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Power outages can happen anytime.

With global electricity consumption forecast to double over the coming decades, power executives must implement new strategies ensuring the reliability and availability of the bulk power system. According to a Brattle Group study released in April 2008 by the Edison Foundation, power companies will need to spend about $1.4 trillion over the next 22 years ($457 billion in generating capacity alone) to meet power demand and modernise the transmission and distribution grid. Power companies must find ways to improve process efficiency and extend asset life. In power generation facilities, utilities are forced to run their plants for longer periods of time. As such, the new priorities of the industry include:

In 1967, Black & Veatch was awarded a contract with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) for a 60-megawatt generating unit, representing one of the company’s first power projects in the Asia region.

For 17 years, Unit 1 at Browns Ferry nuclear plant on the north shore of Wheeler Reservoir in northern Alabama sat dormant. One of three operating Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear plants, Browns Ferry is a three-unit GE design and began commercial operation in 1974, just 11 years before it was shut down in 1985. When the TVA decided in 2002 to return Browns Ferry Unit 1 to operational status, extensive decontamination, repair and replacement work were necessary to bring the unit up to present-day standards. The TVA chose Flowserve to help them tackle the unique challenges associated with bringing Unit 1 back online.

The priority of Asia’s power plant operators have been reshaped by surging fuel prices and tight supply of replacement parts, says ABB Vice President Frenk Withoos, who oversees the company’s operations for Power Systems in the South Asia Pacific region. It is a dramatic turnaround from the situation just two years back when Asian Power last caught up with Mr. Withoos. At the time, Chinese equipment vendors were making serious inroads in Asia and fuel prices were low, replacement parts in plentiful supply and operators were little concerned with efficiency.