Thomas Alley Jr., a speaker at the marcus evans Power Plant Management Summit 2012, on the growth of natural gas for power generation. Interview with: Thomas Alley Jr., Vice President, Generation, Electric Power Research Institute

1. Natural Gas:
The Power Source of the Future
How can power plant executives How can power plant managers
prosper in the current environment? improve efficiency and optimize
aging plants?
Industry executives must focus on
maintaining a high degree of reliability, By building new plants in which
managing costs and being temperatures can reach 1400 degrees
environmentally responsible. These Fahrenheit, efficiency can be increased.
three objectives must stay in balance, However, we will not see these new
or else customers become upset, the plants being built any time soon due to
cost of electricity rises, and reliability the pressures on the economy and coal.
suffers.
With the existing fleet there certainly
More specific to the generation aspect, are opportunities to improve heat rate
Interview with: Thomas Alley Jr., the economy cannot be avoided. and most of those opportunities are in
Vice President, Generation, Electric Demand has been flat or declining. We the combustion process and through
Power Research Institute have also seen a mild winter. This puts advanced tuning, controls, monitoring
pressure on revenues, and when that and sensors.
“Natural gas is the talk of the town,” happens, maintenance practices often
says Tom Alley, Vice President, are adjusted to accommodate economic
Generation, Electric Power Research concerns.
Institute. With some EPA regulations set
to go into effect in 2015, power plant What are the latest regulations and
executives are moving in the direction
of natural gas to replace coal plants, he
mandates that will have an impact
on the utility industry? Industry
adds.
The EPA standards and rules such as the executives
A speaker at the upcoming marcus new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and
evans Power Plant Management
Summit 2012, in Wheeling, Illinois,
Mercury and Air Toxic Standards are
putting pressure on the old sub-critical
must focus on
October 15-17, Alley discusses
maintaining costs and plant reliability.
fleet, making it difficult to justify capital
expenditures. Smaller sub-critical coal
maintaining
What are the power sources of the
plants may soon be closed, or re-
powered with gas. a high degree of
future?
The EPA regulations going into effect in reliability,
The decisions that power plant 2015 will force utilities to make tough
executives will make in the next few
years will shape the fleet for the next 20
decisions regarding the viability of their
assets. It will also be more attractive to
managing costs
or 30 years. The transition we are
currently seeing is due to the economy,
move in the direction of natural gas to
replace coal plants.
and being
regulation, and an abundance of natural
gas. The low limits of mercury required for environmentally
Natural gas is the talk of the town and a
new units under the Mercury and Air
Toxic Standards is 0.0002 lb/GWh, responsible
few weeks ago prices fell to just under which will be very challenging to meet
two dollars MMBtu. The supply side of and at this point difficult to measure, so
the equation is generally agreed upon, even those rules make the next
but the demand side is a concern if generations of fossil plants very difficult
everybody moves there. to plan.

2. About the Power Plant Management Summit 2012
The Energy Network - marcus
evans Summits group delivers
This unique forum will take place at the Westin Chicago North Shore, Wheeling,
peer-to-peer information on
Illinois, October 15-17, 2012. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition
strategic matters, professional
or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought
trends and breakthrough
leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event.
innovations.
The Summit includes presentations on moving towards optimization, supplying
power in a reliable manner, and minimizing risks.
www.ppm-summit.com
Contact
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closed business event and the Stacey Melvin, Journalist, marcus evans, Summits Division
number of participants strictly
limited. Tel: + 357 22 849 400
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