A planning application from Covanta Rookery South Limited for a 65MW energy from waste and materials recovery facility in Bedfordshire has become the first application to be accepted by the Infrastructure Planning Commission to proceed to examination.
The application was submitted for consideration to the IPC on 5 August and the decision made a week ahead of the statutory deadline of 2 September. A decision on whether or not to grant development consent must now be made within a year.
In deciding whether or not to accept an application, the IPC considers a wide range of factors, including the adequacy of the public consultation undertaken by the developer, whether the developer has had regard to any relevant consultation responses received and the wording of the draft Order submitted with the application.
The Planning Act 2008, which established the IPC, sets high standards for applications and places a strong duty upon developers to involve the local community, local authorities and other stakeholders in the development of their proposal, ahead of submission.
IPC chairman Sir Michael Pitt said the bar has been set high.
“Developers must demonstrate that they have invested the time and effort required at pre-application stage to submit an application which measures up. We have considered very carefully the application submitted by Covanta and decided that it meets the required tests set out in the legislation to be accepted for IPC examination.
“Shortly, the public will be invited to register to have their say to us on the proposal. We look forward to hearing the views of all who have an interest, whether they object to or support the project. Everyone who registers to have their say can be sure that their views will be heard and considered by the independent IPC commissioners who will be appointed to examine the case”.
It is now for Covanta Rookery South Limited to publicise the fact that its application has been accepted to proceed to IPC examination. Members of the public will shortly be able to register to have their say.
People who register may be entitled to:
* Give their views in writing to the IPC
* Comment on the views of others
* Attend a Preliminary Meeting and give their views on how the application should be examined
* Request an open floor hearing
* Attend an open floor or issue specific hearing.
* Request to speak at a hearing
If the relevant National Policy Statements (NPS) have been designated then the decision on this application will be made by IPC. If not, the IPC will make a recommendation to the relevant secretary of state, who will make the decision.
Two of the draft energy NPSs are relevant to this application. These are: EN-1 Overarching Energy NPS, and EN-3 Renewable Energy Infrastructure NPS.
None of the draft NPSs have yet been designated. The Government has stated it will re-consult on the draft energy NPSs in the autumn - in particular, due to changes that are being made to the Appraisal of Sustainability for the Overarching Energy National Policy Statement.
The IPC now has 50 projects in its programme of schemes that have been received as applications, together with those which are expected to be submitted as applications in the coming months.
This now includes:
* 11 offshore wind farms
* 7 onshore wind farms
* 6 electricity lines
* 5 road projects.
* 4 nuclear power stations
* 4 biomass power stations
* 4 railway / rail freight interchanges;
* 3 gas fired power stations
* 2 waste combustion plants;
* 1 tidal power generation facility
* 1 gas storage facility
* 1 gas pipeline
* 1 waste water facility
Powergrid Profile
POWERGRID Corporation of India Ltd has been carrying out its responsibilities efficiently in the Construction,Operation & Maintenance of inter-State transmission systems and operation of Regional Power Grids. It has been notified as the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) of the country.
Ever since its inception in 1992, POWERGRID has established a transmission network of about 69,480 circuit kms and 116 sub-stations having more than 77,217 MVA transformation capacity. At the begenning of its commercial business, the initial network was only 22,220 circuit kms and 42 substations with transformation capacity of 12,200 MVA.
Based on its impeccable performance in a short span of time, POWERGRID was recognized as the Miniratna Category–I PSU by GoI w.e.f. Oct’98. POWERGRID has achieved many milestones & established benchmarks in various areas of its business operations and now plays a strategic role in the Indian Power Sector in establishing & maintaining the transmission infrastructure. Recognising POWERGRID’s sterling performance, the Government of India conferred the status of “Navratna” to POWERGRID w.e.f 1st May, 2008.
NTPC Profile
NTPC, India's largest power company, was set up in 1975 to accelerate power development in India. It is emerging as an ‘Integrated Power Major’, with a significant presence in the entire value chain of power generation business.
NTPC ranked 317th in the ‘2009, Forbes Global 2000’ ranking of the World’s biggest companies. With a current generating capacity of 32,194 MW, NTPC has embarked on plans to become a 75,000 MW company by 2017.
Luminant’s Oak Grove Power Plant Earns POWER s Highest Honor
Luminant used remnants of the ill-fated Twin Oaks and Forest Grove plants (which were mothballed more than 30 years ago) to build the new two-unit 1,600-MW Oak Grove Plant. Though outfitted with equipment from those old plants, Oak Grove also sports an array of modern air quality control equipment and is the nation’s first 100% lignite-fired plant to adopt selective catalytic reduction for NOx control and activated carbon sorbent injection technology to remove mercury. For melding two different steam generators into a single project, adopting a unique and efficient “push-pull” fuel delivery system, assembling a tightly integrated team that completed the project on time and within budget, and for completing what was started almost four decades ago, Oak Grove Power Plant is awarded POWER magazine’s 2010 Plant of the Year award
Luminant, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings Corp. (EFH)—which owns competitive and regulated energy subsidiaries in Texas—is the largest electricity generator in Texas. To Luminant’s credit, it took the hard road of constructing solid fuel plants instead of making the default decision to build more gas-fired generation when demand for electricity rose. With its three-plant program nearing completion, Luminant’s 18,300-MW portfolio remains the best balanced of any Texas generation company: about 8,000 MW each of coal-fired and natural gas–fired capacity and the remainder supplied by its 2,300-MW Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant. Luminant also has 900 MW of wind capacity under contract and a public commitment to increase that number to 1,500 MW, making it the largest wind power purchaser in Texas and the nation’s fifth-largest purchaser.
The type and amount of installed capacity is a good way to compare different generation companies, but so are actual generation statistics. In the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market, which represents about 75% of the electricity generation in the state, 70% of the electricity delivered is fired by natural gas and only 18% by coal. Luminant, on the other hand, used coal to fuel 67% of the megawatt-hours it generated in 2009. Next was nuclear (29%). Gas-fired generation (4%) filled in the gaps.
The stats clearly show that Luminant has a long history of using solid fuels and running its plants with high capacity factors. In addition, its plant operating staff are experts at squeezing low-cost electricity from lignite, a difficult coal to process and burn efficiently. In 2005, when Luminant (then TXU Power, a subsidiary of TXU Corp.) determined that additional generation was needed to meet expected load growth, it was only natural that the company would turn again to lignite.
You may recall TXU’s ill-fated plans to construct 11 new coal-fired units in 2006: Those plans immediately met a storm of opposition. After EFH, a consortium of private equity investors, purchased TXU for $45 billion in October 2007, it quickly scaled back the 11-plant program to a more palatable three-plant program that included Sandow 5 (completed September 2009) and the two units at Oak Grove (“substantial completion” December 2009 and June 2010). The cost of these three plants is reported at $3.25 billion.
The other smart move EFH made was striking a deal with the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council to put their stamps of approval on the three-plant deal. Later, in 2008, a similar arrangement was reached with the Sierra Club on mercury emission reductions to avoid costly litigation. These deals recognized and followed the company’s voluntary commitment to offset more than 100% of nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and mercury (Hg) emissions from the new plants by making reductions at its existing plants when the air permits for Oak Grove were applied for in July 2005. By the end of this year, EFH will have spent $1 billion to make that promise a reality. In fact, the entire coal fleet’s emissions were reduced by 20% below 2005 levels.
What is Electrical Engineering?
In Electrical Engineering, you learn about electric circuits, how to design and build them, and how to test and analyze what you've built. You learn about all kinds of electronic devices, from power supplies to control systems. You learn about all kinds of components, from transistors and capacitors to inductors and superconductors. You learn about electromagnetics, which provide the foundation for the microwave devices used in everything from radar speed guns to cellular phones. You learn about integrated circuitswhat goes in them, how they're designed, and how they're fabricated. You learn about programming computers to do electronic design, and you learn about a whole range of fascinating subjects, from thermodynamics to communications.
You also learn how to function in a team environment, working with fellow students designing electronic devices to solve problems. By the way, once you've perfected your design, you continue to work together in the design sequence of courses to actually build and analyze your "creation." As an alternative, you can substitute design clinic experience with industry, where you work in small teams of students under the guidance of a faculty advisor to solve real world problems for a sponsoring company.
All Electrical Engineering students study basic computer programming and computer literacy. However, students desiring to complement their electrical engineering skills with an increased emphasis on computers may minor in Computer Science for Engineers and Scientists. If you choose this option, you'll focus on programming theory, C and C++ programming, data structures, and an area that you select from operating systems, software engineering, or database management systems.