Electric Energy T&D - Index

Electric Energy T&D - EE Magazine March / April - Index

The 2008 Automation/IT
Leadership Series
By Michael A. Marullo, Automation/IT Editor
ABB
greg Scheu, Senior VP-ABB Power Products and
mike barnoski, Senior VP-ABB Power Systems,
North America
greg Scheu mike barnoski
In this issue, we are privileged to be able to share the thoughts and insights of two key executives from ABB’s North American Power
Products and Power Systems divisions. Greg Scheu was recently promoted to Region Division Manager and head of Power Products
after successfully heading ABB’s Automation Products division the last several years. His counterpart is Mike Barnoski, Region
Division Manager and head of ABB’s Power Systems Division. Together, these senior executives are responsible for substantially all of
the company’s power-related products, systems and services across North America.
As one of the most prominent and influential suppliers in North America as well as on a global scale, ABB is a company that is
routinely on the leading edge of breakthrough technologies and new business strategies associated with both power generation and
power delivery. This interview focuses on energy efficiency and provides an expanded and multi-dimensional view of initiatives for the
rapidly-evolving Smart Grid that I think you will find both interesting and enlightening.
– mike marullo, automation/IT Editor
EET&D: I’ve heard that from a generation
perspective – clearly a key business area for ABB
– power production can be fairly inefficient. In
fact, I understand that as little as 30-35% of
the energy produced from coal actually ends
up as electricity at the end of the process in
many cases. Do you find that inefficiency
characteristic to be present in the transmission
and distribution operations of utilities as well?
Barnoski: To gain an appreciation for
the impact that improved efficiency can
have, it helps to look at the price that’s paid
for inefficiency, and nowhere is this more
apparent than in the generation of electric
power. Typically, the process converts the latent
energy in a fuel stock (e.g., coal, gas, uranium)
into mechanical energy in a generator and
ultimately electrical energy. However, other
generation sources like wind and hydro-power
use the mechanical energy of moving masses
of air or water to produce electric energy. Still
other devices, such as fuel cells, use chemical
reactions to generate electric energy. In all of
these cases, though, some of the input energy
is lost in the process.
The efficiency of generation varies widely
with the technology used. In a traditional
coal plant, as you mentioned, only about
30-35% of the energy in the coal ends
up as electricity on the other end of the
generator. So-called “supercritical” coal
plants can reach efficiency levels in the mid-
40s, and the latest coal technology, known
as integrated gasification combined cycle
(IGCC) is capable of efficiency levels above
60%. The most efficient gas-fired generators
achieve a similar level of efficiency.
Obviously, though, even at 60% efficiency
there is a tremendous amount of energy
left behind in the generation process. That
represents a higher cost of production for
the generator, as well as a substantial waste
of limited resources. There is, therefore,
34 I March-April 2008 Issue
tremendous economic and ecological
incentive to improve the efficiency of power
generation so that more of the energy content
of the input fuel is carried through to the
output electricity.
EET&D: So, does that mean that there
are specific costs that can be tied to the
inefficiencies in the T&D system? If so,
where do utilities have the greatest potential
financial exposure?
Scheu: Once electric energy moves through
the transmission and distribution system,
some of the energy supplied by the generator
is lost due to the resistance of the wires and
equipment that the electricity passes through.
Most of this energy is converted to heat. Just
how much energy is taken up as losses in the
T&D system depends greatly on the physical
characteristics of the system as well as how it
is operated. Generally speaking, T&D losses
between 6% and 8% are considered normal.