PREPA Warehouse 5

A couple weeks ago there were reports about PREPA squirreling away parts and supplies in a Cataño warehouse. Big headlines: ARMED FEDERAL AGENTS RAID WAREHOUSE!!! and so forth.

Turns out that this was just more fake news. Yes, ARMED!!! federal agents did go to the warehouse but pretty much all federal agents are armed so there is nothing unusual about this. It does works as a headline to get people spun up, though.

El Nueva Dia went to investigate (Good for you, END, for doing your job properly) and here is what they found:
 

PREPA “Warehouse 5" was no secret

The public corporation attributes federal intervention to a communication problem

Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - 10:05 AM

...
However, the Director of Transmission and Distribution of PREPA, José Sepúlveda Aponte, showed this newspaper documents that prove that, shortly after the passage of hurricane María, crews from PREPA and from private companies hired by the public corporation, as well as the Corps of Engineers, started looking for materials at that warehouse.
"All the new metal (transmission) towers that have been installed came from warehouse 5. It is the only warehouse with that material," he said.

Between September and October, about 200 requests were made, mostly by PREPA crews, according to the logbook shown to this newspaper. There are also entries made by Whitefish and Cobra companies.

As of October 28, there are entries of private crews hired by the Corps of Engineers, such as one made by Flour-Pike on October 28 for works on line 36800 in Canóvanas. There is also an entry on November 11 for that same line.

Meanwhile, on November 18 a crew of the New York Power Authority, also subcontracted by the Corps of Engineers, appears. In another document he highlighted that Fluor was also in the warehouse in December, as well as Con Edison.

There was no information available about entries made after December.
...

https://www.elnuevodia.com/english/english/nota/prepawarehouse5wasnosecret-2390311/

Read the whole thing. My guess is that this was a political "SWATing" designed to gin up controversy. Much like the fake controversy that was ginned up over Whitefish.

Link to Comments on proposed microgrid regulation

There are a number of interesting comments posted on the proposed microgrid regulztion. Here's the link to them

http://energia.pr.gov/numero_orden/cepr-mi-2018-0001/

Comments on PR Microgrid Regulations

In an earlier post https://darkislandpr.blogspot.com/2018/01/microgrid-regulations.html I had linked to the proposed microgrid regulations, expressed my support and mentioned a couple of comments. I finally got them written up and submitted. My complete comments are below

 

26 January 2018

Puerto Rico Energy Commission

San Juan PR

Good morning!

I have lived in Puerto Rico since 1971. For the past 30 years I have had no intercourse with PREPA other than as a residential customer. I work with industrial manufacturing and have long been concerned that a reliable and reasonably priced electrical supply is one of the top priorities for any company manufacturing or contemplating manufacturing on the island. This is also true of any other company in or coming to Puerto Rico.

In the 1970s and 80s I worked for a pharmaceutical manufacturer as Manager, Facility Operations. At that time PREPA’s inability to supply reliable power, at any cost, was a major problem. It was so major that it led me to develop one of the first microgrids in Puerto Rico, though we did not call it that at the time. Due to legal opposition by PREPA we never put it into operation. It did give me an opportunity to learn a lot about PREPA and Puerto Rico’s electrical system. I have maintained a layman’s interest in energy in general and PREPA in particular ever since.

I am very happy to see the microgrid initiative and I think this is just what Puerto Rico needs. A great deal of thought has obviously gone into the microgrid regulations and I congratulate you on a job well done.

I have a few comments that I would like included in the record. 

11.There is excessive emphasis, in my opinion, on solar. While solar has some applications in Puerto Rico, I do not think it should be permitted to be a major source of energy.

a.    It is fragile. As we saw in Maria, it does not stand up well to hurricanes. This installation in Humacao is a good example.

b.    Solar occupies far too much land for the amount of power that it generates. AES has solar and coal at their Guayama site. Each occupies roughly similar amounts of land. The solar facility generates about 5MW effective or about the equivalent of a truck portable diesel plant. The coal plant generates 454MW. 

c.    AES has mentioned building 10,000MW nominal, 2,500MW effective of solar in Puerto Rico. Allowing 5 acres per nominal MW, this would occupy almost 80 square miles of land. That is a lot on our small island. The yellow box on this picture shows 80 square miles relative to Puerto Rico.

The solar will not be built in a single installation, of course. It will be distributed in smaller blocks across the island. It is still 80 square miles total. Some will be built on rooftops, parking lots and so on. A lot, probably most, will displace existing flora, even if just weeds and will make the land unavailable for any other use. These plants absorb CO2 so the impact on CO2 emissions of this much vegetation being destroyed needs to be evaluated.

d.    Solar power in Puerto Rico is expensive. Is there any assurance that it will be less expensive in the future? PREPA has 20 year contracts to pay 18c/kwh for solar power with AES, the Humacao solar facility and others. In contrast, it purchases power from AES (coal) and EcoElectrica (natural gas) for between 9 and 12 cents/kwh over the past 4-5 years. Solar should only be encouraged if the power is competitively priced.

22.    Reliability of power must be a major concern of the regulation. Solar, and to a lesser extent wind, power plant outputs fluctuate from maximum to zero over the course of a day. Cloudy weather or low winds will cause fluctuations. Output also varies seasonally.

Battery storage will help smooth this out. However, most of the systems in use and contemplated provide limited backup power for 6-12 hours generally. This leaves solar customers without power at night and during multi-day cloudy periods as are common in Puerto Rico. A succession of still days will leave wind customers without power as well once the batteries run down. Currently this is not a problem because PREPA provides, in effect, an infinite battery or standby power. This may be a legitimate strategy for wind/solar generators but it is not free. PREPA must constantly maintain hot capacity ready to make up any shortfalls. If the wind/solar generators do not pay the full cost of this excess ready capacity, the costs will fall on the ratepayers or on Puerto Rican taxpayers.

Any microgrid regulation must require extended time backup power to be paid for by microgrid customers. If it can’t be provided by PREPA, the microgrid owner must be required to provide a diesel, gas turbine or other power supply that can run for an indefinite time, subject to fuel and maintenance.

 3.  Cogeneration/CHP is mentioned as a potential generation source for microgrids. I think that currently this is Puerto Rico’s most important potential power source. One problem with CHP in Puerto Rico is how to use the waste heat. Combined cycle plants, generating electrical power from both main engine and waste heat are getting smaller and smaller. There are many and many applications in Puerto Rico in the 0.5 to 1MW range. It is not clear whether or not these are included in the microgrid regulation. I believe that the regulation should be clarified to explicitly permit combined cycle CHP.

   4. Wheeling should be encouraged. This would allow microgrids to sell power to other microgrids. As I understand the proposal, they can do this but only if contiguous, transferring directly between microgrids. I believe that PREPA should be required to allow microgrids to sell power to each other, over PREPA lines, even if non-contiguous. A microgrid in Mayaguez should be permitted to sell power to a microgrid in Fajardo. The microgrid must pay a fee to PREPA sufficient to cover all costs and perhaps a bit extra. This would help PREPA recover some of the revenue lost from microgrid generation. It would also aid in disaster recovery as most hurricanes hit the eastern part of Puerto Rico hardest.

55.    Nuclear power should be included as a potential microgrid energy source. We are likely to see, in the next 10 years, packaged nuclear power plants in the 1-100MW range. Nuclear is the ultimate clean, renewable and sustainable energy. These could be ideal power sources for large microgrids, or as some call them, minigrids.

Again, let me emphasize how welcome these regulations are and how they will go a long way to providing for Puerto Rico’s energy future. Thank you for your efforts and consideration. Please contact me if you would like any elaboration on the comments above.

I'm speechless

I've been a residential PREPA customer for more than 40 years and an industrial customer for part of that time. In both capacities, when PREPA could not supply power, I've run standby generators to keep the lights on.

I had never heard of this before but apparently I owe PREPA money for those times. Sometimes I get dizzy here.

Our governor has, thankfully, put a stop to this stupidity.


Governor prohibits Puerto Rico utility from charging for private generator power
 
By Caribbean Business on January 17, 2018

SAN JUAN – A new law signed Wednesday by Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares prohibits the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa) from billing and charging customers for consumption of energy not generated by the public corporation, which implies the utility will not be able to charge for electricity produced by private generators.

The governor enacted Senate Bill 666, authored by Sen. Miguel Romero, to establish that Prepa will not be able to bill for energy produced by a generator in emergency situations, which includes blackouts for periods greater than 24 hours.

The signing of the new law occurs nearly four months after Hurricane Maria struck the island, with only 63% of the utility’s customers having electric service.

Read the whole thing. http://caribbeanbusiness.com/governor-prohibits-puerto-rico-utility-from-charging-for-private-generator-power/

Bye-bye PREPA!

Our governor just announced that PREPA will be privatized.

Hooray! Time to celebrate.

The devil is in the details of course but it is hard to find any downside to this at all.

The Puerto Rican people agree. In today's Primera Hora newspaper a poll finds 82% in Favor and12% opposed.

More later. In the meantime Caribbean Business has the story.

Hooray! Again.

http://caribbeanbusiness.com/governor-announces-puerto-rico-electric-utilitys-privatization-model/

Roosevelt Roads combined cycle

We need power generation in the eastern part of the island. Our governor is promoting 4-5MW in Roosevelt Roads which is a good start but only a start. I am not even sure that would be enough to supply Roosevelt Roads in its current state much less when it starts developing. 

We need someone with some vision to build a 50 or even 100MW combined cycle plant in RR. Someone not including PREPA but perhaps one of the propane importers. This could be done as a microgrid for RR selling excess power to PREPA. Seems like a no brainer to me:

1) Location - At present most power generation is in the south and west requiring long transmission runs. This is not only costly, it is inefficient. Nor is it reliable as we saw with Irma and Maria. RR has plenty of vacant land to site the plant. 

2) Interconnection - PREPA currently has 2 22MW GT generators at Daguao (Ceiba) ab out 1/2 mile from the end of the runway. These were installed in the early 70s to provide reliable power to the Naval station. A plant at RR could tie in at this substation. (I am guessing, I don't know how much could be connected there or how much of the plant output would be available for sale)

3) Fuel supply - Roosevelt Roads is a perfect place to bring in tanker loads of fuel and has existing fuel piers. Space for storage should not be a problem either. Ships or barges carrying oil or propane could dock and offload in the main harbor or in the auxiliary harbor near the drydock. The plant should be multi-fuel so it can use whatever is cheapest at the moment.

 4) Customers - The governor wants to develop industry at RR. Having a plant there would provide primary customers for the juice  and excess could be sold to PREPA. If RR develops industrially, there may even be customers for steam generated by waste heat. 

5) Ruggedness - A CCGT installation would be pretty rugged and should withstand any hurricane with minimal if any damage. This is not the case with wind or solar. 

In a previous note I commented that the new micro-grid regulation, while addressing combined heat and power (CHP) or cogeneration, does not make any mention of combined cycle. I presume it could be used but it should be made explicit. 

For those unfamiliar with the concept of combined cycle, it is this:

An engine, either turbine or reciprocating is used to drive a generator. About 40% of the heat input is used with the rest wasted. The waste heat is recovered and used to drive a second turbine powering a second generator. This allows 60-70% (or more) of the energy input to be used. 

Yes, that is a very, very, basic explanation. A much more detailed explanation is at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_cycle

The EcoElectrica LNG plant in Penuelas is a combined cycle plant.

Pier 4 generator update (Again-1/21/18)

I first posted about these generators on December 3 http://darkislandpr.blogspot.com/2017/12/what-are-these-generators-for.html

I happened to be in San Juan today but the San Sebastian Festival kept us out of the old city. I drove down my the channel in Isla Grande and the generators are still on Pier 4. No idea whether these are the same ones never sent out, are newly arrived generators, or the ones that were there before, sent out and returned as utility power is restored.

There's a lot of them and 40% or so of PR Residents still without power. Why can't some of these be used to provide power to communities? If nothing else, set them up in the street and let people run extension cords.

It's been 4 months since Maria. Some folks have been without power since Irma, going on 5 months now. Why aren't these generators being put to work?

78 Miles of solar

AES, which has a coal (454MW) and solar plant (4MW) plant in Guayama, is recommending the installation of 10,000MW of solar in Puerto Rico. They are advocating this as the primary source of PR's electrical supply. The use of batteries is included to even out availability but they do not address what happens when we have 2-3 cloudy days in a row (That never happens in PR, does it?).

That is 10,000MW nominal which translates to about 2,500 effective MW.

For a sens of scale, here is what the existing coal/solar plant looks like. 

So I was thinking about how much space 10,000MW would occupy. Looking around I find that the AES and Humacao solar sites each occupy 6-7 acres per nominal megawatt. Panels will continue getting more efficient so let's say 5 acres per MW. 10,000MW will require 50,000 acres. That is about 78 square miles or 202 square kilometers.

That is a lot of land that can't be used for much else. Nothing will grow under the panels so we lose the carbon eating potential of plants, even if just weeds. Some of it can be built on roofs or over parking lots but even so we still lose a lot of land. Not just land but relatively flat land. You know, like you would use for agriculture. Flat land that we have precious little of

To picture just how much 80 square miles is, I put an 80sqm block on top of a map of PR. The yellow block is to scale and is 40 miles long by 2 miles wide. Of course, the panels will be distributed in smaller areas but the total cumulative area will be the same.

Two other problems with making us dependent on solar:

1) Resiliency - Puerto Rico experiences regular hurricanes and has since forever. There is no reason we should not expect another Maria in the future. Hurricanes and solar panels do not mix. Just take a look at the Humacao solar farm which was completely destroyed.

2) Cost - Solar is not cheap. At present AES sells coal powered electricity to PREPA for 9-12 cents/kwh. EcoElectrica sells LNG powered juice to PREPA for about the same price. 

PREPA pays 18c/kwh for solar and has locked into contracts for 20 years at this price. 

Detailed data on how much PREPA purchases and how much it pays from these and other plants is available at their site https://aeepr.com/Documentos/Ley57/Tablas%20Compra%20de%20Energ%C3%ADa.pdf

Puerto Rico must have cheap, reliable, clean energy. Solar is not the way to get there. 

I will be happy to have AES or anyone else invest their own money in solar energy on the same basis as any other form of energy. No tax or regulatory sweeteners. Especially no sweetheart power purchase agreements. PREPA needs to buy solar on the same basis as they buy coal, gas, oil or other energy. They need to pay time based avoided cost. PREPA needs to purchase a mix of energy buying whatever is cheapest at any given minute.

Microgrid regulations

The PR Energy Commission last week issued their proposed regulations on microgrid development. I read it over the weekend and recommend everyone interested in energy do so. Don't get scared thinking it will be like most regulations with dense, unreadable, legalese. I think anyone, even someone who knows very little about energy beyond how to turn on a light switch, will be able to understand it. 

One of the things I learned is what I pioneer I am in PR energy development. I developed a microgrid back more than 30 years ago!

Without going into a lot of detail here, what it mainly does is allows individuals, companies, consumers, third parties, municipalities and pretty much anyone else to develop small scale power projects. These might serve a single plant or building or an area as large as a municipality. 
 
Most importantly, it recognizes the right of third parties to sell electricity at retail under certain conditions. (This stems from the Alcon case discussed previously here http://darkislandpr.blogspot.com/2017/12/alcon-v-prepa.html) Microgrid operators can sell power to PREPA , to members (if a co-op), to themselves or to customers connected to the grid.

The goal, highly worthy in my view, is to get away from the entire island being dependent on a few distant central plants in Penuelas and Guayama and get power generation distributed closer to point of use. 

It tries to encourage the use of renewables, not limited to wind and solar, but permits all types of energy generation for microgrids. It specifically mentions cogeneration, or "Combined Heat and Power" (CHP) as it calls it. I think this, combined in some applications with batteries, is the best way to go. 

I really only have three comments, which I will be submitting, about the proposed regulation:

1) I think small scale (>10MW) packaged nuclear plants will become practical and available in the next 5-10 years. Nuclear is the ultimate renewable energy and should be included in the regulation. 

2) CHP generally involves using a gas turbine or diesel engine to generate electricity then recovering the waste heat and using it for steam, chilled water or some other purpose. This boosts the system efficiency from @40% for electric only to 60-80%. Combined cycle is a form of cogeneration that uses the waste heat from the gas turbine to power a secondary steam turbine generator. Eco-Electrica and AES Guayama are both combined cycle cogenerators. 

It is unclear in the regulation whether combined cycle will be permitted. I believe it should be permitted and the regulation should explicitly do so.

3) Microgrids can sell power only to those connected to the microgrid or to PREPA. I would like to see provisions for PREPA to wheel power between microgrids. A microgrid in Mayaguez may have excess capacity at certain times that could be used by another microgrid in Humacao. They should be able to inject the power into the PREPA grid in Mayaguez and sell it to the microgrid in Humacao. PREPA would receive a fee for use of their system for this transmission, of course. As I understand the current proposal, the Mayaguez plant would have to sell the excess to PREPA who would then sell it generally to their customers. 

I seem to recall that PURPA requires wheeling for "Qualified Facilities" but it has been many years and I may be misremembering it.

Read the whole thing here:

http://energia.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Proposed-Regulation-on-Microgrid-Development-CEPR-MI-2018-0001-1.pdf

Comments can be submitted prior to Feb 4 to comentarios@energia.pr.gov

Got lights!

My lights came back last night about when a prepa crew routed around a bad xformer.

Still 20 or more houses without lights in my urbanization.

40% of puerto rico residents still witout light. Some since hurricane Irma. Since Maria in my casr. 110 days.

Roosevelt Roads powerhouse

Governor Rossello announced a plan for development of the former Roosevelt Roads. Sounds great to me but we've had other plans before that never happened. Maybe this time will be different, thought Charlie Brown as Lucy held the football. 

As part of the plan, Nuevo Dia reports:

Other development includes the generation of sustainable energy, an area of great need, even more after the experience of Hurricane Maria. The structure, explained Laboy, already exists, it is a matter of enabling it.

Initially, between one and five megawatts of energy could be generated.

I wonder what structure he is talking about? Unless he is talking about the PREPA 40MW gas turbine across the road from Roosevelt Roads, the only structure I can think of is the old powerhouse. This was built in about 1940 and has not run since about 1945. The machinery was still there in 1974 but was removed and sat for years in the weeds in Fajardo where Office Max used to be. 

The structure is interesting. It was designed to withstand simultaneous hits by 2 12" shells from a German Battleship. This was when it was thought the British royal family and govt would be evacuated to Roosey. 

Here's a recent picture showing the construction:

The top roof is not a facade, that is solid reinforced concrete. If anything gets through this, there is an inner roof, about 6-8' thick. You can see this from about the top of the slit windows to the top of the platform where the stairs end. Building walls are about 6-8' thick concrete. (feet, not inches) Lots and lots of heavy rebar throughout.

It would be interesting to see it as a power plant again. Whatever they do with it, they won't tear it down. I knew the engineer who built it and he was asked to tear it down by the Navy in the 70's. Basically, he told me, it can't be done short of nuclear weapons. He is the one who told the construction details.

PR Nuclear power

Some might not be aware that PR does have a nuclear plant. 

Sort of.

Long ago there were plans to build a reactor in the beach town of Rincon. The containment dome is still there. 

Looking for a picture just now, I see that it is now a museum. I'll have to visit and check it out. 

Lots more at this link:

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2016/04/14/nuclear-energy-for-puerto-rico/#sthash.vuvXVlhd.dpbs

PREPA also once bought a nuclear plant back in the 1970. For many years they were spending a significant amount of money each year to keep it in storage in France. (It has been years since I've heard of this, my memory is very hazy) The nuclear cafe site above does say this:

in 1968, PRWRA began to consider a more conventional nuclear plant. In May 1970, it ordered from Westinghouse a 583-MWe two-loop pressurized water reactor plant for a site at Islote. Practically nothing was accomplished on this project, which was finally cancelled in 1978, ending the Puerto Rican era of nuclear energy projects.

(PRWRA was Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority, the predecessor to PREPA)

Standby power and the grid

I was talking to my wife a week or two ago about how much standby/backup power Puerto Rico has. Many businesses, especially restaurants, have their own diesels, most in the 50-150KW range. Many homeowners have small generators in the 5KW range. Condo and office buildings, hospitals, manufacturing plants and others have generators up to a couple MW in size.

This is only partly due to the hurricane experience (last one before Maria was in 98) and more due to the unreliable power PREPA provides. 

I would not be surprised if the total backup capacity was in the 500-1000MW range.

Very little of it is grid connected. It is mostly on a transfer switch.Or, in the case of residential, wired in with extension cords as needed. 

I was thinking that it would be cool if somehow that capacity could be used instead of sitting idle. Kind of a pipe dream, interconnection and dispatch would be a nightmare.

Then I run across this:

NRG Energy and Cummins’ New Business: Backup Generators as Grid Assets

How aggregating backup power for demand response and other grid services could unlock a big new C&I distributed energy market.

Jeff St. John December 22, 2017

NRG Energy and Cummins’ New Business: Backup Generators as Grid Assets

 

The millions of backup generators installed at commercial and industrial sites across the country make up one of the largest sources of distributed energy. But most of it is fueled by diesel generators that are too dirty, noisy and inefficient to run during non-emergency times. 

 Still, a small but growing number of natural-gas-fired gensets in the market are clean enough to run outside of the strict parameters set for diesel in many U.S. jurisdictions, albeit with some big exceptions like California. 

Last week, NRG Energy and Cummins unveiled a partnership that aims to take advantage of this flexibility to offer backup generators to a whole new class of commercial-industrial customers. The press release calls it a “platform,” and it is backed up by substantial in-market software expertise from both companies.

The proposition is this: get a Cummins genset for use when the grid goes down, and shave 10 to 15 percent off your energy bills by allowing it to run as part of an aggregated fleet of a “preliminary estimated hundreds of megawatts capacity,” according to the companies’ press release. 
...
[Emph added-ED] 

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/nrg-energy-and-cummins-new-business-backup-generators-as-grid-assets#gs.t54_UPA

Pretty good idea, connecting all this capacity, distributed at the user, rather than the supplier, end of the grid. Even better, since Cummins/NRG pays for it, you get onsite standby power for free without even the hassle of managing it. 


"But", I hear you saying, "in PR only PREPA is allowed to sell electricity and isn't that what this is doing?" 

Fortunately, the Alcon decision has largely busted that monopoly if people what to take advantage of it. So, not only a great idea but legal. 

Now if they could just use it for cogeneration...

Weather and wind problems

One of the things we've found out from Maria is that solar and wind are not great in abnormal weather. See the Naguabo Windfarm for exhibit A
















I ran across a story yesterday about weather/renewable problems in Vermont. Vermont is trying to go all "green" with solar and wind energy.

Vermont is also cold in the winter and some winters are colder than others. This is one of those colder winters and they are having trouble supplying enough energy for Vermonters.

Story is here: http://yesvy.blogspot.com/2017/12/more-cold-and-more-oil-on-new-england.html

Perhaps they should not have closed the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant?

The blog has a lot of other interesting posts. The proprietor, Meredith Angwin, is that ava raris a pro-nuke activist. She also has a background that gives her credibility.

Check out her blog at yesvy.blogspot.com

China Syndrome story

I should probably clarify that the China Syndrome story below was not from me. I had mentioned the nuclear plant designer who told me the story of lube pump failure in the great Northeast blackout.

He was the one who told me that The China Syndrome was actually a pro-nuke movie.

This would have been in 83 or so.

The China Syndrome

In the early 80s there was a movie called "The China Syndrome" starring Jack Lemmon, Wilfrid Brimly and Hanoi Jane. I think it was supposed to be an anti-nuclear power movie but it boomeranged.

It is actually a very effective pitch for the safety of nuclear power plants.

A brief plot recap:

1) A corrupt California utility is building a nuclear power plant directly on top of an earthquake fault.

2) Jack Lemmon's character is some sort of project manager or quality inspector and finds that the contractor has been falsifying the pipe weld x-rays. The implication is that the contractor is also cutting corners on the welds themselves.

3) Lemmon goes to management and tries to blow the whistle and gets turned down. Too much money invested to stop now, he is told. He persists and is fired for his troubles.

4) The plant is powered up and there is excessive vibration of the piping. (This seems more like a shock absorber problem than a weld problem but it's a movie, OK?)

5) Lemmon hears about this, goes rogue, arms himself and invades the control room with the intention of shutting down the plant.

6) A SWAT team is called in but can't go into the control room for fear of damaging the controls.

7) A crack team of control engineers completely rewires the plant controls to move control out of the control room.

8) SWAT busts in with flash-bangs and lots of shooting, electrical sparks and so on. Very spectacular and Lemmon is killed.

9) in the meantime a pump vibrates so much that it falls off its mounting necessitating a total plant shut down. This is carried out safely with little more fuss, apparently, than switching off your car ignition.

Early in the movie we are told that "The China Syndrome" is what happens when the reactor goes out of control and melts right through the center of the earth "all the way to China."

So we have all of the above problems and they still shut the plant down with no problem?

That is one safe facility and design. It speaks a lot to the safety of nuclear. It should be shown in every high school every year and someone should explain to the kids what they are seeing. 

Great pro-nuke propaganda

Nuclear power for Puerto Rico

I've been a fan of nuclear power since childhood and especially since attending the Navy's nuclear power school in 1968. Safe, clean, and for those worried about CO2 emissions, there aren't any. No real Jones Act issue with bringing fuel, be it oil, gas or coal, from the US. Pretty robust when it comes to hurricanes. Most importantly, reliable baseload power. What's not to like?

There seems to be some interesting work being done with small, modular, reactors. Of course, there seems to have been some interesting work being done with small, modular, reactors for as long as I can remember. They always seem just over the horizon.

In the private sector, anyway.

The Navy has more experience than anyone with designing, building and operating nuke plants. Generally in fairly stressful environments. They've been building modular systems since the 50's. They are smaller than utility scale but I do not see why the concept could not be scaled up as an alternative to more or less custom designs for every utility plant.

As far as safety goes, nuclear has a pretty stellar track record.

YIMBY - I live about a mile from the Old Roosevelt Roads Naval Station. That would be my first choice for a location for a 2-400MW plant to supply power to the north and east coasts of PR.

Puerto Rico needs all options in our energy mix, including nuclear.

Here's some good news from Caribbean Business newspaper:

Nearly 1,500 additional grid repair workers headed to Puerto Rico

By Caribbean Business on December 28, 2017

SAN JUAN – Eighteen member companies of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) industry trade group will send nearly 1,500 grid-restoration workers and support personnel to Puerto Rico in January to accelerate power restoration efforts across the island.

...
 
As part of this mutual assistance deployment, hundreds of trucks with tools and equipment will be loaded on ships this week and barged to Puerto Rico, and our goal is for the nearly 1,500 mutual assistance crews from the mainland to arrive on the island by January 12,” added Carlos Torres, the island’s power restoration coordinator.
...
 
With the new arrivals, the total number of power restoration workers on the island will increase to more than 5,500, the EEI said, including Prepa’s own crews, a contingent of crews from New York who are working as part of an intergovernmental agreement and crews mobilized under USACE contracts.
...

Crews will be coming from utilities in the following states:
 
Pennsylvania
Texas
Virginia
Michigan
Missouri
Florida
North Carolina
Wisconsin

Read the whole article, it is very good news for a change.
http://caribbeanbusiness.com/nearly-1500-additional-grid-repair-workers-headed-to-puerto-rico/

Podcast on Puerto Rico post Maria featuring AES

I found Green Tech Media's website/blog a few weeks ago and am finding it very interesting. Its focus is a bit more on solar and batteries than I would really like. They have their place but I think cogeneration may be a better solution for many reasons.

AES is a large US builder/operator of power plants around the world, including the 454MW coal plant in Guayama. Their corporate team did a very good set of recommendations to the PR Energy Commission that I had linked to in a previous post here.

http://energia.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IN20170002A30-COMENTARIOS-AES.pdf

In their Interchange podcast, they interviewed Chris Shelton, the chief technology officer at AES about the plan. Fascinating throughout.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-plan-to-bring-power-back-to-puerto-rico-with-batteries-and-solar

The mp3 of the podcast is at the bottom of the article and can be streamed or downloaded.