mobilise BDT 400 billion under ppp to produce 5,000 MW of electricity within four and half years," PDB chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir told the New Nation on 29 June 2009. During the meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina permitted the power division to implement the PDB plan to reduce load shedding up to a tolerable level. Prime Minister's Adviser for Power and Energy Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury Bir Bikram, State Minister for Power and Energy Shamsul Haque Tuku, Power Division Secretary Md Abul Kalam, PDB chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir were present.
Inefficiencies and infrastructure.
Bangladesh has small reserves of oil and coal, but very large natural gas resources. Commercial energy consumption comes mostly from natural gas (around 66%), followed by oil, hydropower, and coal. Non-commercial energy sources, such as wood fuel, and crop residues, are estimated to account for over half of the country's energy consumption.
A 2014 news report stated that:
Bangladesh is considered one of the most arousing energy growth nations. More than a third of Bangladesh's 166 million people still have no access to electricity, while the country often is able to produce only some of its 11,500-megawatt generation capacity.
In generating and distributing electricity, the failure to adequately manage the load leads to extensive load shedding which results in severe disruption in the industrial production and other economic activities. A recent survey reveals that power outages result in a loss of industrial output worth $1 billion a year which reduces the GDP growth by about half a percentage point in Bangladesh. A major hurdle in efficiently delivering power is caused by the inefficient distribution system. It is estimated that the total transmission and distribution losses in Bangladesh amount to one-third of the total generation, the value of which is equal to US$247 million per year.
In 2011, there were proposals to upgrade the grid technologies to digital smart metering systems and investing in renewable energy technologies to produce 5% of total power generation by 2015 & 10% by 2020, as noted in the National Renewable Energy Policy of 2008. American engineer Sanwar Sunny said that the city should put more effort in zoning areas to encourage more self-reliant subdivisions and higher density housing around subways to be more sustainable, as during peak times load shedding would not affect everyone. It will reduce effects of power cuts and provide stability to the power sector. He proposed that Radio transmitters could be operating remotely in unlicensed radio bands using two way real time communication and transmit coded instructions from the central to the circuit breakers in selected coordinates of the micro grids substations thereby maintain multiple power flow lines with automated control and digital metering. Using this technology, Feed-in tariffs (FIT) would also be possible, as the energy usage could be monitored remotely and private power generation and energy efficient entities could be offered rebates and incentives. "This will also expedite investments in this sector, create job opportunities for engineering graduates and technicians, and ease pressures on the government" he said. Think tanks such as Bangladesh Solar Energy Society and Renewable Energy Institute (REI), along with European International Development Government Agencies such as "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit" supported this scheme. However, The Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Government of Bangladesh has said that the government has no plans to do so.
Nuclear power plant.
Bangladesh plans to set up the 2,400 MW power plant, the Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant at Rooppur, Pabna district, northwest of the capital Dhaka, by 2018. Planned to go into operation by 2023, it will be the country's first nuclear power plant. The plant will be built with an allocation of BDT 20,050 crore, the highest allocation for a single project and over half of the 2018-2019 budget.


Pimoroni

Pimoroni Ltd is a hobbyist electronics company based in Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK.
Founded in 2012, the company has grown to more than 30 people and operates from two nearby properties in Sheffield city centre, as well as a third in Essen, Germany, which opened in 2017. In 2017 they were named the second fastest growing manufacturing company in the UK by the University of Sheffield
Through an online store, and at community events, they are a re-seller for a number of electronics and education brands, as well as manufacturing a range of electronics and associated products. Their original product was an Acrylic plastic case for the Raspberry Pi computer (which has now sold in excess of 175,000 units), and their range now includes a selection of add-on boards and components for this and other small computers.
Their 'Picade' arcade machine kit was the UK's first Kickstarter campaign
By 1 July 2019 they had successfully raised £93,480 on Kickstarter for their new retro style console called '32blit'.


Acorn tube

An acorn tube, or acorn valve, refers to any member of a family of VHF/UHF vacuum tubes starting just before World War II. They were named after their resemblance to the acorn, specifically due to the glass cap at one end of the tube that looked similar to the cap on an acorn. The acorn tubes found widespread use in radios and radar systems.
High-frequency performance is limited by (1) parasitic lead inductance and capacitance and skin effect, and (2) electron transit time (the time required to travel from cathode to anode). Transit time effects are complicated, but one simple effect is the phase margin; another one is input conductance, also known as grid loading. At extremely high frequencies, electrons arriving at the grid may become out of phase with those departing towards the anode. This imbalance of charge causes the grid to exhibit a reactance that is much less than its low-frequency "open circuit" characteristic. Acorn- as well as Lighthouse tubes and Nuvistors attempt to minimize this effect by arranging cathode, grid(s) and anode as closely spaced together as possible.
The original range included about half a dozen tubes, designed to work in the VHF range. The 955 is a triode. The 954 and 956 types are sharp and remote cut-off pentodes, respectively, all with indirect 6.3 V, 150 mA heaters. Types 957, 958 and 959 are for portable equipment and have 1.25 V NiCd battery heaters. The 957 is a medium-μ signal triode, the 958 is a transmitting triode with dual, paralleled filaments for increased emission, and the 959 is a sharp cut-off pentode like the 954. The 957 and 959 draw 50 mA heater current, the 958 twice as much. In 1942, the 958A with tightened emission specifications was introduced after it turned out that 958s with excessively high emission kept working after the filament power was turned off, the filament still sufficiently heating on the anode current alone. After the introduction of the miniature 7-pin base, the 954, 955 and 956 were made available with this base as 9001, 9002 and 9003. Other acorn tubes include:
Larger, higher-power types such as the 316A, 368A, 388A, and 703A triodes and the 713A and 717A pentodes were referred to as "Doorknob" tubes.
The introduction of the EF50 was the first serious competition for the acorn design, and replaced the acorns in many roles, especially post-war when millions of surplus EF50s were dumped on the market.


SparkFun Electronics

SparkFun Electronics (sometimes known by its abbreviation, SFE) is an electronics retailer in Niwot, Colorado, United States. It manufactures and sells microcontroller development boards and breakout boards. All products designed and produced by SparkFun are released as open-source hardware.
History.
SparkFun Electronics was founded in 2003 by Nathan Seidle when he was a Junior at University of Colorado Boulder. Its first products were Olimex printed circuit boards. The name 'SparkFun' came about because one of the founders of SparkFun was testing a development board, and sparks flew out; "Fun" was chosen because the company's self-stated aim is to educate people about electronics. In January 2011, an education department was formed to outreach to local schools, hackerspaces, and events.
Open-source hardware.
During the Open Source Hardware summit in October 2010, SparkFun was one of the contributors in drafting the first OSHW definition. All products designed and produced by SparkFun are released as Open-source hardware (OSHW), with schematics, EAGLE files, and datasheets posted on each product page. Product images are licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0
Contests.
Antimov.
This contest was based upon violating the 2nd and 3rd laws of robotics, where a fully automated robot would destroy itself after interacting with props and objects in a performance. The competition was retired in 2011.
AVC.
The Autonomous Vehicle Challenge is a recurring contest held annually by SparkFun. The objective is to build an automated vehicle that can circumnavigate a course without human interaction. As of 2015, aerial vehicles are not allowed.
Projects.
SparkFun has become one of the favoured suppliers for those without mainstream suppliers as well as the increasingly popular "Maker" community, particularly for the Arduino and related devices.
Whilst many of the non-component products sold by SFE are from other manufacturers, it does manufacture and sell some of its own complete products:
Legal disputes.
Trademark dispute with SPARC International.
On October 16, 2009, SPARC International sent a Cease and Desist letter demanding SparkFun stop using the "SparkFun" name and immediately transfer ownership of sparkfun.com to SPARC International. The letter claimed the SparkFun trademark was too visually and phonetically similar for companies in the same industry.
The two companies signed a trademark coexistence agreement on April 2, 2010.
Fluke trademark infringement.
On March 7, 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection informed SparkFun that a shipment of multimeters meant for sale on SparkFun's website had been seized. The Port of Denver deemed that the yellow protective jackets on the imported multimeters too closely resembled the trade dress of Fluke Corporation's competing multimeters. Rather than pay the cost of shipping the imported multimeters back, SparkFun chose to have them destroyed. In a letter to SparkFun, Fluke announced that they would be supplying the company with a shipment of genuine Fluke products and equipment as a gesture of goodwill and support for the maker movement, which SparkFun accepted.


Lumo Energy

Lumo Energy, as is Red Energy, a trading name of Snowy Hydro, is an Australian energy retailer operating in Victoria and South Australia. Lumo Energy has been wholly owned by Snowy Hydro since 2014. The business offers electricity and gas packages in Victoria and South Australia. As at October 2017, the business has almost 500,000 customers and a workforce of just under 500 people.
Victoria Electricity, a trading name of Infratil, secured an electricity retail licence for Victoria in August 2002 and electricity retailing commenced in February 2004. A licence for gas retailing in Victoria was obtained in December 2004 and gas retailing commenced in early 2005. Similar licences were obtained in May 2005 for South Australia and Queensland, and for New South Wales in August 2006.
History.
Infratil registered Victoria Electricity in 2002 and secured an electricity retail licence for the state of Victoria in August 2002. Victoria Electricity commenced retailing electricity in February 2004. On 1 October 2002, the gas market in Victoria was opened to new gas retailers and full retail contestability for gas customers was introduced, enabling gas retailers to seek customers statewide. Victoria Electricity applied for and obtained a licence for gas retailing in Victoria in December 2004 and commenced gas retailing in early 2005. In May 2005, Infratil also registered South Australia Electricity and Queensland Electricity, and New South Wales Electricity in August 2006.
In June 2010, Lumo Energy was incorporated as a company and as a business name in each of the four states in which it is active.
In July 2011, Lumo Energy partnered with American Express to offer the Lumo Express product, and in September 2011, it partnered with the Velocity Frequent Flyer program to offer the Lumo Velocity product.
In 2014, Infratil sold Lumo Energy, along with Direct Connect, to the government-owned Snowy Hydro for $600 million.
In July 2016 Lumo began to migrate customers from New South Wales to Red Energy
In 2017 customers from Queensland began to be migrated from Lumo to Red Energy
National Electricity Market.
All of the markets that Lumo Energy are involved in and are part of Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM). The NEM facilitates exchange between electricity providers and consumers through a gross pool where output is aggregated and planned to meet consumer demand. This method allows for sophisticated pricing structures and rolling blackout arrangements to ensure security of supply regardless of consumer demand.
Customer satisfaction.
In 2010, the Queensland Competition Authority found Lumo Energy had the highest rate of unresolved complaints among the state's electricity retailers. In 2011, Lumo Energy lost a court case involving a customer whose gas and electricity were cut off over a $4,000 debt. According to the Essential Services Commission, Lumo Energy sent the customer an initial letter which failed to mention separate disconnection periods for gas and electricity notices, as required by law.
In 2013, Lumo Energy made changes to improve customer relations, by re-branding their website and refreshing their customer communications. Lumo Energy also reported progress in the reduction of Ombudsman complaints, with a 53% reduction in complaints received in June 2013, compared with complaints received in June 2010. In August 2013, Lumo Energy was awarded the number one position for electricity in the Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards.


Lyndon Rive

Lyndon Rive (born 22 January 1977) is the co-founder of SolarCity and served as its CEO until 2016. SolarCity is a provider of clean energy services that designs, finances, and installs photovoltaic systems, performs energy-efficiency audits, and retrofits and builds charging stations for electric vehicles. Rive co-founded SolarCity with his brother Peter in 2006.
Rive started his first company at age 17 before leaving his native South Africa. He then co-founded the enterprise software company Everdream, which was ultimately acquired by Dell. In his spare time, Rive plays underwater hockey. Rive is a cousin of SolarCity investor and entrepreneur Elon Musk, as their mothers are twins.
In 2010, Rive was named in the "MIT Technology Review's" Innovators Under 35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
After Tesla, Inc. acquired SolarCity in 2016, Rive announced in 2017 that he would leave the company and spend his time with his family along with further entrepreneurial activities, including working on a new startup.
Awards.
In 2013, Rive was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner in the Northern California Region.


Daylight saving time in the Philippines


Kiyoo Mogi

Dr. is a prominent seismologist. He is regarded as Japan's foremost authority on earthquake prediction and is a former chair of the Japanese Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction (CCEP). Mogi is also a former Director of the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute, was a professor at Nihon University and is professor emeritus at Tokyo University. Due to the seismic activity in Japan, Mogi has also taken an interest in safety of nuclear power in Japan.
In 1969 Mogi predicted that there was a possibility of a shallow magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Tōkai region of Japan, an area that has experienced a number of previous large earthquakes. Following the passing of the Large-Scale Earthquake Countermeasure Act, in 1978 Mogi was appointed to the newly created Earthquake Assessment Committee (EAC) for the expected Tokai earthquake, charged with warning the government if the quake was imminent. He went on to chair the ECA from 1991 until he resigned the post in 1996 after failing to persuade the government of the need to take uncertainty into account when issuing warnings.
Nuclear power.
Following damage at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant due to the 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake, Mogi called for the immediate closure of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, which was built close to the centre of the expected Tōkai earthquake despite his 1969 prediction. Previously, in 2004, he had stated that the issue 'is a critical problem which can bring a catastrophe to Japan through a man-made disaster'.
Mogi doughnut hypothesis.
In 1969 Mogi proposed a hypothesis for earthquake prediction, now known as the 'Mogi doughnut hypothesis', that major earthquakes tend to occur in an unusually seismically calm area surrounded by a ring of unusually high seismic activity. The Mogi doughnut is one of several pattern hypotheses that have been proposed.
Mogi model.
In 1958 Mogi was responsible for a major advance in understanding the dynamics of volcanos. After studying data from several sources, he concluded that a mathematical solution developed by Yamakawa in 1955 could be used in the modelling of the deformation of a volcano caused by pressure changes in its magma chamber. The 'Mogi model' (also known as the 'Mogi-Yamakawa model') subsequently became the first commonly used quantitative method in volcanology, and is still widely used today.


Variable geometry turbomachine

A variable geometry turbomachine uses movable vanes to optimize its efficiency at different operating conditions. This article refers to movable vanes as used in liquid pumps and turbocharger turbines. It does not cover the widespread use of movable vanes in gas turbine compressors.
Performance characteristics of turbomachines.
If all fluid velocities at corresponding points within the turbomachine are in the same direction and proportional to the blade speed, then the operating condition of a turbomachine at two different rotational speeds will be dynamically similar.
If two points, each on dissimilar head-flow characteristics curve, represent similar dynamic operation of the turbo machine, then the non-dimensional variables (ignoring Reynolds number effects) will have same values.
Where,
formula_1 is speed of rotation.
formula_2 is flow rate.
formula_3 is impeller diameter.
Thus non-dimensional representation is highly advantageous for converging to single performance curve that would otherwise result in multiple curves if plotted dimensionally.
Figure 1 shows head characteristics of centrifugal pump versus flow coefficient. Within the normal operating range of this pump, , the head characteristic curves approximately coincide for different values of speed rev/min) and little scatter appears may be due to the effect of Reynolds number. For smaller flow co-efficient, Q/(ND3) < 0.025, the flow became unsteady but dynamically similar conditions still appear i.e. head characteristic curves still coincides for different values of speed. But at high flow rates deviation from the single-curve are noticed for higher values of speed. This effect is due to cavitation, a high speed phenomenon of hydraulic machines caused by the release of vapour bubbles at low pressures.
Thus during off-design operating conditions, i.e. Q/(ND3) < 0.03 and Q/(ND3) > 0.06, the flow become unsteady and cavitations occurs . So to avoid cavitation increase efficiency at high flow rates we resort to Variable Geometry Turbomachine.
Fixed geometry turbomachine.
Fixed geometry machines are designed to operate at maximum efficiency condition. The efficiency of a fixed geometry machine depends on the flow coefficient and Reynolds number. For a constant Reynolds number as flow coefficient increases, efficiency also increases, reaches a maximum value and then decreases. Thus off-design operation is completely inefficient and may result in cavitation at higher flow rates.
Variable geometry turbomachine.
A variable geometry turbomachine uses movable vanes to regulate the flow. Vane angles are varied using cams driven by servo motor (actuator). In large installations involving many thousands of kilowatts and where operating conditions fluctuate, sophisticated systems of control are incorporated. Thus variable geometry turbomachine offer a better match of efficiency with changing flow conditions.
Figure 2 describes the envelope of optimum efficiency for a variable geometry turbomachine. In the figure each of curves formula_4 represents different fixed geometry machines. The efficiency of the variable geometry turbomachine intersects the point of maximum efficiency for each of the curves formula_4.
As the vane angles are variable in Variable Geometry Turbomachine, therefore we introduce an additional variable formula_6 into equation 1 and 2 to represent the setting of the vanes. We can write:
formula_7
formula_8
Where, flow coefficient, formula_9
Alternatively, with
formula_10
formula_11
formula_6 can be eliminated to give a new functional dependence:
formula_13
Thus, efficiency in a variable geometry pump is a function of both flow coefficient and energy transfer coefficient.
Applications.
Variable Geometry Turbomachine technology is used in turbocharger of diesel engines, where the turbo has variable vanes which control the flow of exhaust onto the turbine blades. A Variable Geometry Turbocharger has movable vanes which direct the flow of exhaust onto the turbine blades. Actuators are used to adjust the vane angles. Angle of vanes vary throughout the range of RPM to optimize turbine behaviour. At high engine speed, vanes are fully open and the exhaust is fully directed onto the turbine blades. At low engine speeds vanes are almost closed creating a narrow passage for the exhaust. This accelerates the exhaust towards the turbine blades, making them spin faster.


Tohoku Electric Power

 is an electric utility, servicing 7.6 million individual and corporate customers in six prefectures in Tōhoku region plus Niigata Prefecture. It provides electricity at 100 V, 50 Hz, though some area use 60 Hz.
Tohoku Electric Power is the fourth-largest electric utility in Japan in terms of revenue, behind TEPCO, KEPCO and Chubu Electric Power.
Accidents.
On 11 March 2011, several nuclear reactors in Japan were badly damaged by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
In the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant a fire broke out in the turbine section of the plant.
In order to make up for the loss of electricity from the damaged reactor plant, Tohoku announced it would restart a mothballed natural gas power plant. The liquefied natural gas and oil-fired No. 1 unit at the Higashi Niigata plant in Niigata prefecture has a 350-megawatt capacity and could be in operation by early June 2011.


BC Hydro

The British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, operating as BC Hydro, is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia. It is the main electricity distributor, serving 1.8 million customers in most areas, with the exception of the City of New Westminster, where the city runs its own electrical department and the Kootenay, Okanagan, and Similkameen regions, where FortisBC, a subsidiary of Fortis Inc. directly provides electric service to 213,000 customers and supplies municipally owned utilities in the same area. As a provincial Crown corporation, BC Hydro reports to the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, and is regulated by the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC). Its mandate is to generate, purchase, distribute and sell electricity.
BC Hydro operates 32 hydroelectric facilities and three natural gas-fueled thermal power plants. As of 2014, 95 per cent of the province's electricity was produced by hydroelectric generating stations, which consist mostly of large hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Peace rivers. BC Hydro's various facilities generate between 43,000 and 54,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, depending on prevailing water levels. BC Hydro's nameplate capacity is about 11,000 megawatts.
Electricity is delivered through a network of 18,286 kilometers of transmission lines and 55,254 kilometers of distribution lines. For the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the domestic electric sales volume was 53,018 gigawatt hours, revenue was and net income was .
History.
BC Hydro was created in 1961 when the government of British Columbia, under Premier W. A. C. Bennett, passed the "BC Hydro Act". This act led to the expropriation of the BC Electric Company and its merging with the BC Power Commission, to create the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BCHPA).
The BC Power Commission had been established with the Electric Power Act in 1945 by Premier John Hart. The mandate of the Power Commission was to amalgamate existing power and generating facilities across the province not served by BC Electric, and to extend service to the many smaller communities without power.
BC Electric Company began as the British Columbia Electric Railway (streetcar and lighting utility) in Victoria, Vancouver and New Westminster in 1897. Power was generated by coal-fired steam plants. Increasing demand in the Edwardian boom years meant BC Electric sought expansion through developing Hydro power at Buntzen Lake, and later at Stave Lake. Sensible growth and expansion of the power, streetcar and coal gas utilities meant that BC Electric was a major company in the region.
An English financier named Robert Horne-Payne had secured investment funding and created a large company from what had been a patchwork of small regional electric railway and steam, hydro and diesel plants.
Also about this time, sawmills and factories converted to electricity, further increasing the demand for electric power. BC Electric developed more hydro stations in the province. Similarly, small towns also built and operated their own power stations. More power transmission lines were also built. Dams and hydro-electric generating stations were built on Vancouver Island on the Puntledge, Jordan, and Elk rivers in the 1920s.
BC Electric created one of the largest streetcar and interurban systems in the world in the Lower Mainland of BC with some 200 miles of track running from Point Grey to Chilliwack. There were both city street cars and interurban cars servicing Richmond, Burnaby, New Westminster, Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Victoria.
By the time of the First World War, private cars and jitneys were beginning to affect streetcar traffic. The expansion of private automobile ownership in the 1920s further constrained the expansion of streetcar lines. New dams were planned, including the diversion from the Bridge River to Seton Lake, near Lillooet, but the economic depression of the 1930s halted this business expansion. Also with the depression came an increase in the ridership, and a decrease in the maintenance of the streetcar system.
In 1947 the BC Power Commission completed the John Hart Generating Station at Campbell River. In the early 1950s the ageing streetcars and interurban trains were replaced by electric trolley buses, and diesel buses. BC Electric finally completed the Bridge River Generating Station in 1960. BC Hydro continued to operate the transit system by funding it with a small levy on electricity bills, until the transit system was taken over by BC Transit in 1980.
In 1958 BC Electric began construction of the natural gas-fired Burrard Generating Station near Port Moody. It opened in 1961 and operated only intermittently when needed. In 2001 it represented over 9% of BC Hydro's gross metered generation. Burrard Generating Station was decommissioned in 2016 after the completion of enough replacement capacity at the Mica Generating Station.
 With completion of new transmission capacity to the Lower Mainland from the interior of BC, Burrard Generating Station is being converted into a large synchronous condenser facility.
On August 1, 1961, just days after company president Dal Grauer died, the BC government passed the legislation which changed BC Electric from a private company to a crown corporation known as BC Hydro. In 1988 BC Hydro sold its Gas Division which distributed natural gas in the lower mainland and Victoria to Inland Natural Gas. Inland was acquired by Terasen Gas in 1993.
Modern era.
Between 1960 and 1980, BC Hydro completed six large hydro-electric generating projects. The first large dam was built on the Peace River near Hudson's Hope. The W. A. C. Bennett Dam was built to create an energy reservoir for the Gordon M. Shrum Generating Station, which has a capacity of 2,730 Megawatts of electric power and generated 13,810 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year on average 2012-16. When it was completed in 1968, the dam was the largest earth-fill structure ever built. The Williston Lake reservoir is the largest lake in British Columbia. A second smaller concrete dam was later built downstream, closer to Hudson's Hope for the Peace Canyon Generating Station which was completed in 1980.
Under the terms of the Columbia River Treaty with the US, BC Hydro built a number of dams and hydro-electric generating stations including two large projects at Mica and Revelstoke on the Columbia River. The Keenleyside Dam on the Columbia River north of Castlegar and the Duncan Dam north of Kootenay Lake were also built under the same treaty and are used mainly for water control. Two generators were installed at Keenleyside in 2002, though these are owned and operated by the Columbia Power Corporation (a separate Crown Corporation). Kootenay Canal Generating Station on the Kootenay River between Nelson and Castlegar was completed in 1976. The Seven Mile Dam and Generating Station on the Pend d'Oreille River near Trail were completed in 1979.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s BC Hydro investigated the feasibility of geothermal power production at Meager Creek, north of Pemberton. They concluded from their testing that the underground rock wasn't permeable enough to justify large-scale production of electricity. Around the same time, BC Hydro initiated a project to develop a coal-fired thermal generating station at Hat Creek near Cache Creek, but abandoned the effort in 1981 due to strong environmental opposition.
In 1989 the Power Smart and Resource Smart programs were initiated by BC Hydro to promote energy conservation as an alternative to the cost of creating new generating facilities. Since 2001, BC Hydro has focused on its conservation and energy efficiency programs, re-investing in its existing facilities, and purchasing clean, renewable energy from Independent Power Producers. According to the "British Columbia Energy Plan", released in 2007, BC Hydro must ensure that clean or renewable electricity generation continues to account for at least 90 percent of total generation. As of 2014, 97 percent of BC Hydro's electricity generation comes from clean or renewable sources and this generation only emits 730,000 tonnes of CO2 annually from thermal plants.
Organization and financial performance.
In 1980 the BC Government established the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) to regulate public energy utilities and to act as an independent, quasi-judicial regulatory agency regarding energy rates. In 2003 the BC government passed several pieces of legislation to redefine and regulate power utilities in British Columbia. The Transmission Corporation Act created the British Columbia Transmission Corporation (BCTC) which plans, operates and maintains the transmission system owned by BC Hydro.
Also in 2003, BC Hydro privatized the services provided by 1540 of its employees in its Customer Service, Westech IT Services, Network Computer Services, Human Resources, Financial Systems, Purchasing, and Building and Office Services groups. These services are now provided under contract by Accenture.
Site C Dam.
While BC Hydro initially looked at Site C on the Peace River near Fort St. John in the late 1950s, it wasn't until 1982 that it submitted a Site C development project to the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC). It was turned down by the BCUC at that time. Another attempt to revive it in the 1990s was blocked by environmental concerns. In 2004 the BC government's Energy Plan instructed BC Hydro to begin discussions with First Nations, the Province of Alberta and communities to discuss Site C as a future option. In May 2014, a federal-provincial Joint Review Panel released a report into the project's environmental, economic, social, heritage, and health effects. A notice of Site C construction commencing in 2015 was issued July 2015. Revelstoke Dam built in 1984 was the last new dam built by BC Hydro.
Independent Power Producers.
The BC Hydro Public Power Legacy and Heritage Contract Act requires BC Hydro to meet the province's future needs for power through private developers. These acts have allowed Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to sell power to BC Hydro, which is required by law to buy it from them even at a loss. In 2011 BC Hydro spent $567.4 million on electricity from IPPs. In 2013, BC Hydro had 127 Electricity Purchase Agreements in its supply portfolio, representing 22,200 gigawatt hours of annual energy and over 5,500 megawatts of capacity. In 2013 those purchases will be $781.8 million in 2013 and $939.8 million in 2014, representing about 20% of domestic supply.
Exports.
BC Hydro exports and imports electric power through its wholly owned power marketing and trading subsidiary, Powerex, which was established in 1988. Powerex also markets the Canadian Entitlement energy from the Columbia River Treaty. BC Hydro belongs to a power sharing consortium which includes electric utilities in Alberta, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California. In 2013 British Columbia's minister of energy and mines, Bill Bennett spoke to why BC Hydro was agreeing to a $750 million settlement with California over claims Powerex manipulated electricity prices.
Renewable energy and conservation initiatives.
BC Hydro's Power Smart program encourages energy conservation among its residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The program also aims to promote energy saving retail products and building construction, and includes a "Sustainable Communities Program". Its in-house Resource Smart program is used to identify and implement efficiency gains at existing BC Hydro facilities. BC Hydro also practices energy conservation at its generating facilities through the continuous monitoring and efficient use of the water resources used to power its generators.
BC Hydro is committed by the BC government's Energy Plan to achieve electric power self-sufficiency in the province by 2016, with all new generation plants having zero net greenhouse gas emissions by the same year. In 2013, BC Hydro released an Integrated Resource Plan which includes meeting at least 66 percent of the expected increase in electricity demand through increased energy efficiency.
BC Hydro has also entered into energy purchase contracts with a new category of company created by special legislation, Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to buy electricity generated from intermittent renewable sources, mainly from small capacity run of river hydro and more recently, wind power, wood residue energy, and energy from organic municipal waste. There has been some criticism of this policy on the basis that it will result in Hydro paying significantly higher rates to private producers than it would have if the power were self-generated.
BC has a policy not to develop nuclear power.
As of July 2018, BC Hydro operated 58 electric vehicle charging stations in the province.
Cost of Electricity.
In November 2013 the BC Minister of Energy and Mines announced a 10-year plan that will keep electricity rates as low as possible. Increases during the first five years will be between 9 and 3 percent annually. BC Hydro's profitability is affected by its large debt, estimated to reach five billion dollars by 2017.
Smart Meters.
BC Hydro's Smart Metering Program in 2011 introduced the installation of Itron C2S0D Smart meters as mandatory. In 2013 BC Hydro offered the Meter Choices Program for $20 to $30 monthly.


Chubu Electric Power

, abbreviated as Chuden in Japanese, is a Japanese electric utilities provider for the middle Chūbu region of the Honshu island of Japan. It provides electricity at 60 Hz, though an area of Nagano Prefecture uses 50 Hz. Chubu Electric Power ranks third among Japan's largest electric utilities in terms of power generation capacity, electric energy sold, and annual revenue. It is also one of Nagoya's "four influential companies" along with Meitetsu, Matsuzakaya, and Toho Gas. Recently, the company has also expanded into the business of optical fibers. On January 1, 2006, a new company, Chubu Telecommunications, was formed.
Recent news.
In May 2011, Prime Minister Naoto Kan requested that the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, which sits in an area considered overdue for a large earthquake, be shut down, after which Chubu Electric Power suspended operations at the plant. A lawsuit seeking the decommissioning of the reactors at the Hamaoka plant permanently has been filed.
In August 2013, Chubu announced it would acquire an 80% stake in the Tokyo-based electricity supplier, Diamond Corp, marking the firm's entry into a market usually associated with Tokyo Electric Power Company.
November 2019 it was announced Chubu had acquired a 20% stake (Mitsubishi the other 80%) in the Dutch energy company Eneco.
In April 2020, the logo mark was renewed. The renewed logo is named "The Beam."
Power Stations.
The company has 194 separate generating stations with a total capacity of 32,473 MW.
Hydroelectric.
The company has 182 separate hydro generating stations with a total capacity of 5,217 MW.
Thermal power stations.
The company has 11 separate thermal power stations with a total capacity of 22,369 MW.
Nuclear power stations.
On 6 May 2011, Prime Minister Naoto Kan requested the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant be shut down as an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or higher is estimated 87% likely to hit the area within the next 30 years. Kan wanted to avoid a possible repeat of the Fukushima I nuclear accidents. On 9 May 2011, Chubu Electric decided to comply with the government request. In July 2011, a mayor in Shizuoka Prefecture and a group of residents filed a lawsuit seeking the decommissioning of the reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant permanently.


Avista

Avista Corporation is an American energy company. Avista generates and transmits electricity and distributes natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Approximately 1,550 employees provide electricity, natural gas, and other energy services to 359,000 electric and 320,000 natural gas customers in three western states. The service territory covers in eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and parts of southern and eastern Oregon, with a population of 1.5 million.
Avista Utilities is the regulated business unit of Avista Corp., an investor-owned corporation headquartered in Spokane, Washington. Avista Corp.'s primary, non-utility subsidiary was Ecova, an energy and sustainability management company with over 700 expense management customers, representing more than 600,000 sites. In 2014, Ecova was sold to , a subsidiary of GDF Suez.
The company was founded in 1889 as Washington Water Power Company. The board of directors approved a name change to Avista Corporation, effective January 1, 1999, and the company began trading under the Avista name on Monday,
At that time, the company also bought naming rights for Spokane's minor league baseball park, Avista Stadium.
History.
Washington Water Power was founded in 1889 helping the new city of Spokane Falls to have more power. Using the Spokane River, the idea was that the town could use hydroelectricity. Trustees of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company asked for people to back them up in their project from New York to build a power station on the river. The people in New York refused saying that water power had little to no value. Defying the people in New York, 10 stockholders stepped up to support the project themselves and formed Washington Water Power to build it.
In the 1890s through the 1930s, Washington Water Power bought up streetcar companies in the city of Spokane and had cornered the transportation market by 1900. Despite seeing a peak in 1910, ridership declined through the 1930s and Washington Water Power's final streetcar line closed in 1936. The company would never again seek to enter the public transportation market.
In 1892 Washington Water Power purchased a park called Twickenham Park on the banks of the Spokane River. The company renamed the attraction Natatorium Park and expanded it with a large swimming pool in 1895 and it became an all-purpose recreation site for the city. Washington Water Power eventually sold the park in 1929.
Washington Water Power expanded in Oregon and into California by acquiring the natural gas operations of CP National from Alltel in 1989. The California operations were sold to Southwest Gas in 2005.
In 2014, Avista acquired Alaska Electric Light & Power, the electric utility for Juneau in an all stock transaction worth $170 million.
Avista supports adoption of electric vehicles. In 2016, Avista proposed a two-year pilot program that would install 265 charging stations for electric cars in the eastern part of Washington state. The program was estimated to cost around $3.1 million. It would install fast electric vehicle charging stations in 120 homes, 100 work places, and 45 public areas.
In 2017, Ontario-based electrical utility Hydro One agreed to purchase Avista.
In December 2018, The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission rejected the proposed takeover by Hydro-One, saying the Ontario government (its largest shareholder) led by recently elected premier Doug Ford, had interfered politically in Hydro One's business affairs, most glaringly ordering the removal of CEO Mayo Schmidt, who he dubbed "the Six Million Dollar Man" during the election and vowed to fire him if elected.
Lawsuits.
On September 27, 2002, Avista was sued for issuing false and misleading statements concerning its business and financial condition, including failing to disclose that Avista was engaged in highly risky energy trading activities with Enron and Portland General Electric. On December 20, 2007, Avista agreed to a $9.5 million settlement.
Restatement.
On February 20, 2002, the company had voluntarily adjusted the amount originally allocated to IPR&D and will restate its third quarter 1998 consolidated financial statements accordingly.
Other media.
Matthew Modine's character Louden Swain (Vision Quest) can be seen running over the Monroe Street Bridge with Washington State Power in the background.


Wind power in Pakistan

Wind power is a form of renewable energy in Pakistan which makes up more than 6% of the total electricity production in the country. As of 2018, wind power capacity in Pakistan was 1,237 MW. The government is looking to increase the share of renewable energy and plans to add around 3.5 GW of wind energy capacity by 2018.
History.
The first practical wind-powered machines, the windmill and the windpump, were invented in what are now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan by the 9th century.
Wind corridors.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department conducted a study in 2013 entitled "Wind Power Potential Survey of Coastal Areas of Pakistan", which the Ministry of Science & Technology provided funding for. This study enabled PMD to identify potential "wind corridors" where economically feasible wind farm could be established. The "Gharo-Jhimpir wind corridor" in Sindh was identified as the most lucrative site for wind power plants. The wind power potential covered an area of 9700 km2 with a gross wind power potential of 43000 MW.
Plants.
Jhimpir Wind Power Plant.
The Jhimpir Wind Power Plant was developed in Jhimpir, Sindh by Zorlu Energy Pakistan. The total cost of project is $136 million. Completed in 2002, it has a total capacity of 50 MW. This wind Corridor has a 50000 megawatt potential with average wind speeds over 7 meter per second. The government has announced upfront tariff and ROI of 17 percent which is highest in the world. There are 14 projects in the pipeline out of which 50 MW FFCEL project will achieve COD by mid December 2012.
Foundation Wind Energy I & II.
Fauji Foundation setup two wind projects (50 MW each) at Gharo, Thatta District. The EPC contractors were Nordex and Descon with Nordex as the lead contractor. Foundation Wind Energy II (Private) Limited was commissioned in July 2014. Foundation Wind Energy I (Private) Limited was commissioned on Feb 2015.
Artistic Energy (Pvt) Ltd..
Artistic Energy (Pvt) Ltd. setup 49.3 MW wind power project in Jhimpir Sindh. The EPC contractor was Hydro-china. Artistic Energy (Pvt) Ltd was commissioned in March 2018. It consists of 29 Wind turbines GE 1.7 MW each, and having hub height of 92m, highest hub height in the region. It supplies power to 220 kV Jhimpir New Grid Station through two 132KV lines, one is Tapal line and other is New Jhimpir line.
Three Gorges First Wind Farm.
Three Gorges First Wind Farm Pakistan has started the operation of 50 MW wind power project on 24 November 2014 at Jhimpir, Sindh. Contract of supply and installation of wind turbines was given to GOLDWIND and EPC contractor in the project was CWE (China International Water & Electric Corporation). TGF is the sister concern of China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG), who have built the world largest dam with the installed capacity of 22500 MW in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei, China. Three Gorges have also planned to build two more wind power projects of 50 MW each in Jhimphir, Sindh in 2015.
Three Gorges Second Wind Farm Pakistan has started the operation of 50 MW wind power project in 2018 at Jhimpir, Sindh. Contract of supply and installation of wind turbines was given to GOLDWIND.
Three Gorges Third Wind Farm Pakistan has started the operation of 50 MW wind power project in 2018 at Jhimpir, Sindh. Contract of supply and installation of wind turbines was given to GOLDWIND.
Sapphire Wind Power Plant.
A 52.8 MW wind power plant attained commercial operation date (COD) in a record time of only 14 months on 22 November 2015. Its availability in RRT (Run Reliability Test) was also a record in Pakistan. Hydro China, a Chinese EPC contractor using 33x1.68 MW GE wind turbines constructed the power plant. SWPCL is the first wind project of General Electric in Pakistan and it was also a first project of Hydrochina. Some $95 million debt financing was secured for the project from Oversees Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), USA. The project is a joint ownership of Sapphire Textile and Bank Alfalah.
Tricon Boston Consulting corporation Wind Power Plant.
Tricon Boston Consulting corporation setup 50 MW * 3 = 150MW wind power project in Jhimpir Sindh. The EPC contractor was Hydro-china International. Tricon Boston was commissioned in 2018. It consists of 87 Wind turbines GE 1.7 MW. It supplies power to 220 kV Jhimpir New Grid Station through two 132KV lines.
ACT Wind Farm.
The ACT wind farm is located at the province of Sindh. HydroChina, a subsidiary of China Power Construction Corporation, is constructing the project. It will be run by three local Pakistani Groups Namely Akhtar, Candyland and Tapal Groups. The deal is for 20 GW82 1.5MW turbine. The machines will be customised to suit the local wind and climate conditions. Shipments will be made at the end of 2015. Installation work is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2016. The plant went live on 7 Oct 2016.
Metro Power Company Limited.
Metro Power Project, a 50 MW wind power project of Metro Power Company Limited located in Jhimpir, district Thatta, Sindh, achieved financial close on 19 February 2015. The project is expected to achieve commercial operation by August 2016. The initiative in sponsored by Iqbal Ali Mohamed and Family, Infraco Asia Development Pvt Ltd out of Singapore and International Finance Corporation is scheduled to commence operation in third quarter 2016. It is financed by ETDB, National Bank, UBL, Bank Alfalah and Askari Bank.


Central Hudson Energy Group

CH Energy Group, Inc. is most known for its subsidiary Central Hudson Gas & Electric, commonly known as Central Hudson. Central Hudson Gas & Electric delivers electricity and natural gas to residents of a 2,600-square-mile service territory that extends north from the suburbs of metropolitan New York City to the Capital District at Albany. It is a subsidiary of Fortis Inc., a diversified electric utility holding company based in Canada, though Central Hudson is headquartered in Poughkeepsie, NY.
History.
Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation was officially formed in 1925 after a merger of 80-plus independent electric and gas companies in the state of New York. Later, CH Energy Group, Inc. was formed as a parent organization of Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation and a family of subsidiaries known as Central Hudson Enterprises Corporation (CHEC) in 2000. CHEC is a non-regulatory subsidiary, composed primarily of Griffith Energy Services, which supplies petroleum products and related services to approximately 56,000 customers in the Mid Atlantic Region. In 2013, Fortis Inc. acquired CH Energy Group for US $1.5 billion which included the assumption of approximately US $500 million of debt.
Operations.
Central Hudson is the only electricity and natural gas delivery provider for the 300,000 electric and 78,000 natural gas customers residing in their 2,600-square-mile service territory. New York is an open market state for electricity; customers can choose who buys and resells their supply of energy, since utilities are generally not permitted to operate the power plants that provide electricity in the state of New York; however, Central Hudson must be contracted to deliver the energy. Central Hudson's delivery rate is fixed and must be approved by a regulatory review and approval process involving the Public Service Commission. In 2017, electric and gas revenue for the year 2017 was $671,469,000


FS Class E.390


Cleco Holdings

Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC (formerly the Central Louisiana Electric Company) is an electric power company headquartered in the Central Louisiana city Pineville. It operates a regulated electric utility company, Cleco Power, that serves approximately 290,000 retail customers in Louisiana. Cleco also operates an unregulated wholesale electricity business, Cleco Midstream, with approximately 775 megawatts of generating capacity.
History.
Cleco's roots go back to the 1906 installation of a 25 kWh Corliss steam-driven generating plant in Bunkie, Louisiana.
In 1914, a 50 kWh diesel engine was added to the plant to produce ice and light; and in 1935, the Bunkie plant, called Louisiana Ice & Utilities, reorganized into Louisiana Ice & Electric Company.
Because ice was necessary long before electricity, ice manufacturing fostered the early development of the South's electric industry. Small steam or internal combustion electric motors powered the machinery that ran ice plants. Ice companies used power to light the plants and distributed excess energy to nearby homes and businesses. As demand increased, more facilities were needed to supply electricity and, eventually; manufacturing and delivering electricity became more important than making ice.
In 1945, the company changed its name to Central Louisiana Electric Company, Inc. (CLECO), and in 1998, to Cleco Corp. (Cleco).
On March 28, 2016, the Louisiana Public Service Commission in a 4-1 vote approved the sale of Cleco for $4.9 billion to a foreign purchasing group led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, John Hancock Financial, and other infrastructure investors. Cleco shareholders and area business leaders spoke strongly in support of the purchase. Earlier, the PSC had rejected the sale but soon reversed itself. Clyde C. Holloway, the dissenting commissioner from Rapides Parish, expressed fear for "the long term consequences of Cleco's captive ratepayers. Cleco as we know it has ceased to exist. It is now owned by a private foreign investment company that plans to flip it in eight to ten years. And that same private foreign investment company is financing the deal with a massive amount of debt and ratepayers’ tax money. … I am proud of my 'No' vote and will continue to work hard for those folks who can't walk away." The sale was completed in April. On April 13, the company restructured and became known as Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC.
In February, 2018, Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC, owner of regulated electric utility Cleco Power, announced that it plans to acquire NRG South Central Generating LLC (South Central), a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, Cleco will acquire eight generating assets totaling 3,555 MW, transmission operations, and contracts to provide wholesale power to nine Louisiana cooperatives, five municipalities across Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, and one investor-owned utility. The assets will be acquired through a new unregulated subsidiary, Cleco Cajun LLC. Upon closing, seven of the generation assets will be managed by Cleco. The Cottonwood plant in Texas will be leased back to NRG, who will operate it until May 2025. The sale is expected to close before year-end in 2018, pending regulatory approvals.
Operations.
The company has approximately 1,200 employees serving approximately 290,000 customers in 24 of Louisiana's 64 parishes through its retail business and supplies wholesale power in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Cleco owns nine generating units with a total nameplate capacity of 3,310 megawatts, 12,000 miles of distribution lines and 1,300 miles of transmission lines.
Cleco uses multiple generating sources and multiple fuels to serve its customers. In addition to power generated by Cleco units, Cleco has access to purchased power when it's needed.


Tanjong

Tanjong Public Limited Company was initially founded as Tanjong Tin Dredging LTD on 2 January 1926 in England. The company subsequently changed its name to Tanjong PLC in 1991, following a corporate restructure. Tanjong shares were formerly listed on the Bursa Malaysia and London Stock Exchange.
The company's principal activities include the operation of Pan Malaysian Pools Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian lottery business. They have diversified into power generation plants, property investment, and liquefied petroleum gas distribution.
Power generation.
Through its subsidiary, Tanjong PLC owns and operates 13 power generation plants located throughout Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Asia.


China Datang Corporation

China Datang Corporation (CDT) is one of the five large-scale power generation enterprises in China, established on the basis of former State Power Corporation of China in 2002. It is a solely state-owned enterprise directly managed by the SASAC and is the experimental state-authorized investment and state shareholding enterprise ratified by the State Council.


Photovoltaic mounting system

Photovoltaic mounting systems (also called solar module racking) are used to fix solar panels on surfaces like roofs, building facades, or the ground. These mounting systems generally enable retrofitting of solar panels on roofs or as part of the structure of the building (called BIPV).
Roof mounting.
The solar array of a PV system can be mounted on rooftops, generally with a few inches gap and parallel to the surface of the roof. If the rooftop is horizontal, the array is mounted with each panel aligned at an angle. If the panels are planned to be mounted before the construction of the roof, the roof can be designed accordingly by installing support brackets for the panels before the materials for the roof are installed. The installation of the solar panels can be undertaken by the crew responsible for installing the roof. If the roof is already constructed, it is relatively easy to retrofit panels directly on top of existing roofing structures. For a small minority of roofs (often not built to code) that are designed so that it is capable of bearing only the weight of the roof, installing solar panels demands that the roof structure must be strengthened beforehand. In all cases of retrofits particular consideration to weather sealing is necessary There are many low-weight designs for PV systems that can be used on either sloped or flat roofs (e.g. plastic wedges or the PV-pod), most however, rely on a type of extruded aluminum rails (e.g. Unirac). Recently, tension-based PV racking solutions have been tested successfully that reduce weight and cost. In some cases, converting to composition shingles, the weight of the removed roof materials can compensate the additional weight of the panels structure. The general practice for installation of roof-mounted solar panels include having a support bracket per hundred watts of panels.
Ground-mounted.
Ground-mounted PV systems are usually large, utility-scale photovoltaic power stations. The PV array consist of solar modules held in place by racks or frames that are attached to ground-based mounting supports.
Ground-based mounting supports include:
Mounting as a shade structure.
Solar panels can also be mounted as shade structures where the solar panels can provide shade instead of patio covers. The cost of such shading systems are generally different from standard patio covers, especially in cases where the entire shade required is provided by the panels. The support structure for the shading systems can be normal systems as the weight of a standard PV array is between 3 and 5 pounds/ft2. If the panels are mounted at an angle steeper than normal patio covers, the support structures may require additional strengthening. Other issues that are considered include:
Building-integrated photovoltaics.
Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) are photovoltaic materials that are used to replace conventional building materials in parts of the building envelope such as the roof (tiles), skylights, or facades. They are increasingly being incorporated into the construction of new buildings as a principal or ancillary source of electrical power, although existing buildings may be retrofitted with BIPV modules as well. The advantage of integrated photovoltaics over more common non-integrated systems is that the initial cost can be offset by reducing the amount spent on building materials and labor that would normally be used to construct the part of the building that the BIPV modules replace.
Building-adapted photovoltaics (BAPV) uses solar modules to create solar PV windows and this way, also to retrofit existing building.
Orientation and inclination.
A solar cell performs the best when its surface is perpendicular to the sun's rays, which change continuously over the course of the day and season. It is a common practice to tilt a fixed PV module (without solar tracker) at the same angle as the latitude of array's location to maximize the annual energy yield of module. For example, rooftop PV module at the tropics provides highest annual energy yield when inclination of panel surface is close to horizontal direction. A study in the tropics showed that the orientation of low-slope rooftop PV has negligible impact on annual energy yield, but in the case of PV external sunshade applications, east façade and panel slope of 30–40° are the most suitable location and inclination.