the truth about carbon sequestration

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Spring 2008

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Florida’s energy and electric utility magazine

Volume 43, Issue 2

The Truth About Carbon Sequestration

(page 9)

Protecting Against Copper Wire Theft 14 FSU Meteorologist Tracks Hurricanes 19

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9

Spring 2008 | Volume 43 | Issue 2

COVER STORY


The National Energy Technology Laboratory seeks

to lower the cost associated with CO2 capture; and

improve understanding of the factors affecting its storage

permanence, capacity and safety in geologic formations and

terrestrial ecosystems.

FEATURES

Protecting Against Copper Wire Theft

The rapid increase in copper prices on the world market

and the demand for copper is motivating small-time

crooks to steal copper at an alarming rate.

FSU Meteorologist Tracks Hurricanes

The Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies

(COAPS) is currently working to develop a hurricane

prediction model they believe will accurately predict the

number of hurricanes we can expect in an upcoming season.

COLUMNS/DEPARTMENTS

Ohm Page – Ron Paul for President!

Washington Report – Predictable But Disappointing

Where in the World is Relay?

Index to Advertisers

Events Calendar

FSU Meteorologist Tracks Hurricanes

14

19

7

17

20

21

22

CONTENTSNTTENTSCONTENTS


Protecting Against Copper Wire Theft

14

t s

19

n9


Spring Volume 43, Issue 2

RELAYFLORIDA’S ENERGY AND ELECTRIC UTILITY MAGAZINE

www.publicpower.com/relay • [email protected]

FMEA Board of Directors

PresidentKevin McCarthy, Clewiston

President-ElectLynne Tejeda, Key Wes

Vice PresidentEdward J. Regan, Gainesville

Secretary/TreasurerPaul Kalv, Leesburg

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DirectorsBill Bogan, Quincy

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Cal Byrd, WillistonJames F. Coleman, Williston

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Kevin G. Wailes, TallahasseeJames C. Welsh, KissimmeeJames Woods, Blountstown

FMEA Executive DirectorBarry Moline, Tallahassee

PUBLISHED APRIL 2008/FLE-Q0208/6974 Publication Mail Agreement 40787580

Relay is a publication of the Florida Municipal Electric Association, 417 East College Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32301. For permission to reprint articles, contact FMEA. © 2008

Editor-in-ChiefNicole Carlson [email protected]

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DesignerJill Ihasz

Contributing WritersBarry Moline

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Publisher

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© 2008 Naylor, LLC. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

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For questions regarding mailing list additions or address changes, please call Brenda Thompson at 850-224-3314, ext. 3.

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Ohm Page

Ron Paul for President!By Barry Moline, FMEA Executive Director

II had the great opportunity this winter to attend the Florida Repub-lican debate for president. It was fascinating to watch the candidates up close. It was a lot like going to a professional sports game: you see a lot more than what’s on TV, and you miss a few plays as well, if you don’t pay attention.

Probably the biggest differ-ence between watching and attend-ing a debate is that on TV, with all the close-ups, it looks a lot more powerful. The candidates’ every facial tick, hand gesture and eye-brow raise is interpreted as strong or weak, positive or negative. At the debate, you see none of that. Instead, you see a group of guys standing behind podiums trying to stay focused and, occasionally, fidg-eting (Rudy Giuliani), frequently raising their hands for attention, and answering tough questions pretty well.

But none of this was the most memorable part. That was reserved for the protesters on the street out-side the debate arena. By far the most populous, most vocal, the most rabid and carrying the most signs, were the Ron Paul support-ers.

I’m not sure why. Ron Paul is a Republican with Libertarian leanings. That means his approach to the world is to put the United States first, severely limiting our

role overseas, especially the mili-tary. He also believes in reducing government spending, focusing on essential services such as police and fire protection. Apparently, a lot of people like this message, because they were absolutely NUTS about him. Yelling, screaming, dancing – all as cars passed by on the street. In a word, I would say that the feel-ing they have about Ron Paul is passion.

Last week, I was listening to the radio and heard a news story about how almost all of us are li-ars. The person being interviewed claimed that we all prefer not to be at work, but rather, want to be out fishing, golfing, shooting photos, shopping, painting, writing that novel, sailing or just vegging out. Instead, we come to work and lie about how happy we are with our jobs. We’re challenged, we like the people we work with, and we enjoy dealing with difficult customers.

I admit that such a perspective is pretty sarcastic, but there may be some truth to it. How many of us are truly passionate about our work?

There’s an old joke about a father who takes his kids to the circus. When the elephants come out, some unfortunate guy walks behind them and cleans up their waste. As the guy walks past the father, the father recognizes him

“”

We can choose to enjoy the ride and love both the work and the play, or we can lie.


Ohm Page continued

as his college roommate. After the show, the father goes backstage and chats with his old buddy. He asks, “Jimmy, what happened? I thought you were going to be a big-time Hollywood actor. How did you end up cleaning up after the elephants?”

Jimmy replies, “Hey, at least I’m in show business!” We each have just one life. We can choose to enjoy the ride and love both the work and the play, or we can lie.

Ron Paul’s supporters teach us to find passion in what we do, whether that means connecting with our customers, operating a power plant, accounting for the revenue, or maintaining the T&D system. As electric utilities, we touch everyone in our communi-ties, providing a basic necessity.

Connect to your community and be passionate about what you do. I won’t tell you to vote for Ron Paul.

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By Nicole Carlson Easley, Editor-in-Chief

They are optimistic that they can achieve these challenging cost and technical objectives and that when they do, new and existing coal-based power plants in the U.S. and around the world will be better positioned to meet a carbon-constrained world. And, it will allow coal to retain a place in a future global-warming-con-scious energy mix.

As it stands carbon capture and sequestration tech-nologies are still very much under development and storage options and their efficacy under heated debate. There are few power plants using the technology on U.S. soil and they do not use the technology for the pur-pose of lessening greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), part of the United States Department of Energy’s national laboratory system, has some lofty goals. Lab staff seeks to lower the cost associated with CO

2 capture;

and improve understanding of the factors affecting its storage permanence, capacity and safety in geologic formations and terrestrial ecosystems.

The Warrior Run power plant in Cumberland, Maryland, is a small coal-fired plant that uses carbon sequestration technology to capture about 10 percent of its carbon output from flue gas. It sells the carbon to a nearby soda manufacturer.

The Dakota Gasification Company in Beulah, North Dakota, uses coal to make synthetic natural gas. It also ships carbon dioxide through a high-pressure pipe to an oilfield in Saskatchewan, Canada, where the carbon di-oxide is pressed into an oil formation for the purpose of producing more oil. The carbon dioxide dissolves in the trapped oil and reduces its viscosity. This “frees” more of the oil by improving its ability to move through the pores in the rock and flow with a pressure differential toward a recovery well.

Carbon Capture TechnologyNETL is currently researching several different

approaches for the capture and separation of CO2 from

power-plant flue gas: post-combustion, pre-combustion, oxy-combustion and chemical-looping combustion. Efforts are focused on systems for capturing CO

2 from

coal-fired power systems, although NETL staff say the technologies developed could be applicable to natural-gas-fired plants and industrial CO

2 sources.

“It [the technology] would allow coal to continue to be an energy option in the future,” says Tom Fee-ley, NETL project manager. “Coal is a low cost, read-ily available source of energy and, with this technology, could continue to be a part of the future energy mix.”

NETL expects the technology to be ready for commercial deployment by 2020. “That’s a best estimate given the current state of de-velopment of CO

2 capture technology,” Feeley says. “It

could be accelerated with funding, we could make a ma-jor breakthrough or we could hit a dead-end.”


In post-combustion capture of CO

2, equipment is placed on the

backend of a coal plant to capture the carbon from the flue gas. As the gas travels through the plant’s duct work, it is cleansed of impuri-ties such as mercury and nitrogen. Once these chemicals are removed, chemical substances can be injected into the pipe that capture the car-bon before the flue gas is released into the atmosphere.

Pre-combustion coal capture is coal gasification or integrated gas-ification combined cycle (IGCC). The CO

2 in the gas is removed us-

ing Selexol or Rectasol in a chemi-cal process that essentially washes the CO

2 out of the gas.

In oxygen combustion coal is combusted in an enriched-oxy-gen environment to create a much higher concentration of CO

2 in the

flue gas. The CO2 is then captured

by condensing the water in the ex-haust stream.

According to scientists, the second step in the technology is not quite as complicated. Once CO

2 has been captured and turned

into a liquid for storage it either needs to be stored on site, which would be the ideal situation for new plants, or transported to a storage location, a likely necessity for retrofitted plants.

Storage SolutionsScientists believe that Earth

offers two opportunities for stor-ing carbon so it will not add to the greenhouse effect: terrestrial ecosystems and geological forma-tions.

According to NETL, once carbon is captured it would be transferred to liquid form and sent through existing or new pipelines to the nearest geological storage site available.

Feeley says they have every reason to believe that once injected, the carbon would stay put. “Noth-ing jumps out as a show stopper,” he says. “But, we are still learning.” Based on current analysis NETL says these formations could hold Source Charts: Evalution of innovative Fossil Fuel Power Plants with CO2 Removal DOE/EPRI, 1000316


600 years worth of carbon. By then, he says, “it’s assumed we will have other technologies in place.”

Terrestrial sequestration is the enhancement of CO

2 use by plants

on both land and in freshwater. Terrestrial carbon storage projects include planting and preserving forests, and no-till farming.

Geologic formations, scientists believe would effectively store car-bon in layers of porous rock deep beneath one or more layers of non-porous rock. For this type of stor-age, engineers would drill a well into the porous rock and inject the liquid CO

2. The injected liquid

would flow upward until it reached the non-porous rock, where it would remain trapped.

Formations with these condi-tions include depleted oil and gas reserves, unmineable coal beds, saline formations, shale and basalt formations. Researchers hope to develop the ability to characterize formations before CO

2 injection

and predict its storage capacity. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs

are formations that once held crude oil and natural gas. By their nature, they contain a layer of porous rock with a layer of non-porous rock above that researchers believe would trap carbon.

Unmineable coal seams can no longer be economically mined. Re-searchers believe that wells can be drilled into the coal beds of these formations to recover this coal bed

methane (CBM). Recovery meth-ods include dewatering and depres-surization. The carbon would be

adsorbed onto the surface of the coal and release its methane. Two or three molecules of CO

2 would

be adsorbed for each molecule of methane released.

Saline formation, one of the most common formations available for carbon storage, are layers of po-rous rock saturated with brine. Sa-line formations contain minerals researchers believe would react with injected CO

2 to form solid

carbonates. Shale, another common forma-

tion, is comprised of thin layers of rock. Researchers believe that some types of shale contain an organic material that absorbs carbon.

Basalt formations are solidi-fied lava. Researchers believe these formations have a chemical com-position that could convert carbon into a solid and isolate it from the atmosphere

According NETL the cost of building all of this technology into new plants would increase the cost of energy by almost 80 percent. But scientists and planners believe that the cost will come down signifi-cantly.

“Our goal is to bring that cost down,” said Feeley. “We are early enough in the process that we don’t know how much we can reduce it. There are certainly opportunities for improvements. Only time will tell how low we can go.”

Coal is a low cost, readily available source of energy and, with this technology, could

continue to be a part of the future energy mix.“ ”


Project Name/Location

Project Size(MM tons CO2 /yr)

Year Begun Project Summary

Quinshi/China

Otway/Australia

CO2 SINK/European Union

ARC ECBM Recovery Project/Alberta, Canada

Sleipner/Norway

Weyburn/United States and Canada

In Salah/ Algeria

Snow White (Snohvit)/ Norwegian Barents Sea

CCPC/ Canada

Gorgon/ Australia

Alaska gas pipeline project/United States

Stanwell/ Australia

Hypogen/ European Union

Innovation Center Initiative / North Sea

Hokkaido/Japan

CASTOR/European Union

0.000024 2004 CO2 - ECBM test project. Spring 2005 wells will be refurbished (original cementing not satisfactory) and new more extensive CO2 injection test planned.

0.01 2004 Currently conducting pilot-scale tests of post combustion capture and case studies of four potential geologic storage sites.

0.002 2005 The next phase of the project will involve a multi-well test, the design of which will be complete in 2005.

0.1 Late 2005 Planned pilot-scale project. Saline formation and depleted gas fi eld. Duration: two years. 0.01 2006 Project to test and evaluate CO2 capture and storage at an existing natural gas storage facility and in a deeper land-based saline formation. Duration: two years Pilot-scale project (three test wells).

1.0 1996 CO2 is captured from an off-shore natural gas processing platform and injected into a saline formation. Project motivated by a net tax on CO2 emissions.

1.5 2000 CO2 is captured in North Dakota and piped across the US- Canada border to the Weyburn oilfi eld in Saskatchewan. Signifi cant modeling and fi eld testing of CO2 monitoring equipment being conducted in parallel to EOR project.

1.2 2004 CO2 captured from natural gas processing and reinjected to enhance natural gas recovery.

0.75 2006 Need to purify natural gas before liquefaction (raw natural gas 5-8 percent CO2).

2007 Project still in planning stages.

Leaning toward enhanced oil recovery (EOR) combined with either post-combustion or oxyfuel.

4.0 2009 Need to purify natural gas before liquefaction.

Raw natural gas 12 percent CO2.

12.0 Need to purify natural gas to meet pipeline standards (Prudhoe bay raw gas 12 percent CO2). CO2 capture qualifi es for 15 percent EOR tax credit.

Part of Australia’s clean coal program. No details on the project available.

Pre-feasibility study complete in January 2005 EU version of FutureGen

Large-scale proposed project to help Great Britain/Europe meet Kyoto limits and also extend the productive life of the North Sea fi elds.

CO2 source unspecifi ed.

8.0 2004 Enhanced gas recovery demonstration project. 3.0 2004 Injection into coal seam has been more diffi cult than expected. Horizontal wells have been drilled.

K12B/The Netherlands

RECOPOL/ European Union

*Source NETL


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Protecting Against Copper Wire TheftBy Garnie Holmes, Jr. Associate Editor

From coast to coast, a crime wave is spreading. Although there is nothing new about stealing metal and selling it as scrap, the rapid increase in copper prices on the world market and the demand for copper is motivating small-time crooks to steal copper at an alarming rate. Demand for building materials in developing markets overseas, particularly in India and Asia, has caused copper prices to in-crease almost fourfold during the past decade. The rise in prices peaked in 2006, and remained high through 2007. The current market value of one pound of cop-per averages $3.65.

Scrap metal yards are highly unregulated marketplaces that, without regula-tory scrutiny, serve as an easy place for crooks to sell stolen copper. The metal is difficult to trace and retains its value once recycled. Without regulation, thieves could sell copper scraps at a metal yard in the morning and that same copper could be bundled and sold back to its original owner by noon.

Thieves break into commercial and private construction sites and strip out every ounce of copper overnight. They steal pipes from abandoned warehouses. Churches and homes are broken into for copper air conditioner coils, causing tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage for a few hundred dollars of scrap metal.

In California, irrigation machinery has disappeared from growing fields. In Ohio, copper urns have been stolen from graveyards. In Honolulu, thieves stole $10,000 worth of toilet valves overnight. In Maryland, a rash of wire thefts has left little leaguers without lights to play night games. The rising cost of copper has also raised the value of copper alloys, such as bronze and brasses, causing them to be targeted as well, and memorial panels have been stripped and in some areas park statues have been stolen.

Thieves are increasingly turning to the highest quality sources of copper– power substations, utility poles and electrical boxes. The wiring being stolen from electrical substations is a protective safeguard for the employees working in a sub-station to prevent them from being shocked and injured. The wires are designed to direct current away from the rest of the substation, reducing the likelihood of electrocution and to help prevent equipment failure. The effect of copper theft on utility companies is both costly and dangerous due to materials loss, transformer damage, and customer power loss. Damaged transformers and substations can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $11 million to repair or replace.

Florida’s public power utilities are no exception. Bartow, Homestead, JEA, New Smyrna Beach, Orlando, and Tallahassee have all experienced some form for copper theft.

Utility workers refer to it as “dancing with the devil” and it has become more frequent in the past two years. There is no national statistic for people killed



in copper-theft attempts, but news accounts put the death toll around two dozen in 2007.

In Baltimore, Maryland, a 41-year-old man was engulfed in flames and died after cutting a high voltage line with bolt cutters. A Millville, a New Jersey, man was hospitalized with severe burns on his arms after he tried to pull wires from a substation. A man in Cleve-land, Ohio, was electrocuted when he tried to take down a power line. In Lexington, Kentucky, one man

died and two were seriously injured attempting to steal copper wire, not realizing the utility had switched from solid copper to copper weld– a less valuable material. A copper thief was fatally electrocuted when he grabbed a high voltage line in Vancouver, Washington. In Colora-do, a man tried to steal copper wire from a high-voltage transformer that carried up to 13,200 volts, it was raining and the man tried to saw the connecting lines off. He was electrocuted.

Large construction sites have become popular targets; fences are cut down overnight and industrial reels of copper weighing several thousand pounds are being loaded onto trucks and driven away. Util-ity company’s procurement yards, operations warehouses, and main-tenance facilities are increasingly becoming targets, where reels val-ued at $15,000 each are vanishing. In Hutchinson, Minnesota, eleven tons of copper wire, over $40,000 worth, was taken from a telephone company’s warehouse. Nationally, theft-rings have been broken up in Florida, Maine, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The wave of robberies has forced companies to change how construction projects are executed causing project timelines to be al-tered and budgets unmet. In the past, contractors would pull all the copper wire early in a project, now it must be done when the build-ing is almost complete. Much of the building material must be kept off site creating additional logisti-cal expenses. Ultimately these costs are transferred to the consumer.

Utilities across the nation have been forced to increase security at substation locations. The most important first step, utilities lead-ers say, is to ensure that crews and contractors know that all scrap ma-terial is still property of the utility and instruct their crews to bring the material to a central, secured location.

Security at those locations in-cludes; installing security cameras along perimeter fences, clearing foliage from fences and increasing security lighting to make the area more visible. Many utilities also now use copper weld instead of solid copper to replace stolen wire and for use in new projects. Copper weld has the same conductive prop-erties but a lesser market value.

In response to the copper theft spree, in 2007, 20 states have passed laws to curb the problem. Most laws require sellers of scrap metal to provide a photo ID, license plate number, and address.

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The Bonneville Power Admin-istration in 2007 suffered ground-ing wire theft across the west which mounted nearly a $200,000 re-placement cost. They suggested to utilities to color-code their wires. A similar program was implemented in California with success in deter-ring theft. When painted wire is turned into scrap yards, the proper owner can be notified that someone is trying to sell their wire. This has proved to be a low-cost, but highly effective preventative measure.

Several utilities have indicated that by doing something as simple as switching to tinned ground bars, they have seen a reduction in thefts. Tinned bars do not look like cop-per. To the untrained eye they ap-pear to be less valuable. Addition-ally, a recycler will need to process the tinned ground bars differently than a regular copper bar, which reduces their scrap value.

Although nothing will prevent a determined criminal from remov-ing even the most secure product, making copper harder to remove will decrease the likelihood that it will be stolen and increase thieves chances of getting caught in the act. Tamper resistant shelter ground bar hardware uses low-profile rounded head bolts that cannot be twisted with a wrench. The only way to attach or remove it is with the in-cluded security torx driver.

Some larger utilities have imple-mented new technology that both discourages would-be thieves from stealing copper from the company’s substations and helps law enforce-ment find and prosecute thieves. The nanotechnology marks equip-ment so it can be identified after it has been stolen.

Improving existing measures has proven to be effective as well. Intelligent Video Surveillance (IVS) takes a pre-existing system and adds another level of effectiveness. Utility companies typically set-up “virtual” perimeters around the fence of the substation, and areas within the sub-station around the transformer. If an animal wanders into the perimeter or trash is blown into it, the system holds steady. If a human approaches the gate of the substation with wire clippers, for example, the system de-tects the size and orientation imme-diately, and triggers an event within the IVS. At the utility control center, an alert sounds and a red box ap-pears on a video monitor that draws attention to the violated area. Per-sonnel double-click on the red box to instantly review video of the per-son entering the gate, while simulta-neously watching the perpetrator in real-time in a second window. Secu-rity uses this information to take the appropriate countermeasure.

These are just a few solutions to a costly problem, some solutions

are relatively inexpensive, others re-quire a greater financial investment. One thing is clear, utilities across the board are paying attention to losses that are being incurred regu-larly; and as long as the global mar-ket keeps growing, there will always be a demand for mined materials obtained legally or illegally.


APPA Washington ReportPredictable but DisappointingBy: Robert Varela, Editor, Public Power Weekly

PPredictable, but largely disappoint-ing. That pretty well sums up the responses to the request by the American Public Power Association and 40 other groups that the Feder-al Energy Regulatory Commission open a comprehensive investiga-tion into whether the centralized markets run by regional transmis-sion organizations are producing unjust and unreasonable wholesale power prices that are then passed along to retail customers.

The commission itself has been silent, which is standard procedure for an agency that must pass judg-ment on the request.

The supporters of the RTO-run markets—notably the Electric Power Supply Association, Edison Electric Institute and COMPETE Coalition—made some common ar-guments:

* the Dec. 17 filing by APPA, AARP, ELCON and others “of-fered no new arguments.” This may be true—it’s hard to come up with new ways to say that we have reason to believe these central-ized markets are producing unjust and unreasonable wholesale power prices that are hurting retail cus-tomers.

* APPA and the 40 others “of-fered no new evidence.” As the fil-ing itself noted, “the statements, testimony and comments that many of the undersigned parties partici-pating in this request have filed, taken together, provide ample jus-

tification to initiate a full Section 206 investigation of the prices charged in RTO-run centralized wholesale markets.”

* the complaining parties have “offered no solutions.” This asser-tion doesn’t hold water. True, the 17-page Dec. 17 filing does not contain a comprehensive plan for solving the many serious problems created by the complicated RTO markets. But critics of those mar-kets have stepped forward with de-tailed proposals (such as the Amer-ican Forest & Paper Association, the Portland Cement Association (along with industrial customer or-ganizations) and the Carnegie Mel-lon Electricity Industry Center). APPA has devoted a great deal of time, money and effort on research to better understand the problems of the RTO markets (a necessary prerequisite to fashioning possible solutions), and has proposed (in a study by William Dunn Jr.) making the markets more transparent by more timely release of information on bid and offer data. APPA and its members have devoted a great deal of effort toward devising more comprehensive fixes and APPA is discussing a specific proposal. In his response to the Dec. 17 filing, John Shelk of the Electric Power Supply Association said the request “contained neither solutions nor a serious approach,” adding, “It’s easy to take a cheap shot …” His re-marks were disappointing, but pre-

dictable, coming from a group that has claimed government-mandated rate cuts and caps as a “benefit” of the centralized markets.

* such complaints could hurt investment by creating regulatory uncertainty. The possibility of scaring off investors should be con-sidered (along with many other is-sues), but it is not a trump card that requires consumers to just shut up and pay. Scaring off investors has been blown out of proportion and is used as an excuse to cut off com-plaints and stifle investigations. In a brief to the Supreme Court in the ongoing case over modification of contracts signed during the West-ern energy crisis, the Large Public Power Council accurately referred to the “nearly hysterical tone” of marketers about the possible im-pact of that case on future invest-ment. The LPPC also pointed out that equal weight should be given to “the importance of consumer confidence in the competitive wholesale marketplace in creating a sound market structure and a firm basis for investment.” As for regula-tory uncertainty, take a look at the seemingly endless list of RTO fil-ings asking regulators to approve changes to their market rules.

The ISO/RTO Council sug-gested that APPA and the others should work through the various RTOs’ stakeholder processes to address their concerns. There are several problems with that idea. As


“”

FERC has recognized (and APPA members can attest from experi-ence), accountability and gover-nance are among the problems with RTOs that need to be fixed. The RTOs have sector voting but RTO stakeholder committees and work groups are heavily weighted in favor of generators and suppli-ers. For example, PJM’s Members Committee lists 230 generation owner representatives and 630 “other suppliers” versus 63 seats for end-use customers and 85 for dis-tributors. That reflects the split on which segments of the RTO mar-kets think they’re fine and which segments think there are serious systemic problems with the central-ized markets. Given the extent and nature of this fissure, FERC is the logical choice for an arbiter.

The COMPETE Coalition said FERC must make policy decisions “based on its judgment of where the public interest lies, in this case ensuring that well-function-ing markets provide price signals to attract the investment necessary over the long term for the efficient and reliable delivery of power to consumers.” Notice the absence of such terms as “fair,” “just,” “reason-able” or “lowest possible,” and the emphasis on “price signals”—code words for “higher prices.” COM-PETE also overlooks the role of Congress, which in the Federal Power Act determined that the public interest lies in ensuring just and reasonable rates.

Competition would be fine—but competition is not the same thing as locational marginal pric-ing, locational installed capac-ity charges, financial transmission right markets, day-ahead markets, real-time markets, ancillary servic-es markets, forward capacity mar-kets, single clearing price auctions, etc., etc.

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Equal weight should be given to the importance of consumer confi dence in the competitive wholesale marketplace

in creating a sound market structure and a fi rm basis for investment.


W

COAPS Works to Provide Seasonal Hurricane Predictions

By Nicole Carlson Easley, Editor-in-Chief

Weather watchers may soon know how better to prepare for an upcoming hurricane season. Scien-tists at Florida State University’s Center for Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) are cur-rently working to develop a hurricane prediction model they believe will accurately predict the num-ber of hurricanes we can expect in an upcoming season.

Funded through a five-year $6.2 million grant by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-ministration (NOAA), the new model will use the university’s supercomputer to amass atmospheric, ocean, land and climate data to predict the inten-sity of future hurricane seasons. Currently, NOAA experts and the University of Colorado’s William Gray use sea surface temperatures and statistical methods to develop long-range hurricane forecasts that have yielded mixed predictions.

“It’s important for people, especially in states like Florida, to know how weak or strong the hur-ricane season will be,” said James O’Brien, the Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography and state climatologist.

“That’s why the government is investing in this. Emergency managers and citizens have to make a lot of decisions regarding preparedness that can be helped if they know it’s going to be a particularly bad season.”

The goal of the prediction model is to fore-cast the intensity of a hurricane season by forecast-ing about how many storms are going to occur in the Atlantic plus or minus two and how many of those storms are likely to be category four or five storms. Scientists will make predictions by input-ting information from two different models, one

that features atmospheric conditions and one that features ocean temperature conditions.

“We want to use huge computer models to see if we can’t beat the old method,” he said. “The outcome would be, per-haps, a more accurate estimation of how many tropical storms we can expect in a season and where they will form. People would like us to say there are going to be 12 storms and then there are 12 storms.”

Scientists are currently testing the model’s prediction power, using information from storms that have passed. “I’m really encouraged by the knowledge and the technology we have,” says O’Brien. “We will never say on June 1 a cat-egory 3 storm is going to hit Florida, but I believe eventually we will be able to provide a probability that a strong storm will hit in August.”

“ ”It’s important for people, especially in states like Florida, to know how weak or strong the hurricane season will be.


TTim Beyrle of the Utilities Com-mission of the City of New Smyrna Beach stands with Relay magazine at the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam lies in the Black Canyon of the Colo-rado River, about 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is 726.4 feet from foundation rock to the roadway on the crest of the dam.

There are 17 main turbines in the power plant, with a rated capac-ity of 2,991,000 horsepower and two station-service units rated at 3,500 horsepower each, for a total of 2,998,000 horsepower and about 2,080 megawatts capacity.

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ConsultantsLinxwiler Consulting Services Inc. ..................... 3

Consulting EngineersStanley Consultants Inc. .................................................... 20

Contractors - Powerline ConstructionPike Electric Inc. .................................................... 4

Electrical Distribution & Control Equipment CE Power Solutions LLC. ..................................................21

Energy ServicesBlack & Veatch Corporation. ........................................... 13

SUEZ Energy North America, Inc. ................................... Outside Back Cover

Engineering & ConstructionBE&K Inc. .................................................................................4

Engineering/Consulting FirmsR.W. Beck...................................................................................3

Engineers/ConsultantsFred Wilson & Associates ....................................................8

Equipment MatsNew South Mats ....................................................................16

Equipment, Sales, Rental and Service Scott Powerline & Utility Equipment..............................Inside Back Cover

Line Clearance Asplundh Tree Expert Company ......................................8

Management Consultants Downes Associates .................................................................4

Manufacturers RepresentativesFlorida Utility Service Company, Inc. ...........................15

Meter Seals & LocksSterling Security Systems .................................................. 13

Power Generation EquipmentRing Power Corporation ................................................... 22

Precast ConcreteOldcastle Precast Inc.. ............ Inside Front Cover

PublicationsNaylor, LLC. ..............................Inside Back Cover

Stanley PowerCummins Power South, LLC.. ............................... 6

SubstationsHamby Young Inc. .................................................. 8

Tools - HandBethea Tool & Equipment Company. .................. 6

Transformers Repairs/RemanufactureFlorida Transformer Inc. ......................................................3

Transmission & DistributionTana Wire Markers ............................................... 16

Tree MaintenanceThe Davey Tree Expert Company ......................13

Trees Inc. ................................................................13

Utili ty Management Services Sherman & Reilly Inc. .........................................................18

Wire & Cable American Wire Group ....................... Inside Front Cover

Index to Adver tisers

Emergency Response Services Engineering and Project Management Field Testing and Maintenance Circuit Breaker Remanufacturing Transformer Maintenance and De-Gasification Services Commissioning, Remanufacturing and Testing of all Electrical Apparatus Relay Testing and Calibration Transformer Rectifier Services SCADA Services

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Calendar 2008AUGUST27 Electric Utility Business Operations Workshop .........South Florida Location, TBA

SEPTEMBER

16-18 Electric Utility System

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23-26 Line Design and Staking

Certification Program, Level ............ Orlando

NOVEMBER

5 Tax Seminar ................................................Orlando

12-14 Energy Connections Conference ...............Orlando

MAY 6-8 Utility Security and Loss Prevention – Collaboration with Local Law Enforcement

........................................................... Regional Meetings

JUNE12 Customer Connections Mid-Year Workshop ..........................................................................Vero Beach

17-20 Line Design and Staking

Certification Program, Level I ....................Orlando

JULY

15-18 FMEA-FMPA

Annual Conference ......................... Fort Myers

17 FMEA Board of Directors Meeting ............................................... Fort Myers

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Relay magazine: The largest state-wide electric utility industry magazine in the country

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the truth about carbon sequestration

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