2016 PEI Issue 11

Driven by fears about grid reliability, facilities from hospitals to hotels, factories to office buildings and even some residential apartments are turning to combined heat and power (CHP) to meet the growing demand for electricity. 

When Rugeley B Power Station was commissioned in 1970, its two state of the art coal-fired 500 MW units were supplying baseload electricity to over one million homes and businesses in the densely populated Birmingham area of the UK's industrial Midlands.

Submarine cable company Nexans is bullish about the long-term potential of the European offshore wind sector.

Recent regulations and market trends are leading the power generation industry away from coal to more gas turbine combined-cycle (GTCC) plants.

Long before leaders of the industrialized world gathered last November for the COP21 conference where they negotiated the landmark Paris Agreement, the global coal power industry had already been working to maintain its important position in the world's energy supply mix while also supporting the greenhouse gas reduction goals of COP21.

In this year's International Energy Outlook produced by the US Energy Information Administration, it was reported that total world consumption of energy will increase by 48 per cent from 2012 to 2040.

Much has been written in these pages about the viability of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which the International Energy Agency (IEA), in its recent 20 Years of CCS: Accelerating Future Deployment report, called "the only technology solution capable of delivering significant emissions reductions from the use of fossil fuels in power generation and industrial processes".

Many energy and utilities companies around the world are currently exploring how to merge their information technology (IT) networks and operational technology (OT) infrastructure.

Security failures within critical national infrastructure (CNI), including energy network systems, are unfortunately nothing new.