Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Why Did Brunswick's Power Increase Stall?

Sept 27 update

Still hanging around the low 90s. I wondering why they aren't higher.  

Sept 26 update.

Both hanging around the low 90s this morning.

***Brunswick 1
Sept 18  0%
Sept 19  0
Sept 20  0
Sept 21  0
Sept 24  68
Sept 25  71

Brunswick 2
Sept 18  0%
Sept 19  0
Sept 20  15
Sept 21  69
Sept 24  90
Sept 25  91

Monday, September 24, 2018

Junk Plant Grand Goof's Pitifully Slow Startup Vs the Two Plant Brunswick

Update Jan 26

95%

update Sept 26

Grand Goof is at 90%. I give them a week before they trip again. 

Update Sept 25

What has stalled the power ascension on the Brunswick plant?

Gulf Gulfs power rise is ok, but still slow.    

Sept 25

Brunswick 1  71%
Brunswick 2  92%
Grand Goof   77%

Update

Grand Gulf's startup is too slow and Brunswick's is too fast. At Brunswick, the Cape Fear River is still in the flood stage, unbelievable flooding debris washing down their rivers and coal ash entering the river. Their roads are all torn up and a nuclear emergency couldn't get a clean evacuation. It is just too uncertain situation to be running a ancient plant as that. They should have waited a week, then make the evaluation. But the Brunswick startup and power ascension looks typical for nuclear plants. Grand Gulf looks highly abnormal.    

***Remember,the Brunswick units just went through the eye of hurricane Florence. Grand Gulf has a long history of erratic startups and plant operations.  

Grand Gulf
Sept 18  0
Sept 19  15
Sept 20  41
Sept 21  55
Sept 24  51


Brunswick 1
Sept 18  0%
Sept 19  0
Sept 20  0
Sept 21  0
Sept 24  68

Brunswick 2
Sept 18  0%
Sept 19  0
Sept 20  15
Sept 21  69
Sept 24  90


Thursday, September 20, 2018

Brunswick Is Starting Up Today

 
Update Sept 22

These spheres are leaking from a lagoon. We don't know how much. Can they clog up the cooling systems at Brunswick. This coal plant is about 30 miles upstream...

Aluminum Silicate Spheres
Cenospheres Alternative Cenospheres is classified and purified from ash powder of coal on the condition of special combustion in power plant that uses coal as fuel.
***You even can't imagine the level of Flood debris coming down the Cape Fear River. Will they impact the plant? The trash racks

Any studies on what coal ash can do to the water system?
A Duke Energy dam containing a lake in North Carolina was breached Friday, possibly causing coal ash to flow into the nearby Cape Fear River, the company said.

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Junk Plant Brunswick Faux Temination of Emergency Level

What if you have a fire, police, injured employee emergency? You going to get that ambulance...EMTs...on site in enough in enough time and they to the hospital. In a big fire, could you get the towns and cities off site fire trucks into the site. The continued access limitation is a direct threat to the plant.   The police access to the site would be delayed. City and town fire fighting resources are critical to the safety of the plant.

It just amazing how easily the plant can bend the rules and the NRC is so docile. It would be interesting of they have to resubmit this kind of emergency in near future of flooding.    

Power Reactor Event Number: 53609
Facility: BRUNSWICK
Region: 2     State: NC
Unit: [1] [2] []
RX Type: [1] GE-4,[2] GE-4
NRC Notified By: THOMAS SHERRILL
HQ OPS Officer: VINCE KLCO
Notification Date: 09/15/2018
Notification Time: 15:45 [ET]
Event Date: 09/15/2018
Event Time: 00:00 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 09/18/2018
Emergency Class: UNUSUAL EVENT
10 CFR Section:
50.72(a) (1) (i) - EMERGENCY DECLARED
Person (Organization):
MIKE ERNSTES (R2DO)
CATHERINE HANEY (R2)
HO NIEH (NRR)
WILLIAM GOTT (IRD)
Unit SCRAM Code RX Crit Initial PWR Initial RX Mode Current PWR Current RX Mode
1 N N 0 Hot Shutdown 0 Hot Shutdown
2 N N 0 Hot Shutdown 0 Hot Shutdown
Event Text


EN Revision Imported Date : 9/19/2018

EN Revision Text: UNUSUAL EVENT DUE TO SITE CONDITIONS PREVENTING PLANT ACCESS

"A hazardous event has resulted in on site conditions sufficient to prohibit the plant staff from accessing the site via personal vehicles due to flooding of local roads by Tropical Storm Florence."

Notified DHS SWO, FEMA OPS, and DHS NICC. Notified FEMA NWC, NuclearSSA, and FEMA NRCC via email.

* * * UPDATE FROM BRUCE HARTSCOK TO VINCE KLCO ON 9/28/2018 AT 1414 EDT * * *

On 9/18/2018 at 1400 EDT, the Unusual Event at Brunswick was terminated due to the ability to transport personnel to the site.

The licensee will notify the NRC Resident Inspectors.

Notified the R2DO (Guthrie), NRR EO (Miller) and the IRD MOC (Grant).

Notified DHS SWO, FEMA OPS, and DHS NICC. Notified FEMA NWC, NuclearSSA, and FEMA NRCC via email.

To top of page

Junk Plant Grand Gulf Creates Grid Emergency and Possible Blackout

Arkansas 1 has tripped or entered a refueling outage on Sept 17. Is this effecting the Louisiana grid?
  

***They are just not spending enough money on the plant. And the ratepayers pick up the bill for the outages plus profit. They make money on their maintenance malfeasants.

Will the intense heat lead to power blackouts in Louisiana?

Updated Sep 18, 1:13 PM; Posted Sep 18, 11:00 AM

By Greg LaRose

glarose@nola.com

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

It's brutally hot in south Louisiana -- even for September -- and the forecast offers no relief. As a result, there's a bigger drain than usual on the regional power supply, and utilities have been on alert in case demand exceeds the available electricity. If the situation becomes critical, it could result in rolling blackouts for customers.

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the entity that controls the flow of electricity for much of Louisiana -- along with portions of 14 other states and Manitoba, Canada -- put utility members in its southern region on a "maximum generation alert" effective noon Monday (Sept. 17). Its spokesman cited hotter-than-expected temperatures, "tight" reserve power levels and generation outages.

Monday's alert was terminated by 4:30 p.m., but more could be in store through the week with record heat expected.

A similar alert was issued midday Saturday, and a couple of hours later it was escalated to a "maximum generation event" for nine utilities in MISO's southern region, including Cleco and Entergy's affiliates in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas. The event notice required the utilities to request that their customers conserve power until 11 p.m. that night. Entergy reached out to all of its customers, including those served by its New Orleans and Louisiana subsidiaries, through social and news media.

The maximum generation event was called off at 6:30 p.m. Saturday after MISO determined demand would not be an issue. The event notice mentioned there were "forced generation outages," indicating a power station, distribution line or transmission line was out of service because of a breakdown. When asked to identify where specific outages had occurred, MISO communications adviser Mark Brown said the company does not share that information with the public. He also didn't specify whether the outages were within or outside the nine utilities involved in the alert.

Entergy spokesman Neal Kirby told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on Monday that its Grand Gulf Nuclear Station near Port Gibson, Mississippi, accounted for one of the generation outages. The plant was taken offline Friday afternoon to address issues with its feedwater system. A timeline for its return to service was not provided, with Kirby labeling such details "business-sensitive information." Entergy delayed other planned outages over the weekend to support additional demand, he said. 
Entergy

✔ @Entergy

UPDATE: Entergy is asking customers to limit electricity use until 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15. We're making this request as required by @miso_energy. Learn more: http://enter.gy/6016D0LTp

7:44 PM - Sep 15, 2018
In addition to the three Entergy affiliates, MISO's maximum generation event notice was issued to Cleco, Louisiana Energy & Power Authority (LEPA), NRG Louisiana Generating, Lafayette Utilities System, the City of Alexandria and Mississippi Cooperative Energy.

All of the utilities NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reached confirmed that they did not experience any generation outages ahead of the MISO notice. NRG's generation spokesman did not respond to messages.

Saturday's maximum generation event was the third for MISO's southern region in the past 12 months, including one during January's hard freeze. That frequency, along with the lack of information from MISO, could prompt changes from the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which meets Wednesday in Baton Rouge. 
The utilities pays the politicians to hide their bad record.
Commissioner Eric Skrmetta of Metairie said he was aware of two other outages but did not have specific information on where they occurred because MISO considers it confidential. He wants commission members to approve a requirement that the investor-owned utilities they regulate issue releases from their nondisclosure agreements with MISO. Doing so would open the spigot of information about outages and other information that could impact consumers, he said.

One aspect of a maximum generation event that's troubling to Skrmetta is that it creates the opportunity for companies that sell power to utilities to realize a greater profit when demand peaks. Brown, the MISO spokesman, said wholesale electricity prices are typically higher when supply is tight.

Skrmetta said the difference on customer bills amounts to "pennies" when utilities have to buy power in these instances, but he believes merchant power companies should have to contribute to the power supply during high-demand events - rather than withhold electricity and sell it at a higher price the next day.

"We want them to be compelled ... to deliver into the system," he said.

If utilities ever had to resort to rolling blackouts, Skrmetta said it is highly unlikely that it would affect households or critical sites. Industrial customers would be impacted first, he said, because they typically consume the most power.

While MISO dictates how much power each utility would have to turn off, Entergy's spokesman Kirby said the utility determines how it will be done.

"We work to reduce the effects of the rotating outages on critical care customers, such as police, fire, water and sewer facilities, etc., therefore, power to other customers who are served on the same lines would be less affected," Kirby said.