Consulting-Specifying Engineer - September 2007 - (Page PP5)

NEWS & TRENDS FLORIDA UTILITY SEEKING NUCLEAR-PLANT APPROVAL Saying it wants to keep its options for meeting future power demand open, Miami-based FPL has begun seeking approval to build a nuclear generating station on its Turkey Point facility near Key Largo, in southeast Miami-Dade County. The approval process could take up to 12 years. FPL currently operates two 1970s-era nuclear generators at Turkey Point, along with two oil-or-gas plants and a naturalgas plant. Utility ofﬁcials say they need to expand generating capacity by a third to meet anticipated 2020 electricity demands. The 11,000-acre Turkey Point campus was considered remote when the ﬁrst two generators went into service, according to a report in the Florida Keys Keynoter, but South Florida’s population has expanded signiﬁcantly in the intervening years. However, the existing infrastructure at the Turkey Point site, along with trained local staff, make the location attractive to the utility. Look Ma, No Wires! There’s something very inefﬁcient in the way we power many of our portable electronic devices, periodically attaching them to adapter-cord tethers so batteries can be recharged and operation can once again become truly “portable.” Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed the basis for a technology that could bring wireless convenience to battery recharging, allowing you to pack all those adapters into a drawer for good. The MIT team, with members from the school’s physics, electrical engineering and computer science departments, along with its Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, adapted known qualities of magnetically coupled resonance to transmit electricity from a power source to light a 60-watt light bulb seven feet away. Calling their process “WiTricity,” the researchers say the technology operates even with line-of-sight interruptions, but without harmful effects on humans or animals. Both the power source and receiving device incorporate copper coils designed to resonate with each other. This resonant relationship ties sender and receiver coils together without affecting the surrounding environment. Though the transmission range is limited, developers say power levels sufﬁcient to run a laptop computer could be transmitted over room-sized distances. Superconductivity Gains Some Super Backing The U.S. Dept. of Energy is betting that high-temperature superconductors have reached technical maturity with recently announced $51.8 million in funding for ﬁve projects involving superconducting cables and fault current limiters. Funding for the “Modern Grid Initiative” will be matched by participating research-team members, making the projects’ total cost $103.6 million. One of the projects will use a 13.8-kV cable to connect two existing substations near New Orleans, helping to solve a real-world electrical-load problem in the area. The second cable project will demonstrate second-generation technology in an application within the Long Island Power Authority grid. Fault current limiter efforts include the development and in-grid testing of a three-phase high-voltage 115-kV model using second-generation wire at a Southern California Edison site. That utility also will be involved in a project to design, test and demonstrate a 138-kV saturable reactor-type fault current limiter. And American Electric Power is backing a program to design, test and demonstrate a matrix-based 138-kV unit that combines second-generation elements with conventional coils, operating in parallel. http://www.csemag.com |5 http://www.csemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Consulting-Specifying Engineer - September 2007

Contents M/E Roundtable Cover Story: Airborne Superbugs Third-Party Liability Back to School Product Spotlight Codes & Standards Professional Practices How To New Products Jobs/Cliassifieds Specifier’s Notebook Pure Power Supplement New Technologies, Same Old Transmission Problems Wireless Battery Recharging Solar Concentration Renewables Tracking System A Mighty Wind The Importance of Load Bank Testing Quality Power for Security Systems

Consulting-Specifying Engineer - September 2007

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