Berkshire Hathaway Energy

Alert # 2

BHE can advise and support power plants in Asia and elsewhere

With some coal-fired plants being retired and many new gas turbine, solar, and other renewable plants being built there is a need to either retrain some BHE personnel or find other uses for their coal talent.  McIlvaine has set up (1) decision systems for all power plants and (2) a special website and decision system for all BHE plus sponsors.  This data can be shared and incorporated into a (3) proprietary decision system accessible only to BHE personnel.  BHE can utilize this knowledge and especially its coal-fired knowledge to help operate plants in India and other countries.  Each sister company would utilize the systems for all power plants, the systems with sponsors and a proprietary system managed by BHE.

The first priority would be to perfect the system for BHE.  McIlvaine at this point has made the all plant system and the BHE plus sponsors system available at no charge. For a modest fee McIlvaine would help create a proprietary system.  The basic system can be supplemented with proprietary vendor and consultant supplied data.  McIlvaine webinars for PacifiCorp have triggered a number of personal visits by suppliers such as Hamon, Fuel Tech, Siemens etc.  This data can be organized and added to a proprietary system using software supplied by McIlvaine.  Furthermore it would be advisable for BHE to have both in house experts and hourly niche consultants to add insights to confidential information or to answer follow up questions.  These answers could be posted on the BHE proprietary website.  Comments should also be encouraged from other BHE personnel.  Someone at Mid-American may have some special insights to add on NO_x control based on the Neal experience.

The proprietary website will allow BHE to maximize the “Wise Crowd” input and integrate it into a proprietary confidential system.  After this system is successfully implemented at all the BHE facilities, it can be utilized to provide similar systems to other utilities.  If low NO_x systems are installed at Hunter and Huntington and they achieve the goals due  to hardware, software, and management expertise then BHE will have a product which is desperately needed by the Indian utilities.  They have new but modest NO_x limits.  So your approach would be ideal. 

GE says the future is machine to machine communication.  They gave a speech on the Digital Twin at the Asian sub bituminous coal conference last week.  The message to Asian as well as U.S. utilities is that every aspect of operation and maintenance will be improved.  The speaker also emphasized the value of scale. He cited integrating the experience from supplying thousands of steam turbines.  IF BHE adopts the digital program from GE or its competitors it can leverage this ability with an increased scale of its own.  It can use the digital twin or equivalent to assist in the operation of power plants around the world. The fact that all the machine communications are remotely available means that BHE personnel can be managing Indian operations from Salt Lake.

Some BHE talents are easily leveraged.  We have been gathering information on your hydro operations and are very impressed with the number of fish and wild life experts you have on staff and the number of knowledgeable consultants such as HDR and MWH who you also employ. Your program for Oregon could be duplicated at hydro sites around the world.   Also this knowledge will be helpful to Mid-American on wind turbine bird kill issues.  One of your most active employees in this area just retired.  We are talking to him about becoming a niche expert on these issues. I am sure he would be interested in traveling to India or elsewhere if BHE had a need.  A more detailed analysis appears below:

Utilizing the Excess Coal-fired Boiler Talent in the U.S. 

The U.S. is not building new coal-fired power plants and will be shutting down nearly 70,000 MW of existing power plants. There is uncertainty regarding the remaining 190,000 MW depending on clean power regulations. The result of this shrinkage is a large excess of coal-fired boiler talent in the country. Two options for beneficial use are to channel this talent into:

·        Other types of power generation activities

·        Coal-fired boiler power generation overseas

This is easier said than done.  This talent needs to gain new knowledge and to be integrated into two new organizational structures. McIlvaine believes that the best way to gain this knowledge and to create a structure is through “Wise Crowd” Decisions.

McIlvaine has created a system to cover all power generation knowledge regarding Berkshire Hathaway (BH).

The ultimate goal is to create systems for the 300 largest power plant operators worldwide.  These systems unleash the potential for “wise crowd” decisions through digital interconnection and delivery of the 4 knowledge needs:  Alerts, Answers, Analysis, and Advancement. These systems can be used by the U.S. coal-fired boiler talent to either transition to new types of power generation decisions or to bring their talents to the international coal-fired power generation industry.

Transition to Other Types of Power Generation Facilities

Already much of the coal-fired talent has been redirected to work on gas or renewable energy activities.  There is an internal restructuring at most large power generating companies, Berkshire Hathaway (BH) has been building gas, solar, wind and biomass plants.  To utilize coal-fired talent for the other types of generating facilities there may be relocation and training requirements. The “Wise Crowd” Decisions systems can positively address both challenges.

Relocation: With the internet of things and the delegation of certain tasks by specialty some of the coal-fired talent may not have to relocate.  Let’s take water monitoring systems as an example.  The October Monitoring and Sampling newsletter is one of the tools in the BH “Wise Crowd” Decisions.  It includes an analysis of Hach pH analyzer decisions made at the Mid-American Neal coal-fired power plant. It includes Hach water quality analyzer decisions being made at the PacifiCorp North Umpqua hydro plant and in the case of NV Energy the groundwater program for the Muddy River plant. 

Specialization will minimize the need for relocation: One of the Mid-American coal people could be a leader in the pH and other water quality analyzer decisions for all the coal, gas, turbine, geothermal and hydro plants. 

The hydro plants have further synergy in processes such as intake screens for coal and gas plants.  With the fish ladders and other steps necessary to protect wildlife, the PacifiCorp hydro people have a number of in-house experts plus the modus operandi to work with outside testing firms.  The fossil plants are challenged with new federal regulations impacting water intakes and discharge to reduce harm to fish populations. In the October Monitoring and Sampling newsletter, several hundred individuals at PacifiCorp and their contractors involved in this activity are identified.  Power Plant Air Quality Decisions (PPAQD) has recorded webinars with companies such as Ovivo making presentations on screen designs to protect fish at coal-fired power plants.  Ovivo is also involved in the hydro plants.  It would, therefore, make sense to create a BH team which deals with fish protection at all the plants. 

Bird kill is a concern with wind turbines.  The BH hydro wild life protection expertise will be quite valuable to Mid-American who is building 3000 MW of new wind turbine facilities. 

Training: The coal-fired talent which switches from coal to gas turbines immediately has access to Gas Turbine-Reciprocating Engine Decisions to select gas turbine inlet filters and to maximize their performance the talent can evaluate the negative impact of rapid cycling on valve selection.  Aspects of the HRSG, SCR and monitoring are different and can be quickly understood with the access to hundreds of hours of webinars, and organized analyses and case histories.  There are separate child webs on some components such as power plant valves which cover all fossil and nuclear requirements.

Coal-fired Power Generation Overseas

The goal is to create systems identical to the one for BH for all the large power plant operators around the world.  The fact that BH and a large Indian utility are using the same system opens new markets.  McIlvaine has conducted five webinars for PacifiCorp focused on reductions in NO_x without the use of SCR.  New NO_x regulations in India will place many plants in the same position as PacifiCorp.  PacifiCorp will be doing some testing and is likely to become the world leader in achieving NO_x reduction without full SCR.  This expertise is exportable.

The talent and the systems utilized by U.S. coal-fired boiler operators can be put to good use by coal-fired power plants in other countries.  More than 90 percent of coal-fired generation takes place offshore.  U.S. utilities do not have to own international generation facilities in order to leverage their coal-fired talent.  They can provide operating support.  If a utility creates specialists for its own plants and maximizes the information generated by machines, it can cost effectively assist international plants to follow suit.

McIlvaine Decision Systems can be very helpful in supporting these international operations.  Operators in many international coal-fired power plants will not speak English.  However, if the basic technical options are defined in the local language, then the important communications are possible. In some cases, this means first clarifying the options.  There was confusion among catalyst cleaning, catalyst rejuvenation and catalyst regeneration.  It took a 40-minute webinar with catalyst suppliers and others to agree on definitions and terminology in both Chinese and English.

McIlvaine suggests a webinar to discuss this potential.  Please contact Bob McIlvaine at rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com or 847-784-0012 ext 112.