Reach 7 Percent of the Power and Gas Transmission Industry with Berkshire
Hathaway Energy “Wise Crowd” Decisions
Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) includes PacifiCorp, NV Energy, Mid-American,
BHE Renewables, Northern and Kern River Pipeline. The two pipeline companies
transport 7 percent of the natural gas in the U.S. The power companies
operate coal, gas, hydro, solar, geothermal, biomass, wind and other renewables
generators. McIlvaine has been working with BHE relative to a large pollution
control program at four plants that involves potential impacts on wastewater
treatment. The approved bidders list for one gas turbine plant includes only
Cuno for condensate polishing. Another plant replaced the Cuno with higher
efficiency Pall filters. Berkshire Hathaway also owns Graver who is a
leading supplier of condensate filter systems. The wildlife protection
expertise gained from the hydro projects can be used in the 3000 MW wind turbine
program underway at Mid-American. All these examples point to the benefits of an
interconnection system between individuals within BHE and also interconnection
with the suppliers.
McIlvaine now has Berkshire Hathaway Energy “Wise Crowd” Decisions to be used by
suppliers as well as BHE personnel. It has details on every one of the
hundreds of power generators within the system. It fulfills the 4
knowledge needs: Alerts, Answers, Analysis and Advancement. It combines
44I Power Plant Air Quality Decisions (Power
Plant Decisions Orchard) and
59D Gas Turbine and Reciprocating Engine Decisions
with the custom BHE program.
This includes interfacing with hundreds of BHE people indirectly through the
Alerts, case histories, etc. and directly through large and small webinars.
The whole program only costs a few thousand dollars if you have some other
McIlvaine services. For more information on this program contact Bob
McIlvaine at 847 784 0012 ext. 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com.
Cartridge Filter Sales to be Just under $17 Billion Next Year
Sales of cartridges to industrial, commercial and residential customers not
including mobile sources will exceed $7.4 billion next year. This is the
latest forecast in Cartridge Filter World Market. NAFTA will be the
leading regional purchaser followed by East Asia.
Carbon cartridges will be the leading type followed by non-woven designs. The
market for cartridges with membranes is smaller but the fastest growing segment.
This is due to the high removal high removal efficiency.
1 |
Carbon |
2 |
Non-Woven |
3 |
Membrane |
4 |
String Wound |
5 |
Metal |
The cartridge market is primarily a replacement market. This segment is
all classified as dead end and non-cleanable. As a result, the cartridges are
replaced when the maximum acceptable pressure drop is reached. Two other
McIlvaine reports
N020 RO, UF, MF World Market
and
N006 Liquid Filtration and Media World Markets
address
filters which are cleanable.
For more information, click on:
N024 Cartridge Filters: World Market
Utilizing the Excess Coal-fired Boiler Talent in the U.S.
The U.S. is not building new coal-fired power plants and will be shutting down
nearly 70,000 MW of existing power plants. There is uncertainty regarding the
remaining 190,000 MW depending on clean power regulations. The result of this
shrinkage is a large excess of coal-fired boiler talent in the country. Two
options for beneficial use are to channel this talent into:
·
Other types of power generation activities
·
Coal-fired boiler power generation overseas
This is easier said than done. This talent needs to gain new knowledge and
to be integrated into to new organizational structures. McIlvaine believes that
the best way to gain this knowledge and to create a structure is through “Wise
Crowd” Decisions.
McIlvaine has created a system to cover all power generation knowledge regarding
Berkshire Hathaway (BH).
The ultimate goal is to create systems for the 300 largest power plant operators
worldwide. These systems unleash the potential for “wise crowd” decisions
through digital interconnection and delivery of the 4 knowledge needs:
Alerts, Answers, Analysis and Advancement. These systems can be used by the U.S.
coal-fired boiler talent to either transition to new types of power generation
decisions or to bring their talents to the international coal-fired power
generation industry.
Transition to Other Types of Power Generation Facilities
Already much of the coal-fired talent has been redirected to work on gas or
renewable energy activities. There is an internal restructuring at most
large power generating companies. Berkshire Hathaway (BH) has been
building gas, solar, wind and biomass plants. To utilize coal-fired talent
for the other types of generating facilities there may be relocation and
training requirements. The “Wise Crowd” Decisions systems can positively address
both challenges.
Relocation:
With the internet of things and the delegation of certain tasks by specialty
some of the coal-fired talent may not have to relocate. Let’s take water
monitoring systems as an example. The October Monitoring and Sampling
newsletter is one of the tools in the BH “Wise Crowd” Decisions. It
includes an analysis of Hach pH analyzer decisions made at the Mid-American Neal
coal-fired power plant. It includes Hach water quality analyzer decisions being
made at the PacifiCorp North Umpqua hydro plant and in the case of NV Energy the
groundwater program for the Muddy River plant.
Specialization will minimize the need for relocation: One of the Mid-American
coal people could be a leader in the pH and other water quality analyzer
decisions for all the coal, gas, turbine, geothermal and hydro plants.
The hydro plants have further synergy in processes such as intake screens for
coal and gas plants. With the fish ladders and other steps necessary to
protect wildlife, the PacifiCorp hydro people have a number of in-house experts
plus the modus operandi to work with outside testing firms. The fossil
plants are challenged with new federal regulations impacting water intakes and
discharge to reduce harm to fish populations. In the October Monitoring and
Sampling newsletter, several hundred individuals at PacifiCorp and their
contractors involved in this activity are identified. Power Plant Air
Quality Decisions (PPAQD) has recorded webinars with companies such as Ovivo
making presentations on screen designs to protect fish at coal-fired power
plants. Ovivo is also involved in the hydro plants. It would,
therefore, make sense to create a BH team which deals with fish protection at
all the plants.
Bird kill is a concern with wind turbines. The BH hydro wild life
protection expertise will be quite valuable to Mid-American who is building 3000
MW of new wind turbine facilities.
Training:
The coal-fired talent which switches from coal to gas turbines immediately has
access to Gas Turbine-Reciprocating Engine Decisions to select gas turbine inlet
filters and to maximize their performance the talent can evaluate the negative
impact of rapid cycling on valve selection. Aspects of the HRSG, SCR and
monitoring are different and can be quickly understood with the access to
hundreds of hours of webinars, and organized analyses and case histories.
There are separate child webs on some components such as power plant valves
which cover all fossil and nuclear requirements.
Coal-fired Power Generation Overseas
The goal is to create systems identical to the one for BH for all the large
power plant operators around the world. The fact that BH and a large
Indian utility are using the same system opens new markets. McIlvaine has
conducted five webinars for PacifiCorp focused on reductions in NOx
without the use of SCR. New NOx regulations in India will place
many plants in the same position as PacifiCorp. PacifiCorp will be doing
some testing and is likely to become the world leader in achieving NOx
reduction without full SCR. This expertise is exportable.
The talent and the systems utilized by U.S. coal-fired boiler operators can be
put to good use by coal-fired power plants in other countries. More than
90 percent of coal-fired generation takes place offshore. U.S. utilities
do not have to own international generation facilities in order to leverage
their coal-fired talent. They can provide operating support. If a
utility creates specialists for its own plants and maximizes the information
generated by machines, it can cost-effectively assist international plants to
follow suit.
McIlvaine Decision Systems can be very helpful in supporting these international
operations. Operators in many international coal-fired power plants will
not speak English. However, if the basic technical options are defined in
the local language, then the important communications are possible. In some
cases, this means first clarifying the options. There was confusion among
catalyst cleaning, catalyst rejuvenation and catalyst regeneration. It
took a 40-minute webinar with catalyst suppliers and others to agree on
definitions and terminology in both Chinese and English.
The U.S. has been a leader in developing cost effective clean coal technology.
This resource should be leveraged rather than lost.
For more information, click on:
44I Power Plant Air Quality Decisions
(PPAQD)
For more information, click on:
59EI Gas Turbine and Reciprocating Engine Supplier Program.
For more information on interconnection programs contact Bob McIlvaine at 847
784 0012 ext. 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com.
Utility E-Alert Tracks Billions of Dollars of New Coal-fired Power Plants on a
Weekly Basis
UTILITY E-ALERT
Here are some Headlines from the Utility E-Alert
#1293 – October 7, 2016
Table of Contents
COAL – US
• FPL gets approval to buy and then close Second Coal-fired
Power Plant
• PSEG to retire Two New Jersey Coal-fired Power Plants in 2017
COAL – WORLD
• Velan Valves used at Barth 1-3 Supercritical Units of National
Thermal Power Corp
• MHPS receives Order for Steam Turbine set for Chang Chun
Petrochemical of Taiwan
• Sembcorp Industries bidding for 500 MW PPA with Andhra Pradesh
• Ten large Power Plants in India have more than 30,000 MW of
Capacity
The
41F Utility E-Alert
is issued weekly and covers the coal-fired projects, regulations and other
information important to the suppliers. It is $950/yr. but is included in the
$3020
42EI Utility Tracking System
which has data on every plant and project plus networking directories and many
other features.
Upcoming Hot Topic Hours
DATE |
HOT TOPIC HOUR
AND DECISION
GUIDE SCHEDULE
The opportunity
to interact on
important issues |
TBA
Markets |
Food
- Analysis
of 12 separate
applications within food and
beverage with analysis of valve,
pump, compressor, filter,
analyzer and chemical options;
impact of new technologies such
as forward osmosis. |
TBA
Markets |
Municipal Wastewater
-
Quality of pumps, valves,
filters, and analyzers in
Chinese and Asian plants; new
pollutant challenges; water
purification for reuse. |
TBA
Markets |
Mobile Emissions
-Reduction
in CO, VOCs, and particulate in
fuels, oils, and air used in on
and off road vehicles; impact of
RDE and failure of NOx
traps and the crisis in Europe
created by the focus on clean
diesel. |
Click here to Register for the Webinars
----------
You can register for our free McIlvaine Newsletters at:
http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_rsform&formId=5.
Bob McIlvaine
President
847 784 0012 ext. 112