Thin-Film Photovoltaics

E L ,E C T R I C P O W E R R E S E A R C H I N S T I T U T E MARCH EARi OblRNAL 1989

) EPRI JOURNAL is published eight times each year (January/February, March, April/May, June, July/August, September, October/November, and December) by the Electric Power Research Institute.

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Cover: An increasing array of products powered by thin-film photovoltaics are entering the commercial marketplace. (Photos courtesy of ARCO Solar, Chronar, and Solarex) EDITORIAL GettingDown to Business With Thin Films

Over the past several years, a growing sense of optimism about photovoltaic power has emerged at EPRI. Since the early 1980s, EPRl's solar power program has advanced a small number of photovoltaic alternatives-always emphasizing fundamental science to achieve high sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiencies at acceptable cost. EPRl's presence is most evident in its pioneering work on sunlight­ concentrating systems with high-efficiency silicon cells. As a result of this major thrust, EPRI has now assumed a leadership position in the sphere of high-concentration photovoltaics. Two other technologies are also advancing toward the bulk power generation market, both based on flat-plate applications without sunlight concentration-crystalline or polycrystalline silicon sheet devices and thin-film devices. Over the past several years, EPRI has initiated fundamental research activities in these areas that are complementary to, and coordinated with, major work under way in the industrial sector. EPRl's strategy of complementing rather than leading reflects the fact that the industrial base in flat­ plate photovoltaics is far larger than that in the concentrator arena. This in turn stems from the ability of flat­ plate devices to serve in a growing number of cost-effective applications today, with a total worldwide market last year in excess of 30 MW. These relatively simple, nearly maintenance-free devices have found a critical path that is (for the moment at least) less dependent on high efficiencies. The past five years have seen a continual stream of R&D advances in photovoltaics that have helped substantially to maintain development momentum. However, the continuation of these impressive advancements will not alone be sufficient to sustain photovoltaics for the next five years. Over $2 billion of corporate funds have been invested in photovoltaics, and business is now looking for results. The industry must begin to turn a profit if substantial corporate involvement is to continue. In short, while photovoltaic development has been primarily technology-driven in the past, it is now becoming market-driven as well. Fortunately, developers seem to be rising to the challenge. Nowhere in the spectrum of photo­ voltaic activity is the interplay between technology advancement and business development better exempli­ fied than in the area of thin-film systems. Substantial technical advances are occurring regularly, new prod­ ucts are appearing, and the corporate investment picture is fluid. Overall, the expanding market for thin films represents a key near-term hope for ensuring the future of photovoltaics. As the thin-film industry evolves, EPRI intends to develop partnerships with leading industrial players to expedite the transfer of EPRI technology to the industrial sector, where products are being devel­ oped and marketed. Through this route we expect to facilitate the development of truly high-performance photovoltaic systems that will be attractive for energy-significant electric utility use by the latter half of the 1990s.

a Edgar A. DeMeo, Manager Solar Power Program RESEARCH UPDATE

40 End-Use Power Quality Utilities are responding to customers' more rigorous power quality requirements by providing demand-side power­ conditioning equipment, applications engineering and expertise, and consulting services.

42 Improving Electrostatic Precipitator Performance Four technologies suitable for retrofitting can improve ESP performance and reliability while reducing costs: wide plate 26 Fluidized bed spacing, intermittent energization, flue gas conditioning, and two-stage precipitation.

44 Industrial Demand-Side Management Applications Through an innovative project of case studies and demonstration tests, utilities are working with industrial customers to identify and implement DSM options that reduce costs for them both.

46 High-Concentration Photovoltaics Work at the cell, module, array, and system levels is increasing the performance and reducing the costs of high­ concentration PV systems being developed for bulk power generation.

49 Enhancing Productivity in Power System Control Centers DEPARTMENTS Control center personnel have two new computer-based 38 Tech Transfer News 56 New Computer Software tools to help them deal with increasingly complex power systems: an advanced operator training simulator and an 52 New Contracts 56 Calendar expert system for fault analysis and power restoration. 53 New Technical Reports 57 Authors and Articles EPRIJOURNAL

Volume 14, Number 2 March 1989

EDITORIAL Getting Down to Business With Thin Films

COVER STORY 4 Thin Films: Expanding the Solar Marketplace Thin-film photovoltaics is moving into more diverse, higher-power markets and could become a contender for cost-effective bulk power generation.

FEATURES 16 Innovation and Industrial Development An innovative development process­ including a willingness to invest in the future-is key to success in the marketplace, according to EPRl 's Advisory Council seminar. 4 Thin-film PV 16 Innovation 26 Fluidized Bed Fires Up at TVA TVA's 160-MW fluidized-bed unit is a milestone in the development of this clean coal technology, an attractive candidate for future repowering applications.

30 Sludgebuster for Steam Generators CECIL, a new teleoperated robot, is proving to be an effective weapon in the battle against the tenacious sludge that collects in the bottom of PWR steam generators. cross a wide range of elec- out, thin films eventually will be con­ where the thin-film approach seems to . tronic technology today, the firmed as a low-cost route to solar elec­ offer advantages. leading edge is many times tricity that lights a path to the ultimate Thin films are typically made by A thinner than a human hair. market: utility bulk power, with systems vacuum deposition of semiconductor Micrometer-thin or thinner films of ranging in power from kilowatts to material on a solid substrate, such as various semiconductors are at the heart megawatts and beyond. glass. Although they must be produced of solid-state devices from video re­ Inexpensive, mass-produced thin-film in costly vacuum chambers, thin films corder heads and tunable lasers to ultra­ modules have long been the Holy Grail have far greater potential for production sensitive detectors and ultrafast micro­ of photovoltaics, although PV tech­ economies than conventional crystalline chip switches, including some near-term nology first developed along very dif­ silicon, which must be grown into ultra­ device prospects for the new high­ ferent lines. In their earliest applica­ pure ingots, carefully cut into wafers, temperature superconductors. tions, solar cells made from individual polished, and mounted in modules. In But perhaps in no other semicon­ slices of single-crystal silicon powered addition, films require very little semi­ ductor application is the potential im­ America's first space satellites in orbit. conductor material and have minimal pact of thin films as great as with the The same basic crystalline form still wastage-the filmis grown onto the solar cell. The technology of photo­ accounts for the bulk of an estimated substrate one layer of atoms at a time. voltaics (PV) continues to excite re­ $175-million-a-year worldwide manufac­ But the potentially low cost of thin-film searchers, investors, and the public the turing industry that now ships about modules notwithstanding, area-related world over despite still high, but de­ 30 MW of product a year. costs of the other major components of clining, cost and low, but improving, Efficiencies for crystalline silicon (Si) a complete PV power system imply a re­ energy conversion efficiencies. are relatively high-28% has been quired minimum sunlight-to-electricity Low-efficiencythin-film photovoltaic reached in experimental concentrator conversion efficiency. modules are already on the consumer cells, and 12-14% in commercially avail­ Efficiency has been the sticking point market in solar-powered calculators, able flat-plate solar panels widely used for film technologies. The noncrystalline patio lights, battery chargers, and re­ for portable or remote power. Materials material that has received the most at­ mote power gear. If the efforts of many requirements and manufacturing equip­ tention for PV applications, amorphous researchers and over a dozen companies ment and methods, on the other hand, in the United States and overseas pan are inherently expensive and are areas

Thin films: Expanding theSolar Marketplace Thin-film photovoltaic cells, once relegated to battery­ less watches and solar calculators, are moving Into more diverse and higher-power markets. A survey of developments and viewpoints reveals a maturing technology that could become a contender for cost­ effective bulk power generation.

4 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 silicon (a-Si), has a practical limit of and with a range of use that extends power plant operational point of view is 14%-a little over half that of crystalline beyond the Sunbelt. It has long been a virtual certainty, based on experience forms. Although experimental a-Si ftlms thought that if thin ftlms could be de­ to date with major 6.eld tests. Moreover, have reached 12% in the laboratory, posited continuously over large areas at it appears that the potential bulk power commercially available modules have a rates of several megawatts' worth a market for photovoltaics through the top rating of only about 6%. year, the cost per unit area would be 1990s exceeds manufacturers' current To boost efficiencies to at least the 15% minimal, bringing the installed cost of and planned production capacity by a or so that EPRI and government re­ power below $2/W and opening the wide margin." searchers have long said is necessary, floodgates to widespread use. But the optimism is tempered by along with low cost, for thin-ftlm mod­ "Judging from recent efficiency mile­ growing recognition that, after nearly ules to compete with conventionally stones achieved by the technology two decades and more than $2 billion in generated power, developers have leaders and from key commercial activi­ private investment, photovoltaics is not turned to more advanced, multijunction ties, thin-6.lm photovoltaics looks better yet a prob.table industry. Without sub­ devices. Such cells and modules stack than ever as a contender for cost­ stantial new sales and market develop- multiple layers of silicon alloys or other competitive solar electricity," says Edgar semiconductors that let some light DeMeo, EPRI's program manager for through but are tailored to respond to solar power. "As for photovoltaics in speci.6.c wavelengths, thus converting general, its acceptance by utilities from a more of the light spectrum. Multijunction cells promise the ulti­ mate photovoltaic device-generating current even in diffuse average daylight Stacking Up Thin Films: Multijunction Cells and Modules A Material Difference in Efficiency A simple thin-film PV cell consists of a layer of a-Si or other semiconductor about a micrometer thick that is vacuum-deposited on a substrate. Terminal interconnects are wired to positive and negative regions of the film. Significant gains have been made over the last decade in the efficiency Single-junction a-Si cell with which thin-film solar cells of several different materials convert sunlight to electricity. In addition to 0 amorphous (noncrystalline) silicon 8 (a-Si)-the material from which ultrathin photovoltaic films were first developed-major progress has been achieved in the efficiencyof cells made of copper indium disele­ nide (CIS) and cadmium telluride To boost sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency above the 15% or so necessary (CdTe), both polycrystalline mate­ for economical electricity generation, manufacturers and researchers are working on rials. Although CIS and CdTe each multilayered cells tailored to respond to a broader spectrum of light. One approach became a focus of PV research in adds a second thin-film cell of a-Si, alloyed to absorb more red light, directly beneath the late 1970s, the graph reflects a translucent a-Si top cell to form a monolithic dual tandem structure. The challenges only results reported in the available are, first, to actually produce such alloys of a-Si with high quality and, second, to scale scientific literature. up the material into high-volume manufacturing.

Monolithic a-Si dual tandem cell

14 0 12 Glass :...------llljll� 8 a-Si cell 1------a-Si cell ,______...,, l 10 C: ·u(I) le An alternative for achieving higher efficiency that is being pursued by at least one PV 8 t:: 0 manufacturer is to combine two cells with separate terminal leads into a multijunction C. (I) tandem device. ARCO Solar is developing a four-terminal dual tandem module of a-Si and CIS. Only a transparent, adhesive insulating film separates a translucent a-Si top fil 6 cell from a bottom cell of CIS. Although the technology for such cells appears to be in hand, it also appears that they will be more expensive to manufacture than monolithic tandem cells.

Four-terminal a-Si/CIS dual tandem cell

0 8 Glass :...------,,;,� 0 a-Si cell �����������:?Z!l� Transparent insulator 8 CIS cell ment soon, many investors may be physics and materials research at several germanium (to better absorb red light) I nearing the end of their rope. Commer­ universities. The key to the long-term in the bottom layer. cial developments in the next few years future of PV may lie in such research But amorphous silicon and related will be critical to whether the R&O mo­ and in finding which combination of alloys suffer from a particularly undesir­ mentum can be maintained and carry device material, design, and efficiency able flaw for a solar cell-a tendency for photovoltaics into assured, long-term can now and ultimately be manufac­ conversion efficiencyto degrade with economic viability. tured at the greatest rate and the lowest exposure to sunlight. Current modules Progress in the lab cost. typically lose 10-15% of initial power and the marketplace But manufacturers are not waiting for within the first year of operation. While the science or for the ultimate thin-film manufacturers simply derate their Interest in thin films is accelerating device. Thin-filmmodules have already product to its stable rating and insist the worldwide. In the United States, sub­ been developed for niche markets and phenomenon is not a problem, it none­ stantial efforts are under way with both high-value applications, and developers theless helped focus attention several corporate and government support. In continue to seek new markets. A look at years ago on alternative thin-filmmate­ addition, a substantial government­ what is now available, and what soon rials that do not lose efficiency. industry program has been under way will be, reveals a maturing technology Working with copper indium disel­ in Japan since the late 1970s, and ac­ in transition from the laboratory to the enide (CIS), an exotic polycrystalline tivity in Europe has been expanding marketplace. material pioneered by Boeing Elec­ rapidly for several years in both the Since soon after 1974, when physicist tronics for space-power applications, private and government sectors. David Carlson, then at RCA Laborato­ ARCO Solar has reported an impressive An important part of the U.S. R&O ries, made the firstthin-film PV device 15.6% efficiency with a small four­ in thin-filmphotovoltaics is carried out from amorphous silicon, it has been terminal multijunction device of stacked under a cooperative government­ considered the best hope for an inex­ layers of translucent a-Si and CIS.2 Over industry research program managed by pensive solar cell that could work effec­ 12% has been reached in a 1-ft module. the Department of Energy's Solar En­ tively in moderate daylight. "In re­ So far, CIS cells appear to be immune to ergy Research Institute (SERI). Major sponse to the energy crisis triggered by light-induced performance degradation. programs-one in amorphous silicon the Arab oil embargo, I was looking for ARCO Solar could begin commercial and others in polycrystalline materials a thin-filmPV material that could be production of tandem a-Si/CIS modules such as copper indium diselenide and readily grown over large areas," recalls this year pending fieldtests. Within the cadmium telluride-are now federally Carlson, now vice president and general next few years, modules exceeding 15% funded at about $11 million a year, with manager of the thin-film division of efficiency are anticipated, the oil com­ up to half again as much from the Solarex, a major manufacturer of PV pany subsidiary says. photovoltaics companies themselves. equipment and a subsidiary of Amoco Another polycrystalline material, cad­ "The continued technical progress in (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana). mium telluride (CdTe), is the focus of photovoltaics has been the most positive other firms because of its potential for testimony to the success of the govern­ y the mid-1980s, several photo­ very low cost production by electrodep­ ment-industry partnership;' notes Jack voltaics companies-Solarex, osition, spray pyrolysis, and even silk­ Stone, director of SERI's solar electric ARCO Solar, Energy Conver­ screen printing. Ametek Applied Mate­ research division. "This progress has Bsion Devices (ECO), and rials and Photon Energy, under SERI been most evident in the amorphous Chronar-had begun making and selling cofunding, have achieved the highest silicon, polycrystalline, and high­ a-Si thin-film modules with efficiencies CdTe efficiencies for cells (11%) and efficiency thin-filmprograms. Once only of 4-6% (in the first two cases as a com­ modules (6.1%), respectively. laboratory curiosities, many of these plement to an existing line of more effi­ International oil giant British Petro­ technologies are now significantcontrib­ cient crystalline product). Today, in leum (which inherited CdTe pioneer utors to the worldwide market for pho­ corporate and university laboratories in Monosolar's patents and technology tovoltaic products and promise to be the United States and Japan, efficiencies when it bought Monosolar's buyer, key players in the future electric utility of single-junction cells have reached Standard Oil of Ohio) reportedly will markets." about 12%, very close to the practical begin commercial production of CdTe EPRI's R&O support in thin films com­ limit of 14% for a-Si. ECO has made a modules this year. Photon Energy plans plements the government-industry ef­ two-terminal triple-cell stack that is to begin manufacturing for wholesale I forts with a program focused on basic 13.7% efficient, using a-Si alloyed with this year. Meanwhile, Ametek Applied

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 7 Materials, a division of Ametek, a large plans for a computer-integrated, state­ serious obstacles inherent in these other original equipment manufacturer, is of-the-art 10-MW/yr thin-film manufac­ materials that we do not see with a-Si:' looking for partners to venture into turing plant operation. Its timing, says Another PV manufacturer betting on pilot-scale production. Matsushita is Corsi, "is a function of how we see the a-S{ is Energy Conversion Devices. The also actively pursuing R&O in CdTe market developing and how soon we Troy, Michigan, company's founder and photovoltaics. feel the market will be ready to accept president, Stanford Ovshinsky, was one Both CIS and CdTe, while attractive large volumes of thin-film product:' of the earliest proponents of a-Si as a as solar cell materials because of their low-cost semiconductor. After 25 years potential for high efficiency, enjoy a less lthough Corsi says Solarex's as a public company, ECO has parlayed developed technical data and experience semicrystalline silicon tech­ its expertise in the material into nu­ base than does silicon. Both involve nology is "very cost-effective merous patents, licenses, and subsidi­ heavy metals and several toxic com­ A today for many applications" aries involving flat-panel displays, pounds, raising issues for manufac­ and remains "an important part of our imaging systems, optical memories, turing as well as for safe operation. future-our core technology for the electrophotographic materials, and se­ Proponents of CIS and CdTe counter market" in remote-power applications­ miautomated manufacturing of thin-film that silane-the hydrogen-silicon gas the advanced thin-film factory should PV modules, although it has yet to turn used in making thin films of amorphous be capable of making product for as a profit. silicon-is also toxic and, moreover, little as $1.30/W. That leaves $1.20/W "We've always had the world's explosive. to cover the balance-of-system (BOS) highest photovoltaic efficiencies in a-Si Some PV manufacturers-Mobil Solar, costs and still meet a target installed because we've had better materials;' for example-are focusing exclusively cost of $2.50/W, "which begins to ap­ claims Ovshinsky. "We have the highest on crystalline silicon for eventual bulk proach the range where PV is cost-com­ efficiency in a triple tandem cell at 13.7% power markets. Although in some cases petitive with utility peak power today, and the highest in a dual tandem at efficiencygoals for crystalline silicon around 12-15<1'./kWh;' says Corsi. "That's 13%, and the next step will take us to have been met, even the best high­ with no improvement in efficiency," he 14%. I believe we can go to the 18-20% volume modules still cost around $4/W, says, adding that while Solarex does not range in the relatively near term:' well above the $1/W (and roughly 15% believe BOS costs today are as low as Subhendu Guha, ECO's vice president efficiency)EPRI believes it takes for any $1.20/W, that number and a $2.50/W for photovoltaics, is more cautiously flat-plate PV module-crystalline or thin total installed cost "are realistic, achiev­ optimistic: "We could go to 15% without film-to make electricity at a cost able goals." any material improvement, although (6-8<1'./kWh) that rivals conventional Corsi thinks those numbers and the there is a little every year. So I can power. sorts of developed markets that could see 16-17% within two years, but not Betting on silicon support production to meet those goals 18%. For that we need another break­ are two to fiveyears away. "For the through:' To get to 13.7%, ECO has One manufacturer that is covering immediate future we're focusing on alloyed a-Si with germanium in the nearly all the bases and pledging a long­ remote-power markets in the broadest bottom cell; a novel "profiling" tech­ term commitment to the business is sense. And we're also beginning to see nique in which the germanium content Solarex, the holder of Carlson's seminal significant activity in the decentralized, varies within the cell also contributes to patents and the first U.S. commercial grid-interactive markets on farms and at current collection. producer of a-Si thin-film cells. The some residences, where the economics To day, in production, ECO turns out 15-year-old firm, one of the leading PV can also favor photovoltaics," he says. 6.6%-efficient dual tandem modules on makers today, ships several megawatts For the long term, Solarex is betting stainless steel substrate in a proprietary a year from half a dozen factories and that a-Si thin films (including alloys) continuous roll-to-roll machine. The counts revenues (publicly unreported) have the greatest potential for further product sells for about $4/W. ECO is in the tens of millions of dollars, accord­ cost reduction and the best chance looking for a partner to fund the conver­ ing to John Corsi, Solarex's president. among other thin-film materials for low sion to triple tandem high-efficiency Since early 1984, Solarex has been cost and high efficiency. "We started a-Si module production, which Guha pro­ making a-Si thin-film modules of about in this race, and we continue to believe jects would bring the cost down to $2/W. 5-6% efficiency that are gradually that's the one that's going to finish;' Meantime, to survive, the company is phasing into the lower end of its 2- to says Corsi. "We're not ignoring other counting on continued sales of costlier, 64-W product line. The company has possibilities. Still, we believe there are less-efficient modules in such high-

8 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 From Calculators to Power Modules: A Growing Product Array

Pocket calculators and watches powered by small built-in PV cells of thin-film a-Si first appeared on the consumer market in the late 1970s. Since then, thin-film photovoltaics has expanded into a diverse assortment of consumer and specialty solar products that are finding niche markets in low-power, mostly remote, mobile, or marine applications. These range from indoor appliances and outdoor lights to livestock fence chargers on the farm and battery chargers for vehicles and boats. Power modules of 20 W or more are now available from several manufacturers for any number of uses, including connection into larger arrays. For many thin-film PV pro­ ducers, high-value niche markets are important stepping-stones to distributed and central station bulk power markets, where improved cost and efficiency factors are required in order to compete with conventional electricity generation. (Photos courtesy of ARCO Solar, Chronar, Energy Conversion Devices, and Solarex)

Outdoor light Glider battery charger Watch Calculator Portable radio/flashlight

Markets Expand as Cost Falls

New uses for photovoltaics have become economical over the years as the cost of modules has declined through production improvements and greater volume. The band of Clock costs reflects several PV technologies, including thin films, and different levels of production. Advances in thin-film Power modules materials and manufacturing methods promise to push the lower boundary even lower in the years ahead.

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PRI-funded R&D is contributing to derstanding of materials and charac­ Ebetter understanding of amor­ terization experiments so that other phous materials for thin-film photo­ researchers can optimize thin-filmma­ voltaics in key areas at the limits of terials without actually making com­ present technology. These involve plete PV devices. high-quality amorphous silicon (a-Si) An expanding dimension of EPRI's alloys tailored to absorb red light, the thin-film work is focused on the SW kinetics of amorphous thin-film depo­ problem, the decrease in photocon­ sition, the modeling of fundamental ductivity in a-Si over time with expo­ physics and device operation, and var­ sure to light. Peterson notes that al­ ious aspects of the phenomenon of though sophisticated device design light-induced efficiency loss, known promises to reduce the effect, it would among researchers as the Staebler­ also impair manufacturing yield. "A Wronksi (SW} effect, after its discov­ more satisfactory solution awaits erers. better understanding of the phenom­ Research in these areas is conducted enon;' he adds. at leading universities under a closely On the basis of its work with coordinated effortthat includes review a-Si: Ge, the Princeton group theorizes and feedback from PV industry scien­ low-bandgap alloys while maintaining that the performance degradation re­ tists and engineers. Ongoing for some good electronic properties has come at sults from intrinsic defects that are five years, EPRI's thin-film research is Princeton University, where carefully quenched into the material when the now funded at about $1.5 million a prepared and defined materials are films cool after growth. The group's year, nearly a third of which comes emphasized and state-of-the-art tech­ counterparts at the University of Illi­ under the Institute's exploratory re­ niques are used to minimize contami­ nois tentatively note a correlation be­ search program. nation with impurities. tween the magnitude of the SW effect EPRI's efforts in thin-film PV were At the University of Illinois, re­ and the hydrogen content of films initiated at the urging of a spectrum of searchers are using advanced deposi­ made by reactive sputtering. the PV community, particularly the tion techniques, including reactive Just-begun experimental and theo­ industrial sector. "It was recognized magnetron sputtering, to observe and retical work at Stanford University early on that to get the required high begin to control the kinetics of film aims to develop testable predictions efficiencies, fundamental materials growth. Insights gained from this ef­ derived from thermodynamic proper­ and device research was needed be­ fort could be critical to improving the ties of extensively characterized mate­ yond a time frame typical of industrial uniformity and rate of large-area depo­ rial samples. "We should get some de­ research," explains Edgar DeMeo, sition, the keys to high-volume, low­ finitive data that tell us something solar power program manager. cost manufacturing. about the manifestation of the phe­ In the last three years, according To better understand the physics nomenon even if they reveal no new to Te rry Peterson, project manager, of how amorphous thin-film devices understanding;' says Peterson. "there has been remarkable progress operate, EPRI-funded researchers at Highly exploratory work under way overall. At the outset, it wasn't clear Pennsylvania State University have at Iowa State University involves if anyone could make amorphous sil­ developed generalized computer sim­ quantum-mechanical modeling of the icon-germanium [a-Si:Ge) of device ulation models. Coupled with mea­ SW effect. Amorphous silicon's elec­ quality. Now we are very close and are sured material properties, the models tronic structure will be calculated from confident that we can succeed with of various semiconductors and specific atomic models and analyzed for clues more work." The success in depositing devices help improve fundamental un- to its link with the efficiencyloss. D

10 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 value markets as military and remote products, and the grand vision of its use thin-ti.Immodules that will be only communications. It has begun licensing inimitable founder, chairman, and chief about 6% efficient, slightly better than its manufacturing technology to firmsin executive, Zoltan Kiss. the 4-5%-efficient panels that the Law­ other countries. The Hungarian-born physicist­ renceville, New Jersey-based company Like some others in the PV industry, entrepreneur, who pioneered liquid­ makes today. (Chronar is also working Guha disagrees that 15% module effi­ crystal displays in the late 1960s, today on more efficient a-Si alloys and multi­ ciency is essential for PV to compete heads a 13-year-old company that has junction cells.) But it is because of num­ with conventional forms of bulk power not yet begun to turn a profit. Ye ars of bers such as these that Kiss's insistence generation. "We know what our cost of losses in the millions were sustained in on the eminent arrival of utility-com­ production is, and our calculations sug­ becoming the largest producer of a-Si petitive solar electricity-7¢/kWh by gest we could bring that down to 80¢/W, thin-him modules. Kiss claims that the 1992, he says-is greeted skeptically in fully loaded, with a plant able to manu­ direct cost of manufacturing is now many quarters. facture 10 MW a year. If the modules 75¢/W ( excluding plant depreciation) Chronar has gotten a lot of attention were only 10% efficient, the product and that it will soon drop to 50¢/W, for its success with a growing line of PV would be economically competitive with bringing installed system cost within consumer products, particularly a low­ other energy sources," says Guha. "We $2.50/W and generating electricity for intensity solar/battery-powered garden have the technology to do that today:' 11-12¢/kWh. light that requires no wiring. Revenues He cites estimates by Bechtel and "From day one our goal has been to have been in the double-digit millions Sandia National Laboratories that BOS make the lowest-cost-per-watt device;' for three years. Despite anticipation that costs could be as low as $1.20/W. says Kiss. "To do that we have devel­ it might finally break out of red ink last Also betting on a-Si, also projecting oped a manufacturing process that takes year, Chronar now expects to break cost-competitive PV power with 10% an ordinary piece of float glass through even at best. module efficiency, and claiming BOS an integrated operation to come out Several factors taken together­ costs under $1/W is Utility Power with a finishedproduct at the other module failures at an Alabama demon­ Group, a small California module maker end." stration, the low efficiency of the typical with its sights on the turnkey utility More than half today's 75¢/W direct Chronar product today, and the sorts of systems market. UPG's president, cost is for labor, Kiss concedes, a com­ claims that a growing, publicly held former ARCO Solar engineer Michael ponent he expects to nearly eliminate in company seems compelled sometimes Stern, says the company initially hopes a fully automated 10-MW/yr plant to make-give many in the PV and en­ to land several utility or third-party Chronar and several partners are plan­ ergy research communities cause for projects in the 50-200-kW range to build ning in northern California by 1990. To concern. They worry that if Chronar a reputation and expand manufacturing. show off the product while taking ad­ fails by overextending itself and over­ UPG's single- and dual-junction thin­ vantage of attractive utility rates for selling its technology, it could dim much him modules, both about 6% efficient supplemental peak electricity, Chronar of the rest of the industry's prospects. in production, will reach 10% efficiency and an alternative energy developer are On the other hand, Chronar has con­ within the next couple of years, Stern seeking investors for a $125 million, vinced some pretty serious players­ predicts. "Our analysis says that at 10% 50-MW thin-ti.Imgenerating station in Bechtel and Pacific Gas and Electric efficiency you could generate electricity southern California by 1992. among them-that it can deliver and is for 6¢/kWh, which opens the floodgates Such a plant would be over seven in the business to stay. The California of demand for PV systems." times larger than any PV power facility manufacturing plant will be a joint ven­ Out on the edge today. "We are pushing this 50-MW ture with PG&E Enterprises (PG&EE, an power station not because that's where unregulated subsidiary) and a unit of Of all the thin-him manufacturers com­ the profits are but because that's the the Sheet Metal Workers' pension fund. mitted, at least for now, to a-Si, Chronar way to open up the market, the way to PG&EE and Bechtel are providing project Corp. is one about whom there are get utilities to believe this is really do­ management assistance as well as finan­ different opinions as to whether it is able;' Kiss explains, adding that, at an cial support. Moreover, PG&EE has helping the photovoltaics industry. One installed cost of $2.50/W, "we won't be taken a $1. 8 million stake in Chronar of the few publicly traded PV com­ making much profit, if any." stock, joining the Sheet Metal Workers' panies, Chronar continues to make If such a power plant is financed and fund, the National Electrical Contrac­ headlines with its manufacturing plants built-which Chronar itself says is de­ tors' pension fund, and other large (including three overseas), consumer PV pendent on investor tax benefits-it will equity investors.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 11 Kiss can be a compelling evangelist Solar has led the PV industry on nu­ to the basic material durability;' adds when he talks of the billion-dollar merous technological fronts. Not the Gay. For the near term, meanwhile, market, ripe for today's photovoltaics, least of these are several megawatt-scale "there will be a lot more thin-ii.Im silicon in battery-powered gear using electricity power station demonstrations of crystal­ to come from ARCO. Last year we fin­ effectively costing 75¢ to $1/kWh. With line Si PV in California that have con­ ished expansion of the manufacturing a new line of industrial products includ­ firmed very low operating and mainte­ line to 7 MW a year of capacity. We still ing billboard lights and power panels nance costs and PV's good power match see a bright future for silicon:' for irrigation pumps, Chronar is already with utility peak demand (at least in the Says Vijay Kapur, a former ARCO going after the even bigger market in Golden State). Solar research director and now presi­ the 50-75¢/kWh range. But the "really Despite its leadership in thin-ii.Im dent of International Solar Electric Tech­ enormous" market is in the 15-40¢/kWh technology and a backlog of orders for nologies (ISET), "ARCO Solar has cer­ range, says Kiss, "where there are liter­ its still strong-selling crystalline Si prod­ tainly had a leadership role in CIS ally tens of gigawatts of targets;' now ucts, ARCO Solar may be in for major development, and I hope they stay powered by diesel generators, around changes, observers say privately. Sev­ around. Frankly, it helps us." ISET, a the world. "For all of this, amorphous eral researchers were laid off in a consol­ small southern California PV concern, silicon as it is today, not how it may be idation (trimming, say some) of R&D is the only other U.S. ii.rmopenly pur­ sometime, as it is today, at 50¢/W direct operations last fall, consistent with talk suing CIS for nonspace application. It manufacturing cost, is more than cost­ for some time that the U.S. oil giant is conducts government-funded R&D on competitive ." considering shedding its solar subsid­ electroplating and other processes for Chronar's investors are betting Kiss iary. James Caldwell, ARCO Solar's long­ CIS, CdTe, and cadmium zinc telluride is right. A lot of competitors and others time president and CEO, resigned late (a related material for tandem cells). with an interest in photovoltaics are last year and is seeking partners to buy Kapur says ISET has proprietary proc­ hoping Kiss isn't proved wrong. the company. esses for making CIS and CdTe solar Beyond silicon Caldwell says that the possible sale of cells and is looking for backers and the ARCO Solar would be only another ex­ opportunity to get into pilot production. Although several thin-filmPV makers ample of a major oil company with solar With sufficientfunding, ISET could are sticking with a-Si and its alloys for energy interests acquired in the 1970s gear up to making 10%-efficient mod­ now, all of them stress they are also having lost patience waiting for a return ules at a cost of $1.50/W within three to keeping an eye on other materials with on its investment (although several oil four years. To get module efficiencies the potential for low cost and higher firms apparently remain strongly com­ over 15%, Kapur thinks a tandem device efficiencies. Recent performance mile­ mitted). with a cadmium zinc telluride cell over­ stones with CIS and CdTe are enough to "T here's more private investment lying a CIS cell looks attractive. prevent any manufacturer not involved capital for photovoltaics now than a with those materials from feeling smug year ago, but it's coming from new and olycrystalline thin-ii.Im mate­ about silicon, with which there is differentsources than the oil com­ rials such as CIS and CdTe are deeper understanding and manufac­ panies, who increasingly seem to want attracting attention not only turing familiarity. to stick to the oil business;' Caldwell P because of their good photo­ "CIS is the material that has made the said early this year. He called the shift voltaic properties but also because most headlines lately, and ARCO Solar is in equity funding "a measure of the they lend themselves to electroplating, y. in the efficiency forefront with CIS, 2 maturing of the PV industr " a widely used, very low capital cost having reached over 14% with2 a 4-cm Charles Gay, a former research man­ industrial process. The head of the cell and over 11% with a 1-ft CIS-only ager and senior vice president who is Ametek unit pursuing CdTe says that module," says Terry Peterson, EPRI pro­ the new president of ARCO Solar, says feature makes setting up small-scale ject manager for thin-Wm photovoltaics. the company plans to commercialize local thin-Wm factories in less-de­ Peterson notes that present CIS cells CIS technology. The timing will depend veloped countries attractive as a busi­ "are not very thin films as the tech­ on the outcome of fieldperformance ness sideline or alternative to domestic nology is practiced today;' being 2-5 testing, including evaluations that manufacturing. micrometers thick compared with typ­ began at SERI last November. "We have "Groups like the World Bank and ical a-Si films of less than 1 micrometer. to be completely confident of the dura­ USAID are funding PV applications in One of the earliest manufacturers to bility of large-area CIS circuits, from the Third World right now that are ex­ commercialize a-Si thin films, ARCO packaging to interconnects, in addition tremely cost-effective compared with

1 2 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 diesel generators or no electricity at all, Another PV Approach and the PV manufacturers all say they can supply the technology, so why isn't the use of PV in developing countries more widespread?" asks Peter Meyers, director of Ametek Applied Materials, Harleysville, Pennsylvania. "It's because there is no local infrastructure for manu­ facturing, distribution, sales, service­ anything. "I think we could ftll a need by setting up manufacturing facilities on the order of 500-kW/yr capacity in remote areas of many countries. Plants that size could manufacture CdTe modules for about $3/W-that's something the a-Si people can't do," says Meyers. CdTe electrodep­ osition is low-tech and inherently safe, • • and it requires little training for produc­ tion workers, he adds. Meyers dis­ Flat plate Concentrator counts the environmental hazard im­ puted to cadmium, saying the amounts implied are small and the challenge is hin ftlmsare one of several photo­ reliability and cost-for competitive limited to reclaiming nonvolatile process T voltaic technologies that show bulk power generation, systems using liquids. promise for prospective bulk power such cells do not appear to be well In keeping with the parent company's applications. Another approach is to suited for most of the near-term mar­ tradition as an original equipment man­ use small but very efficientcells illumi­ kets that have been identified. Flat­ ufacturer, Ametek Applied Materials nated with highly focused sunlight. plate systems, in contrast, are rela­ could someday become a wholesale Arrays of such cells equipped with tively simple and lend themselves to supplier of CdTe modules to retail man­ lenses track the sun through daily small or remote but high-value com­ ufacturers and eventually would like to cycles to maintain the focused light at mercial applications. Such niche mar­ break into the utility systems market, several hundred times normal inten­ kets are important to PV manufactur­ says Meyers. For now, the company sity. ers because they can support contin­ makes 3-by-6-inch submodules that are EPRI sponsors a substantial effort uing technical development toward typically about 6%, and sometimes as in high-concentration photovoltaics, larger, bulk power applications. much as 9%, efficient. Like CIS, CdTe which was begun more than a decade Concentrating systems, on the other appears to sufferno efficiency loss after ago and is cofunded by a number of hand, are likely to have few business prolonged light exposure. utilities. Recent activities are directed development stepping-stone markets Meanwhile, two firmsat the extremes at verifying technical performance and on their way to utility power applica­ of size and resources plan to begin com­ identifying industrial partners for fur­ tions. Lacking the incentive and fuel of mercial production of 8%-efficient CdTe ther development (see the research revenue from near-term commercial photovoltaics this year. Oilgiant British update on p. 46 of this issue). products, the industrial base in con­ Petroleum reportedly will begin selling The different PV technologies are centrating systems is much smaller modules, though details of its market expected to pursue separate paths as than that involved with thin-ftlm and strategy are not known. And tiny they mature toward commercial appli­ other flat-plate PV alternatives. Devel­ Photon Energy of El Paso, Texas, cations on a large scale. Although con­ opment of this industrial base will be headed by electronics veteran John centrator cells have achieved the high as important as technological progress Jordan, plans2 megawatt-scale produc­ conversion efficiencies (26-28%) that if concentrator systems are to succeed tion of 1-ft modules for sale to manufac­ are necessary-along with acceptable at the utility scale. D turers of PV communications and re­ mote power equipment. Jordan says

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 13 Thin Films on Photon2 Energy could shift to making 4-ft modules by year-end. the Power Grid Utilities put thin films to the test Some half a dozen utilities now have thin-film PV modules connected to their distribution Sensing the advent of a technology that systems as part of small-scale test and demon­ could bring major change in several stration projects. Most are only a few kilowatts, dimensions to an increasingly changing but even larger generating stations using thin electricity supply business, more utili­ films are on the drawing boards in some areas. ties than ever are getting familiar with Many utilities are seeking early experience and photovoltaics. Thin-film technologies familiarity with a technology that could eventu­ account for a growing fraction of that ally play a significant role in their own electricity utility involvement, ranging from small­ supply and that of their customers. scale cooperative test programs with PV Detroit Edison's 4 kW of ECD Sovonics modules makers to manufacturing joint ventures to, in PG&E's case, an equity position in a PV company. Among utilities with grid-connected thin-film arrays (all a-Si) are Florida Power Corp., with 15 kW of ARCO Solar modules; Philadelphia Electric, with 8 kW of modules installed by Solarex at the Pottstown-Limerick, Pennsylvania, airport; Detroit Edison, with 4 kW of modules on test from ECD's Sovonics subsidiary; and Wisconsin Power & Light, with 1.8 kW in Madison from the same supplier. The largest thin-film generating sta­ Philadelphia Electric's 8 kW of Solarex modules tion at the moment was installed in 1986 as a 75-kW field connected to Alabama Power's grid near Birmingham. The field's rating now is more like 55 kW because of some module failures, the result of short-circuiting due to poor cell construction, according to Chronar's Kiss. Near the generating site is a Chronar a-Si manufacturing plant that is a joint venture with a subsidiary of Alabama Power's parent, the Southern Florida Power Corp.'s 15 kW of ARCO Solar modules Company. Without question, the utility most deeply and openly associated with pho­ tovoltaics, including thin films, is PG&E. The San Francisco-based company broadly views PV as one of several tech­ nologies that pose important new busi­ ness opportunities as competition in­ creases and regulatory barriers fall in the traditional utility industry. In addi­ tion to its stake in Chronar and the

ECD Sovonics modules at Pacific Gas and Electric's PVUSA project EPRI JOURNAL 14 March 1989 A precarious place for PY planned joint-venture thin-ftlm manu­ PVUSA, funding performance assess­ facturing plant, PG&E buys the output ment and reporting activities. Launched Now may be the best of times and the and monitors the performance of a in 1986, PVUSA is intended to spur worst of times for photovoltaics. The 5-MW crystalline Si generating station system-scale tests of technology that technology in general has made major owned by ARCO Solar. For a number of would not otherwise be in production progress over the last decade and a half years, PG&E also has tested nearly all PV and to foster innovation in lowering toward the levels of performance and manufacturers' modules and arrays at balance-of-system costs. cost believed necessary to carve a per­ its San Ramon technology center. In the frrst phase of PVUSA, the in­ manent place as a true electricity supply Carl Weinberg, the utility's manager stallation of 20-kW arrays of modules option and not just the stuffof con­ of R&D, says PG&E is exploring the pos­ (including crystalline and amorphous sumer products and special remote gear. sibilities for involvement with photovol­ silicon flat-plate and concentrating tech­ So far, it has successfully weathered the taics in many markets, on many levels. nologies) from five manufacturers near low mark of depressed oil prices to These range from hybrid PV and diesel, Davis, California, is to be completed by which its fate was formerly believed to hydro, or wind mini-utilities for remote midyear. Subsequent rounds of 200- be inextricably tied. Recent growth rates islands and the like in the international 400-k W increments of complete turnkey in industry sales and revenues have market, to domestic utility "service systems engineered for high reliability been impressive, although the same can without the wire" applications for re­ and low system costs would follow, not yet be said of individual corporate mote homes and highway signs, to­ beginning in the early 1990s. earnings. "There is a solid basis for eventually-small and large utility­ optimism that photovoltaics is catching owned systems, both distributed and hile most of the major PV on;' notes EPRI's Peterson. central station. manufacturers will artici­ But many in the PV community worry � . "T here isn't a single PV system or pate or want to participate that, without a substantial brightening technology that is best for all those mar­ Win PVUSA, some privately of the current business outlook, without kets," says Weinberg. "T he applications express concern either that the project some breakthrough in new products are highly differentiated. In low-power diverts scarce federal appropriations and applications or in the fundamental consumer and commercial markets, from still-needed basic research or, at technology, the momentum and the lead efficiencyis less important than cost and the other end of the spectrum, that of U.S. manufacturers are threatened. there is a market for the low-cost amor­ PVUSA's extended time frame and ini­ "Most of the companies feel we're get­ phous silicon product. tially small scale send a message that PV ting very close to put-up-or-shut-up "For many remote applications, effi­ remains at the test stage. Still, it has time," says DeMeo. "The U.S. photovol­ ciency and reliability are the driver, and given some manufacturers a reason to taic effort is in danger of being uncom­ we think crystalline silicon will continue keep production lines operating, and petitive because the American PV com­ to be used for many of those. For the future rounds serve as targets on which munity is not well coordinated. U.S. utility grid-connected market, to bid and set sights. "I sense a concern that if the PV com­ however, our feeling is that efficiency "We think that without some kind of munity doesn't pull itself together soon may be less important than system costs interim project like PVUSA, the develop­ in a coordinated, coherent assault on and reliability. Typically, people have ment toward commercial utility applica­ development and deployment of the equated low system cost with high effi­ tions might disappear;' says Weinberg. technology in a way that optimizes the ciency, but we're seeing some clever "If utilities are ever going to go after PV, use of available resources, the U.S. approaches to system costs and we there must be a relatively large opera­ industry isn't going to make it in the think the market can work to bring tion owned and operated by a utility so global market. Others-Japanese and them down," adds Weinberg. everybody can see it and study it and European firms-may;' adds DeMeo. An example of that-and the PG&E understand where all the costs are and "But we in the United States do have activity currently generating the most how to tweak them. the needed resources, and it's still a talk among PV manufacturers-is PVUSA "Utilities have really got to under­ wide-open race. And the potential mar­ (Photovoltaics for Utility-Scale Applica­ stand and be comfortable with PV, be­ kets are so large there is room for a tions), an eventual 3.5-MW, $40 million cause it doesn't fit well with traditional number of winners:' • demonstration of systems from various utility planning methods and models, suppliers for which the utility has ob­ although we believe it potentially can This article was written by Ta ylor Moore. Te chnical back· tained major federal and some state play a significantrole in utility service ground information was provided by Edgar OeMeo and cofunding. EPRI is also a cosponsor of in the future." Te rry Peterson, Generation and Storage Division.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 15 he critical issue in technology in­ tage. And we in the U.S. are having a sim­ eliminated by modern information and novation is no longer the ability ilar problem. The accumulation of evi­ transportation systems, throwing the to do good science or even to de­ dence is that the Japanese-and those weight of advantage now toward those Tvise new products, but to win now emulating their approach to tech­ that commit to the long, expensive haul out in the subsequent fierce international nology innovation-give higher priority of product development and commercial­ marketplace," asserted Nathan Rosen­ and incentives to these downstream de­ ization. berg, economics professor at Stanford velopment activities; and increasingly "What we have seen in the postwar era University and the kickoff speaker at the these downstream efforts more than is the emergence of new styles of tech­ EPRI Advisory Council Seminar on Tech­ offset the upstream advantages of the nology innovation that are quite different nology Innovation. West." from our own pioneering style-styles In Rosenberg's mind, the key to the One of the problems the United States that can produce stunning results;' said new economic battle lies on the develop­ is having is that technology itself has Roland Schmitt, president of Rensselaer ment side, the "D" of R&D-the contin­ become a highly portable commodity Polytechnic Institute and former head of uing stream of small improvements in around the world. New ideas, new sci­ GE Laboratories. "Transistors, integrated engineering, product design, and pro­ ence, and the first rough-hewn products circuits, computers, fiber optics, mag­ duction that win no Nobel prizes and get are almost immediately available every­ netic resonance imaging, VCRs, color tele­ only limited recognition from the patent where for inspection, emulation, and vision: these are among the seminal ad­ office, but that can and do prove decisive improvement. The head start that once vances developed in the West and first to market success. tilted commercial advantage toward the Bringing home his point he added, originators of technology has been all but "Great Britain does great science but can't turn that brilliance to economic advan-

by Brent Barker INNOVATION AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 � 6 embodied in new products in the West, sive problem of technology transfer to driven. These companies want and need but in which Japan and other nations boost productivity and remain competi­ help, but the technology transfer mecha­ have subsequently gained strong and tive in the global markets. When To m nisms just don't exist. The firstthing they sometimes dominant positions. Never, it Byrer, senior vice president of Battelle, tell me is, 'Don't invent anything else, is important to realize, has Japan intro­ Columbus and director of the EPRI­ just bring in what's already out there:" duced into a market the firstnew product sponsored Center for Materials Fabrica­ Byrer' s list of technologies waiting to be based on a significant new technical tion, first went into the field to spur used by American industry is long and breakthrough. It has always built on fron­ industrial use of advanced electrotech­ impressive, the kinds of "smart;' high- tier technologies developed elsewhere, nologies on behalf of electric utilities, he improving them bit by bit. The real was shocked to find that "innovation is strength of Japan lies on the manufac­ just not in the vocabulary of the nearly turing floor:' 250,000 small and medium-sized manu­ American manufacturing, in contrast, facturers in the U.S. Yo u can still find has been slow to incorporate technical in­ equipment in this country that is belt novations into its basic processes. It is now finding it must grapple with a mas-

If America is a nation of innovators, why are we losing our edge in global business competition? Discussion at EPRl's latest Advisory Council seminar suggests that it's not the initial inspiration but an innovative development process-including a willingness to invest in the future-that makes the difference in the marketplace.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 17 efficiency, precisely controlled technol­ "T he fundamental problem in this for diverting savings into residential ogies-such as plasma cutting tools-that country," said George Hatsopoulos, housing. can boost productivity to the best levels in chairman of the board of Thermo Electron The result of this squeeze on capital is the world. So why aren't these technolo­ Corporation and chairman of the Boston that "the cost of capital is nearly two and gies being snatched up? Why is American Federal Reserve Board, "is our extremely one-half times higher here than in Japan," industry seemingly so moribund in some low (and falling) national savings rate. said Hatsopoulos. "Given this disparity, areas, yet so vital in others? Lack of For 15 years U.S. productivity and living the investment of the two countries has awareness of new and rapidly advancing standards have stagnated, largely as a been about right: over the last 10 years, technology is one reason. The difficultyof result of this chronic unwillingness to Japan has invested heavily in technology adapting and refining these tools to a make sufficient provision for the future. that improves productivity-about twice unique manufacturing operation is an­ The consequences of that stagnation have as much per employee as the U.S. in the other. But there are other factors, much been masked in the 1980s by a consump­ manufacturing areas:' Better equipped, deeper and farther reaching, at work in tion boom fueled by budget deficits and we would expect Japan to gain in any this country. massive borrowing from abroad:' relative measure of industrial produc­ Great barriers to Hatsopoulos's point is that our low sav­ tivity, and indeed that has been the case. technology innovation ings rate has shrunk the pool of capital Between 1970 and 1986, productivity available for investment, in turn driving growth in manufacturing has averaged Byrer, Schmitt, and Rosenberg were up the cost of capital in the United States 6.0% per year in Japan versus 2.9% per among the seven speakers whose re­ to the point where it has curtailed invest­ year in the United States. "National pro­ marks opened and catalyzed two days of ment in the very productivity-enhancing ductivity growth correlates quite closely roundtable discussion among the mem­ technologies we need for global competi­ to the capital/labor ratio for each of the bers of EPRI's Advisory Council and tiveness. The basic savings problem has advanced industrial nations. Thus Japan Board of Directors and their guests, rep­ been compounded by two substantial has been near the top; the United States, resenting leaders from academia, in­ drains on savings, competition for funds near the bottom." dustry, and government. Their observa­ to feed the federal deficit, which now But the problem has still a broader di­ tions and insights about the state of manages to soak up over half of our pri­ mension. Hatsopoulos went on to say technology innovation in America swept vate savings, and our cultural preference that the full extent of the American in­ the landscape-from incentives and dis­ vestment dilemma can only be under­ incentives in the American economy, to stood by looking beyond the tangible management of innovation in industry, to investments in plant and equipment re­ examples of quickening innovation in the corded in the national accounts to the electric utilities. But time and again the more elusive notion of "invisible capital;' foil of comparison was directed toward which tends to be more broadly tied to Japan and its stunning success in fos­ business entry strategies and planning tering and managing technology innova­ horizons. Invisible capital would include tion. many things now viewed as expenses At the heart of the matter, we have the that help companies to initiate, build, contrast of two countries, Japan and the 'TheJap anese-and those and establish expertise, new products, United States, one epitomizing a saving now emulating their market share, and a commercial infra­ economy, the other a consuming econ­ structure. R&D is a part of invisible cap­ omy. National savings in Japan, for rea­ approach to technology ital. So is adapting or readapting a sons of both culture and government innovation-give higher product to the tastes of the market, or policy, currently exceed 18% of GNP. For priority and incentives to establishing a dealership service net­ Germany the figure is around 11%, but in downstream development work. "It is not widely appreciated," Hat­ the United States net national savings fell sopoulos said, "that investment in these to a historical (nondepression) low of activities; and increasingly invisible assets also depends on the cost 1.9% in 1987. The collapse in U.S. savings these downstream effo rts of capital, as does, more generally, the en­ in the last decade was portrayed as a root­ more than offset the tire planning horizon adopted by busi­ cause barrier to innovation, one that has upstream advantages of ness." In a nutshell, the higher the cost of cascaded throughout the entire American the West., capital, the shorter the business horizon economy. for planning and decision making. Rosenberg

18 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 could do what Honda Motors did. It set out in 1964 to make a profit in 1979 by developing automobiles for the U.S. Savings provide the basic market. Its invisible capital investments pool of funds for included building up dealerships, trying investment in capital to understand the U.S. market, and a equipment.

willingness to let its return on investment [25,-� ����������� � drop more than half and stay that way for 'Innovation is just not in the 15 years. As Hatsopoulos pointed out, l20 "By the mid-1980s, the investment had vocabularyof the nearly ;;; 15 250, 000 small and medium­ begun to pay off: Honda became a $20 a, billion company (up from $400 million in sized manufacturers in the � 10 1965), and its earnings rate rebounded to giii z U. S. These companies want its historical level of 8.5% return on as- .; z 10 15 20 25 and need help, but the tech­ sets." Net National Savings (% of GNP) nology transfermechanisms Time and again the seminar partici­ just don 't exist., pants returned to the issue of America's short-term mentality and the crippling ef­ Manufacturing workers Byrer fect it has on technology innovation and that are better equipped long-term economic growth. At times the become more productive. room bristled with both frustration and s.--� ������������ controlled anger. "The quarter-to-quarter a, 7 earnings orientation of the financial mar­ ni .c 6 kets, combined with the mergers we're eJapan 0 seeing, is bad for technology innovation;' (!) 5 said Schmitt. "Raiders are discounting American business management is of­ the future more than rational economics ten chided these days for its short-term, say they should." 2._������������----- bottom-line myopia. In fact, the business "But look," said Hatsopoulos, "the be­ 2 5 6 7 8 Capital-Labor Ratio and fmancial communities are often havior of firms is ultimately conditioned viewed as hobbling American competi­ by the cost of capital they face." And Judy tiveness with their failure to think and Warrick, a former Morgan Stanley utili­ commit to the long term. But Hatsop­ ties industry specialist and now president Therefore, manufacturing oulos believes they are not responding in­ of Green Lane Enterprises, added the productivity and global appropriately to the current economic perspective of Wall Street: "The very competitiveness are signals welling up from our too-small people bashing Wall Street are from cor­ directly linked to national pool of savings. "Managers spend money porate America. They are the major sup­ savings. now to make money in the future. Based pliers of pension funds-and they insist on the cost of funds, Japanese manufac­ on having the very best quarterly per­ turing discounts future earnings at a rate formance, if not monthly performance. of 1.5% per year (real, after-tax dollars). In This is a circular problem. The very the United States, the comparable dis­ people who demand the performance are � :2: count rate for manufacturing is 6%. What not happy when it comes home to roost:' t; "O::, 4 this means is that the guy in Japan can The list of barriers to technology inno­ 0 wait, say, 12years to make the same profit vation cited by the participants in two 2�� � ����������---- on the same investment as the guy here days of discussion was lengthy. Perhaps 5 10 15 20 25 Net National Savings (% of GNP) needs to make in 3 years. The low cost of none was as fundamental as the savings funds in Japan means their capital can be rate problem, but the cumulative impact much more patient, and in a strategic of so many secondary barriers was so­ Sources: Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development; U.S. Departments of Labor and Commerce. sense they can think and plan long term." bering. They ranged from the dominance On this basis alone, no U.S. company of defense projects in U.S. R&D (70% of

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 19 federal R&D), to corporate policies, to the deal of time exploring ways to strengthen duce the federal deficit; the second is to targeted industrial strategies of other na­ technology innovation in America. Most increase private savings. Once you get tions, to the adversarial climate between agreed that the problem needs to be at­ that wheel in motion, you can afford to U.S. industry and government. And just tacked at its most fundamental levels, change the tax code to reward savings about everyone came in for a little namely by easing America away from its rather than consumption-a value-added bashing. Academia, for its disconnection profligate patterns of consumption and, tax (taxing goods, not income) would be from (and disregard for) downstream in­ simultaneously, finding better ways to ideal:' novation. Industrial R&D and national manage the innovation process in in­ No one disputed the wisdom of this ap­ labs, for practicing "chuckwagon tech­ dustry-ways that unify the various proach, just the likelihood. 'Tm not very nology" -cook it up, dish it out, and yell strengths of the U.S. "upstream" pro­ optimistic about changing our consump­ "come and get it." The technical commu­ cesses with those exemplifiedby the Ja­ tion patterns;' said Nathan Rosenberg. nity, for focusing its results on the wrong panese in the "downstream" processes. "Our political process makes it very diffi.­ audience-namely, its peers. And even Bursting the cult to curtail these habits. Government corporate marketing departments, for consumption bubble policy in the 1970s and 1980s has been a misreading the marketplace. disincentive to savings. The deficit itself One common thread among these var­ American industrial productivity can't is a massive form of dissavings, swal­ ious concerns was the sense of disconnec­ take off without suffi.ciently"patient" and lowing up nearly all our capital. How fast tion in American practices, the failure of plentiful capital. This means controlling can we turn around? American industry to fmd and forge a consumption and plowing new savings "This is probably the major public smooth-flowing continuum of technical into capital formation. Capital will allow policy issue of our times," asserted innovation from conception to commer­ industry to stretch out its investment Stanley Hulett, member of the California cial reality. Too many handoffs. Too much horizon and to quickly embody the latest Public Utilities Commission. "The only analytical detachment. innovations in new equipment. way we are going to rebalance our econ­ Roland Schmitt thinks this problem is "The solution for our economy is to get omy is to put a brake on consumption, epitomized in American efforts toward on with national savings;' said George and I don't see the political courage out marketing. "The reason the Japanese can Hatsopoulos. "The first problem is to re- there to do it-to put, say, a high differen­ stay in touch with markets is that they tial interest rate on consumer goods to save :' don't have marketing organizations. Just force people to look at Hitachi and To shiba-you won't Someone pointed out that at one time fmd a marketing entity in their corporate (1978) Japanese consumer interest rates organizational structure. Here, we pile were allowed to reach 105% as a means up mountains of studies on markets, but of controlling consumption-including the Japanese are actually out there with home ownership-and suggested that it their customers. They worry a lot less would be political suicide to consider about foreseeing the market than lis­ rates at even the 35-40% level in this tening to the market:' country. He cited the example of Fanuc, a Japa­ Hatsopoulos cautioned against ex­ nese ii.rm that has captured 70% of the 'The reason the Japanese can treme measures, suggesting that braking world market in automation controls for stay in touch with markets too fast was not only politically unpalat­ machine tools. "For $1 billion in sales, able, but likely to throw the United States they have only 1000 production workers; is that they don 't have mar­ into a severe recession. "We just need to and this ratio ($1 million per worker) is keting organizations. Here, slow down consumption a bit-to limit about 10 times better than the best U.S. we pile up mountains of the growth in consumption to about 1% companies. The reason is that their sales studies on markets, but the below the growth in GNP between now people are out there walking the factory and 2000 in order to give us the savings to floors of their customers, sending back Japanese are actually out revitalize our nation:' weekly reports on what is wrong with there with their customers. As the discussion wore on, it seemed their products. They are very tightly They worrya lot less about to come down to a question of whether linked to their customers:' fo reseeing the market than politics and culture could change. The So what is the United States to do about new administration offeredhope to many all this? The participants spent a great listening to the market.9 that somehow we would fi.ndthe courage Schmitt

20 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 Innovation on the Inside: Georgia Power and New England Electric l

hen you ask me about innova­ systems. "Our automatic governor his perspective in shaping and moni­ Wtion in our company;' said Bill controls help us smooth out starts and toring one of the pioneering R&D con­ Dahlberg, president of Georgia Power, stops, increasing fuel efficiency and sortia in the nation, he has come to "the frrst thing that comes to mind are cutting maintenance costs. We're even view innovation broadly. the two young engineers who hooked using peanut hulls. It's a useful fuel, "Innovation;' he told the seminar up an $800 Radio Shack computer to and burning it helped us maintain a participants, "is the part of corporate one of our oldest facilities, the Jack customer who would have gone to co­ culture that makes things happen." McDonough plant, and succeeded in generation." And some of the innovations his com­ reducing the heat rate enough to save To Dahlberg, these are examples of pany is proudest of are things they us about $20 million in fuel costs over the kinds of things that make a dif­ helped initiate beyond the meter. our entire system in the last f1Ve years. ference. "In the Southern Company Drawing on prepared remarks by Sam We have had head-to-head competi­ system-a $25 billion investment, half Huntington, former CEO of NEES who tion for electricity service since 1973, of it in Georgia-everything needs to died tragically just before the seminar, and I can tell you that innovation is the work more efficiently at lower cost to Kaslow said, "It was the creative ten­ key to staying ahead." make us more competitive." sion between regulators and utilities The twist to Dahlberg's story is that Jack Kaslow, executive vice presi­ that opened up demand-side pro­ these engineers had to work around dent and chief operating officerof New grams. The shift in utility focus from company policy, which had strictly England Electric System, added a sim­ kilowatthours to service was a signifi­ regulated the use of data process­ ilar list of recent accomplishments in cant institutional innovation that led ing equipment. "They found they his utility aimed at cost control and im­ in turn to an explosion in technological couldn't buy a little personal com­ provements in operation-targeted and marketing innovations:' puter, so they wrote it up as a refriger­ chlorination for condensers, an im­ NEES's Lodestar Program, devel­ ator or some such nonsense on the proved intake screen that allowed a oped to do statistical load analysis, purchase order. The point is, we had coastal plant to move back to open­ was soon licensed to other utilities inadvertently set up roadblocks to in­ cycle operation, and managing the in­ around the nation. NEES worked with novation within our own company in a stallation and operation of a multiter­ EPRI to develop equipment that could well-intentioned effort to normalize minal de link to Canada, to name a monitor load patterns nonintrusive­ operations. This helped to wake us few. "They may not be headline grab­ ly-without the need for hard-wiring up, and I think today we have a new bers," he said, "but they mean savings inside the home or business-and like attitude-we believe that changing for our customers." many utilitiesaround the nation, it set everything for the better has become Kaslow is chairman of EPRI's Re­ up a wide range of programs to sell job:' everyone's search Advisory Committee, which conservation. In one notable program, Dahlberg provided a sampling of puts him at the head of a 600-plus­ NEES developed a dealer rebate pro­ innovations on the supply side of person structure set up to help guide gram to price energy-efficient lighting Georgia Power's business, ranging EPRI's program and transfer tech­ competitively with traditional bulbs from coal quality assessment tech­ nology back to member utilities. From and ballasts, and succeeded in creating niques to preventive maintenance pro­ an immediate market in its service ter- grams to fiber-optic communication ,;to,y whe,e none e,cisted be

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EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 21 to change our ways, tackle the deficit, tively and that are now being copied tighten our belts, and retool for the worldwide. At any rate, Schmitt said that future. And Hatsopoulos reminded once the strategic linkage is confirmed, everyone that, culturally, economic be­ the steps of managing innovation are havior is not immutable. clear-cut. "First, you acquire the technical "Yes, consumption is partly a cultural skills, talents, and expertise you need in a problem," he said. "But culture can strategically important area. This step is change. Ours changed before and it can not too expensive. Next, you select pro­ change again, as have others. Remember, gram objectives based on a still imprecise before World War II Japan saved less target and pull together a multifunctional than or the same as the U.S. (about 5% team to carry them out. As you move the of GNP). After the war the Japanese innovation forward, the costs and com­ changed their culture in order to rebuild mitment go up, and the multifunctional their industry, enforcing savings and sac­ team is reconvened time and time again rificing a lot to do this, including housing to bring the market bull's-eye into focus:' and infrastructure. As we put our house This notion of an imprecise marketing in order, the Japanese should be able to target reminded Tom Byrer of a firm in take the money they now lend us and Japan that is working on ceramic scissors. build up their country." The prospect he "Not that anyone wants a pair of ceramic offered was one of two divergent but in­ scissors, mind you. They're just trying to tertwined economies moving toward learn about processing ceramics. We find some stable central position between to­ Hatsopoulos it curious because we tend to think you day's extremes of consumption (U.S.) have to have a final product firmly in and savings (Japan). mind:' Managing the The small multifunctional team men­ innovation process tioned by Schmitt was a theme picked up 'What do the customers want and need?' and described in various ways by several The management of technology is in a I call it 'just-in-time technology.' It participants. The key seemed to be rapidly evolving, almost experimental doesn't work either, but it is still very avoiding the historical problems of func­ state today. Entrepreneurs inside and popular in the United States. Remember, tional disconnection by combining func­ outside corporate America who have ex­ Japan has never fallen into either of these tions-R&D, manufacturing, marketing, perimented with new management forms traps: they have never had basic research finance, and so on-at the outset into have helped to infuse larger organiza­ labs or marketing organizations. Their small units responsible for all stages of tions with some of the special vitalities of systems of technology innovation are the innovation process. small business. Roland Schmitt described more unified throughout." Harry Coover, retired vice president of the evolution in technical management Schmitt said the best businesses today Eastman Kodak Chemicals, described from the perspective of his years as head have moved toward an approach in­ just such a system of "programmed inno­ of R&D at General Electric. "We used to volving strategic linkage of technology to vation" that he helped to put in place for think products grew directly out of the long-term business objectives, some­ Kodak Chemicals and more recently for lab. This was a linear model, sort of like a thing he said is analogous to "aiming at a Loctite Corporation, a specialty chemicals relay race, where basic research would target without a bull's-eye:' He added, manufacturer. "T he total business of the come up with something and then pass to "This means investing in technology be­ corporation is subdivided into business the group responsible for commercial ap­ fore a precise marketing target is identi­ areas, then further subdivided into small plications, and they in turn would pass to fied. The early investment is not a free­ business units. Each SBU is managed by a the development group, and on to mar­ wheeling foray into the most exciting small, highly focused, entrepreneurial keting, and so on. ideas of the scientists, but rather a disci­ business team that has learned that suc­ "T his approach got replaced with the plined investment in areas that are solidly cess in innovation requires it to think, market-driven model, where we sort of linked to the business strategy." plan, and act strategically. The principals reversed the process. Instead of asking This approach sounds not too dissim­ of the SBU are R&D, marketing, sales, fi­ basic research to come up with the inno­ ilar to the targeted industrial strategies nance, and manufacturing specialists, vations, we asked the marketing people, that the Japanese have modeled so effec- plus a person skilled in the techniques of

22 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 technology forecasting. Consultants are innovation. Universities and the national based industrial parks, and precompeti­ brought in whenever necessary, and the labs, which play key roles in basic re­ tive R&D consortia. SBUs have at their disposal centralized search, are also taking a look. Roland Sch­ "At Rensselaer, we set up campus­ service and support functions. Adminis­ mitt, having recently made the move based incubators in the early 1980s to pro­ tratively, an SBU's reporting relationship from corporate R&D management at GE to vide an environment for startup com­ can change over time-initially it may re­ the presidency of Rensselaer, is particu­ panies. We trade low-cost space for a port to R&D, later to marketing-depend­ larly interested in improving the transfer modest amount of stock, and provide ties ing upon the stage of innovation." of technology from universities to in­ to the science, engineering, and manage­ The SBUs in Coover's scheme have dustry. "The best technology transfer be­ ment schools at the university. About 20 been clustered into broad strategic busi­ gins with the education of scientists and companies that have come out of this pro­ ness areas that try to juggle a portfolio of technologists. Students, once introduced gram are still viable. Stepping up from products and projects at all times-some to it, are good at it. The linkage flavors that level, we also have a 1200-acre indus­ to maintain market share, some to in­ their whole educational experience and trial park that provides a home for those crease market share, and some involving instills both new respect and new skills graduating from the incubator plus so-called "stretch" positions, where op­ for tech transfer." others:' portunities have been identified but In Schmitt's view, the academic ties to Still more broadly, Schmitt is intrigued where product plans have not yet jelled. industry are already strong in the United with the movement toward R&D con­ Beyond the stretch position is still an­ States-"We're ahead of the Japanese and sortia, such as MCC and Sematech, which other area of exploration that Coover equal to Europe;' he said, because of the have emerged in recent years as a result of simply calls the "company goal," a direc­ history of faculty consulting, undergrad­ changes in the antitrust laws. "Pooling tion the team would like the business to uates working in industry, and industrial industrial research efforts at the precom­ go, but where even the opportunities for employees returning for training. But in petitive stage is a valid concept for U.S. innovation are not yet clear. the last decade, entirely new modes of in­ industry to follow. And linkage of these A key result of this new structure in teraction have begun to appear that offer consortia to campuses by locating in Coover's mind is that "technical manage­ a glimpse of the future-such things as nearby parks would have many, many ment has been repositioned-assigned a "campus-based 'incubators; university- advantages for the nation." major responsibility for defining the fu­ Turning to the national labs, Schmitt ture of the company. Te chnical strategy led a brief discussion of their particular has been integrated with business plan­ role in American science and technology, ning strategy. R&D has been coupled with concluding that in his view, "they are not management, marketing, and manufac­ going to work as corporate labs for the turing:' nation-they just can't be very effective The programmed-innovation process, in launching new programs for the pur­ which evolved slowly over a period of 20 poses of developing commercial prod­ years at Eastman Kodak Chemicals, had ucts:' Others remarked on the great ana­ taken firm root by the late 1970s, ac­ lytical capabilities of the labs, and the cording to Coover. Product introductions possibility of their playing an expanded accelerated; 320 new products were in­ service role for the nation. Schmitt sees troduced from 1980 to 1984 alone, while the possibility of the labs taking on a more sales grew from $1.8 billion in 1979 to $2.5 active technology transfer role by "estab­ billion in 1984. At Loctite, where pro­ 6Akey re�ult of programmed lishing vigorous programs of licensing of grammed innovation has been in place innovation is that technical the technology they develop, and sup­ for only two years, sales grew from $230 management has been porting entrepreneurs who pick up on million in 1985 to over $400 million in 1988 repositioned-assigned a their work:' after five years of relative stagnation. major responsibility fo r Utilities as a bridge Reaching outside to industrial development the corporate world defining the future of the company. Te chnical strategy Utilitiesalso have a special role to play in The corporate world is not the only insti­ has been integrated with technology innovation-if for no other tution in the United States currently reex­ reason than that the overwhelming ma­ amining its role in managing technology business planning strategy.9 jority of innovative technology is pow- Coover

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 23 Speakers To m Byrer, Senior Vice President John Kaslow, Executive Vice President and Battelle, Columbus Division Chief Operating Officer Harry W. Coover, Vk:: e President (retired) New England Electric System Eastman Kodak Chemicals Nathan Rosenberg, Professor A. W. Dahlberg, President Dept. of Economics, Stanford University Georgia Power Co. Roland W. Schmitt, President George Hatsopoulos, Chairman and President Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Thermo Electron Corp.

Participants Sy Alpert, EPRI Fellow Gordon C. Hurlbert," President Edwyna G. Anderson,• Commissioner GCH Management Services, Inc. Michigan Public Service Commission James J. Jura, Administrator Walter S. Baer,. Director Bonneville Power Administration Advanced Technology, Times Mirror Co. Fritz Kalhammer, Vice President Richard E. Balzhiser, President and CEO Exploratory Research, EPRI EPRI Milton Klein, Vice President Robert W. Bratton Industry Relations and Information Services, EPRI RWB Associates Robert K. Koger," Commissioner Edward F. Burke, President North Carolina Utilities Commission Canadian Connection, Ltd. Girts Krumins, President and CEO Wilson K. Cadman, Chairman and President Colorado-Ute Electric Association Kansas Gas and Electric Co. Sharon Luongo, Senior Conference Coordinator EPRI Dahlberg Theodore J. Carlson} Chairman Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. Brian MacMahon, Professor Anne P. Carter," Chairman Dept. of Epidemiology, Harvard University Dept. of Economics, Brandeis University George A. Maneatis, President Thomas V. Chema," Chairman Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Ohio Public Utilities Commission Gene Mannella, Director Richard Claeys, Director Washington Office, EPRI Corporate Communications, EPRI Lord Walter Marshall, Chairman John V. Cleary, Jr., President and CEO Central Electricity Generating Board, England Green Mountain Power Corp. Katherine A. Miller, Manager Floyd L. Culler, President Emeritus Strategic Planning, EPRI ered by electricity. Ted Carlson, chairman EPRI C. BurtonNelson, Director of the board of Central Hudson Gas & Charles H. Dean, Jr., Director Regulatory Relations, EPRI Te nnessee Valley Authority Norman E. Nichols, Assistant General Manager, Power Electric, extended this concept histori­ 0. Mark DeMichele, President and CEO Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power cally, pointing out that "the history of this Arizona Public Service Co. Larry W. Papasan, President and CEO John B. Driscoll,· Commissioner Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division nation is one of constant growth in the Montana Public Service Commission J. Dexter Peach, Director uses of electricity-in the home, in busi­ John F. G. Eichorn, Jr., Chairman and CEO General Accounting Office ness, in industry-and constant revital­ Eastern Utilities Associates John W. Rowe, President and CEO Dennis G. Eisnach,* Chairman Central Maine Power Co. ization of our economy. The future of this South Dakota Public Utilities Commission Richard Sternberg, Manager E. James Ferland, Chairman, President, and CEO Hazardous Waste and Fuel Supply industry and of electricity research has to Public Service Electric & Gas Co. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association be as broad as society itself." Alex Fremling, Deputy Director Stephen J. Sweeney, Chairman, President, and CEO Boston Edison Co. Utilities, like other industries, have Business Management Group, EPRI Edythe J. Gaines,• Commissioner John J. Ta ylor, Vice President moved much closer to their own markets, Connecticut Dept. at Public Utility Control Nuclear Power, EPRI and have begun to view technology inno­ Michehl R. Gent, President Grant P. Thompson,• Executive Director North American Electric Reliability Council League of Women Vo ters vation as a continuum of efficiency im­ Dominic Geraghty, Assistant to the President Victoria J. Tschinkel," Senior Consultant Landers, Parsons & Uhlfelder provements on both sides of the meter-a EPRI John H. Gibbons," Director StewartL. Udall," Afforneyat Law single system from fuel processing to Office of Te chnology Assessment Andrew Varley, Vice President electricity supply to customer usage. The Charles H. Goodman, Vice President American Electric Power Co. Southern Company Services Judith B. Warrick," President results in some parts of the industry have Wolf Hafele, Chairman Green Lane Enterprises Kernforschungsanlage JOlich GmbH Thomas C. Webb, President and CEO been impressive, bringing with them a Federal Republic of Germany Central Ve rmont Public Service Corp. new respect and a new excitement about George M. Hidy, Vice President Dean G. Wilson,' President and CEO the role that innovation, both technolog­ Environment. EPRI Blaw Knox Corp. Lawrence Hobart, Executive Director Herbert H. Woodson," Acting Dean ical and institutional, can play in spurring American Public Power Association University of Te xas American competitiveness. Stanley W. Hulett," Commissioner Kurt Ye ager, Vice President California Public Utilities Commission Generation and Storage, EPRI Many utilities are now positioned as Bruce G. Humphrey, Assistant to the President Richard W. Zeren, Director full-service suppliers . This means their Strategic Planning, Edison Electric Institute Membership Development. EPRI customers' problems become their prob­ �dvisory Council member lems. And for utilities working with in-

24 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 dustrial customers, this now puts them in from the states of Rhode Island, Massa­ Power set up its Energy Planning Center the business of supplying not only kilo­ chusetts, and Connecticut. "The program to provide seminars, hands-on exhibits, watthours and customer service but tech­ was to bring the experts to our customers, and information for business and in­ nology innovation itself. Many seminar who were selected from a variety of key dustry; in 1987 it added the Technology participants were eager to see utilities industries in our area, including electro­ Application Center to test and demon­ pursue this broader role of regional and plating, plastics, shipbuilding, jewelry strate electrotechnologies for industry. even national economic development. manufacturing, fishprocessing, and steel This facility is now considered among the Tom Byrer fondly recalled a pivotal con­ fabrication. The initiative identifiedsome premier end-use centers in the country. versation at Georgia Tech during the for­ real technological improvements, ranging According to Bill Dahlberg, president of mative stage of the Center for Materials from laser-directed water spray for fish Georgia Power, "We don't provide equip­ Fabrication at Battelle. "The director of cutting to more efficientpreheating tech­ ment; we provide a place for manufac­ the Georgia technology extension service niques in welding activities:' turers to bring their equipment, provide explained their program of using an agent "This was a significant cooperative ef­ someone to demonstrate it, and bring our in every county-much like an agricul­ fort between government, utilities, and customers in. It pays off. We added 37 tural extension agent. Local industry can EPRI;' said Edward Burke, president of MW of new load last year when customers call him up and ask him any question, Canadian Connection, Ltd., and one of saw demonstrations of electric cooking and he'll go back to the university to try the prime movers behind the initiative. units. And on the industrial side, we to fmd a solution to the problem. The "American industries, particularly those have already successfully applied radio­ director then went on to say, 'Now ifyou with small R&D budgets, are hungry for frequency heat processing for yarn, car­ could somehow get the electric utilities assistance and advice. We took off-the­ pets, and vinyls, and infrared processing involved in this kind of activity, you shelf technology and got it out into the for composite materials:' would have a ready-made network to field. The effort paid off:' The advantages of this kind of demon­ transfer technology to industry, one that Similarly, throughout the Southern stration center can't be overestimated, ac­ nobody else could ever afford to put in Company system, formal networks have cording to Byrer, who has seen too many place. There really isn't any other institu­ been established to boost regional eco­ cases of people returning from trade tion that has that kind of all-encom­ nomic development. In 1984 Georgia shows with robots and machine tools passing network.' " they don't know how to adapt. "We need With that notion, Byrer went back to more demonstration sites of the kind Battelle to build up the first of three cen­ they have at Georgia Power. We need ters sponsored by EPRI member utilities them all around the country. They're a to assist their industrial customers with place where people can come and sit the application of new technology. "We down and get familiar with a new tech­ have been up and running at the CMF for nology, so that when they take it into five years now, and we have 60 utilities their plant, it is not so foreign to the op­ in 31 states participating in the program. eration." With this foundation, we can begin to Utility industrial development activi­ build the critical bridge between what ties in the state of Georgia point toward utility customers want and need and the _. the future-one that recognizes the eco­ tremendous wealth of technical resources ' nomic role utilities can play by actively we have in this country." It was the creative tension channeling new investment opportuni­ Similar bridges are being built around between regulators and utili­ ties and advanced technology to their the country by enterprising utilities and ties that opened up demand­ customers. Just how far utilities can go, local industry, according to Jack Kaslow, side programs. Theshift in and whether they will in the future be executive vice president and chief oper­ utility focus from kilowatt­ linking up routinely with state or regional ating officer of New England Electric development groups, is not yet clear. System. Kaslow described a unique col­ hours to service was a sig­ Nevertheless, utilities recognize the ad­ laboration called the Southern New En­ nificant institutional inno­ vantages of long-term investment in their gland Initiative, in which NEES and other vation that led in tum to an service territories. And they are coming utilitiesin the region joined with EPRI and explosion in technological to view themselves as suppliers of in­ with the state regulatory commissions novation just as certainly as kilowatt­ and economic development agencies and marketing innovations., hours. • Kaslow

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 25 Startup of the 160-MW fluidized-bed unit at TVA's Shawnee generating plant marks another mile­ stone in the development and commercial­ ization of clean coal combustion systems. The technology could establish the foundation for , widespread repowering of existing coal-fired plants in the next decade. I fluidizedBed I fires Up at�VA dd Paducah, Kentucky, to the tion of nitrogen oxides, both of which are stration is proof of the utility and coal map of utility clean coal tech­ implicated in acid rain-but without the industries' commitment to control com­ nology demonstration sites. efficiency and cost penalties or sludge bustion emissions with better efficiency A The city, along the Ohio River disposal issues associated with massive and at lower cost than with add-on FGD at the edge of the state's western high­ back-end flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems. Among them, EPRI President sulfur coalfields, now boasts the world's systems. and CEO Richard Balzhiser called the pro­ largest utility-scale fluidized-bed boiler. Called a choice for the future ject "a true centerpiece of our nation's Operating since last fall, the 160-MW clean coal effort;' and the start of opera­ unit delivers steam to one of 10 turbine "The AFBC demonstration will be used to tions "another milestone in our quest on generators at the Te nnessee Va lley Au­ refine and enhance a technology that is behalf of all utilities for clean technologies thority's Shawnee plant. The $232 million vital to the nation's energy future;' said for the direct use of coal. Now we begin project was built with major funding from TVA Chairman Marvin Runyon at a rainy the next phase," he continued, "which TVA, EPRI, Duke Power, the common­ dedication ceremony last November. will permit us to learn and to understand wealth of Kentucky, Combustion Engi­ AFBC technology could be particularly better what is needed for widespread neering, the U.S. Department of Energy, vital to TVA, one of the country's largest commercial adoption:' and the Atmospheric Fluidized Bed De­ buyers of coal, which fuels about 70% of Paul Wieber, the associate director of velopment Corp., a consortium of rail­ the federal utility's power generation. As DOE's Morgantown, West Virginia, En­ roads, coal producers, and utility com­ is the case for most of the utility industry, ergy Te chnology Center, noted that the panies. Several years of tests on this and many of TVA's aging coal-fired plants are Shawnee AFBC unit "beats all New other large operating utility fluidized-bed candidates for life-extension and re­ Source Performance Standards" for pol­ boilers are expected to prove that the ra­ powering-capital-conserving retrofitop­ lutant emissions and also produces less tional route to emissions control for coal­ tions for which AFBC appears well suited. carbon dioxide-implicated as a contrib­ fired utility and industrial plants lies in A 1983 EPRI study put the conversion po­ utor to global greenhouse warming­ advanced combustion processes that can tential nationwide at 200 plants, repre­ than a conventional pulverized-coal enhance both plant performance and en­ senting 28,000 MW. boiler of comparable size equipped with vironmental protection. Runyon called Wendell Ford, Ken­ scrubbers. But the Shawnee plant's demonstration tucky's senior senator and the keynote Key to the AFBC unit's low emissions is of atmospheric fluidized-bed combustion dedication speaker, "the major force in the combustion process, in which ground (AFBC) could have more direct impact on getting the project offthe drawing board" coal and limestone are mixed (at a ratio of industries and regions with a stake in the and securing $30 million in federal appro­ about 2.8 to 1) and injected through ports nation's abundant high-sulfur coal re­ priations for it over the last several years. in the bottom of the 13-story boiler to serves. Because fluidized-bed boilers can Ford, for his part, tossed aside a pre­ maintain a roiling bed of burning solids. burn a variety of coals and other solid pared speech and praised the spirit and The limestone reacts with and absorbs fuels with consistently good perform­ skill of the workers who built what others sulfur released from the coal to form cal­ ance, AFBC could make it economically called perhaps the most-advanced coal­ cium sulfate, a dry gypsum-like material feasible to use many coals that have been fired plant in the country. "The answer to that drains from bottom hoppers and can nearly abandoned as generating fuel. energy independence is right here;' said be used in fertilizers and construction ma­

Some years ago, TVA's Shawnee steam Ford, describing the new AFBC unit as a terial. In-bed combustion° temperatures plant (built in the mid-1950s to power the symbol of commitment to affordablecoal­ of around 1550 F are about half those government's mammoth uranium en­ fired electricity and enviromental protec­ of conventional coal boilers, thus inher­ richment complex nearby) was forced to tion for future generations. Rather than ently limiting the formation of nitrogen stop burning the local Kentucky No. 9 high-sulfur coal's being regulated out of oxides, which is air- and temperature­ coal, which has about 4% organic sulfur, use in favor of low-sulfur varieties, Ford dependent. in favor of lower-sulfur coal from outside noted, wider utility adoption of fluidized­ Built in about three years by Fluor Con­ the region as an alternative to build­ bed technology in the 1990s could stabi­ structors alongside the old No. 10 boiler ing scrubbers to meet emissions limits. lize what has traditionally been a boom­ (which was not dismantled), the AFBC To day, Shawnee is once again burning or-bust eastern mining industry by unit, designed by Combustion Engi­ local coal-in the new AFBC boiler. The ensuring long-term markets for high­ neering, uses the plant's existing coal­ plant is designed to meet current federal sulfur coal. handling equipment and turbine gener­ emissions regulations, with 90% sulfur Other speakers told the crowd of sev­ ator; the coal- and limestone-feeding, fly dioxide removal and a near total elimina- eral hundred that the Shawnee demon- ash recycle, and other systems are new.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 27 A Day of Dedication at TVA As a retrofit, the unit cost about $950/kW to install, not including certain develop­ ment and first-of-a-kind costs, according National, state, and local officials joined executives of various sponsoring companies and to Arnold Manaker, TVA project manager. organizations, including EPRI, at TVA's Shawnee steam plant in Paducah, Kentucky, on EPRI expects most retrofits would fall November 18, 1988, to celebrate the completion and startup of the atmospheric fluidized-bed into the $500-$1000/kW range; a com­ demonstration. The new 160-MW AFBC unit was installed alongside the old No. 10 boiler and pletely new plant today could be ex­ delivers steam to the existing turbine generator. Limestone mixed with the coal and fluidized pected to cost typically about 5-10% less by air in the boiler captures 90% or more of the sulfur oxides directly during combustion. In­ than a conventional unit equipped with bed temperatures about half those of typical coal-fired units inherently limit the formation of scrubbers. The main capital cost saving is nitrogen oxides. in the elimination of a flue gas scrubber. This saving is expected to increase as TVA Chairman Marvin Runyon fluidized-bed technology matures com­ mercially. The potential for operating cost savings lies firstin AFBC's fuel flexibility. The sav­ ings would vary according to a utility's EPRI President and CEO Richard Balzhiser ability to exploit the flexibility by, for ex­ ample, avoiding long-term contracts in favor of the spot market or low-grade fuels. The ability to switch fuels and to burn coal of nearly any quality could mean savings of as much as 25-50% in the cost of fuel. Ensuring the engineering basis necessary to achieve these fuel cost savings is at the heart of the AFBC demon­ stration program. More than a demonstration

As originally conceived several years ago, the Shawnee AFBC plant was to be the utility industry's principal demonstration of bubbling fluid-bed technology under EPRI aegis, culminating over a decade of November 18, 198 R&D with smaller prototypes. The pro­ gram was intended to provide a confident design and operating base for utility ap­ plication of the technology in both new

Shawnee AFBC boiler An answer to several problems plant and repowering applications at rector of the Generation and Storage sizes up to at least 300 MW. Division. "That is why it was built as a The glowing orange-red fire visible Since then, however, several other sup­ collaborative venture by a number of through ports in the Shawnee 160-MW pliers and utilities have taken the plunge sponsors and why its design has tried to AFBC boiler, then, represents more than with a variety of fluid-bed systems signifi­ take into account risks and uncertainties just another TVA, Duke Power, or EPRI cantly different in various ways from by providing corresponding flexibility in demonstration, more than one working the Shawnee atmospheric pressure, a number of areas, such as the coal­ solution among others to the problem of bubbling-bed unit. These installations feeding systems. I believe the Shawnee coal-fired utility emissions, and more complement the Shawnee project and project has proceeded the most realisti­ than a collaborative industry-govern­ significantly expand the AFBC informa­ cally in terms of recognizing the prototyp­ ment R&D effort. The fire of this and other tion base available to utilities, suppliers, ical status of AFBC technology today. utility-scalefluidized-bed units operating and architect-engineers. "Most of the other AFBC projects at or now being built represents a solution the 100-MW scale have been straight com­ to several problems facing utilities as the luidized-bed units are now avail­ mercial ventures, even though the tech­ 1990s loom, a solution that has evolved able from all the major fossil fuel nology was prototypical for utility appli­ over the past two decades and has ma­ boiler manufacturers supplying cation. As a result, some suppliers have tured to the edge of broad commercial ac­ Fthe American utility market. taken a calculated risk on their learning ceptance. Operating results from all the Such units now operate on utility systems curve to gain market advantage. Fortu­ fluidized-bed projects will be closely in Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota, and nately, the problems and issues that have watched in the years ahead and will play North Dakota; others are under construc­ arisen were largely anticipated with a a decisive role in upcoming capacity ex­ tion in Te xas and Ohio and proposed for new system and are being resolved in the pansion decisions. West Virginia. EPRI funds substantial test field. "With the fluidized-bed plants that are and documentation programs at nearly "This underscores the importance of operating or being built today, we have all of the currently operating units. Some the patient utility AFBC technology devel­ the first commercial generation from the projects, such as the Colorado-Ute Nucla opment program implemented by EPRI utility industry's advanced clean coal circulating AFBC prototype, American and others on an industrial scale over the technologies that were initiated for devel­ Electric Power's pursuit of pressurized past 15 years;' adds Ye ager. "As a result, opment in the early 1970s;' explains fluidized-bed combustion technology, many of the issues in AFBC commerciali­ Ye ager. "But they certainly don't repre­ and the Southwestern Public Service cir­ zation center on the auxiliarysystems and sent the culmination of the technology or culating AFBC, are also supported under components rather than the fluidized bed the last demonstrations that we're going the federal government's Clean Coal itself. The Shawnee plant has been in­ to be involved with. There will continue Te chnology Demonstration Program. strumented and will be tested more ex­ to be opportunities for further develop­ In certain respects, the Shawnee unit is tensively than any other fluidized-bed ment in fluidized beds and coal conver­ unique among the projects, since it repre­ project. With respect to bubbling-bed sion, as well as in other generation and sents a large-scale development facility technology, it is designed to provide the storage technologies. that is the latest in a series of major R&D key information necessary for utilities to "With the current projects, EPRI and the efforts in fluidized-bed technology by quantitatively assess its commercial fu­ utility industry have moved coal utiliza­ EPRI and its contractor-suppliers. First ture and specify commercial orders:' tion technology out of a long period of came bench-scale work in the mid-1970s, Ye ager believes that, because of their stagnation onto a new plateau of develop­ then a 2-MW facility in Ohio, followed by relative cost-effectiveness in repowering ment and commercial innovation. In a 20-MW prototype at the TVA Shawnee existing boilers, fluidized-bed units could terms of their development potential, the plant (which is now to be used to test a prove to be a leading generating tech­ new fluidized-bed plants today are some­ hybrid concept in fluidized beds). These nology choice of utilities as capacity is in­ what analogous to the first pulverized­ efforts progressively laid the technolog­ creased in the 1990s. "Over the next coal plants 60 years ago. Utilities and the ical and engineering foundations for the decade at least, most of the new capacity manufacturers have taken conventional 160-MW demonstration. that will be added will be either gas tur­ pulverized-coal technology about as far "The Shawnee fluidized-bed project bine peaking capacity or repowering and as it can go. Fluidized-bed technology has was established at the outset as a tech­ performance extension of existing coal­ just begun its development cycle:' • nical demonstration, one that recognized fired units. I expect fluidized beds are the technology was not mature," notes going to be the backbone of that repower­ This article was written by Ta ylor Moore. Kurt Ye ager, EPRI vice president and di- ing wave;' Ye ager says.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 29 sludge that settles and hardens in the bottom of PWR steam generators is difficult because of tight quar­ ters and radiation hazard. A new teleoperated robot called CECIL is proving that it can do the job more safely and thoroughly than conventional cleaning techniques. SLUDGEBUSTER FOR STEAM GENERATORS rawling down a narrow lane tight spacing and high radiation levels. assembly, where they may form a pile through a forest of nickel-al­ Con Edison estimates that CECIL will save 10 inches high or more. Sludge deposits loy tubes, a cylindrical robot the utility at least $100,000 per refueling vary in size, composition, and hardness, reaches its destination and outage, while reducing radiation expo­ depending on a particular plant's design stops,C extending spherical feet to anchor sure to personnel. and construction materials, its feedwater itself in place. The robot inserts a flexible, Te nacious, inaccessible sludge chemistry, and its operating characteris­ belt-shaped band called a flex-lance into tics. The deposits may be soft and silty, the 3/s-inch gap between two columns of A PWR steam generator works like a giant firm and sticky like peanut butter, or tubes. As the flex-lance snakes into the teakettle, using heat from the reactor core harder than concrete. A PWR steam gen­ tube forest, its tip unleashes water jets to make steam. The generator's cylin­ erator may play host to all three types, targeted at a mass of sludge nestled drical steel vessel encloses thousands in quantities ranging from 25 pounds among the tubes, a mass that has resisted of %-inch-diameter nickel-alloy tubes, to 2 tons or more. all previous attempts to dislodge it. The arranged in an inverted-U configuration Because it forms a layer between the robot withdraws the flex-lance and ad­ about 30 feet high. (The dimensions tube walls and the surrounding water, vances to the next tube gap to repeat the quoted are for a Westinghouse Model 44D sludge inhibits heat transfer, which can process. Seventy-five feet away, an oper­ steam generator; dimensions may vary reduce generating capacity. A more se­ ator sitting at a workstation controls the with steam generator design and sup­ rious problem, however, is that sludge procedure and monitors the robot's pro­ plier.) Water heated in the reactor core­ deposits contain voids that concentrate gress on screens that display a video pic­ kept under pressure to prevent boiling­ aggressive chemicals such as chloride and ture from the miniature camera mounted runs through these tubes, heating sodium hydroxide, which attack the in the flex-lance's tip, as well as the pre­ secondary water circulating inside the tubes, causing corrosion and cracking. If cise position of the lance inside the tube vessel. The secondary water, being at a this damage is allowed to run unchecked, bundle. lower pressure, boils to produce steam to the corroded tubes must be plugged or The prototype robot is called CECIL, for spin turbines. Sludge forms when partic­ sleeved; if many tubes are damaged the Consolidated Edison Combined Inspec­ ulate impurities suspended in the feed­ whole steam generator may have to be re­ tion and Lancing system. Developed water coalesce and concentrate as the placed. These remedies are neither easy under funding from EPRI, the Empire water boils, much as scale develops in a nor cheap. Plugging or sleeving tubes State Electric Energy Research Corp. teakettle. during a repair outage can cost up to half (ESEERCO), and Consolidated Edison Co. The principal culprits are oxides of iron a million dollars. The cost of replacing a of New Yo rk, the robot is a new weapon in and copper from the secondary-side com­ steam generator, including purchasing the power industry's war on sludge. ponents and piping; oxides of nickel, replacement power, can run several hun­ Equipped with an electronic eye and zinc, silicon, and calcium may also be dred million dollars. armed with water jets, CECIL can inspect present in small amounts. The concen­ For these reasons, most utilities oper­ and clean areas deep within pressurized trated impurities settle in low-flow re­ ating PWR plants inspect and clean their water reactor (PWR) steam generators, gions, especially on the tubesheet, the steam generators during refueling or where human access is prohibited by massive slab that supports the U-tube maintenance outages. But the difficulty of

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 31 gaining access to the interior of the tube these systems. The project's first step was bundle limits the effectiveness of current a survey of utility experience and vendor tools and techniques used for inspection practices in inspecting and removing and sludge removal. Access to the inte­ sludge from steam generators. "We rior just above the tubesheet is limited didn't want to reinvent the wheel or de­ to inspection ports-6 inches or less in velop something that would duplicate diameter-in the vessel wall. Close con­ what was already available;' says Wil­ fines make manipulation of hand-held liams. "We chose to study the existing tools awkward, and radiation severely tools and practices to identify areas where limits the amount of time an operator can improvements could be made before spend in the area. going ahead with any development ef­ The most common sludge removal fort. When the request for project autho­ method is water lancing, which involves rization passed through EPRI's Nuclear hosing out the generator during a refu­ Power Division, we also sent it through eling or maintenance outage. Typically, the other, nonnuclear divisions with the the water nozzles are positioned either in idea that they might provide some fresh the blowdown lane-the narrow passage thought or suggest some related tech­ between the legs of the U-tube bundles­ nology that could be useful. Through that or in the annulus around the tubing, and process we identified a technology de­ their spray is directed into the bundles. velopment company in Massachusetts This technique may be partially effective called Foster-Miller, which had devel­ in removing softer sludge, but it does not oped some innovative material removal remove the more tenacious hardened de­ technology for the Electrical Systems Di­ posits because the water jets lose their vision. They came up with a concept, and punch a short distance from the nozzle. a way of turning it into hardware, that After the first few tube rows, the jets lack evolved into CECIL:' the energy required to break up sludge Accurate and repeatable access deep in the tube bundle. Also, it's difficult to determine how The survey revealed two basic needs: a much sludge remains after lancing. "You better way to inspect the interior of the might lance out 500 pounds of sludge and tube bundle, and a means to deliver water assume that your steam generator is jets directly to the hard sludge deposits. clean," says Lamar Williams, a project Foster-Miller came up with the concept of manager in EPRI's Nuclear Power Divi­ a thin, flexible band that could pass sion. "However, the real issue is not how through the narrow gaps between tubes much sludge was removed but how as well as negotiate the turns needed to It much remains inside the steam generator. reach deep into the bundle. was also Unless you can take a good look inside necessary to devise some mechanical the tube bundle, you have no idea if means of precisely positioning this band, there's one pound or a thousand pounds or flex-lance, so that the operator would of sludge still inside:' Although some know the exact location of its tip and be utilities have used fiber-optic probes or able to direct it to specific areas. In addi­ eddy-current testing to do inspections, tion to the water jets, the flex-lance could neither technique has yielded consist­ house a miniature video camera to allow ently satisfactory results. the cleaning progress to be observed and Recognizing that sludge was a source of to inspect conditions inside the tube expensive damage to steam generators bundle. and that some PWR utilities weren't satis­ Armed with the raw concept of a flex­ fied with existing inspection and clean­ lance and some type of mechanical de­ ing procedures, EPRI, Con Edison, and livery system, Foster-Miller engineers set ESEERCO sponsored a project to improve out to meet the design criteria established Steam generator

32 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 CECIL in Action

The large steam generators in PWR power plants are vulnerable to corrosion from sludge that accumulates near the vessel's base. The sludge often settles in a hardened mass deep within the tube bundle, where tight spacing and radiation limit human access for inspection and mainte­ nance. Traveling between the legs of the U-tube assembly, CECIL extends its flex-lance deep into the tube bundle and sprays the sludge at close range with high-pressure water jets. A monitor displays robot and lance position graphically at a remote control station, and CECI L:soperator can view the procedure directly in a video image from the miniature camera mounted on the tip of the flex-lance.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 33 by the sponsors. The flex-lance would pressure. Foster-Miller engineers opted dors and, by rotating 180 degrees, to carry water to blast sludge at close range. to use flexible stainless steel conduits reach into both legs of the U-tube as­ "Imagine washing mud from your drive­ lined with Teflon and sheathed in an sembly from the central blowdown lane. way with a garden hose," says Williams. extruded band of polyethylene. Holes CECIL-3 is propelled by the breast-stroke "You can squirt at it from 15 feet away, but punched between the conduits would motion of two sets of spherical feet that if you stand 4 inches away you'll get a mesh with sprocket teeth in the mechan­ engage gaps between tubes on either side much better blast because you've got ical driver. of the blowdown lane. To move forward, your jet closer to the target:' The flex­ the front feet retract and a pneumatic cyl­ lance would have to be strong and stiff ith work on a prototype inder pushes the rear feet back, ad­ enough to withstand high internal water flex-lance under way, Fos­ vancing the robot exactly one tube pressures-several thousands of pounds ter-Miller next turned to column with each step. When CECIL per square inch-while being flexible Wthe design of a manipula­ reaches the desired position in the blow­ enough to move controllably within the tor to feed the flex-lance into and out down lane, all four feet extend to lock the tube bundle. "A person can hold a fire of selected areas of the tube bundle. robot in place. hose at the nozzle and keep it under con­ Pushing the flex-lance from the access Further trials conducted in the mockup trol;' Williams points out, "but hold it 10 port would make it difficult to guide the revealed that the flex-lance as originally feet back from the nozzle and it whips tip into specificintertube gaps. What was designed, although functional, wasn't around like an angry python:' needed was a remotely operated robot strong enough. The holes punched in the In addition to the strength and flexi­ that could shuttle accurately up and polyethylene tended to tear under the bility requirement, other considerations down the steam generator's central blow­ force of the sprocket teeth. To overcome had to be addressed. Foremost among down lane and insert the lance at a right this weakness, Foster-Miller redesigned these was to minimize radiation exposure angle into the tube bundle. the lance to resemble a latticed belt; the to operators. The manipulation of the The initial design effort resulted in a two flexible water conduits pass perpen­ lance would have to be done remotely, box-like prototype that slid on rollers dicularly through a series of evenly and installation and removal procedures along the top of the horizontal pipe in the spaced pins made of Delrin, a very hard had to be simple and quick. Because a nu­ blowdown lane used to drain the steam form of nylon. In this configuration, the clear power plant has little extra space for generator. The robot housed pneumatic Delrin pins are pushed and pulled by the any equipment not used for routine main­ actuators for propulsion and to power a spaces between the sprocket teeth rather tenance, the system would have to be sprocket drive to insert and withdraw the than the teeth themselves, thus reducing compact enough not to interfere with flex-lance. A remote control panel was stresses on the lance. other activities and personnel during an connected to the robot by a pneumatic Fighting sludge in the shadows outage. It had to be highly reliable in umbilical cord. Testing the prototype in a order to facilitate maintenance and repair laboratory mockup of a Westinghouse At the tip of CECIL'.sflex-lance is a nozzle in the field and to eliminate the chance Model 44 steam generator (the type at block containing an upper and a lower set that a component would come loose and Con Edison's Indian Point Unit 2) demon­ of multidirectional spray orifices fed by get lost inside the steam generator. Fi­ strated that the system could feed the the two water conduits. Mounted in the nally, the design had to be adaptable to lance in and out of selected tube lanes. center of the block are a 6-mm-diameter performing other tasks besides lancing With feasibility demonstrated, Foster­ video camera lens and a tiny nozzle that and inspection, such as collecting sludge Miller redesigned the robot in a configu­ shoots a stream of compressed nitrogen samples for analysis. ration that could withstand the environ­ at the lens to keep it clear of water drop­ concept into hardware mental conditions and spatial constraints lets and debris. Turning it would encounter in the field. The new The spray orifices are designed to re­ The flexible lance-though simple in version, designated CECIL-3, was of move sludge from all sides of the steam concept-proved to be the project's single-piece construction, so no assembly generator tubes as the flex-lance travels toughest technical challenge. The most was required before installing it in the down a tube lane. This cannot be accom­ difficult problemwas designing, and re­ steam generator. CECIL-3's stainless-steel plished with conventional techniques, ducing to hardware, a water-delivery cylindrical body is 18 inches long and which spray from only one direction, be­ system that was both strong and flexible. slightly less than 31/2 inches in diameter. cause the tubes mask the sludge behind This requirement ruled out the initial con­ The cylinder can be rolled via a cogged them in so-called shadow zones. Two of cept of an all-plastic flex-lance, which rubber belt, allowing the extended lance CECIL'.s spray orifices are aimed straight would swell under the internal water to move up and down in the tube corri- ahead to break up sludge in the intertube

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 34 lane. Orifices aimed at 45-degree angles tentiometers measure the motion of the mockup, trying to reflect as accurately as break up sludge around the tubes, and an flex-lance as it moves in and out of the possible the conditions to be encountered orifice at 90 degrees removes sludge in tube bundle, as well as the angle at which in an actual steam generator. To do this, it the shadow zones between tube rows. the lance is deployed. The control com­ was necessary to find an appropriate sub­ Foster-Miller engineers developed a puter processes these signals and dis­ stitute for hard sludge. It's interesting to second flex-lance to retrieve samples of plays them graphically on a monitor in ei­ note-and indicative of the diffi.culty of hard sludge from inside the tube bundle. ther a plan or an elevation view of the reaching into a steam generator-that no Retrieving a sample would allow an anal­ steam generator. The graphics display data were available on the material prop­ ysis to be made of its chemical and phys­ tells the operator the quadrant being erties of hard sludge. A poll of industry ical properties, and perhaps provide cleaned, the tube column in which the sources, research organizations, and uni­ clues to the mechanisms of sludge depo­ lance is located, the tube row in which the versities indicated that a recipe of three sition and to improving sludge removal. lance's nose is located, the extension of parts Portland cement to one part mag­ The sampling lance is equipped with the lance (in inches) into the tube bundle, netite-the iron oxide thought to be the a 6-mm-diameter diamond-tipped core the angle at which the lance is tilted, and primary constituent of steam generator drill driven at 2000 rpm by a flexible shaft the operational status of CECIL and its sludge-would yield a suitable analog. running through the lance. The sampling support systems. The visual image from Mixed with enough water to form a thick head also includes a video probe to mon­ CECIL'.scamera is displayed on a separate paste, this concoction was ladled into the itor drilling progress and a water feed to video monitor, with flex-lance position steam generator mockup and allowed to lubricate the drill. data overlaid on the side of the screen. set for intervals of eight hours to several A computerized remote control and Coupling this monitor to a video cassette days to attain various degrees of hard­ tracking system was developed to permit recorder makes it possible to create a ness. CECIL'.s operator to continuously monitor permanent videotaped record of each In multiple tests using a nozzle pres­ the positions of the robot and the flex­ sludge-lancing operation; such records sure of 2500 psi, the system was able to lance. CEC!l.'.scontrol station uses an IBM can be reviewed to observe changes in erode the mock sludge at short distances, Industrial XT computer with the specifica­ steam generator conditions or to compare including sludge in the shadow zones be­ tions of a We stinghouse Model 44 steam the effectiveness of successive sludge tween tubes. But as the range between generator incorporated in software. Sen­ lancings. the nozzle and the sludge pile increased sors inside the robot's body provide the To evaluate CECIL-3's ability to perform to a foot or more-simulating conven­ operator with continuously updated in­ properly in the field, Foster-Miller put the tional lancing-the spray failed to erode formation on the flex-lance's position. Po- robot through its paces in the laboratory the material. Tests conducted with the

Robotic Inspection and Cleaning

Propelled by pneumatically actuated feet, CECIL shuttles up and down the steam generator's central blowdown lane and inserts its flex-lance into the tube bundle. A motor in CECIL:sbase and a drive belt rotate the robot's cylindrical body, allowing the flex-lance to deal with varying sludge pile heights and to reach into both sides of the tube bundle from the blowdown lane. The flex-lance's multidirectional sprays are designed to remove sludge from all sides of the tubes, and the lance-mounted video camera allows the operator to inspect tube bundle conditions. Water Lancing and Core Drilling

The business end of CECIL:s flex-lance is a I marvel of miniaturization. Upper and lower sets of Spray orifices multidirectional spray orifices are fed by two water conduits that run through the flex-lance. A 6-mm video camera lens mounted in the center of the block allows CECIL:s operator to observe prog­ Nitrogen nozzle ress, while a tiny curved nozzle shoots a stream of compressed nitrogen at the lens to keep it clear of mist and debris. A separate drilling head, also video equipped, Video camera lens is used to collect core samples of sludge for chem­ ical and physical analysis. The diamond-tipped core drill is driven by a flexible shaft built into the lance parallel to the water conduits.

Water conduit sampling lance showed that the dia­ tric power cut off, CECII..'.s control com­ keeping radiation exposure as low as rea­ mond-tipped drill was able to success­ puter-and the operator-would lose sonably achievable. Foster-Miller de­ fully penetrate the simulated sludge and track of the robot's position inside the signed an installation ramp the same retrieve core samples. steam generator. And without pneumatic diameter as the steam generator's blow­ A major concern in the project was that power, CECIL could not withdraw the down pipe. The ramp and robot are in­ CECII..'.shigh-pressure sprays might erode flex-lance or walk out of the generator. serted into the inspection port and tilted, or cut the nickel-alloy tubes-in fact, Foster-Miller provided a backup battery and CECIL slides gently onto the blow­ high-pressure water jets are used specifi­ to ensure a continuous supply of power down pipe. The entire installation se­ cally to cut steel in other industrial appli­ to the computer, and decided to use com­ quence takes less than a minute. cations. Foster-Miller conducted a series pressed nitrogen instead of air to pow­ For the demonstration, CECII..'.s nitro­ of tests to determine tube erosion as a er CECII..'.s pneumatic actuators. Com­ gen supply, water pumps, and trailer­ function of water pressure, standoff dis­ pressed nitrogen would allow the robot to mounted water tanks were set up out­ tance, and exposure time. These tests re­ operate independently of power plant side the plant's containment. The con­ vealed that the maximum tube erosion compressed-air systems. Foster-Miller trol station was set up on the operating occurred when the distance between the also fitted a shear pin into CECII..'.s drive floor inside the containment, in a low­ nozzle and the tubes was from 3 to 9 sprockets so that a tug on the flex-lance radiation area about 75 feet from the inches. The reason is that air becomes en­ outside the steam generator would break steam generator. A take-up reel was trained in the water about 3 inches from the pin and allow the sprockets to free­ mounted on the generator's inspection the nozzle, increasing the jet's cutting wheel. With this arrangement the robot port to prevent CECII..'.sumbilical and flex­ action; past 9 inches, the jet disperses and and flex-lance could still be manually re­ lance from tangling inside the generator. loses energy. In operation, CECIL would trieved in the unlikely event that pressure With all systems in place, CECIL was low­ be lancing at a range of just l 1/2 inches. By was lost or if the lance became snagged ered into the steam generator to inspect, the time the jets reached the critical 3-9- inside the tube bundle. lance, and sample under real-world con­ inch distance, all the sprays would be Demonstration at Indian Point ditions. splattering off the tubes, resulting in im­ The demonstration was conducted im­ perceptible damage. As the October 1987 refueling outage at mediately after a conventional sludge­ Another concern that had to be ad­ Con Edison's Indian Point Unit 2 ap­ lancing procedure. CECII..'.s camera re­ dressed before testing CECIL in the field proached, Foster-Miller added final re­ vealed that several rows of tubes close to was its ability to operate under abnormal fmements to prepare CECIL for its first the blow down lane were clean, but as the conditions. The worst-case scenario was field demonstration. The most important lance advanced a short distance into the considered to be a simultaneous loss of all of these was a means of getting the robot tube bundle the video showed sludge electric and pneumatic power. With elec- in and out of the steam generator while coating the tube walls. Less than 9 inches

36 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 into the tube bundle, the lance encoun­ and monitored to minimize the operator's allow it to perform conventional soft­ tered a wall of hard sludge that com­ exposure to radiation. sludge lancing from the blowdown lane pletely filled the intertube gap. Inspec­ "I think the biggest challenge in this in addition to the other tasks-all in one tion of other tube lanes revealed a large program was the time constraint," says remotely controlled package. CECIL-4 sludge pile on the tubesheet, nsmg in Trovato. "We went from a concept sketch will get an opportunity to demonstrate height toward the interior of the tube of a flexible lance-a sketch, not an engi­ these refinements this spring during bundle. neering drawing-to the device that was scheduled outages at Indian Point 2 and "The sharpness and clarity of the video used in the plant in only nine months, at PSE&G's Salem Unit 1. were just incredible," says Stephen complete with support systems:' Through an agreement with EPRI, Con Trovato, a senior research engineer at Improving CECIL Edison, and ESEERCO, Foster-Miller is li­ Con Edison who managed the project for censed to commercialize CECIL tech­ the utility. "The robot took the camera in Although EPRI's participation in the pro­ nology. The company is also working to upright and went down individual tube gram extended only up to the demonstra­ adapt CECIL to differentsteam generator lanes and took superb pictures. It's the tion of CECIL-3 at Indian Point, Foster­ designs and to apply the technology to finest inspection footage ever taken in­ Miller has been continuing development other applications that require accurate side a steam generator:' under sponsorship from Con Edison, and repeatable access to hard-to-reach lo­ Having passed the inspection test with ESEERCO, Public Service Electric & Gas, cations. extremely successful results, CECIL next and Northern States Power. Building on "When we started this project we took on the task of lancing the hard the lessons learned during the first field didn't want to develop something that sludge left behind after conventional test, Foster-Miller engineers have devel­ competes with existing practices;' says lancing. The solidified mass proved to oped a new version of the robot, desig­ EPRI's Williams. "Our goal was to de­ be far more tenacious than originally nated CECIL-4. The new version is velop a tool to perform tasks that couldn't believed-much harder than the cement­ smaller, faster, and more powerful, and it be done with existing methods-getting based mixtures used in the laboratory has expanded capabilities. inside the tube bundle to make a good mockup. With CECII.:'s nozzle delivering Locomotion and power are provided by visual inspection and removing the hard 2500 psi of spray energy, the water jets electric motors instead of pneumatic actu­ sludge that conventional techniques could only slowly erode the thick sludge ators, and a proportional control system don't remove. CECIL will give utilities im­ pile on the tubesheet. The limited outage will enable the operator to vary the speed portant information on steam generator time available for field-testingCECIL per­ with joysticks. The flex-lance has been re­ conditions so they can make decisions re­ mitted only one attempt at retrieving a designed to carry four water conduits in­ lating to maintenance and reliability. sludge sample with the drilling lance. stead of two, and the spray-jet orifices They can't make those decisions unless Spinning at 2000 rpm, the core drill suc­ have been refined to operate at 7500 psi they know what's inside the steam gener­ cessfully cut into the sludge, but it failed instead of the 2500 psi of the earlier ver­ ator, and with CECIL, they can. People to retrieve the sample. "The core sample sion. CECIL-4's mode of locomotion is have peeked through the door, but CECIL may not have snapped off at its root;' also different. Instead of crawling down has opened it:' • says Trovato. "We're looking at a rede­ the blowdown pipe, the robot will travel Further reading CECIL: A Robot for Secondary-Side Maintenance of PWR signed sampling lance that may solve the into the steam generator suspended from Steam Generators. Final report for RPS403-3, prepared by problem. We also think we can improve a horizontal rail installed through the Foster-Miller, Inc., February 1989. EPRI NP-5929. sludge removal by lancing at higher pres­ steam generator inspection port. With CECIL-A Robot for Secondary-Side Steam Generator Mainte­ nance. May 1988. EPRI Videotape NP88-01. sures:' this arrangement the lance's progress NOE and Mechanical Removal of Sludge in PWR Steam Gener­ into the tube bundle will not be blocked ators, Vo l. 1: Overview and Utility Experiences. Final report for RPS403-2 and RP2755-2 and -6, prepared by Dominion Engi­ verall, CECII.:'s first demon­ by sludge deposits, and the higher eleva­ neering, Inc., and LN Te chnologies Corp., January 1988. EPRI stration at Indian Point 2 pro­ tion will permit the operator to look down NP-5563. vided encouraging results. on the sludge pile to get an overview of NOE and Mechanical Removal of Sludge in PWR Steam Gener­ 0 ators, Vol. 2: Vendor Practices. Final report for RPS403-4 and The system successfully dem­ the extent of sludge deposition before be­ RP2755-3 to -11, prepared by ANCO Engineers, Inc., Babcock & Wilcox Co., Combustion Engineering, Inc., Foster-Miller, onstrated its ability to conduct detailed ginning lancing. The suspended-rail ap­ Inc., and Westinghouse Electric Corp., January 1988. EPRI inspections in the tube bundle, and with proach will also extend CECII.:'s adapt­ NP-5563. further refinement, it may prove effective ability to all We stinghouse Model 44 and This article was written by David Boutacoff. Technical back­ fer hard-sludge removal and sludge Model 51 steam generators. Foster-Miller ground was provided by C. Lamar Williams, Nuclear Power Division; Stephen Tr ovato, Consolidated Edison; and Steven sampling. The field trial also proved that is also adding high-volume spray nozzles Ruggieri, Foster-Miller, Inc. these tasks can be remotely controlled to the robot body itself. This feature will

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 37 tivates "product champions"-individual TECH employees who make personal efforts to see the application of a new technology TRANSFER through to completion. The commitment can pay off in millions of dollars of sav­ ings for the utility. NEWS Such savings are formally documented in EPRI's First Use information sheets, each of which describes the use of an EPRI Te chnologies Work at Utilities product to solve a utility problem and quantifies the resulting benefits, as calcu­ PRI publications, seminars, and technology that previously has only been lated by the utility itself. In the spring of Eworkshops on new and emerging talked about. 1988, EPRI President Richard Balzhiser set technologies, research data, and meth­ This pioneering of innovation by utili­ a goal of formally documenting 40 frrstor odologies are often seen as the frrst step in ties is the most important step in the early uses of the Institute's technology the process of technology transfer. But process of technology transfer. To make it over the calendar year, with a total utility however efficient EPRI may be in re­ work, a utility must have management savings of at least $300 million. As the sponding to utility requests for technical that appreciates the value of R&D, a com­ table below illustrates, the actual number help and information, real technology mitment to applying new or improved was 45 by the year's end, with savings transfer begins when a utility puts these technology, and resources to back up this reported by the utilities involved of products to work-when it takes the commitment. Most important, it must almost $690 million-more than double plunge to become a frrst or early user of advance a corporate philosophy that cul- the targeted goal. Levelized To tal Annual Estimated Savings Savings Utility Application ($000) ($000)

Alabama Power Co. Heat pump service life and maintenance characteristics (FS8443A)* 8,715 Boston Edison Co. Low-loss PPP-insulated cable installation (FS8103C) 720 5,865 Commonwealth Edison Co. Seismic qualification at older nuclear plants (FS8433B) 10,800 60,000 Consolidated Edison Co. of New Yo rk Chemistry control for PWR primary coolant system (FS8213B) 275 661 Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Boiler stress and condition analyzer (FS8316B) 659 5,921 Consolidated Edison Co. of New Yo rk Remote robotics for PWR steam generator inspection/maintenance 657 657 (FS8319B) Duke Power Co. Rotor remaining life analysis (FS8210B) 2,298 12,984 Duke Power Co. Steam generator chemical cleaning qualification; corrosion monitoring 7,697 7,697 system design/construction (FS8315B) Duke Power Co. Liquid radwaste pretreatment (FS8426B) 1,414 7,679 Duquesne Light Co. Pipe whip restraint reduction (FS821 1 B) 1,126 1,126 Florida Power Corp. Fault tree analysis (FS8212B) 51 183 Florida Power Corp. Gas turbine performance analysis (FS8438B) 50 50 General Public Utilities Nuclear Corp. Rotor crack detection in pump maintenance (FS8107B) 748 3,793 Georgia Power Co. LOCA licensing requirements for BWRs (FS8321 B) 702 3,513 Georgia Power Co. Weld overlay NOE (FS8424B) 135,000 135,000

EPRI JOURNAL 38 March 1989 Levelized To tal Annual Estimated Savings Savings Utility Application ($000) ($000)

Houston Lighting & Power Co. High-voltage instrument transformer testing (FS8434C) 104 181

Iowa-Illinois Gas and Electric Co. Transmission svstem reliability analysis (FS8429C) 20 20

Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power HVDC subsynchronous oscillation analysis (FS8314B/C) 10,296 10,296

Mississippi Power & Light Co. Precoat filtration of BWR floor drain wastes (FS8106B) 1,566 8,668 (Grand Gulf Nuclear Station)

New England Electric System lnterruptible/curtailable rate design (FS8439A/E) 112 112

New England Power Service Co. HVDC control modeling (FS8428C) 55 221

New Yo rk Power Authority Radiation field reduction in steam generator tubing (FS8322B) 805 7,900

New Yo rk State Electric & Gas Corp. Heavy media cyclone performance analysis (FS8209B) 80 140 and Pennsylvania Electric Co.

New Yo rk State Electric & Gas Corp. Wet-stack systems analysis (FS8435B) 8,399 52,127

Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. BWR Repair Applications Center IGSCC assistance (FS8427B) 13,678 13,678

Northeast Utilities Tests of coatings for insulator surfaces (FS8101 B) 317 1,829

Omaha Public Power District Wood pole strength analysis (FS8104C) 79 567

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Automated remote vibration monitoring (FS8431 B) 1,553 8,960

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. lnstream flow guidelines (FS8441 B/E) 412 2,377

Pennsylvania Electric Co. High-frequency axial fan vibration monitoring (FS8425B) 245 1,505

Public Service Co. of Indiana FGD system sulfur treatment (FS8430B) 546 3,955

Public Service Electric & Gas Co. Stability analysis after a major disturbance (FS8442C) 300 300

Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. Rotor remaining life analysis (FS8318B) 1,000 1,000

Southern California Edison Co. Structural integrity analysis following transient (FS8423B) 100 100

Southern California Edison Co. Automated on-line fatigue monitoring (FS8436B) 165 165

Union Electric Co. Underground storage tank replacement analysis (FS8437B/C/E) 172 1,260

Utah Power & Light Co. Process chemistry in FGD system analysis (FS8102B) 485 3,908

Utility Solid Waste Activities Group PCB cleanup risk analysis (FS8440B/C/E) 51,427 216,044

Vermont Ya nkee Nuclear Power Corp. BWR radiation control program (FS8320B) 549 4,101

Virginia Power FGD cost-estimating guidelines (FS8208B) 100 100

Virginia Power Dry storage of spent fuel in metal casks (FS8317B) 11,575 90,101

Virginia Power Amorphous metal core transformer installation (FS8445C) 128 946

Wisconsin Electric Power Co. Disposal site/groundwater quality impact analysis (FS8432B/E/F) 80 80

Yankee Atomic Electric Co. Computerized display system for nuclear control room operators 2,740 2,740 (FS8105B)

Ya nkee Atomic Electric Co. BWR LOCA analyses (FS8444B) 584 2,665

Total 689,890

* First Use document number. First Use sheets can be ordered from EPRI, P.O. Box 23205, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523, (415) 934-4212.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 39 RESEARCH UPDATE

Power Electronics Applications End-Use PovverQuality Systems by Marek Samotyj, Customer Division

he main objectives of EPRl's scoping o Waveform distortions-continuous, repe­ The point-of-service and point-of-utilization Tstudies were to define power quality (PO) titive harmonic distortions and occasional distinctions in the ANSI standard are useful and identify essential technical elements and glitches or notches in the waveform concepts, but because an electric power dis­ their relationships. The studies also set out to o Flicker-repetitive sags and surges in the tribution system interconnects many types of identify methodologies for assessing power voltage, often accompanied by nonperiodic loads, many disturbances pass from one cus­ quality and to recommend improvements; harmonic distortions tomer to another and cannot be easily con­ to distinguish the benefits and limitations of o Voltage spikes-high-voltage transients, trolled by the utility. Also, disturbances that mitigation systems; and, finally, to outline re­ usually induced by lightning are perceived by the customer as utility PO search needs. o Electrical noise-random, low-level static problems are often created by improper A comprehensive definition of PO would wiring within the customer's own facility. Elements of power quality take into account the many types of power The existing standard for PO (ANSI C84.1) disturbances that occur and would define Mitigation systems specifies that steady-state voltage tolerances limits with parameters appropriate to each Delivering a superior grade of electricity does for an electric utility at the point of service be type in terms of deviation from a perfect not involve rebuilding a utility's distribution in­ within 5% for nonlighting loads. The standard 60-cycle voltage sine wave. PO has not yet frastructure. Rather, it is similar to providing also specifies the steady-state voltage toler­ been defined in these terms, however, partly conditioned phone circuits for computer com­ ances at the point of utilization. Equipment because of the relatively recent emergence munications in the telecommunications in­ using electricity should be designed to give and proliferation of sensitive loads and partly dustry, where, in order to enhance the ex­ satisfactory performance throughout the because of the difficulty associated with isting phone network, standard voice-grade range of + 4% to -10% and acceptable per­ quantifying the costs of poor PO. channels are combined and equalized by formance in the range of +6% to -13%. However, the specification of steady-state voltage limits is in many ways insufficient, given the state of today's microelectronics ABSTRACT Electric utilities are taking steps to turn the emerging technology. What constitutes acceptable per- formance and acceptable PO in the case of electric power quality problem into an opportunity by providing de- computers that process millions of bits of in­ formation using low-voltage logic is more diffi­ mand-side power-conditioning equipment, applications engineering cult to define. The ANSI standard is a good starting point, and expertise, and consulting services to meet customer needs. Th e but it addresses only two types of power dis­ turbances (steady-state voltage minimums increased sensitivity and proliferation of end-use loads brought on by and maximums) out of the eight or more types the microelectronics revolution have led to market forunin terruptible that occur on electric distribution systems. a Power disturbances include: power supplies and power-conditioning systems. In response, EPRI o Power failures-long-term blackouts that last more than a few minutes, and short-term has initiated scoping studies to furnish a discussion of issues relevant outages that last less than a few minutes o Vo ltage sags and surges-short-term, tran- to power quality. sient conditions and long-term, steady-state voltage-regulation problems

40 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 interface equipment. Power-conditioning the control of the utility, depending on the tronics Applications Center (PEAC) provided equipment is similarly employed at the point structure and scope of the PO assurance pro­ input during these R&D planning sessions. of customer use to enhance the quality of gram. Based on the workshops' recommended power provided by the utility. Although the utility's role can be that of con­ short- and long-term R&D projects, a list of six The systems approach to PO assurance sultant in this regard, it falls to end users of generic activities to be undertaken by EPRI takes into account the interconnectedness of critical loads to face the dilemma of weighing and PEAC was developed. Each specific pro­ the distribution system, wiring features on the the costs of mitigation against the costs of ject undertaken by EPRI and PEAC should customer's premises, measures aimed at susceptible-load failure. Whether or not the focus on one or more of these activities: reducing interference, and measures aimed user buys power-conditioning equipment 0 Determine the factors that define PO re­ at mitigating power disturbances. Mitigation (and thus a superior grade of electricity), the quirements and problems for end users measures include transient voltage sup­ probability of power disturbances of a certain o Survey existing techniques and equipment pressors, voltage regulators, isolation trans­ magnitude per year remains the same. If the that are used to monitor, measure, and cor­ formers, motor-generators, power line condi­ customer has elected to buy power-condi­ rect problems tioners, uninterruptible power supplies, and tioning equipment, there is still the finite prob­ � Conduct field tests of existing and ad­ other types of power-conditioning equip­ ability that the protection equipment itself will vanced power-conditioning equipment at in­ ment. fail. dustrial sites to determine the extent to which Electric utilities for many years have de­ Thus, the end user's problem is to weigh disturbances and distortions are either miti­ voted resources to supply-side PO, including the costs, in the absence of mitigation equip­ gated or exacerbated measures to control power disturbances as­ ment, of power disturbances of various mag­ � Collect and analyze utility data related to sociated with generation (harmonic filters), nitudes against the costs of the same distur­ power quality transmission (lightning arrestors), and distri­ bances with mitigation equipment. Losses o Develop cost-benefit analyses of corrective bution (lightning arrestors, delta-wye-con­ are expected to be reduced in the latter case, measures for all sectors, with initial emphasis nected transformers, power-factor-correction but the annualized cost of the mitigation on industrial customers capacitors, static VAR compensators). Control equipment must be taken into account. o Investigate business opportunities for elec­ measures continue to be appropriate. How­ tric utilities to provide corrective equipment ever, because not all sources of interference End-use R&D plan and measures are likely to be known to the utility, it may be Power quality from the perspective of elec­ The suggested topics for research studies more practical to devise and implement mea­ tricity customers has many ramifications for developed during the workshops have been sures to mitigate the effects of power distur­ electric utilities. End-use PO involves issues redefined as necessary to eliminate duplica­ bances, regardless of their source. such as customer relations, dealing with tion of effort and to improve efficiency. In Oc­ The "hardening" of susceptible loads _in­ equipment vendors, power monitoring, es­ tober 1988, during the final R&D planning ses­ volves incorporating selected mitigation mea­ tablishing specifications for power-condi­ sion, these revised topics were discussed sures into the susceptible-load power supply. tioning equipment, and power requirements. and ranked within three major areas of an Examples are alarm clocks and video cas­ In an effort to help electric utilities understand end-use R&D plan: knowledge-base develop­ sette recorders that incorporate battery and address this challenge, EPRI held two ment and transfer, methodologies for PO as­ backup to protect the timekeeping function R&D planning sessions in 1987 and one in sessment and improvement, and research from short-duration outages. Other types of 1988. and equipment development. At the same hardening are software measures used in the The first meeting brought together a group time the Power Quality R&D Plan was pub­ operating systems of computers: for ex­ of experts from industry, academia, and elec­ lished (EM-6109). ample, computer programs that store data in tric utilities in a planning session on end-use The recommended research will flow nonvolatile media when a power outage is power quality. The objective of this meeting through a sequence of stages: survey, evalu­ sensed. was to discuss the key issues of end-use PO ation, initial technology transfer, systems, and to identify and define R&D goals that must applications, and subsequent technology End-user perspective be established to monitor, measure, and im­ transfer. Several of the proposed projects are Electric utilities are ideally situated to meet the prove the quality of power reaching utility cus­ now under way, primarily in the knowledge­ challenge of PO assurance because their per­ tomers. base development area. Information on miti­ spective is, by nature, a systems one. The The second meeting presented an oppor­ gation equipment, including pertinent defini­ costs of control at the source end and the tunity for electric utilities to review the results tions and specifications, is being assembled. costs of effects mitigation at the receiving end of the previous meeting. Representatives PO terms are being defined in order to estab­ can be jointly minimized by a systems per­ from utilities, power-conditioning manufac­ lish the shared working vocabulary nec­ spective. The first set of costs is directly under turers, universities, and EPRl's Power Elec- essary for a successful collaborative pro-

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 41 gram. Seminars and workshops are being ar­ ards. On the research side, available role will be to assess the cost and effective­ ranged, the most recent being the National methods for active power line conditioning, ness of each solution method through labora­ Conference on Power Quality for End-Use intelligent harmonic filtering, and other mitiga­ tory and field testing, while EPRI completes a Applications, held in San Antonio, Te xas, tion techniques are being analyzed. cost-benefit analysis for improved PO. during March 1988. The research plan will be managed and co­ EPRI will issue R&D prospectuses for sev­ This conference, which was accompanied ordinated through EPRl's Power Electronics eral PO equipment demonstration projects to by an exhibition of power-conditioning equip­ and Controls Program, using PEAC's Power be developed on a collaborative basis with in­ ment, was the first national gathering of repre­ Quality Laboratory and Power Quality Educa­ dustry cost sharing. As the research program sentatives from all three parties interested in tional Services. EPRI will identify factors con­ is implemented, new opportunities for future end-use PO-utilities, end users, and equip­ tributing to improved power quality; quantify R&D will arise, and the boundaries of the cur­ ment manufacturers. EPRI and PEAC staff the effect of PO factors on various system rent effort will expand. EPRI will closely coordi­ have been cooperating closely with IEEE components and loads; assess the cost of nate implementation of this research plan with working groups to improve methodologies each type of power disturbance (e.g., sags, international research efforts. Feedback, es­ for measuring PO, develop a utility test code surges, harmonics, transients); and identify pecially from end users, will continue to be a for power-conditioning units, and set stand- solutions for each of these problems. PEAC's key factor.

Fossil Power Plants Improving Electrostatic Precipitator Performance by Ralph Altman, Generation and Storage Division

ost U.S. coal-fired utility boilers use cost of a new precipitator and the cost of re­ newer installations in Europe use spacings of M electrostatic precipitators (ESPs} for building an existing unit. up to 16 inches. To determine the allowable particulate control. Although ESPs are rela­ o Both conversion to two-stage operation spacings for U.S. applications, EPRI modified tively simple and reliable devices, many utili­ and the use of flue gas conditioning can im­ a 1-MWe (equivalent) pilot precipitator at ties experience performance problems as a prove collection efficiency for high-resistivity Public Service Co. of Colorado's Arapahoe result of undersized units, deterioration of fly ash. station so that the plate spacing could be aging equipment (over 20% of existing pre­ varied. Te sts conducted by Combustion Engi­ cipitators are more than 25 years old), or Wide plate spacing neering and Southern Research Institute switching to a coal that produces a difficult­ Most precipitators at U.S. power plants space using this pilot unit demonstrated that the to-collect fly ash. the collection electrodes 9 inches apart, but spacing could be increased to 18 inches with EPRI has conducted a number of research projects to address these performance and reliability problems. The technologies under investigation, which can all be retrofit to ex­ ABSTRACT Th e performance and reliability of electrostatic pre­ isting units, include wide plate spacing, inter­ mittent energization (IE}, flue gas condi­ cipitators, the predominant particulate control method for coal-fired tioning, and two-stage precipitation. They have been tested in the laboratory and at pilot boilers, are increasingly affecting power plant performance as the ESP scale; two of them, IE and wide plate spacing, population ages. Four technologies-wide plate spacing, intermittent have been successfully applied to full-scale units. energization, flue gas conditioning, and two-stage precipitation­ The EPRI studies have made the following findings: show potential for restoring ESP effectiveness while reducing both 0 Intermittent energization can reduce en­ ergy consumption and in some applications capital and operating costs. improve collection efficiency. 0 Wide plate spacing can reduce the capital

42 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 no loss in performance, even though the col­ Figure 1 Performance histories of Dale station ESPs from installation through rebuilding. The lection area of the precipitator would be re­ two left-hand pairs of bars illustrate the deterioration in performance experienced one to three years after startup. Installing an S03 conditioning system and performing mechanical repairs duced by as much as one-half. improved performance, but continued high maintenance costs prompted East Kentucky Power Results from Arapahoe helped engineers Cooperative to rebuild the internals of both units. Rebuilding significantly lowered emission at East Kentucky Power Cooperative decide levels without S03 conditioning; using S03 conditioning with the rebuilt Unit 4 lowered emission levels to 0.02 lb/10• Btu. to increase plate spacing when rebuilding two ESPs at the Dale station (Units 3 and 4) in 1.5 1987. These two 66-MW boilers, originally equipped with mechanical collectors for fly ash control, were retrofit with cold-side, D unit 3 weighted-wire ESPs with 9-inch plate spac­ ings in 1975. .Unit 4 When the precipitators were rebuilt in 1987 in response to chronic performance and relia­ S' 1.0 bility problems, the weighted-wire discharge electrodes were replaced with rigid dis­ charge electrodes, a step that required wid­ ening the plate spacing from 9 to 12 inches. Since the existing casings were retained in 'iii the rebuild, this change decreased the spe­ w 0.5 cific collection area (SCA) from 400 to 300 ft2/ 1000 acfm. However, the performance of the ESPs actually improved (Figure 1), while the cost of the rebuild was reduced by an esti­ mated 12%.

Intermittent energization Rebuilt units Rebuilt Unit 4 IE, also in the full-scale demonstration phase Initial Degraded Repaired condition condition units (without S03) (with S03) of testing, is a method of modifying the voltage and current waveforms used to ener­ possible to halve energy consumption, but in by approximately 50% on a precipitator that gize electrostatic precipitators by blocking se­ this case there will be no improvement in per­ was collecting fly ash with a moderate resis­ lected half-cycles of power to the transformer­ formance or reduction in opacity. The same tivity. In another application, a hot-side precip­ rectifier sets. Each precipitator acts as a result (reduced power consumption with no itator at Mississippi Power's Plant Daniel was capacitor during the deenergized period, improvement in performance) is obtained if recently retrofit with IE controls. Comparative and, as a consequence, the time-averaged the precipitator is collecting high-resistivity tests were conducted to establish the effects field strength within the precipitator can be dust that does not produce back corona, a of IE controls on both precipitator perform­ almost as high as it is when conventional condition that sometimes occurs for reasons ance and power consumption. At full load on energization is used. that are not fully understood. the boiler, IE reduced power consumption The effect of IE on precipitator performance There are certain low- and moderate­ 32% with no deterioration of emission control. depends on the nature of the fly ash being resistivity applications, however, that do not In fact, the measured discharges actually de­ collected. If the dust has a high resistivity, as produce favorable results. These occur when creased by slightly over 10%. does the dust produced by low-sulfur coal, the precipitator has a very high superficial gas and the precipitator is operating in back co­ velocity or the fly ash has an extremely low Two-stage precipitation rona, IE can actually improve performance resistivity. In the former case IE may exacer­ Te sts of a new two-stage precipitator have because reducing the current in the precipi­ bate rapping losses, particularly in the last been completed through the large-scale pilot tator reduces the degree of back corona. This field of the precipitator, while in the latter case stage. Tw o-stage precipitation separates the improvement in performance will be accom­ IE may increase both continuous and rapping charging and collection functions of a precipi­ panied by a reduction in energy consumption reentrainment losses. tator by precharging fly ash prior to collection. of 50% or more. Full-scale tests of IE at Consumer Power's This practice makes the collection efficiency With a moderate- or low-resistivity fly ash Campbell Unit 3 confirmed the pilot-scale of a precipitator almost independent of fly ash (i.e., medium- or high-sulfur coal), it is usually results. IE reduced ESP power consumption resistivity (i.e., coal sulfur content). This tech-

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 43 nology should provide a lower-cost alterna­ duced , since no reagent is needed. EPRI is reasonable-sized reactors (residence times tive to flue gas conditioning, the method cur­ seeking a host utility for a full-scale test of the approximately 0.1 second). If the laboratory rently used to lower fly ash resistivity when two-stage precipitation concept. results continue to show promise, EPRI will low-sulfur coals are burned. begin looking for a plant site for pilot-scale Although the concept of precharging is an Flue gas conditioning tests in mid-1989 to verify catalyst lifetimes. old one, only recently has a practical pre­ As noted earlier, conditioning flue gas with This flue gas conditioning system is esti­

charger been developed. With this cooled­ S03 is the traditional method for improving mated to be less expensive than conventional pipe precharger, relatively high electrical ESP performance when low- or medium-sulfur systems and can be used in those cases

fields and current densities can be achieved, coal is burned. Conventional S03 condi­ where space constraints within the precipi­ and highly charged particles are produced tioning systems are costly, however, so EPRI is tator would make conversion to two-stage op­ regardless of the resistivity of the fly ash. working to develop a simple, inexpensive, eration difficult. This concept, conceived by University of and reliable alternative. The most promising In summary, these four technologies can Denver researchers under the sponsorship of concept involves a catalyst in a duct by­ reduce the capital and operating costs and

the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, passing the economizer that oxidizes S02 in improve the reliability of precipitators. Fur­

has recently been tested by EPRI using a the flue gas to S03 Approximately 1-3% of thermore, conversion to two-stage operation 5-MWe pilot-scale precipitator at Public the flue gas would be directed through the or to the flue gas conditioning system under Service Co. of Colorado's Valmont station. duct and over the catalyst before being rein­ development could greatly reduce the sensi­ The low-sulfur western subbituminous coal jected into the bulk of the flue gas following tivity of precipitator performance to the sulfur

burned at Valmont produces fly ash of high the air heater. Thus the requisite S03 would be content of the coal supply. This last capability

resistivity. As a result, the performance of the generated from the S02 that occurs naturally is particularly significant for those utilities who precipitator without precharging was only a in the flue gas, with no need to buy sulfur re­ may want to switch to low-sulfur coal in order little over 90%. Energizing the prechargers agent or operate external process equip­ to take advantage of lower market prices or to dramatically improved performance: with all ment. comply with any acid rain legislation that is four prechargers energized, the collection effi­ Unfortunately, no catalyst with the neces­ enacted. ciency increased to 99%, a high collection ef­ sary physical and chemical properties is com­ In addition to completing the development ficiency for a precipitator operating with an mercially available. EPRI is now working with and demonstration of these ESP upgrades, SCA of only 200 ft2/i000 acfm. SRI International and Southern Research Insti­ future work will assess the effects of new

Precharging could increase collection effi­ tute to develop such a catalyst. Preliminary S02 control systems-spray drying, dry sor­ ciency to levels attainable with S03 condi­ tests of several candidates have yielded bent injection, and conversion to fluidized­ tioning, but at approximately half the capital encouraging results, with SOTto-S03 con­ bed combustion-on electrostatic precipita­ cost. Further, operating costs should be re- version efficiencies greater than 90% in tor performance.

Utility Planning Industrial Demand-Side Management Applications by Paul Meagher, Customer Systems Division

PRl's industrial demand-side manage­ tricity compared with residential and com­ taken in this sector compared with the resi­ ment applications (IDSMA) project has mercial customers. Accordingly, industrial dential and commercial sectors because of beenE designed to demonstrate approaches DSM measures can be more cost-effective the greater difficulties involved in imple­ that will help utilities plan and implement in­ than similar measures in the other sectors. In menting industrial DSM. Industrial uses of en­ dustrial DSM. It builds on the DSM planning addition, because many industrial facilities ergy are highly diverse. Often two facilities process that EPRI has developed for use by operate around the clock, greater flexibility produce the same product with similar proc­ utilities and represents a real-world testing exists in schedule modifications; this can be esses but differ in significant ways. These dif­ ground for various industrial DSM strategies. an important advantage in designing a DSM ferences require that analyses of DSM poten­ The industrial sector is an ideal setting for strategy. tial be undertaken case by case. In addition, demand-side management. Industrial facili­ Despite the potential advantages of indus­ utility expertise in how industrial customers ties have relatively high demands for elec- trial DSM, relatively little work has been under- use energy is generally limited. Finally,

44 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 there are relatively few demonstrations of Industrial growth is a plus for this type of When this information has been collected industrial DSM that can serve as models for program because many DSM options require and considered, the important financial, tech­ future efforts. changes in process designs and facility lay­ nical, and contractual elements of a utility­ outs; such changes are much easier to make specific industrial DSM program can be out­ IDSMA case studies when growth is taking place and new indus­ lined. This program must become a product The IDSMA project is helping to point out ways trial capacity is being added. Energy con­ that is marketable to customers within the that utilities can overcome these problems. It sumption is another factor because it is more target industries. Some form of incentive employs a case study format in which a utility cost-effective to target those industries that package is needed to entice customers to goes through the entire DSM planning and im­ use large amounts of energy per facility. participate; in most cases, differences in de­ plementation cycle for its industrial sector. For At the two-digit Standard Industrial Classifi­ mand and energy charges for peak and off­ each utility, this process includes defining its cation (SIC) code level, a growth-energy ma­ peak periods provide an incentive for load­ DSM goals, segmenting its industrial market, trix is the summary result of an IDSMA market shaping activities, such as load shifting. investigating manufacturing operations and segmentation study. The high growth-high Often, however, additional incentives are energy use, creating marketable DSM prod­ energy industries generally offer the greatest required. For example, up-front incentives ucts, and initiating DSM demonstrations at in­ DSM potential, and these form the basis for are sometimes provided; such incentives dustrial facilities. The intent of these case more detailed investigations at the three- and help to defray the investment costs a facility study efforts is to explore how utilities can four-digit SIC code levels. faces in implementing any hardware or pro­ work cooperatively with their industrial cus­ Once the target industries are defined, the cess changes needed to implement the DSM tomers to produce benefits for both parties. next step in a case study analysis is a prelimi­ strategy. A provision of this type of agree­ The first step in each case study has been nary investigation of the manufacturing oper­ ment, however, might be an understanding to define the utility's underlying objectives in ations and energy use characteristics of the that the DSM load shape changes cannot be implementing DSM. These objectives often target industries. At this stage, the industries reversed for a designated period. combine a number of factors, such as finan­ are treated in a generic fashion: flow dia­ cial considerations, customer relations, the grams are produced to represent the major Demonstration test phase retention of industrial loads, and the need to processes in each industry; energy uses are Once an incentive package has been devel­ defer expensive new generating capacity. defined for each major step in the processes; oped, specific customers are identified as These general utility objectives can then be and first-order estimates are made of how likely candidates for involvement in demon­ translated into more specific load shape ob­ electricity use patterns can be modified. stration tests of the IDSMA concept. This jectives that will guide the utility's choice of DSM approaches. A utility might focus on the traditional load management objectives of peak clipping, valley filling, and load shifting. ABSTRACT Since 1986 EPRI has been cooperating with utilities in However, some utility planners have other load shape objectives-strategic conserva­ an innovative project to apply demand-side management in the indus­ tion, strategic load growth, and flexible load shape. The Southern California Edison effort, trial sector. Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, San for example, sought to implement valley filling, whereas New England Electric System Diego Gas & Electric, New England Electric System, and Wisconsin is using peak clipping, load shifting, and stra­ tegic conservation. Electric Power have participated in the project's case studies with en­ The next major step in an IDSMA case study is a market segmentation analysis to pinpoint couraging results. One participant, Pacific Gas and Electric, set goals those industries that can best help the utility of retaining industrial markets and shifting electricity use from peak to meet its load shape objectives. A variety of factors are used in these segmentation anal­ off-peak periods. The goals were very successfully accomplished­ yses, including employment, output, produc­ tion capacity, capital investment, exports, and PG&E shifted approximately 9 MW of demand and added it to off-peak energy consumption. However, these factors are boiled down into just two primary criteria: load during the first year. the growth trends of the industry and the en- ergy consumption of the industry.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 45 process starts with a list of the utility's largest include process rescheduling, capacity addi­ onstration project candidate that processes electricity consumers in the target industrial tion, thermal and product storage, automa­ seafood into frozen fish fillets can employ markets. Typically, these customers are con­ tion and flexible manufacturing, and electro­ thermal energy storage, capacity addition, tacted to determine their expansion plans and technologies. These strategies can be com­ and process rescheduling to reduce approxi­ their general interest in participation in a test bined to best suit the needs of each individual mately 1.4 MW of peak load, a reduction of effort. Each appropriate candidate is then facility. approximately 40%. scheduled for a facility "walk through," in In the Southern California Edison case In summary, the IDSMA concept employs a which an industrial DSM expert reviews the fa­ study, for example, product storage tech­ cooperative approach in which a utility and an cility's processes to assess its DSM potential nology plays a prominent role in a proposed industrial customer work together. The com­ and to suggest useful DSM approaches. On demonstration test. This application is ideal mon goal is to reduce costs for both parties the basis of a review of the walk-through for an air separation plant that produces liquid through changes in the way the customer results, several final candidates are selected nitrogen and oxygen products. By providing uses electricity. The case study results for participation in the case study's demon­ additional nitrogen liquefaction capacity that achieved so far point out the benefits of such stration phase. The industrial DSM expert will operate solely during off-peak hours, over an approach. assists the utility staff in performing detailed 4 MW of new demand can be brought on-line As more results are obtained, EPRI will engineering and economic analyses that are without adding to peak loads. In addition, present the case studies and the results in a used to determine the most attractive DSM over 2 MW of peak load can be shifted to off­ series of workshops. These workshops will alternatives. peak hours through the use of product provide a forum for discussions about how an A variety of DSM alternatives are available storage. increasingly beneficial partnership can be for use in the industrial sector. The most sig­ In the New England Electric System case forged between electric utilities and their in­ nificant ones related to the IDSMA project study, a technical analysis found that a dem- dustrial customers.

Renewable Resource Power Plants High-Concentration Photovoltaics by Frank Dostalek, Generation and Storage Division

igh-concentration (400 x sun concen­ ule (approximately 30 in by 88 in by 12 in) suited in the invention of the Stanford-EPRI Htration or higher) photovoltaics (PV) that houses 48 cells and their 500 x Fresnel point-contact PV (PCPV) cell. This cell has technology, because of its efficiency and po­ lens systems; and an array (approximately 40 demonstrated conversion efficiencies of 28% tentially low cell cost, shows promise as an ft2) placed on a pedestal and driven by a at 200 suns sunlight concentration level-a alternative power-generating source in the computer-controlled two-axis tracker that world record for a silicon solar cell. In addition southwestern regions of the United States. continuously points the array at the sun. Each to the cell development program, EPRI funds Of the various PV technologies, the high­ array houses 60 modules that will generate a sophisticated PV cell and lens test facility concentration technology generates the approximately 18 kW. that Stanford maintains on the roof of one of greatest amount of power per square foot of The current program addresses funda­ the engineering buildings at the university. space; a 100-MW high-concentration PV plant mental PV cell research, fundamental silicon In 1986 Georgia Institute of Te chnology cre­ would cover less than one square mile of material research, cell and cell mount devel­ ated a new semiconductor materials research land. Until now, the relatively high cost has opment, Fresnel lens development, module facility. In late 1986 EPRI entered into a con­ impeded the commercialization of this tech­ development, and array and system develop­ tract with Georgia Te ch to investigate the ma­ nology. However, this cost is yielding to ment; it includes a high-concentration PV test terials defects in high-resistivity silicon that af­ improved cell efficiencies, innovative engi­ program that provides performance evalua­ fect the performance of high-concentration neering, high-yield cell manufacturing, and tion and environmental exposure data. PCPV cells. Advanced techniques were de­ efficient system designs. The EPRI high-concentration PV work has veloped to chara<::terize materials defects in The building blocks of the current EPRI been making steady progress since 1976, silicon, making it possible for raw materials high-concentration PV system are a high­ when the first EPRl-supported PV cell develop­ specifications for manufacturing PV cells to be concentration, point-contact silicon cell (1 cm ment work began at Stanford University. By given to silicon crystal and wafer suppliers. by 1 cm) and cell package (Figure 1); a mod- the early 1980s, the Stanford research had re- With the invention of the Stanford-EPRI

46 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 Figure 1 A completed cell package. EPRl's high-concentration photovoltaic system contains 48 module is made up of four rows of 12 cells and silicon cell packages to a module. Each cell package is tested before being installed in a module; is 86 in long, 30 in wide, and 12 in deep; it is 60 modules are capable of generating close to 18 kW. covered by two 4-lens-by-6-lens Fresnel par­ quets. Six of these modules have been de­ ployed, and several others are planned . The first, form-fit, module, completed in early 1987, was a design check to ensure proper fit. After thermal stress and electrical isolation tests were completed, this unit was mounted on the roof at Cummings Engi­ neering in Wilmington, Massachusetts, and used for exposure testing. To date, the unit has over 14 ,000 total hours of exposure with no major component failures. The second, thermal, module was com­ pleted and deployed in June 1987 at Geor­ gia Power's Shenandoah Solar Center in Newnan, Georgia. This unit was instrumented with 59 thermocouples to evaluate its thermal behavior under actual operating conditions. The unit was moved to Arizona Public Serv­ ice's STAR (solar test and research) facility at Te mpe, Arizona, to continue the thermal tests and now has over 11,000 total exposure hours. No major components have failed. PCPV cell and steady industry progress in the Module development The third, optical, module was deployed at development of PV technology, EPRI began In late 1986 high-concentration module de- the Shenandoah Solar Center in September laying the groundwork for transferring this velopment work was initiated at Cummings 1987. This module was fitted with dummy cell technology from the university laboratory to Engineering. Similar to a baseline design de- targets to evaluate the alignment of Fresnel commercial production and application. veloped by Black & Veatch, the Cummings lenses and cells within the module under op- erating conditions on a tracker. Photographs were taken of the light patterns on the targets. The results of this evaluation led to a revised ABSTRACT EPRI is sponsoring a broad range of projects aimed at lens design. The fourth, electrical, prototype module the development and demonstration of high-concentration photovol­ contained the first 48 cells made in the Acrian, Inc., pilot production line. This module was taic power systems suitable for large-scale use by electric utilities with placed on the tracker at the Shenandoah Solar Center in November 1987, and per­ excellent sunlight resources. If successful, these systems will incorpo­ formance evaluations begun then are still in progress. The next prototype electrical mod­ rate as key features state-of-the-art technology, manufacturability, ease ule was deployed in January 1989. of installation, low operation and maintenance cost, minimal environ­ A second-generation module, which is one­ tenth the cost and one-half the weight of the mental impact, and high performance at costs competitive with first-generation module, has been designed, and a form-fit unit was built to check the new standard power-generating options available to the utility industry in design. A thermal module was deployed and tested by Cummings Engineering in No­ the mid- to late 1990s. vember 1988. As new cells become avail­ able, a second-generation prototype elec­ trical module will be deployed and tested .

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 47 System development contact cell outside a research laboratory en­ Array development As progress was being made in the develop­ vironment and to set up a pilot production The next basic building block of a utility-scale ment of the Stanford PCPV cell, EPRI began to facility. This work has been cofunded by four PV power-generating system is the array. build a knowledge base for the deployment of utility companies-Arizona Public Service, Array development work began in late 1987 systems in the field. In 1983 EPRI contracted Georgia Power, Pacific Gas and Electric, and with Bechtel Group, Inc , and Scientific Analy­ with Black & Veatch to do preliminary system Southern California Edison-which have sis, Inc., as contractors. Preliminary designs conceptual designs and make cost and per­ shared the project costs in addition to their were completed by June 1988, and two were formance estimates for this type of tech­ general EPRI membership payments. In 1986 selected for evaluation. The two designs are nology. With the preliminary system design Acrian was also contracted to work on im­ similar: in each the array is supported by a studies completed in 1984, B&V concluded proving the cell-mounting package design. pedestal, is driven by a computer-controlled that fixed flat-plate, one- and two-axis flat­ The cell development work done by Acrian two-axis tracker, and supports a 5-by-12 ma­ plate tracking, and two-axis tracking high­ proved to be extremely important: not only trix of 60 modules. The Bechtel array struc­ concentration systems were promising power did it show that the PCPV cell can be made ture uses a porous module arrangement to generation options, and that high-concen­ by employing standard semiconductor pro­ decrease wind effects. In the Scientific Anal­ tration PV systems would be particularly at­ cessing techniques, it also identified key ysis design, all the modules are mounted in tractive for southwestern utilities. areas in which more work was needed in the same plane. Current plans call for evalua­ B&V also developed conceptual designs order to make the cell a commercially viable tion of both designs at the Shenandoah Solar for high-concentration modules and arrays, product Center. including the high-concentration (500 x) The areas that needed improvement were A final review of the Scientific Analysis de­ Fresnel lens optics for use with the present related to cell design and process refine­ sign was completed in November 1988. Con­ PCPV cell design. Single Fresnel lenses and a ments. The most important discovery at struction is scheduled to be completed by 4-lens-by-6-lens Fresnel parquet were made Acrian, however, was the fact that cell per­ mid-1989. The second prototype is to be con­ for use with the PCPV cell. Lens testing and formance deteriorated with exposure to sun­ structed later in 1989. The performance eval­ characterization proved to be a challenge. light, particularly the ultraviolet wavelengths. uation of these prototypes will be carried out B&V designed and built a computer-driven Cell performance degradation amounted to over a two-year period. lens- and cell-testing unit that is currently approximately 25-30% of the initial cell per­ Because of the similarity of the two array being used at the Stanford PV test facility. formance. designs, a side-by-side test will be done using Precision Optics built another lens evalua­ Researchers from Stanford are currently identical pedestals, two-axis gear drives, and tion system that focused the sunlight pattern studying the mechanisms responsible for this array controls to determine the optimal struc­ captured by the test lens on a vidicon sensor. loss of cell performance. Initial efforts to over­ ture design and module arrangement on the A computer was used to evaluate how well come the problem have been encouraging; array structure. Site preparation at Shenan­ the lens distributed the light pattern at the sur­ however, further testing in sunlight and under doah is in progress, and the pedestals and face of a PCPV cell. accelerated exposure conditions must be tracker drives, purchased from ARCO Solar, After review of what was learned from the carried out to confirm the early findings. The have been in operation since the end of 1988. evaluation of the first lens design, L. W James currently favored performance stabilization To ensure comparable performance of the and Associates designed a revised lens. The technique would reduce cell performance by tracking units, an evaluation of their tracking lens tooling was made at Fresnel Optics, and approximately 1% (from 27% to 26%). There accuracy will be performed before the array sample lenses have been made. Te sts com­ would be no significant impact on the manu­ structures are placed on them. paring the two lenses were completed in No­ facturing procedure for the cell or on the cell's The next major phase of this program, vember 1988, and researchers will determine cost planned for the early 1990s, calls for the de­ which design gives better performance. Stanford researchers have continued to ployment and testing of several complete sys­ The B&V cell package, lens, module, and work on refining the design of the PCPV cell tems in the 100- to 300-kW range, totaling array designs were used as a baseline from and have increased cell conversion efficien­ 1 MW These systems are to be installed at co­ which further development of the compo­ cies to 28.5%, with a goal of 30%. sponsor utility sites and will give these utilities nents has been carried out; these are used in EPRI issued an RFP in July 1988 for the next hands-on operating experience with this new the current EPRI array design. phase of development and commercializa­ PV power-generating technology. If the devel­ tion of the PCPV cell. Tw o companies were se­ opment and testing programs proceed as Cell manufacturing lected to continue this work, and contract ne­ planned, sufficient information on prospects development gotiations are currently in progress at EPRI. for this technology will be commercially avail­ In 1985 EPRI contracted with Acrian to dem­ Work on the next phase is expected to begin able by the mid-1990s. onstrate the feasibility of fabricating a point- later this year. When the 1-MWe high-concentration PV

48 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 demonstration is completed, the cost for the proximately $2000 per kW, leading to energy Research Reports Center. Also, the EPRI fabrication and installation of a utility-scale PV costs of $0.06-0.08 per kWh. Journal has published several articles on the power-generating station will be well under­ Many reports and documentary videos on PV program (e.g., July/August 1983, De­ stood. The current goal for installed cost is ap- the EPRI PV program are available from the cember 1985, January/February 1987).

Computer Simulation and Diagnostics Enhancing Productivity in Power System Control Centers by David Curtice, Electrical Systems Division

anaging the huge inflow of changing assimilate critical information. In a crisis, such trol center operators and dispatchers, the im­ M information in power system control a situation could extend a period of interrup­ portance of training and improving the skills centers is becoming an increasingly complex tion rather than shorten it. of technical personnel cannot be overem­ task. In addition to handling normal operating To help control center operators reduce the phasized. The increasing demands of an problems, system operators and dispatchers occurrence of system outages and preserve information-oriented society for high-quality must be able to deal effectively with power system security, EPRl's Electrical Systems Di­ electricity service do not tolerate power system contingencies caused by severe vision has undertaken several projects to in­ supply interruptions or voltage drops of even weather conditions, equipment failures, and crease productivity and efficiency and de­ a fraction of a second. other abnormal conditions. Faced with the velop better tools and training. These include Classroom and on-the-job training cannot loss of one or more network components, developing an advanced computer-based fully prepare operators to respond to the full control center operators must not only restore power system simulator for operator training, range of system contingencies that can occur the power system promptly, but also prevent and applying the emerging science of knowl­ during major disturbances. Crises such as the the development of further contingencies edge engineering to support operator deci­ Northeast power blackout of 1965 showed without overloading and damaging key fa­ sion making in contingency management. that it is difficult for operators to respond to a cilities. situation they have never encountered be­ Recent trends in U.S. energy use and in the Operator training simulators fore. Also, because problems of this magni­ utility industry's operating practices are cre­ Because the safe operation of power systems tude occur infrequently, it is impractical for op­ ating new challenges for power system oper­ is greatly dependent on the expertise of con- erators to train on actual operating systems. ators. Commercial interchange of energy­ involving both utilities and new generation sources such as wind parks, low-head hydro, As the nation 's power systems grow ever more com­ and industrial cogeneration-is on the rise. ABSTRACT Such developments have increased the com­ plex, control center operators and dispatchers face unprecedented plexity of information processing and deci­ sion making and added to the stress on oper­ challenges. Trends such as in dustrial cogeneration and increased ators and dispatchers. Power system control is semiautomatic, re­ power transactions among utilities have escalated demands for infor­ lying on computers to handle many of the monitoring and calculating chores. In the final mation processing and decision making, both for normal operation and analysis, however, it is the system operators and dispatchers who are responsible for run­ for contingency management. Tw o new computer technologies-an ning the nation's power systems. Although the tremendous expansion in the information­ advanced operator training simulator and an expert system fo r fa ult processing capabilities of computers has re­ analysis and power restoration-promise to reduce stress on control duced some of the uncertainties faced by op­ erators, replacing manual switching with center personnel and enhance power system security. keyboard controls has raised the potential for exceeding an individual operator's ability to

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 49 A computer-based simulator that can real­ onstrate the OTS. The system includes mathe­ resume or replay the exercise. istically portray an entire power system­ matical models for power simulation, models The OTS is scheduled for installation at complete with generators, transmission lines, for the transmission network, and a PECO­ PECO in 1989. PECO plans to conduct work­ and substations-allows trainees to obtain specific man-machine interface. The EPRI shops to demonstrate the features of the new years of experience in a short time without simulator's major feature is that it is an inde­ simulator. EPRI researchers will conduct a crit­ jeopardizing customer service or damaging pendent and portable unit adaptable to any ical analysis of the first two years of operation equipment. energy control system. to conclude the project. Following completion An operator training simulator (OTS) uses The training facility at PECO (Figure 1) con­ of the project, PECO will take possession of mathematical models to simulate the static sists of a separate room in the control center the simulator. and dynamic behavior of the power system. equipped with two mainframe computers-a Expert systems Like an airplane flight simulator, the OTS gives Unisys computer for the control center model power system operators a chance to experi­ (CCM) and a CDC Cyber computer for the Power system operators and dispatchers ence a crisis situation as if it were occurring in power system model (PSM). The facility will in­ must translate great quantities of numerical real time. Te ams of operators who have re­ clude two trainee positions and two instructor data into information for assessing power sponsibility for different parts of the system positions. From an elevated platform behind system performance. In addition, there will be can be trained together, and procedures can the trainees, the instructors will monitor the periods when they must sort through more be repeated as often as needed. This oppor­ trainees' actions and interact with the CCM than 600 alarms per minute-and, under tunity for dynamic, realistic training enables and PSM computers. emergency conditions, as many as 2000 in 15 operators to master the skills necessary for Tr ainees will observe system conditions seconds. Under such circumstances, opera­ coping with actual system faults and in­ through consoles and a system mimic iden­ tors can easily experience data overload that creases their confidence in their ability to tical to those used in the control room. The could limit their effectiveness in handling handle crisis situations. Furthermore, im­ simulator will present them with system sce­ emergencies. proved training enhances the economy and narios, they will take appropriate actions, and Knowledge engineering, a branch of artifi­ security of the system under normal oper­ the simulator will respond in a manner that cial intelligence, has the potential for con­ ating conditions. emulates the real system. Instructors will be verting voluminous data into more usable in­ There are two types of power system simu­ able to provide feedback both during and formation. This technology is based on the lators: stand-alone simulators and simulators after an exercise. They can stop the simula­ input of true experts in a field: it is the distilla­ linked to the standby computers of an on-line tion, confer with the trainees, and then either tion of their years of learning and judgment. energy management system. The stand­ alone computer can provide a wide variety of Console Partition Console training functions and can train many people at the same time; its major disadvantage is the lack of on-line data. The standby simulator re­ ceives on-line data from the trainees' own Map board Tr ainees Instructors power system, but the number of training functions is limited by the necessity of sharing equipment used for actual power system monitoring and control, and large numbers of personnel cannot be trained at one time. In 1984 EPRI initiated work on an advanced OTS (RP1915). The objective was to use EPRl's R&D resources to develop and demonstrate a stand-alone training simulator with extended capabilities. The development guidelines are Control Data link Power sufficiently comprehensive to allow integra­ center system tion of the OTS into any existing or planned model model energy management system. Member utili­ ties will be able to tailor the system to their specific training needs. Figure 1 In the operator training simulator configuration, trainees and instructors are separated by a glass partition and work from identical systems that are connected to the control center In 1985 EPRI chose Philadelphia Electric model and the power system model, respectively. A data link connects the CCM to the PSM, pro­ Co. (PECO) as host utility to develop and dem- viding an exact replica of the trainees' work environment.

50 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 The information is encoded into interactive and testing of a prototype expert system center: an appended approach, which would computer software called an expert system. (RP1999-9). The customer restoration and install the expert system on a separate com­ Such programs can put the problem-solving fault testing (CRAFT) system helps dis­ puter linked to the control center computer, approaches of these experts at the fingertips patchers perform on-line analyses to locate and an embedded approach, which would in­ of properly trained but less experienced faults that have caused transmission line out­ tegrate the expert system into the control users. Expert systems can give a user infor­ ages. center computer. The advantage of the ap­ mation about what is happening on a power On the recommendation of Puget Power pended approach would be minimal disrup­ system and also suggest remedial actions dispatchers, CRAFT is designed to identify tion of the control center computer's opera­ when something goes wrong. Ultimately, ex­ and isolate the faulted section in a multi­ tion and displays. The disadvantages would pert systems should be able to diagnose tapped line when automatic switching is in­ be slower operation of the expert system than power system problems, provide operators sufficient to maintain service to all customers if it were integrated into the real-time control with analyses of system malfunctions, and on the line. The object is to quickly restore center environment, and inability of operators suggest preventive or corrective actions. service to customers while maintaining safe to use familiar standard displays. For a first To develop a knowledge-based program, operation of the power system. This is an ex­ implementation, however, the appended ap­ the information extracted from the experts is cellent trial problem for an expert system be­ proach appeared most practical. encoded as rules. An advantage of expert cause it requires a speedy operator response Under RP2944-1 , Puget Power and the Na­ systems over conventional software lan­ based on judgment, experience, and anal­ tional Science Foundation are cofunding im­ guages is that changes and additions to the ysis. Because dispatchers are experienced in plementation of the CRAFT expert system in rules can be made without resorting to funda­ solving this type of problem, there is an identi­ the Puget Power control center for evaluation mental programming changes. Expert sys­ fied source of knowledge for verification. by power system dispatchers. CRAFT has tems cannot have a deep theoretical under­ Moreover, an expert system could respond at been on-line at Puget Power in an appended standing of the domains they address. Rather, least as fast as a human operator and would configuration since July 1988. A MicroVAX II an expert system is characterized by an ex­ not be distracted by confusing emergency computer is linked to the supervisory control plicit rule-based representation of knowl­ conditions. and data acquisition (SCADA) computer. On edge. An inference mechanism performs the To develop CRAFT's knowledge base­ the MicroVAX side, the interface programs rule-chaining search to form a line of rea­ approximately 350 rules for fault isolation and are written in Fortran. On the SCADA side, soning for solving the problem. Separating service restoration-the project team inter­ both Fortran and assembly languages are knowledge from the general inference viewed several experienced Puget Power used. To date, CRAFT has been tested for 50 method makes it possible to modify or ex­ dispatchers. They then incorporated the rules of the approximately 65 Puget Power lines pand a rule-based expert system with less ef­ in an OPS83 expert system running on a DEC that have automatic switches. The general fort than would be necessary in conventional MicroVAX II computer. After simulating prob­ nature of the rules embedded in CRAFT made procedural languages. lems and comparing the results with it possible to expand a small initial set of lines Under RP1999-7, a comprehensive investi­ dispatcher-proposed actions, they revised to 50 lines with the addition of only five rules. gation of the use of expert systems in power and fine-tuned the rules. In a test, the proto­ Expert systems are still a relatively new system operations, EPRI demonstrated that type CRAFT system recommended taking the area of research. To enhance user-friend­ these programs hold promise for solving same actions that Puget Power dispatchers liness, the University of Washington is devel­ power system analysis problems. After inves­ would have taken. CRAFT promises to reduce oping tools that can explain why and how a tigating 16 potential applications of expert time-consuming manual tasks, minimize decision is made and that can help the pro­ systems, researchers identified one applica­ outage duration, and serve as a double check grammer detect inconsistencies in the rules. tion that met all their feasibility criteria: contin­ for the dispatcher. In the long run, incorporating expert systems gency selection for security assessment. In As part of the prototype project, investiga­ in the control center computer will increase October 1985, EPRI and Puget Sound Power tors studied two approaches for imple­ efficiency and create a closer interface be­ & Light Co. cosponsored the development menting an expert system in the control tween programs.

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 51 New Contracts

Funding/ Contractor/EPRI Funding/ Contractor/EPRI Project Duration Project Manager Project Duration Project Manager

Customer Systems Perchloroethylene Extraction Process $102,200 Midwest Ore Processing (RP3027-1) 3 months Co.IC Kulik Industrial Demand-Side Planning Data $30,000 Battelle, Columbus Commercial Prototype Upstream Reboiler $50,000 Pacific Gas and Electric (RP2885-1) 1 month Laboratories/A. Squitien H2S System (RP3035-1) 2 months Co.IE Hughes Assessment of Power Quality Concerns $124,800 Electrotek Concepts, Inc.I Automated NERC GADS Data Analysis $29,600 ARINC Research Corp.I at the Customer Level (RP2935-13) 8 months M Samotyj System (RP3070-7) 3 months J. Weiss Energy Lifestyles (RP2979-3) $40,000 DOEIL. Lewis 7 months Nuclear Power

Electrical Systems Extension of Hot Standby Leakage $30,400 Novetech Corp.IS. Ta gart Detection Period (RP1757-77) 6 months Demonstration Systems: Transmission Line $100,000 Westinghouse Electric Digital Protection and Control (RP1359-18) 3 months Corp.IL Manko/I Stress Corrosion Cracking of Alloy 718 $30,000 Rensselaer Polytechnic in High-Temperature Water (RP2181-7) 2 months lnstitute/L Nelson Centrifugal Processing of Superconductors $62,400 Battelle Memorial Institute/ (RP4000-2) 7 months o_ Sharma Westinghouse Main Stream Safety Valve $41 ,900 Continuum Dynamics, Inc./ Te chnical Subgroup (RP2233-21) 6 months J Hoster Electrical, Thermal, Mechanical, and $30,000 Detroit Edison CoJ Chemical Evaluation of PPP and Associated 2 months T. Rodenbaugh Erosion-Corrosion Single- and Tw o-Phase $322,600 Siemens/8_ Chexal Fluids From a Dissolved-Gas Analysis Flow Te sts (RP2420-72) 14 months Standpoint (RP7910-1) Improving Polymer Life: Thermal History $120,000 University of Te nnessee/ G High-Te mperature Superconductor Motor $875,200 Reliance Electric CoJ Fingerprint (RP2614-32) 17 months Sliter 28 months 0 Sharma Development (RP7911-2) Self-Collider Fusion Reactor With Direct $204,400 University of Florida/ Energy Conversion (RP2614-42) 12 months 0 Worledge Environment Laboratory and Computational Iodine $275,000 Martin Marietta Energy Studies for the Advanced Containment 12 months Systems, lncJR_ Ritzman Biogeochemical Fate of Mercury in the $200,000 Wisconsin Dept of Natural Experiments, Phase B (RP2802-16) Aquatic Ecosystem (RP2020-10) 2 months Resources/0. Parcel/a Evaluation of Acoustic Emissions for $76,000 Battelle, Pacific Northwest Estimation of Historical Residential Magnetic $27,900 Southern California Edison Detection of Crack Initiation in Stainless 6 months Laboratories/A_ Pathania Fields (RP2964-3) 11 months Co,JL. Kheifets Steel (RP2812-7) Alarm Processing and Diagnostic System $816,300 Bechtel Group, Inc) Exploratory Research Using NASA Technology (RP2902-4) 24 months J. Naser

Thermodynamic Cycles for Utilizing Gases $149,600 Energy Storage & Power Pilot Data Base Management System $183,800 EQE, lnc)R_ Kassawara 1n Power Plants (RP8000-39) 16 months Consultants/A Cohn Development: Equipment Performance 9 months in Earthquakes (RP2925-6) Application of Photoconductive Switches $199,400 University of Florida/ 1n AC Circuit Protection (RP8001-8) 23 months H. Mehta Performance Monitoring of Cables With $533,000 Sandia National Local Degradation (RP2927-5) 20 months Laboratories/G_ Sliter Sulfur Species in Coal (RP8003-19) $73,000 Argonne National 7 months Laboratory/H_ Lebowitz Backscatter Gamma-Ray Imaging for $30,000 Pennsylvania State Detecting Pipe Wall Thinning (RP2974-1) 10 months University/$_ Liu Dry Cleaning of Coal in an Air-Fluidized Bed $50,000 Lehigh University/ Phase 2 (RP8006-14) 31 months C. Hamson Resin Separability Demonstration to Improve $99,600 RCT, lncJO Passel/ Polishing Under Morpholine All-Vo latile 11 months Treatment (RP2977-1) Generation and Storage Oxygen Transport 1n BWR Steam Cycles $35,000 San Diego State University Effect of Quenching Media on Mechanical $49,800 Japan Steel Works, ltd,( (RP2977-3) 3 months Foundation/0_ Passel/ Properties of CrMoV High-Purity Rotor 1 month R. Jaffee Planning Systems for Core Shuffles $394,000 Combustion Engineering Manufacturing (RP1403-36) (RP3003-1) 18 months lnc_tJ Naser Production and Te sting of a Large Batch of $376,700 Praxis Engineers, Inc./ Evaluation of Fault-Tolerant Digital Control $99,100 Martin Marietta Energy Synthetic Lightweight Aggregate: Phase 2 12 months N Hertz System Architecture (RP3008-1) 8 months Systems, lnc,/8- Sun (RP1459-26) Physics Benchmarking to Resolve Modern $124,400 s_ Levy, lnc)W Eich Computer-Based Training System for $25,500 HyperMedia Group/ LWR Uncertainties (RP3013-1) 14 months Fluidized Combustion (RP2303-30) 2 months s_ Drenker

Morony & Cochrane Dam Stability Data $29,900 Montana Power Co,/ (RP2917-17) 32 months D. Morris Planning and Evaluation Appl1cat1on of Fuel Cells to Electric Power $360,000 Fluor Technology, lncJ Dynamic Pricing of Decentralized Power $30,400 Laurits R. Christensen Systems (RP2930-1) 24 months C Siebenthal Systems (RP2996-5) 12 months Associates, lnc,JH. Mueller

52 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 New Status of Least-Cost Planning in the ENVIRONMENT United States EM-6133 Final Report (RP2982-2); $100 Air Emissions Risk Assessment Model (AERAM) Technical Contractor: Barakat, Howard & Chamberlin, Inc. Manager: User's Guide, Version 1.0 EPRI Project Manager: W. Smith EA-5886-CCM Computer Code Manual Reports (RP1826-18); $25 The Food-Service Industry: A Presentation Contractor: IWG Corp. Package With Supporting Te xt EPRI Project Manager: A. Thrall Requests for copies of reports should be directed to EM-6148 Final Report (RP2890-1); $32.50 Research Reports Center, PO. Box 50490, Palo Alto, Contractor: Hart, McMurphy & Parks, Inc. California 94303; (415) 965-4081. There is no charge Leachate Chemistry at the Montour EPRI Project Manager: K. Johnson for reports requested by EPRI member utilities, U.S. Fly Ash Test Cell universities, or government agencies. Others in the EA-5922 Interim Report (RP2485-8); $32.50 United States, Mexico, and Canada pay the listed Measurement of Differential Pressures Contractor: Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories price. Overseas price is double the listed price. Re­ and Radon Entry in Research Houses EPRI Project Manager: I. Murarka search Reports Center will send a catalog of EPRI and Evaluation of Radon Control Methods reports on request. For information on how to order EM-6151 Final Report (RP2034-1); $32.50 Interim Emissions Inventory for one-page summaries of reports, call the EPRI Hotline, Contractor: GEOM ET Te chnologies, Inc. Regional Air Quality Studies (415) 855-2411. EPRI Project Manager: J. Kesselring EA-6070 Interim Report (RP1630-23); $40 Contractor: ENSR Consulting and Engineering EPRI Project Managers: R. Patterson, P Mueller CUSTOMER SYSTEMS ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS Proceedings: Innovative Approaches in Cancer Risk Assessment Power Utilization in Flat Processing of Steel Second Workshop of the Italy/USA EM-5996 Final Report (RP2570-1); $32.50 Cooperation in Electric Power Transmission EA-6072 Proceedings (RP1826-17); $40 Contractor: Clement Associates, Inc. Contractor: EPRI Center for Metals Production EL-6018-SR Proceedings; $32.50 EPRI Project Manager: A. Silvers EPRI Pro1ect Manager: R. Jeffress EPRI Project Manager: R. Kennon

A Hierarchy of Dynamic Plume Models Ground-Source and Hydronic Heat Pump Study of Improved Load-Tap-Changing Incorporating Uncertainty, Vo l. 1: Overview Market Study for Transformers and Phase-Angle EM-6062 Final Report (RP2792-5); $47.50 Regulators EA-6095 Final Report (RP1616-28); $40 Contractor: ARAP Division, California Research Contractor: Te chnical Marketing Associates, Inc. EL-6079 Final Report (RP2763-1 ); $32.50 & Te chnology, Inc. EPRI Project Manager: P. Joyner Contractor: Westinghouse Electric Corp. EPRI Project Managers: G. Hilst, G. Beals EPRI Project Manager: S. Lindgren A Guide to Annual Marketing Planning Radiation Worker Health Study: Scoping Phase EM-6087 Final Report (RP2671-1); $32.50 Static Electrification Control in Contractor: OEI, Inc. Power Transformers EA-6 112 Final Report (RP2920-1); $32.50 Contractor: Epidemiology Resources, Inc. EPRI Pro1ect Manager: L. Lewis EL-6081 Final Report (RP1499-7); $32.50 EPRI Project Manager: L. Kheifets Contractor: Westinghouse Electric Corp. Cogeneration and Utilities: Status EPRI Project Manager: S. Lindgren and Prospects Exposure to Acidic Sulfates in the Atmosphere: Review and Assessment EM-6096 Final Report (RP1276-23); $32.50 DCGRND and ACDCFLT Computer Contractor: Synergic Resources Corp. Models and User's Manuals EA-6150 Final Report (RP940-5); $32.50 Contractor: Frederick W. Lipfert EPRI Project Managers: C. Gellings, H. Gransell EL-6106 Interim Report (RP1494-6); $32.50 EPRI Project Manager: R. Wyzga Contractor: Georgia Institute of Te chnology COGENMASTER-A Model for Evaluating EPRI Project Manager: G. Addis Cogeneration Options, Vo ls. 1 and 2 EM-6102 Final Report (RP1276-23); Vol. 1, $1000; Concurrent Computation of Power EXPLORATO RY RESEARCH Vol. 2, $1000 System Reliability Contractor: Synergic Resources Corp. EL-6125 Final Report (RP2473-16); $25 Sintering and Creep of Copper, EPRI Project Manager: H. Gransell Contractor: Northwestern University Nickel, and Alloys EPRI Project Manager: M. Lauby ER-6065 Final Report (RP2278-4); $25 Proceedings: Meeting Customer Needs Contractor: Northwestern University With Heat Pumps-1 987 Induction Motor Modeling in Stability EPRI Project Manager: W. Bakker EM-6107 Proceedings (RP2597-9); $47.50 Simulation Contractor: Policy Research Associates, Inc. EL-6126 Final Report (RP2473-2); $25 Proceedings: 1987 Workshop on Coal Structure EPRI Project Manager: M. Blatt Contractor: Minnesota Power ER-6099-SR Proceedings; $40 EPRI Project Manager: M. Lauby EPRI Project Manager: L. Atherton Proceedings: End-Use Power Quality R&D Planning Static Electrification in Refrigerant 113 EM-6109 Proceedings (RP2935-1); $25 EL-6138 Final Report (RP1536-8, -9); $32.50 Contractor: TEM Associates, Inc. Contractor: General Electric Co. GENERATION AND STORAGE EPRI Project Manager: M. Samotyj EPRI Project Manager: V. Tah iliani FGD Chemistry and Analytical Methods Evaluation of Passive Monitors for Measuring Computer-Aided Relay Protection Handbook, Vo l. 2: Chemical and Physical Indoor Radon and Formaldehyde Coordination Test Methods, Revision 1 EM-6122 Final Report (RP2034-1); $32.50 EL-6145 Final Report (RP2444-2); $40 CS-3612 Final Report (RP1031-4); $500 Contractor: GEOM ET Te chnologies, Inc. Contractor: University of Washington Contractor: Radian Corp. EPRI Project Manager: J. Kesselring EPRI Project Manager: D. Maratukulam EPRI Project Manager: R. Moser

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 53 AFBC Conversion at Northern States Atmospheric Fluidized-Bed Combustion Devon Station Repowering Study, Phase 2: Power Company, Vo l. 3: Demolition and Waste Management Design Guidelines Coal Gasification Facility Conceptual Design Relocation CS-6053 Final Report (RP2708-1); $800 GS-6161 Final Report (RP2699-2); $32.50 CS-5501 Final Report (RP2628-3); $100 Contractors: Baker/TSA, Inc.; ICF Te chnology, Inc. Contractor: Northeast Utilities Service Co. Contractor: Stone and Webster Engineering Corp. EPRI ProJect Manager: D. Golden EPRI Project Managers: M. Gluckman, A. Lewis EPRI Project Manager: S. Ta voulareas Control of Fan Erosion in Coal-Fired Remaining Life Estimation of Boiler Power Plants: Phase 2 NUCLEAR POWER Pressure Parts, Vol. 1: Identification CS-6068 Final Report (RP1649-4); $55 of Relevant Damage Mechanisms Contractors: Westinghouse Research and RETRAN-02-A Program for Tr ansient Thermal­ CS-5588 Final Report (RP2253-1); $400 Development Center; Westinghouse Sturtevant Hydraulic Analysis of Complex Fluid Flow Contractor: Combustion Engineering, Inc. Division Systems, Vo l. 1: Theory and Numerics (Rev. 4) EPRI Project Managers: R. Viswanathan, EPRI Project Manager: J. Stringer NP-1850-CCM-A Computer Code Manual R. To wnsend (RP889-3); $100 Effects of Ta rgeted Chlorination on AL-6X Contractor: El International, Inc. Conceptual Design of a 100-MW Fuel Cell Condenser Tu be Corrosion in Seawater EPRI Project Manager: L. Agee Power Plant for Urban Utility Applications CS-6077 Final Report (RP2300-2); $25 AP-5609 Final Report (RP1777-1); $32.50 Contractor: Stone & Webster Engineering Corp. PLEX Project Briefs, Revision 1 Contractor: International Fuel Cells EPRI Project Managers: B. Syrett, W. Chow NP-5388SP Final Report (RP2643-15); $3500 EPRI Project Managers: D. Rastler, C. Siebenthal EPRI Project Manager: M. Lapides Proceedings: 1987 Conference on Soft-Start Fuel Control Modifications for Expert-System Applications in Power Plants Guidelines for the Content of Records to Large, Heavy-Duty Combustion Tu rbines CS-6080 Proceedings (RP2923-1); $400 Support Nuclear Power Plant Operation, AP-5975 Final Report (RP2102-17); $32.50 Contractor: Expert-EASE Systems, Inc. Maintenance, and Modification (NCIG-08), Contractor: Battelle, Columbus Division EPRI Project Manager: M. Divakaruni Vo ls. 1 and 2 EPRI Project Managers: L. Angello, G. Quentin NP-5653 Final Report (RPQ101-4); Vol. 1, $25; Compact Analyzer for Fossil Plant Simulators Vol. 2, $40 Pilot-Scale Combustion Characterization CS-6092 Final Report (RP1184-12); $25 Contractor: Reedy Associates, Inc. of Tw o Illinois Coals Contractor: Systems Control, Inc. EPRI Project Manager: W. Bilanin CS-6009 Final Report (RP2425-1 ); $40 EPRI Project Manager: M. Divakaruni Contractor: Combustion Engineering, Inc. Supplementary Examination of Alternative EPRI Project Manager: A. Mehta Laboratory Te sting of Fly Ash Slurry Materials in a Model Steam Generator, Vo l. 1: CS-6100 Final Report (RP2422-2); $55 Tu besheet and Tu be Bundle Examinations Workshop Proceedings on Defining Coal Contractor: GAi Consultants, Inc. NP-5928M Final Report (RPS302-7); $25 Handleability: Its Cost Impact and Control EPRI Project Manager: D. Golden Contractor: Combustion Engineering, Inc. EPRI Project Manager: C. Shoemaker CS-6015 Proceedings (RP1400-6, -11); $200 Contractor: Kaiser Engineers, Inc. AFBVAL User's Guide: Integrated EPRI Project Managers: J. Hervol, C. Harrison Financial and Engineering Evaluation Supplementary Examination of Alternative of AFBC Power Plants Materials in a Model Steam Generator, Vo l. 3: CS-6117-CCM Computer Code Manual Tu be Characterization by Metallography Using Optical Pyrometry to Measure and Transmission Electron Microscopy Gas Tu rbine Blade Metal Te mperatures (RP2303-12, RP2543-2); $40 Contractor: Decision Focus, Inc. NP-5928 Final Report (RPS302-7); $32.50 AP-6020 Final Report (RP2102-3); $40 EPRI Project Manager: S. Tavoulareas Contractor: Combustion Engineering, Inc. Contractor: Solar Tu rbines, Inc. EPRI Project Manager: C. Shoemaker EPRI Project Manager: G. Quentin Combustion Tu rbine Vibration Monitoring: Practices, Tr ends, Techniques, VRTECH/PC-11 User's Manual: Vo lume-Reduction Dynamic Simulation and Performance Selection, and Benefits Te chnology Computer Program Evaluation of Fossil Power Plants AP-6119 Final Report (RP2102-22); $32.50 NP-5992-CCM Computer Code Manual CS-6047 Final Report (RP1184-11); $32.50 Contractor: Southwest Research Institute (RP1557-23); $32.50 Contractor: Science Applications International Corp. EPRI Project Manager: G. Quentin Contractor: Analytic Sciences Corp. EPRI Project Manager: M. Divakaruni EPRI Project Manager: P. Robinson Availability Assessment of 11-MW Proceedings: 1987 Conference on Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell Power Plants Human Factors Affecting the Performance of Fossil Plant Cycling AP-6124 Final Report (RP1461-1); $25 Inspection Personnel in Nuclear Power Plants CS-6048 Proceedings (RP1184-27); $450 Contractor: ARINC Research Corp. NP-6000 Final Report (RP1570-19); $32.50 Contractor: TRAX Corp. EPRI Project Managers: D. Rastler, J. Weiss Contractor: Shay S. Karimi EPRI Project Managers: M. Divakaruni, G. Poe EPRI Project Manager: M. Behravesh Trace Arsenic Species and Equilibria Proceedings: 1987 Conference on Control in Geothermal Fluids Waste Acceptance Criteria Study, Vo ls. 1 and 2 Systems for Fossil Fuel Power Plants GS-6142 To pical Report (RP2791-1); $32.50 NP-6001 Final Report (RP2717-1); Vol. 1, $32.50; CS-6049 Proceedings (RP2710-1); $425 Contractor: San Diego State University Vo l. 2, $40 Contractor: Encor-America, Inc. EPRI Project Manager: V. Roberts Contractor: E. R. Johnson Associates, Inc. EPRI Project Manager: M. Divakaruni EPRI Project Manager: R. Lambert Evaluation of a Te xaco Gasification­ Fossil Plant StartupAdvisor , Vols. 1 and 2 Combined-Cycle Plant With Kraftwerk Implementation Considerations for Digital CS-6051 Final Report (RP1184-4); Vol. 1, $32.50; Union Gas Tu rbines Control Systems in Power Plants Vol. 2, $25 GS-6160 Final Report (RP2699-10); $40 N P-6004 Final Report (RP2126-8); $25 Contractor: Babcock and Wilcox Co. Contractor: Fluor Daniel, Inc. Contractor: Integrated Systems, Inc. EPRI Project Managers: M. Divakaruni, G. Poe EPRI Project Manager: M. Gluckman EPRI Project Manager: B. Sun

54 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 Chemical Decontamination Experience at Surveillance of Instrumentation Channels Proceedings: Main Coolant Pump Commonwealth Edison Nuclear Power Plants at Nuclear Power Plants, Vo l. 1: Diagnostics NP-6023 Final Report (RP1329-3); $25 Methods for Reducing Costs NP-6116 Proceedings (RP1556-4); $70 Contractor: Niagara Te chnical Consultants NP-6067 Final Report (RP2906-2); $25 Contractor: Ontario Hydro EPRI Project Manager: C. Wood Contractor: Joseph A. Thie EPRI Project Manager: J. Weiss EPRI Project Manager: R. Colley Operation of the EPRI Nondestructive Implementation of a Digital Feedwater Control Evaluation Center: 1987 Annual Report Engineering Model of Earthquake Ground System at Dresden Nuclear Power Plant NP-6026 Interim Report (RP1570-2); $40 Motion for Eastern North America Units 2 and 3 Contractor: J. A. Jones Applied Research Co. NP-6074 Final Report (RP2556-16); $40 NP-6143 Final Report (RP2686-3); $32.50 EPRI Project Manager: G. Dau Contractor: Risk Engineering, Inc. Contractor: Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd. EPRI Project Managers: C. Stepp, J. Schneider EPRI Project Manager: B. Sun Stress Corrosion Monitoring and Component Life Prediction: Feasibility Study EPRI Seminar on Data Acquisition, Control, Design and Operation of a Digital NP-6028M Final Report (RP2006-12, -14); $25 and Communications in Power Plants Low-Power Feedwater Control System Contractor: General Electric Co. NP-6078-SR Proceedings; $62.50 for PWRs EPRI Project Manager: J. Gilman EPRI Project Manager: R. Colley NP-6149 Final Report (RP2686-4); $32.50 Contractor: Combustion Engineering, Inc. Oil Decontamination Survey lntraspect/98 Characterization of a EPRI Project Manager: B. Sun NP-6031 Final Report (RP2414-22); $25 Heavy Section Contractor: Science Applications International Corp. N P-6082 To pical Report (RP2165-8); $32.50 An Assessment of Boraflex Performance EPRI Project Manager: P Robinson Contractor: AMDATA , Inc. in Spent-Nuclear-Fuel Storage Racks EPRI Project Manager: M. Avioli NP-6159 Final Report (RP2813-4); $32.50 Stepped Frequency Imaging for Flaw Monitoring Contractor: Northeast Te chnology Corp. EPRI Project Manager: R. Lambert NP-6033 Final Report (RP2687-4); $25 Oxygen Control in PWR Secondary Coolant Contractor: Failure Analysis Associates NP-6083 Final Report (RP1571-5); $25 EPRI Project Manager: M. Av ioli Contractor: Burns and Roe, Inc. On-Site Storage of Low-Level Radioactive EPRI Project Manager: T. Passell Waste at Power Reactors: An International Scoping Study Assessment of NRC Regulatory Guide 1.150, NP-6163 Final Report (RP2724-3); $32.50 Revision 1: Implementation and Interpretation Cost of Converting to an All-Ferrous PWR Contractor: Science Applications International Corp. NP-6034 Final Report (RP2943-1); $25 Secondary Feedwater System EPRI Project Manager: P Robinson Contractor: Southwest Research Institute NP-6084 To pical Report (RP1571-5); $25 EPRI Project Manager: M. Behravesh Contractors: NWT Corp.; Gibbs & Hill, Inc. Zinc Injection to Control Radiation EPRI Project Manager: T. Passell Buildup at BWRs: Plant Demonstrations Piping System Damping Evaluation NP-6168 Interim Report (RP2758-1); $25 NP-6035 Final Report (RP2635-2); $47.50 The Feasibility of Using Electromagnetic Contractor: GE Nuclear Energy Contractor: Bechtel Group, Inc. Acoustic Transducers to Detect Corrosion in EPRI Project Manager: C. Wood EPRI Project Manager: H. Ta ng Mark I Containment Vessels NP-6090 Interim Report (RP1570-21); $25 A Performance-Based Selective Inspection A Methodology for Assessment of Nuclear Contractor: Innovative Sciences, Inc. Process (NCIG-09) Power Plant Seismic Margin EPRI Project Manager: M. Av ioli NP-6200 Final Report (RPQ101-12); $1000 NP-6041 Final Report (RP2722-1); $62.50 Contractor: Sargent & Lundy Engineers Contractors: NTS Engineering; RPK Structural The LWR Aerosol Containment Experiments EPRI Project Manager: W. Bilanin Mechanics Consulting; Pickard, Lowe and Garrick; (LACE) Project: Summary Report Woodward-Clyde Consultants; Duke Power Co. NP-6094-D Final Report (RP2135); $25 EPRI Project Manager: R. Kassawara Contractor: Westinghouse Hanford Co. EPRI Project Manager: F. Rahn PLANNING AND EVALUATION Evaluation of Flaws in Ferritic Piping NP-6045 Final Report (RP1757-65); $32.50 Solids Filtration of High-Te mperature Office Productivity Tools for the Contractor: Novetech Corp. Feedwater in a PWR Secondary Circuit Information Economy: Possible Effects EPRI Project Manager: D. Norris NP-6097 Final Report (RP1571-5); $25 on Electricity Consumption Contractors: NWT Corp.; Gibbs & Hill, Inc. P/EM-6008 Final Report (RP2345-30); $25 BWR To p-Guide Integrity: Further Evaluation EPRI Project Manager: T. Passell Contractor: Boston Pacific Co. NP-6050 Final Report (RP2680-7); $25 EPRI Project Managers: 0. Yu, 0. Zimmerman Contractor: Structural Integrity Associates, Inc. The Stability Analysis Using Tw o Fluids EPRI Project Manager: T. Griesbach (SAT") Code for Boiling Flow Systems, Utility Competitive Assessment Methods, Vo ls. 1-4 Vo ls. 1 and 2 Human Performance in Nondestructive NP-6103-CCM Computer Code Manual (RP495-2); P/EM-6019 Final Report (RP2937-1); Vol. 1, $250; Inspections and Functional Te sts Vo l. 1, $25; Vol. 2, $25; Vol. 3, $25; Vol. 4, $25 Vol. 2, $250 NP-6052 Final Report (RP2705-9); $32.50 Contractor: Arizona State University Contractor: Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc. Contractor: Anacapa Sciences, Inc. EPRI Project Manager: S. Kalra EPRI Project Managers: S. Feher, W. Smith EPRI Project Manager: H. Parris Parametric Radionuclide Release Proceedings: 1988 Utility Strategic Issues Utility Response to NRC Bulletin 87-01, Calculations Using the MAAP-3.0 Forum-Planning in a Competitive Thinning of Pipe Walls in Nuclear Power Plants Computer Code Environment NP-6066 Final Report (RP2057-7); $55 NP-6111 Final Report (RP2637-1); $32.50 P-6181 Proceedings (RP2997); $100 Contractor: Science Applications International Corp. Contractor: Science Applications International Corp. Compiler and Editor: Susan M. Lubonovich EPRI Project Manager: M. Behravesh EPRI Project Managers: E. Fuller, R. Ritzman EPRI Project Manager: S. Feher

EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 55 New CQIS: Coal Quality Information System Ve rsion 1.0 (IBM-PC): CS-5774 CALENDAR Contractors: Kaiser Engineers, Inc.: Computer Science Applications International Corp. For additional information on the meetings EPRI Pro1ect Managers: Clark Harrison, listed below, please contact the person Software James Hervol indicated. EFFICIENCY- MAP: Efficiency APRIL The Electric Power Software Center (EPSC) provides a Maintenance Analysis single distribution center for computer programs devel· oped by EPRI. The programs are distributed under Version 1.0 (IBM-PC) 11-12 license to users. No royalties are charged to nonutility Contractor: Fern Engineering Utility Strategic Issues Forum public service organizations in the United States, EPRI Project Manager: Clark Dohner Kansas City, Missouri including government agencies, universities, and Contact: Sherman Feher, (415) 855-2838 other tax-exempt organizations. Industrial organiza· ESPRE: EPRI Simplified Program for lions, including nonmember electric utilities, are Residential Energy 18-20 required to pay royalties. EPRI member utilities, in Version 1.8 (IBM-PC): EM-4523 Workshop: Coal Weighing and Sampling paying their membership fees, prepay all royalties. Contractor: Arthur D. Little, Inc. St. Louis, Missouri Basic support in installing the codes is available at no EPRI Project Manager: John Kesselring Contact: Clark Harrison, (412) 479-3503 charge from EPSC: however, a consulting fee may be charged for extensive support. EXPOCALC: Exposure Assessment To ol For more information about EPSC and licensing 19-21 for Transmission Line Electric Fields Management of Manufactured-Gas Plant Sites arrangements, EPRI member utilities, government agencies, universities, and other tax-exempt organiza· Version 2.2 (IBM-PC): EA-5765 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania tions should contact Electric Power Software Center, Contractor: Enertech Consultants, Inc. Contact: lshwar Murarka, (415) 855-2150 Power Computing Co., 1930 Hi Line Drive, Dallas, EPRI Project Manager: Stan Sussman Te xas 75207: (214) 655-8883. Industrial organizations, 25-28 including nonmember utilities, should contact EPRl's GADSRAM: Conversion of NERC Seminar: Transmission Line Foundations Manager of Licensing, PO. Box 10412, Palo Alto, Cali­ GADS Data Files Into UNIRAM Palo Alto, California fornia 94303; (415) 855-2866. Availability Models Contact: Vito Longo, (415) 855-2287 Ve rsion 1.0 (IBM-PC): AP-6016-CCM Contractor: ARINC Research Corp. EPRI Project Manager: Jerry Weiss MAY NODE-P2: Three-Dimensional PWR Core Simulator 1-5 Electrical Potpourri Seminar Ve rsion 2MOD04 (CDC, IBM): NP-4574-CCM Contractor: S. Levy, Inc. Palo Alto, California EPRI Project Manager: Robert Breen Contact: James Hall, (415) 855-2305

PIES: Residential and Commercial 2-4 ADEPT: Acid Deposition Decision Tr ee Conference: Demand-Side Management Model Reference Load Shapes and DSM Impacts Cincinnati, Ohio Ve rsion 2.2 (IBM): EA-2540 Contact: Steven Braithwait, (415) 855-2606 Contractor: Decision Focus, Inc. Version 1.0 (IBM-PC): EM-5767 EPRI Project Manager: Thomas Wilson Contractor: Laurits R. Christensen Asso· c1ates, Inc. 2-4 EPRI Project Manager: Steven Braithwait Groundwater Quality and Waste Disposal AFBVAL: Integrated Engineering Washington, D.C. and Financial Assessment of AFBC Power Plants SGA-SGSYS: Substation Grounding Contact: lshwar Murarka, (415) 855-2150 Analysis Ve rsion 1.0 (IBM-PC): CS-6117 Contractor: Decision Focus, Inc. Version 4.0 (IBM) EPRI Project Manager: Stratos Ta voulareas Contractor: Georgia Institute of Te chnology JUNE EPRI Project Manager: Gilbert Addis AIRTOX: Air To xics Risk Management 5-8 Model SMART: Small Artificial Reasoning To olkit Expert Systems Applications Ve rsion 3.0 (IBM-PC) Version 1.4 (IBM-PC): NP-5645M for the Electric Power Industry Contractor: Decision Focus, Inc. Contractor: C. Horne, Inc. Orlando, Florida EPRI Project Manager: Thomas Wilson EPRI Project Manager: David Cain Contact: Joseph Naser, (415) 855-2107

COGENMASTER: Evaluation of SSSP: Small Signal Stability Program 5-9 Cogeneration Projects Version 1.1 (IBM, PRIME, VAX): EL-5798, High-Voltage Transmission Line Version 1.1 (IBM-PC): EM-6102 EL-5798-CCML Electrical Design Contractor: Synergic Resources Corp. Contractor: S. Levy, Inc. Palo Alto, California EPRI Project Manager: Hans Gransell EPRI Project Manager: Mark Lauby Contact: James Hall, (415) 855-2305

COMMEND: Commercial Section End­ UNSAT1 D: Unsaturated Groundwater 28-30 Use Energy Demand Forecasting Model Flow Model 1989 Cogeneration Seminar Ve rsion 2.1 (IBM): EM-4486 Version 2.0 (IBM-PC): CS-5512 Boston, Massachusetts Contractor: Regional Economic Research Contractor: ICF Te chnology, Inc. Contact: Hans Gransell, (415) 855-2855 EPRI Project Manager: Steven Braithwait EPRI Project Manager: Dean Golden

56 EPRI JOURNAL March 1989 Authors and Articles Thin Films: Expanding the Solar trial economist at SRI International and Marketplace (page 4) was written a research analyst at USX Corporation. by Taylor Moore, senior feature writer Barker graduated in engineering sci­ Journal, for the with technical assist­ ence from Johns Hopkins University ance from two research managers of and earned an MBA at the University of EPRI's Generation and Storage Divi­ Pittsburgh. • sion. De Meo Edgar DeMeo, manager of the Solar Fluidized Bed Fires Up at TVA Power Program for the past nine (page 26) was written by Taylor Journal years, guides research in photovol­ Moore, senior feature writer. taics, solar-thermal, and wind energy Moore attended the November 1988 technologies. He came to the Institute dedication of a big new fluidized-bed as a project manager in 1976 after six combustion demonstration project Peterson years on the engineering research fac­ at the Tennessee Valley Authority's ulty at Brown University and two Shawnee power plant in Paducah, years as an instructor at Annapolis. Kentucky. • DeMeo graduated in electrical engi­ neering from Rensselaer Polytechnic ludgebuster for Steam Generators Barker Institute and earned MS and PhD de­ (page 30) was written by David S Journal grees at Brown. Boutacoff, feature writer, in co­ Terry Peterson, a project manager in operation with C. Lamar Williams of DeMeo's program, specializes in thin­ EPRI's Nuclear Power Division. film photovoltaic materials. Before Williams, a project manager in the joining EPRI in 1986, he was with Steam Generator Project Office, is in­ Williams Chevron Research Company for eight volved in the development of opera­ years, where he became the leader of a tion and maintenance procedures for solar device fabrication group. Still PWRs. He has been with EPRI since earlier, he worked in materials and mo­ 1979, following six years at Bettis lecular research at Lawrence Berkeley Atomic Power Laboratory, where he Laboratory. Peterson has a BS degree investigated patterns of critical heat in physics from the University of Cali­ flux and two-phase flow in steam fornia at San Diego, an MS in physics supply systems. Williams holds BS, from the University of California at MS, and PhD degrees in mechanical Berkeley, and a PhD in materials sci­ engineering from the Georgia Institute ence and engineering, also from UC­ of Technology. • Berkeley. •

I nnovation and Industrial Develop­ ment (page 16) reports on problems and solutions voiced by participants at EPRI's 1988 Advisory Council seminar. The article was written by Brent Journal Barker, editor in chief of the since 1977. Barker was a writer and communica­ tions consultant before he came to EPRI. He earlier worked as an indus- ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE NONPROFIT ORGANIZAT ION Post Office Box 10412, Palo Alto, California 94303 U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NUMBER 60 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA

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