POWER July 2013 - 18

power prices had fallen by 50% since
2009, low-cost coal imports and low
carbon trading prices had squeezed
profit margins of power plants burning
much pricier natural gas to near zero.
An agreement reached between E.ON,
Germany's Federal Network Agency, and
the local network operator Tennet TSO
this April ensures, however, that E.ON
will receive " acceptable compensation "
for its fixed costs of the two units. Tennet
said the units were needed to enable
support of tremendous renewables
growth in the country and for redispatch
measures, if necessary.
Germany's Federal Network Agency
recently ordered that fixed costs should
be paid to power plants that are operated
more than 10% of the time on
demand of transmission operators. A
paradigm market design in Germany was
still necessary, as E.ON CEO Johannes
Teyssen said in a statement, particularly
one that provides acceptable compensation
for maintaining technologically
advanced, climate-friendly generating
capacity. Germany is still " too fixated
on megawatts, " installing wind turbine
after wind turbine and solar panel after
solar panel " in the belief that by doing
so it has already transformed its energy
system, " he added.
The traditional distinction between
generation, transmission, distribution,
and consumption is " dissolving, " Teyssen
said, pointing to the evolution of
smart grids. The focal point of these
grids isn't the traditional energy utility
but rather the customer. " Customers
can now choose whether they want
to buy energy from the grid or make it
themselves and perhaps even market it
to others. " E.ON is part of that transformation,
he said, and that will create
a greater earnings strength and lasting
value for its shareholders.
POWER Digest
Saudi Arabia and Egypt Sign $1.6
Billion Agreement to Link Electricity
Grids. Under an agreement signed on
June 1, Saudi Arabia's majority stateowned
utility, Saudi Electricity Co.,
and Egypt's state power company, Egyptian
Electric Holding Co., will share
the cost of building a 3,000-MW undersea
transmission cable to link their
electricity grids. The $1.6 billion deal
anticipates the 20-kilometer-long network
will be finished by 2015. Egyptians
currently suffer intermittent blackouts
during the day as a result of inadequate
18
supply. About 45% of Saudi Arabia capacity
is idled during the cooler winter,
while cooling accounts for more than
50% of electricity demand in summer.
Both countries see a demand surge during
the holy month of Ramadan, which
begins this year in July.
Scotland Approves World's Largest
Wave Power Farm. Scotland's
government approved Aquamarine
Power's 40-MW wave farm-to date, the
largest in the world-off the northwest
coast of Lewis, Scotland, marking a major
milestone for the fledgling marine
power sector. The green light from the
government and its regulator, Marine
Scotland, follows onshore planning approved
last September, and it means
the Edinburgh firm's subsidiary, Lewis
Wave Power Ltd., could begin installing
its near-shore Oyster wave energy
machines at the site in the next few
years, once necessary grid infrastructure
has been put in place. The project
envisions deployment of between 40
and 50 Oyster devices along the coast
at Lag na Greine, near Fivepenny Borve.
Aquamarine Power is currently testing
a second-scale wave machine known as
the Oyster 800 at the European Marine
Energy Centre in Orkney, which is now
grid-connected.
Philippines Experiences Major
Blackout. Half of Luzon, the largest
island in the Philippines, suffered a
10-hour-long blackout on May 8 after
the Calaca-Bian 230-kV line " tripped "
and triggered a system disturbance that
knocked six power plants offline. The
blackout affected the capital city of
Manila and several adjacent provinces.
Grid operator National Grid Corp. of
the Philippines (NGCP)-which was
privatized in 2007 and is now co-owned
by the Chinese government-initially
attributed the failure of the transmission
lines to a " generation deficiency, "
but a later investigation by the country's
Department of Energy suggested
the event could have been caused by a
bush fire in Talisay, Batangas.
The problem is thought to have
first affected a unit of Semirara Mining
Corp.'s 600-MW Calaca Coal Power
plant, then the 1,218-MW Sual coalfired
power station in Pangasinan, the
1,200-MW Ilijan combined cycle power
plant, First Gas Power's 1,000-MW Santa
Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo plants,
and the 460-MW Quezon power plant.
Reports suggest about eight other
plants may have been affected. The DOE
has asked NGCP to explain why its autowww.powermag.com
protection
system did not prevent the
outage from spreading. Industry groups
in the country have, meanwhile, warned
that Philippine's power consumption is
growing at 4.5% per year and that the
country could see even more frequent
blackouts if it does not add at least 600
MW by 2015.
UAE Begins Construction on Second
APR-1400 Reactor. Construction
officially began on the United Arab
Emirates' (UAE's) second new nuclear
power reactor on May 28 at the Barakah
site in western Abu Dhabi. A South
Korean consortium headed by Korean
Electric Power Corp. will build and
manage the APR-1400 reactor for the
Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (Enec),
one of four planned for that site. Bechtel
is to provide project management
for the plant. Construction of Barakah
1 began in July 2012. Construction licenses
for both units have been awarded
by the Federal Authority for Nuclear
Regulation, and Enec plans to apply for
operating licenses for Units 1 and 2 in
2015. All four units are expected to be
completed between 2017 and 2020.
Japanese Reprocessing Facility
Moves Closer to Operational Start.
Japan's delay-plagued Rokkasho reprocessing
facility in Japan's northern Aomori
Prefecture this May completed a
test that proves its vitrification lines,
marking a milestone that moves it closer
to commercial operation. The facility
owned and operated by Japan Nuclear
Fuels Ltd. was scheduled to start up in
2008, but commissioning has been halted
19 times because of technical and
financial problems, particularly problems
in the locally designed vitrification
plant for high-level waste, according to
the World Nuclear Association.
Spent nuclear fuel has been accumulating
at the site since 1999. The plant
requires a license from the Nuclear Regulation
Authority before it can begin
operating to produce about four tonnes
of fissile plutonium per year, enough
for about 80 tonnes of mixed oxide
fuel. Though only two nuclear reactors
remain operational following the Fukushima
Daiichi accident, and Japan's
future nuclear power policy is in limbo,
the country's waste management focus
continues to be on reprocessing before
underground disposal. Japan's government
and private companies have invested
more than $21 billion in the
Rokkasho facility since construction
began in 1992. ■
-Sonal Patel is POWER's senior writer.
POWER | July 2013
http://www.powermag.com
POWER July 2013

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