QUICK NEWS, July 17: REGULATOR’S REPORT ON SAN ONOFRE DUE; WIND FOR NEW ENGLAND; PLUG IN CARS AND THE SMART GRID

REGULATOR’S REPORT ON SAN ONOFRE DUE Crisis at San Onofre; What to Look For in the NRC’s Final Report

Bill Walker, July 17, 2012 (Friends of the Earth)

“…[T]he U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to issue the final report from its Augmented Inspection Team (AIT) investigation of the steam generator crisis at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which has kept the plant shut down since January…[Friends of the Earth experts] – including Dave Freeman, former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, author of the previous FOE reports [have commented]…

“…[The “50.59” NRC rule] requires that if nuclear plant components are replaced, “like-for-like” equipment and technology must be used or else the operator must obtain a license amendment for the replacements…[Most likely] the AIT report will call for review or reform of the 50.59 process…Southern California Edison did not comply with requirements of the 50.59 process. The replacement steam generators included major design changes that compromised the safety of the plant…[U]ntil there is [a license amendment] there should be no restart…”

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“…Edison maintains that because more tubes are damaged in Reactor Unit 3 than in Unit 2, the problems are most serious in Unit 3 and Unit 2 should be considered for restart…The AIT report could affirm that…[because of] manufacturing differences between the generators…The design of the replacement steam generators in both Units 2 and 3 is fundamentally flawed…The main reason for the damage is Edison’s decision to remove a critical safety feature, the central stay cylinder…a decision driven by the desire for increased profits…Both remain unsafe, and restarting either would be an irresponsible and unacceptable gamble.

“…If Edison is found to have violated safety guidelines, financial penalties could be imposed by the NRC…Edison has attempted to defer blame to the manufacturer of the steam generators, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd…The AIT report could affirm that Mitsubishi used a faulty computer simulation program that failed to correctly analyze the consequences of making significant design changes…[but that was done] by a team from Edison and one from Mitsubishi. Edison, not Mitsubishi, stood to profit…The utility’s attempts to blame Mitsubishi is a strategy that looks ahead to a court case in which Edison will try to recover some of the $671 million wasted on this doomed project… “

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WIND FOR NEW ENGLAND While Cape Wind is debated, land-based development of wind power takes off

Erin Ailworth, July 9, 2012 (Boston Globe)

“Despite controversy that has slowed the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, land-based wind farms are expanding rapidly in the region…One company alone, First Wind Holdings LLC of Boston, has installed enough turbines in the Northeast over the past few years to generate nearly as much power as the long-awaited offshore wind farm…

“Driving this growth are technological advances reducing the cost of wind turbines and increasing their efficiency, making wind power more competitive with traditional power sources — particularly in the Northeast, where electricity costs can run as much as 60 percent above the national average…Turbine prices have dropped about 30 percent over the past few years, and new turbines are able to generate electricity at lower wind speeds. Meanwhile, average electricity prices in the Northeast can top 15 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with a US average of 9.52 cents. New wind technology can generate power at an average cost of about 10 cents per kilowatt hour, excluding subsidies, according to the US Energy Department…”

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“…First Wind’s [onshore] projects will [soon] have the capacity to generate nearly 420 megawatts of electricity, compared with Cape Wind’s [planned offshore] 468 megawatts…Despite the growth of land-based projects, the discussion about developing the region’s wind resources has often focused on offshore projects such as Cape Wind…[but] it could be years before any turbines are built offshore, meaning that more land-based projects will be needed to achieve renewable energy goals set by several states seeking alternatives to fossil fuels…

“Although offshore wind is stronger and therefore an abundant and steady source of power, it has proved much harder to site projects in the ocean for a variety of environmental and technical reasons, including how to connect offshore turbines to the onshore power grid…That’s not to to say land-based wind projects have not faced opposition…but it generally has not been as vehement and vociferous as in the Cape Wind controversy…[ partly because they] tend to be in remote areas visible to few people…[and partly because they] bring jobs to rural areas that desperately need them…”

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PLUG IN CARS AND THE SMART GRID Smart Grid And Electric Vehicles: A Match Made In Heaven?

11 July 2012 (Renew Grid)

“The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) will lead to greater consumption of electricity. As a result, existing electricity systems will have to be reconfigured to meet these needs, and this is where the smart grid can play an important role, according to Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles: Made for each other? by the International Transport Forum.

“Smart grid technology can make it possible for EVs to proliferate without overloading the electric supply industry. At the same time, these vehicles may be useful for matching intermittent solar and wind power supplies to demand, soaking up excess off-peak power supply and feeding power back into the grid when needed. In addition, EVs may be able to produce a backup supply of power in case of power cuts…”

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“As the use of EVs grows, demand on electricity load will need to be carefully managed in order to avoid problems in peak load periods - for example, when motorists plug in their cars to recharge at the end of the workday. Smart grid technologies enable charging load [from private vehicles and fleet vehicles] to be shifted automatically to off-peak periods regardless of when the EV owner plugs in the vehicle…

“In the longer term…the smart grid [may] enable EVs to be used as distributed storage devices by feeding the electricity stored in their batteries back into the system or directly into the home or office…[because they] are parked an average of 95% of the time, providing ample opportunity for their batteries to be used for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) supply…Smart grids also permit the storage potential of EV batteries to be used to smooth variable renewable electricity output. Batteries can store wind power output at night, when demand is [low]…[and] solar output in the middle of the day, when it is surplus…”

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