Month: July 2009

New pulverized coal combustion systems –  utilizing supercritical and ultra-supercritical technology – operate at increasingly higher temperatures and pressures and therefore achieve higher efficiencies than conventional units and significant CO2 reductions. Ultra-supercritical units operate at even higher efficiencies than critical units, potentially up to around 50% (but easily between 45-48). The introduction of ultra-supercritical technology has been driven in countries such as Denmark, Germany and Japan, in order to achieve improved plant efficiencies and reduce fuel costs. The ultra super critic technology is thus about 20% more efficient than IEC’s old critic units. If IEC were to be forced to build their 1,200 MW D power station under this technology (rather than under the supercritical technology at over $2.1 billion) it would probably cost approximately $500-700 million more than the planned super critic plant. >

Ultra High Voltage is defined as voltages of 1,000 kV alternating current, or higher, and 800kV direct current, or higher, and it is needed for two main reasons. The first is to deliver large quantities of power over very long distances with very little loss of power (higher voltage means lower current on the transmission line and therefore lower loss). The second is to deliver large quantities of power to cities without having a proliferation of transmission lines. If you can deliver lots more power with just one line, you don’t have to build more lines and the resulting overall impact is reduced. In places where demand is growing but room for transmission lines is limited, such as Tokyo in Japan, this is critical because it means only one power line corridor is needed, not several.