Reach 7 Percent of the Power and Gas Transmission Industry with Berkshire
Hathaway Energy Wise Crowd Decisions
Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) includes PacifiCorp, NV Energy, Mid-American,
BHE Renewables, Northern and Kern River Pipeline. The two pipeline companies
transport 7 percent of the natural gas in the U.S. The power companies operate
coal, gas, hydro, solar, geothermal, biomass, wind and other renewables
generators. McIlvaine has been working with BHE relative to a large pollution
control program at four plants that involves potential impacts on wastewater
treatment. The approved bidders list for one gas turbine plant includes only
Cuno for condensate polishing. Another plant replaced the Cuno with higher
efficiency Pall filters. Berkshire Hathaway also owns Graver who is a leading
supplier of condensate filter systems. The wildlife protection expertise gained
from the hydro projects can be used in the 3000 MW wind turbine program underway
at Mid-American. All these examples point to the benefits of an interconnection
system between individuals within BHE and also interconnection with the
suppliers.
McIlvaine now has Berkshire Hathaway Energy “Wise Crowd” Decisions to be used by
suppliers as well as BHE personnel. It has details on every one of the hundreds
of power generators within the system. It fulfills the 4 knowledge needs:
Alerts, Answers, Analysis and Advancement. It combines 44I Power Plant Air
Quality Decisions (Power Plant Decisions Orchard) and 59D Gas Turbine and
Reciprocating Engine Decisions with the custom BHE program. This includes
interfacing with hundreds of BHE people indirectly through the Alerts, case
histories, etc. and directly through large and small webinars. The whole program
only costs a few thousand dollars if you have some other McIlvaine services. For
more information on this program contact Bob McIlvaine at 847 784 0012 ext. 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com.
Cartridge Filter Sales to be Just under $17 Billion Next Year
Sales of cartridges to industrial, commercial and residential customers not
including mobile sources will exceed $7.4 billion next year. This is the latest
forecast in Cartridge Filter World Market. NAFTA will be the leading regional
purchaser followed by East Asia.
Carbon cartridges will be the leading type followed by non-woven designs. The
market for cartridges with membranes is smaller but the fastest growing segment.
This is due to the high removal high removal efficiency.
1 Carbon
2 Non-Woven
3 Membrane
4 String Wound
5 Metal
The cartridge market is primarily a replacement market. This segment is all
classified as dead end and non-cleanable. As a result, the cartridges are
replaced when the maximum acceptable pressure drop is reached. Two other
McIlvaine reports N020 RO, UF, MF World Market and N006 Liquid Filtration and
Media World Markets address filters which are cleanable.
For more information, click on: N024 Cartridge Filters: World Market
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 to 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 NOx without the use of
SCR. New NOx 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 NOx 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.
The U.S. has been a leader in developing cost effective clean coal technology.
This resource should be leveraged rather than lost.
For more information, click on: 44I Power Plant Air Quality Decisions (PPAQD)
For more information, click on: 59EI Gas Turbine and Reciprocating Engine
Supplier Program.
For more information on interconnection programs contact Bob McIlvaine at
847-784-0012 ext. 112 rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com.
Utility E-Alert Tracks Billions of Dollars of New Coal-fired Power Plants on a
Weekly Basis
UTILITY E-ALERT
Here are some Headlines from the Utility E-Alert
#1293 – October 7, 2016
Table of Contents
COAL – US
• FPL gets approval to buy and then close Second Coal-fired Power Plant
• PSEG to retire Two New Jersey Coal-fired Power Plants in 2017
COAL – WORLD
• Velan Valves used at Barth 1-3 Supercritical Units of National Thermal Power
Corp
• MHPS receives Order for Steam Turbine set for Chang Chun Petrochemical of
Taiwan
• Sembcorp Industries bidding for 500 MW PPA with Andhra Pradesh
• Ten large Power Plants in India have more than 30,000 MW of Capacity
The 41F Utility E-Alert is issued weekly and covers the coal-fired projects,
regulations and other information important to the suppliers. It is $950/yr. but
is included in the $3020 42EI Utility Tracking System which has data on every
plant and project plus networking directories and many other features.
Upcoming Hot Topic Hours
DATE HOT TOPIC HOUR AND DECISION GUIDE SCHEDULE
The opportunity to interact on important issues
TBA
Markets Food - Analysis of 12 separate applications within food and beverage
with analysis of valve, pump, compressor, filter, analyzer and chemical options;
impact of new technologies such as forward osmosis.
TBA
Markets Municipal Wastewater - Quality of pumps, valves, filters, and analyzers
in Chinese and Asian plants; new pollutant challenges; water purification for
reuse.
TBA
Markets Mobile Emissions -Reduction in CO, VOCs, and particulate in fuels, oils,
and air used in on and off road vehicles; impact of RDE and failure of NOx traps
and the crisis in Europe created by the focus on clean diesel.
Click here to Register for the Webinars
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You can register for our free McIlvaine Newsletters at:
http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_rsform&formId=5.
Bob McIlvaine
President
847-784-0012 ext. 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com