2) Consultation process VGB-Standard-S-823-T32 (former VGB-B 116 D2) "RDS-PP Application Windenergy"
3) ZEP Report on Biomass with CO2 Capture and Storage (Bio-CCS) - The Way Forward for Europe
4) HOSEP Research Project: Prevention of Self-ignition in Biomass Storages
5) Call for Papers - VGB Conference "Power Plants in Competition 2013"
6) VGB-S-002-T-01;2012-05.EN "Basic Terms of the Electric Utility Industry"
The VGB Scientific Advisory Board, with members from more than 30 chairs from all fields of power generation and power distribution throughout Europe, has compiled its concern about the current situation of the central European power supply situation in a new position paper "Turnaround of the Power Industry in Central Europe - Challenge on Grids".
As storage of electricity would be even more expensive, extending decentralised, new renewables to more than the level they have reached in central Europe now will require extensive additional investments into the transmission (thousands of kilometres) and distribution (hundreds of thousands of kilometres) networks, thus practically building up parallel structures.
The board points out that appropriate market structures, investment incentives and effective licensing procedures will be a prerequisite for maintaining supply security.
The Position Paper is available here:
http://www.vgb.org/vgbmultimedia/News/SAB_Position_paper_2012_07_04.pdf
VGB PowerTech received in total 12 responses with 673 individual comments to the consultation process. The VGB project group reviewed and listed these comments in one file. For reasons of transparency of the consultation process the list of comments was published on the VGB-Website in agreement with the senders.
After assessment of the individual comments by the VGB-groups the results will be communicated to each sender.
The members of the project group are open for any queries during the consultation period. Please direct these to the following email address:
mailto:ak-ad@vgb.org.
The list of comments is available here:
http://www.vgb.org/en/db_rds_e.html
The European Biofuels Technology Platform (EBTP) and the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) have published a joint report. Bio-CCS combines sustainable biomass conversion with CCS. This carbon-negative solution not only avoids additional CO2 emissions but can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The theoretical technical potential if all available biomass is allocated to electricity generation with CCS amounts to 10 Gt CO2 per year globally and 0.8 Gt CO2 per year for Europe by 2050. The use of biomass for biofuel production with CCS can be cheaper than for electricity generation but the associated CO2 reduction is definitely lower. It is required to reward negative emissions via CCS of biogenic CO2 under the EU Emission Trading Scheme and to establish funding of R&D, pilot and demonstration projects. Recommendations for further research include comprehensive cost assessment and life-cycle analyses.
The report was presented on June 19, 2012 in Brussels at the "Sustainable Energy Week" and is available for download on ZEP's website.
http://zeroemissionsplatform.eu/news/news/1407.html
The objective of the project is to investigate the procedures in biomass storages which lead to self-ignition, in particular the correlation between humidity, temperature, microbiological and chemical activity. Process engineering strategies will be derived, which contribute to a safe and low-loss storage.
The project starts in July 2012 and will be carried out over one year.
More Information:
mailto:sebastian.zimmerling@vgb.org
http://www.vgb.org/en/research_project359.html
VGB's Conference "Power Plants in Competition" will take place in Neuss, Germany, on April 24/25, 2013. VGB PowerTech will offer again its proven platform where you can share your experiences, increase your knowledge and get in touch with operators and plant manufacturers.
Please submit your Call for Papers by October 12, 2012, at the latest to:
mailto:stephanie.schlueter@vgb.org
http://www.vgb.org/en/pp_competition_2013.html
The VGB guideline RV809 "Fundamentals of the Utility Industry" was transferred to the VGB-Standard-S002-T01 and revised to the 9th edition.
The liberalization of the electricity market and the related transition to "market-oriented electricity generation," as well as the influence of market and stock exchange jargon required a basic revision.
An English and German extract is available in the VGB member area.
Download the extract of the VGB-Standard here:
http://www.vgb.org/en/vgb_s_002_r_01_en.html
http://www.vgb.org/shop/s-002-t-01-2012-05-en.html
Main topics of the July issue are: Interface management of turbo set maintenance in RWE Power AG; Integrated concept of outage planning and implementation; Rehabilitation of the Ataka power plant, boilers 1 + 2; The new VGB-Standard: Performance indicators and checklists for structuring and improving the processes in maintenance.
Abstracts of all articles are available here:
http://www.vgb.org/en/current_issue.html