Omanawa Falls Power Station

The Omanawa Falls Power Station is a run of the river hydroelectric facility on the Omanawa River, in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. Built in 1915 to supply electricity to the town of Tauranga, it was the Southern Hemisphere's first underground power station.
History.
Development.
The first power station in the Bay of Plenty were the Okere Falls Power Station on the Kaituna River which was commissioned in 1901.
The Water Power Act 1903, vested the rights to generate electricity in the Crown. The Public Works Act of 1908 consolidated the control of hydro-electric development by both central and local development, though the act was amended in that same year to allow private companies to generate electricity within strict conditions. The first decade of the 20th century witnessed the development of a number of hydroelectric schemes by various local authorities. Aware of the possibilities that electricity offered the B. C. Robbins, the Mayor of the Tauranga Borough Council engaged consulting engineers H.W. Climie & Son of Napier to investigate options for improving the town's infrastructure, including in addition to sanitary drainage and street improvement, the supply and distribution of electricity. The consultant's report which was delivered on 19 December 1912, identified that the rapids on the Waimapu and Wairoa Rivers, as well as the falls on Omanawa and Wairohi Rivers offered opportunities for the generation of electricity. H.W. Climie & Son proposed that for the Omanawa Falls:
The report included an estimate of the cost of the Omanawa Falls power station reticulation scheme and concluded that it would make a profit. However, because the likely profit was quite small there was local opposition. In 1912 ratepayers voted by 250 to 98 in flavour of raising a £15,000 loan to pay for the scheme.
In 1913, the Tauranga Borough Council applied to the Department of Lands to have the Omanawa Falls vested in their body corporate for the purposes of water power generation. They also applied under section 268 of the Public Works Act 1908 for a licence to generate electricity.
In October 1914, the Public Works Department gave its approval for water to be taken from the Omanawa River to generate electricity and circulate it throughout the Borough and surrounding area.
H.W. Climie & Son won the tender to undertake the design of the power station and manage its construction. First a large arched cavern long wide and high in the centre of the parabolic arch was blasted out of the solid rock to the right hand side of the base of the falls. A thick concrete floor was laid in the bottom of the cavern to level the surface, cover the discharge cavity and on which to mount the machinery.
A tunnel was then cut to carry water from the intake while an access tunnel was also cut to provide personnel access the powerhouse.
The cavern was lined with of concrete up to a height of .
Two generators with a combined output of 200 kW were installed. The electrical equipment was installed by the Electrical Construction Company of Auckland. For the other parts of the works contracts were let for the supply of materials, and the erection was done by day labour.
In 1915 the borough council hired Lloyd Mandeno as its electrical engineer, with responsibility not only for building the distribution system that will take power from the new power station but also to convince the population of 1,540 to give up their candles, kerosene lamps and town gas for the new untried electricity.
By 1924, 68 homes out of the 700 in the borough were using electric cooking.
Commissioning.
On 28 August 1915 Henry Westcott Climie's son Henry ("Harry") Richmond Climie with the assistance of Mr. H.M. Millar, Assistant Electrical Engineer of the Public Works Department, commenced commissioning of the power station. On 2 October 1915 the Borough had electrical street lights for the first time, replacing the system of gas lamps. The output from Omanawa was carried to Tauranga on a three phase 11 kV line.
Tauranga incurred a debt of £17,250 to build the power station and associated reticulation, which came to £11 per head.
The original operator employed to run the power station was E.L. Gossett, When he was away on active service during World War I, W. Milne was employed in his place.
Expansion.
After two years of operation demand for electricity had increased to such a level that the machines were found to be too small.
After the failure to find payable gold at the neighbouring Fleming's Reef to the south of Te Puke, landowner Malcolm Fleming sold the property to George Muir in 1918, who employed experienced prospector, Robert Worth to see if he could find any more gold. Worth discovered another gold bearing reef to the north of Flemings Reef. The mine which was named Muir's Reef operated from 1920 until 1928 when it closed.
To power the gold mining battery the owners of the land approached the Tauranga Borough Council about obtaining a supply of electricity. This new potential load when added to the increased load within the borough convinced the council to raise the output of the power station from 200 kW to 800 kW. It was proposed to supply the mine via a new high voltage over the Otawa range.
Lloyd Mandeno visited Australia to locate equipment that could be used in the expansion of the power station.
While the turbine had been originally designed for an 80 ft head it was locally modified after consulting with to and operated satisfactory on a 110 ft head.
In 1921 a new General Electric 650 kW generator was purchased from the USA while a surplus Swiss-made Escher Wyss 1,200 hp turbine (made in 1908) was identified at a gold quartz crushing plant in the Karangahake Gorge after that site had failed in its own attempt at obtaining a power supply. The turbine was removed from its massive concrete foundations and split into two sections in preparation for moving to its new location.
As no truck was large enough to carry the turbine, the contracting firm of Brennans at Paeroa was contracted to carry the turbine sections on horse-drawn wagons the 100 km distance to Omanawa. the heaviest section took five days to cover the distance with a five-horse team supplemented by another five horses at steep sections along the route.
To accommodate the new generator the existing units were removed and the powerhouse was enlarged, with W. Milne the foreman in charge of the modifications made on site to the electrical equipment. At the same time the head was increased to 33.5 metres.
This new generator produced on average 700 kW until 1974 when its outage put was reduced to 150 to 160 kW to allow the water to be diverted to other power stations in the Wairoa catchment.
In 1985 the cotton insulation on the windings failed damaging the coils. These were replaced.
As a result of the introduction of the Energy Companies Act in 1992 ownership of the power station was transferred by the council to a new created Tauranga Electricity Ltd, whose majority owner was the council owned Tauranga Civic Holdings Ltd. In June 1997 Tauranga Civic Holdings Ltd took total control of Tauranga Electricity. Following numerous merger and takeover offers Tauranga Electricity was sold by the Tauranga City Council to Trustpower on 31 October 1997 in return for a significant shareholding and guaranteed annual income of $3.3 million for the next five years.
Decommissioning.
The station was decommissioned by Trustpower on 29 July 1998, who gifted it to the Tauranga City Council.
Refurbishment and recommissioning.
Following the decommissioning of the station it suffered from vandalism,
In 2007 Te Kuiti hydro electricity enthusiast Michael Davis decided to preserve the site due to its historical significance. After obtaining a 35-year lease from the Tauranga City Council. Davis invested NZ$300,000 to restore the power station.
While the generator was in poor condition for continued use it was saved and is now on display in the powerhouse. While it was necessary to install a modern new generator, the turbine was in good condition and was restored by Bay of Plenty engineer Jim Berryman. A new fully automated control system was also installed. The station began generating again in November 2008.
Design.
The power station is located adjacent to the Omanawa Falls. Water is diverted from above the falls by a weir. The original proposal was to take the water from just above the falls, but it was afterwards considered advisable to take advantage of the additional of head which could be obtained by extending the tunnel some to further upstream to give a total head of .
The water is drawn from the Omanawa River just above the rapids from a deep pool whose natural weir diverts the water into an intake structure protected from large debris by a steel grating rails. Behind this is a large cast iron headgate is operated through gearing from a concrete valve house located above normal water level.
From the intake a high by wide tunnel runs for to a large high by wide reinforced concrete forebay. The forebay contains a revolving net strainer, long by wide, which prevents leaves and other debris brought down by the water from entering the turbines. From the forebay a long diameter vertical penstock brings the water down into the powerhouse where it was originally distributed via valves to the original two turbines. These valves control the supply of water to the individual turbines and are operated through gearing by means of hand wheels in the powerhouse. The penstock was originally sized for and arranged, so that a third generator (of twice the size if necessary) could be installed at a later date. Since 1921 there ha sonly been one turbine.
The powerhouse is carved into the ravine off to one side of the base of the falls. The open end was closed by a concrete wall with windows and a door big enough to allow all of the machinery to be lifted into the powerhouse.
The turbine discharges into a cavity under the floor, which occupies half the width and half the length of the powerhouse and which extents to a depth of below the floor level. During normal conditions there is of water in the bottom of the cavity, which exits via a high bywide tunnel into the pool below the falls.
A 250 step access tunnel provided personnel access to the powerhouse. Access to the supply tunnel is obtained by means of several flights of steps, which branch off the main access tunnel.
The spring-fed river has a constant flow which allows the station to produce a constant power output, without any seasonal fluctuations. The water consent to take water from the river ensures that a minimum flow is maintained over the Omanawa Falls.
Original electrical equipment.
Two generators with a nominal combined output of 200 kW were originally installed. Manufactured by Escher Wyss of Zurich, each horizontal Francis turbine had output of at 750 rpm. Each turbine's speed was controlled by a dedicated oil pressure governor, which was also supplied by Escher Wyss. The turbine which had a bronze runner with a diameter of , was coupled to a flywheel, from which a flexible coupling transmitted the power directly to an alternating current three-phase generator manufactured by the British Electrical Engineering Company of Loughborough. Each generator had a direct coupled exciter, which was capable of exciting the magnets of both generators at full load. The output of each generators were connected via cables to a 400 V to 11 kV step-up transformer manufactured by the British Electrical Engineering Company, before connecting to high tension oil insulated switchgear.
The principal items of electrical equipment were controlled and monitored via a long six panel switchboard, which partially extended across the front end of the power house. Each panel was faced with marble, thick. Two of the panels were allocated to the generators, with a spare panel reserved for a potential third generator, another panel contained a Tirrel automatic voltage regulator, while the last two panels were allocated to the step-up transformers. The switchboard and switchgear was manufactured by Johnson and Phillips, London. The transformers and the switchgear are located behind the switchboard in a square space enclosed with high wire woven screens to restrict personnel access. To reduce the risk of an explosion in the switchgear spreading to the rest of the powerhouse the switchgear were housed in concrete cubicles and operated remotely via a system of bell crank levers. From the switchgear the output of the station is carried via armoured cable to ground level before being conveyed over a stream above the falls in steel pipes about thirty feet above the water. It then passes up the eastern slope and terminates in a small galvanised iron hut in which were located lightning arresters (manufactured by the General Electric Company of U.S.A.) and from which the overhead three-phase 11 kV transmission line commences.
The transmission line (which all also carried a telephone circuit) was supported on natural round ironbark poles, spaced on the average apart. The first traversed both the Kopuererua and Tau Tau gorges before the transmission entered Tauranga along the Waikareao Estuary and before being terminated at substation at the western end of Wharf Street where the voltage was stepped down to 400 V for distribution around the town.
Current status.
The currently installed horizontal Escher Wyss Francis 1,200 hp turbine rotates at 375 rpm.
Following its refurbishment the fully automated power station has an output of 200 kW, producing 1.5 GWh of electricity a year via Powerco's Kaimai 11 kV feeder to households on Omanawa Rd and further up the Kaimais.


EF50

In the field of electronics, the EF50 is an early all-glass wideband remote cutoff pentode designed in 1938 by Philips. It was a landmark in the development of vacuum tube technology, departing from construction ideas of the time essentially unchanged from light bulb designs. Initially used in television receivers, it quickly gained a vital role in British radar and great efforts were made to secure a continuing supply of the device as Holland fell in World War II.
The EF50 tube is a 9-pin Loctal-socket device with short internal wires to nine short chromium-iron pins, making it suitable for Very High Frequency (VHF) use.
History.
The EF50 was preceded by RCA's acorn design and several other attempts, such as the "Stahlröhre" (~steel tube) from Telefunken, to reduce inductance in the wire leads, all with some disadvantages. Philips had been working since 1934–1935 on an alternative that would solve the problems of the other bases, and a design that could be produced cheaply and in large quantities. A presentation given by M.J.O. Strutt from the tube development group at Philips Research at the first "Internationale Fernseh-Tagung in Zürich" (international television conference in Zürich) described their work in September 1938. A few months later Professor J.L.H. Jonker, who had a leading role in the development of the EF50, published an internal Philips Research Technical Note, Titled: "New radio Tube Constructions". Jonker's role was confirmed decades later by Th. P. Tromp, head of radio-valve manufacturing and production: "Prof. Dr. Jonker (head of development lab of electronic valves in the mid thirties) was the originator of the EF50 and this development started as early as 1934–1935. It was, indeed, developed in view of possible television application."
Television requirements.
Pye Ltd., a leading British electronics firm of the time, had pioneered television receiver design, and in the late 1930s wanted to market receivers that would allow reception further and further from the single Alexandra Palace television transmitter. Encouraged by their 1937 success with a novel tuned radio frequency (TRF) design, Pye wanted a higher quality valve than they could produce on their own, and so talked to Mullard, which meant the research of Philips in Holland, plus some tweaking from Baden John Edwards and Donald Jackson from Pye (for example the metal shield), leading to the EF50 pentode that was needed in the Pye 45 MHz TRF design, and created a stable television receiver that captured a good market, being able to receive transmissions at up to five times the distance than the competition.
Radar uses.
Hugh Dowding had already seen the value of radar for his Air Defence system. Developments progressed at Bawdsey Manor from the mid-1930s; the early ground-based radar chains worked well but needed to be improved in accuracy, and Dowding saw the need for an airborne radar. At Bawdsey, Taffey Bowen had also needed a wideband valve for Airborne Interception (AI) radar; he had just one working set. So he contacted Tom Goldup, a senior director of Mullard, and "quite by chance in April or May of 1939" he heard of the Pye set from his old Professor at King's College, Edward Appleton. Visiting Pye, Bowen saw scores of what he sought, their 45MHz TRF chassis using the very new EF50, which he later described as "a valve that was to play almost as important a part in the radar war as the magnetron". The early Chain home radars chose 45 MHz as their intermediate frequency so that they could take advantage of Pye's television front end with minimal modification. Pye's modified design was often referred to as the 'Pye 45 Megacycle IF strip'.
Flight from Holland.
Because the EF50 had to come from Holland, yet was vital for the RDF (radar), great efforts were made to secure a continuing supply as the risk of Holland being overrun increased. Mullard in England did not have the ability to manufacture the special glass base, for example, and just before Germany invaded Holland, a truckload with 25,000 complete EF50s and many more of their special bases were successfully sent to England. The entire EF50 production line was hurriedly relocated to Britain. On 13 May, the day before the Germans flattened Rotterdam in 1940, members of the Philips family escaped together with the Dutch government on the British destroyer HMS "Windsor", taking with them a small wooden box containing the industrial diamonds that were to be used to make the dies needed to make the fine tungsten wires in the valves.
Equivalents.
To meet great wartime demand the EF50 was also made by Marconi-Osram (with the name Z90) and Cossor (their version named 63SPT) in the United Kingdom as well as Mullard (who were effectively using the Philips production line after it was moved from Holland). Versions were also made in Canada by Rogers Vacuum Tube Company and in the United States by Sylvania Electric Products.
British military (Ministry of Aircraft Production Specification) and U.S. JAN type numbers assigned to the EF50 include:
The tube was also assigned the GPO (PO)VT-207 type number, VT-250, and CV1578.
Valves of similar characteristics were produced with different bases, for example the later EF42 and 9-pin miniature (B9A) EF80.
See also.
Mullard EF50 data sheet


The United Illuminating Company

The United Illuminating Company (UI) is a regional electric distribution company based in Orange, Connecticut. Established in 1899, UI is engaged in the purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity and related services to 325,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in 17 towns and cities in the greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas. It is a subsidiary of Avangrid.
History.
UI’s roots can be traced to 1881, with the founding of the New Haven Electric Lighting Company, established to provide electric lighting to the city of New Haven. The company had a troubled start and in 1883 was reorganized as the New Haven Electric Company.
In 1899, the New Haven Electric Company, under the leadership of James English, acquired the Bridgeport Electric Light Company. The new company, renamed The United Illuminating Company, flourished in the new century as Connecticut became an important manufacturing center, and UI’s franchise spread outward from the cities of New Haven and Bridgeport to outlying towns. Regulated as a utility, UI for many years exclusively owned and operated the electric generation, transmission and distribution facilities in the greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas.
In 2000, as a result of Connecticut’s 1998 deregulation legislation, UI was required to sell its electricity generation plants, including the facilities at New Haven and Bridgeport harbors, and to divest from other generation projects including the Connecticut Yankee and Millstone nuclear power plants.
In that same year, UI became a subsidiary of UIL Holdings Corporation, a New Haven-based corporation structured to hold both the regulated UI and other non-regulated business entities.
UI continues to own and operate the transmission and distribution delivery infrastructure within its 17-town service territory. (*)
Major projects.
United Illuminating, along with Eversource Energy, previously known as Northeast Utilities (parent company of Connecticut Light and Power), has participated in a number of projects to improve the reliability of the power grid in southwest Connecticut. The first, involving construction of the $350 million 345-kilovolt Bethel-Norwalk transmission line through the western part of the state, was constructed entirely by Eversource Energy.
Both companies together completed the 69-mile (112 km), 345-kilovolt Middletown-Norwalk transmission line at a cost of $900 million. It was energized in 2009.


SNUPPS

SNUPPS is an acronym standing for Standardized Nuclear Unit Power Plant System. It refers to a 4-loop PWR reactor design produced by Westinghouse in the 1970s. The design was developed for 4 USA utilities, and plants were built at Callaway and Wolf Creek. The UK plant at Sizewell B was also based on SNUPPS but with significant modifications, such as a passive Emergency Boration System.


State Electricity Commission of Victoria

The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV, ECV or SEC) is a government-owned electricity supplier in Victoria, Australia. It was set up in 1918, and by 1972 it was the sole agency in the state for electricity generation, transmission, distribution and supply. Control of the SECV was by a Board of Commissioners appointed by the Victorian Government. After 1993, the SECV was disaggregated into generation, transmission and distribution companies, which were further split and then privatised in the mid to late 1990s. However, electricity supply agreements with the Portland and Point Henry aluminium smelters were retained by SECV, which continued as their electricity supplier.
Background.
When electricity generation first became practical, the main uses were lighting of public buildings, street lighting and later, electric trams. As a result, electricity generation and distribution tended to be carried out by municipalities, by private companies under franchise to the councils, or by joint private-public bodies.
Prior to the establishment of SECV, electricity was generated and distributed by a number of private and municipal generator and distribution companies. The main municipal-owned power station in Victoria was opened in 1892 by the Melbourne City Council, which generated electricity from its Spencer Street Power Station for the city’s residents, as well as being a wholesale supplier to other municipal distributors. The main privately owned company was the Melbourne Electric Supply Company which was established in 1899 and operated under 30-year franchise arrangement with a number of other municipal distributors. The company operated the Richmond and Geelong power stations. The final major generator of electricity was the Victorian Railways which operated the Newport Power Station, for the supply of electricity to Melbourne's suburban trains. These early generators all relied on a fuel supply provided by the strike prone black coal industry of New South Wales.
Victoria has large reserves of brown coal located in the Latrobe Valley, to the east of Melbourne. Brown coal has a low energy density due to the high moisture content and would have been uneconomic to transport to Melbourne. However, advances in electrical transmission technology allowed electricity to be generated near the fuel source and transmitted to the consumer.
History.
Formation.
Following an overseas tour in 1911, Herbert Reah Harper, engineer with the Melbourne City Council Electricity Supply Department, recognised the potential for Victorian brown coal, after seeing Germany's use, and recommended the establishment of a public utility on the lines of the Ontario Hydro Electricity. He was subsequently appointed to the Victorian Government Brown Coal Advisory Committee (chaired by Department of Mines director Hyman Herman), which reported in September 1917. It recommended the establishment of an Electricity Commission to develop the brown coal reserves, construct a power station and transmission lines. In December 1918, Parliament passed a bill to establish a Commission with both regulatory and investigative powers, including taking over the enforcement of the existing "Electric Light and Power Act", which regulated all electricity generators and distributors.
The Victorian Electricity Commissioners were created in 1919 under the "Electricity Commissioners Act 1918" and took over administration of the "Electric Light and Power Act" from the Public Works Department.
The Electricity Commissioners became the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) on 10 January 1921 under the "State Electricity Commission Act 1920". Sir John Monash was both chairman and general manager and Harper was the first chief engineer, retiring in 1936.
Capital works.
The first capital works to be carried out by the SECV was the development of the 50 MW Yallourn Power Station, briquette factory, and open-cut brown coal mine in the Latrobe Valley. The SECV was allocated $2.86 million for the Yallourn works, which had been recommended in 1917. Transmission of electricity to Melbourne began in 1924, a distance of 160 km using a 132kV line. The SECV moved to 220kV transmission in 1956 and 500kV in 1970. The SECV built Newport 'B' Power Station in 1923 to supply electricity to Melbourne until the Yallourn power station entered service. Newport 'B' was fuelled by imported black coal and Yallourn briquettes.
Work on hydroelectric power commenced in 1922 on the Rubicon Hydroelectric Scheme to the north-east of Melbourne. For the first ten years of its operation it supplied on average 16.9% of electricity generated by the SECV. The Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme was approved in 1937, but World War II delayed its progress.
Industry structure.
The legislation also gave the SECV the authority to decide whether rival organisations could be set up in competition to it, as well as the authority to take over existing private companies when their franchises expired. By 1953 the SECV acquired control of the following undertakings when their franchises expired:
The SECV also took over a number of small municipal electricity distributors during the 1920s, and in the 1930 the Melbourne Electric Supply Company was acquired along with their street tramway operations in Geelong, followed by Electric Supply Company of Victoria in 1934 - similarly with their tram systems in Ballarat and Bendigo. Despite these acquisitions, municipal controlled distribution companies known as Municipal Electricity Undertakings (MEUs) in the inner urban areas of Melbourne remained outside of SECV control until the privatisation of the industry in the 1990s. The eleven municipalities which had MEUs were: Melbourne (established 1897), Footscray (1910), Brunswick (1912), Box Hill (1912), Port Melbourne (1912), Preston (1912), Northcote (1913), Heidelberg (1914), Coburg (1914), Doncaster & Templestowe (1914) and Williamstown (1915). The other councils purchased electricity in bulk from one of the private companies that operated a power station for distribution in its area. The private companies also operated their own distribution and retail networks in other areas of Melbourne, and in one case they also operated some of Melbourne’s first electric tramways (in Essendon). MEUs served only inner Melbourne, and the supply of electricity to the rest of the state had to wait until the establishment of the SECV.
Pricing policy.
Electricity pricing was set by the SECV, which set different tariffs for towns of different size, dependent on the costs of providing the electricity supply. Country interests argued that this was unfair to rural consumers, and in June 1928 a conference of rural and regional councils demanded the government equalise tariffs, but this was rejected by the Labor Government.
Equalisation of tariffs was not brought in until 1965, and it was due to the SECV itself rather than a response to political pressures.
Growth.
During World War II construction and maintenance work had delayed, and after the war the SECV had difficulty with keeping up with increasing electricity demand. Existing thermal power stations were expanded at Yallourn and Newport, with much bigger generators of 50 MW capacity used, much larger than the 15-25 MW units used pre-war. The hydroelectric resources at Eildon and Kiewa also saw continued development. The Richmond Power Station was also converted to oil firing, and smaller 'prefabricated' power stations were erected in Geelong and Ballarat. These additions resulted in a reduction in the dependence on black coal by the 1950s.
By the 1960s the trend towards more efficient large capacity equipment continued, with additional generators of 120 MW capacity installed at Yallourn, and the Hazelwood Power Station with eight 200 MW units commissioned along with a new open cut mine and briquette factory. The Hazelwood mine was not as successful as planned as Morwell coal was unsuitable for making briquettes, resulting in coal needing to be railed from the Yallourn mine.
By the end of the decade brown coal was used to generate 90 per cent of Victoria's electricity supply, with all of the coal sourced from open cut mines under SECV control. As a result, the SECV was not forced to raise power costs during the 1970s oil price shocks, in contrast to other electricity suppliers around the world.
Expansion in the Latrobe Valley continued through the 1970s with the Yallourn W plant replacing the older units and delivering much greater reliability with Japanese and German technology, compared to the previously utilised equipment from the UK. A new gas fuelled power station was also proposed in the early 1970s for Newport to replace existing plant, but met considerable opposition from nearby residents becoming the first major SECV project that met widespread opposition from the general public. It was not opened until the 1980s and with only half the proposed capacity.
In the 1980s work on a third open cut commenced at Loy Yang, as the Yallourn and Morwell coal fields were both committed to fuel existing power stations. The plan was for two new stations (Loy Yang A and B) consisting all a total of eight 500 MW units, all fed by the common coal mine. The project was hit by cost overruns, with an independent review initiated by the government in late 1982, finding excessive rates of pay for construction and operation staff, poor project management, over investment in both the coal mine and power station and general overmanning.
Electricity costs to consumers also begun to rise in the 1980s, due to the need to pay greater dividends to the Victorian Government and to service greater debt levels from the heavy expansion. The SECV was also a part to the Portland Smelter Contract, which provided the Alcoa aluminium smelter with favourable electricity prices at the expense of other consumers.
Demise.
In 1994, the Kennett government disaggregated the SECV into five distribution and retail companies (absorbing the MEUs in the process), five generation companies, and a transmission company. Along with other state-owned utilities (such as the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria), these businesses were all corporatised, then privatised between 1995 and 1999.
The State Government retained ownership of the wholesale market operator Victorian Power Exchange (VPX), which was subsequently reorganised with its market and system operation functions being transferred to the National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO) and its transmission planning functions being transferred to VENCorp (now Australian Energy Markets Operator—AEMO).
The SECV continues as a much-diminished state-owned entity, run by an executive committee. It held indentures for debts owed to it by brown coal gasification company, HRL Limited, and remained the electricity supplier for the Portland aluminium smelter, under the name Vicpower Trading. It was also the electricity supplier to the Point Henry aluminium smelter, although that facility was closed in July 2016.
Currently, the Essential Services Commission of Victoria is responsible for the regulation of retail electricity distributors, and the Australian Energy Regulator is responsible for regulating distribution, transmission and the wholesale electricity market.
Successors.
After privatisation, the retail electricity distribution companies were:
Current distribution companies.
As at March 2020, the current electricity distributors for Victorians are:
Each distributor is responsible for a geographic region of Victoria.
Other responsibilities.
Other than electricity generation, the State Electricity Commission of Victoria also:


Adafruit Industries

Adafruit Industries is an open-source hardware company based in New York City. It was founded by Limor Fried in 2005. The company designs, manufactures and sells a number of electronics products, electronics components, tools and accessories. It also produces a number of learning resources, including live and recorded videos related to electronics, technology, and programming.
History.
Limor Fried, then a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began selling electronic kits on her website from her own designs in 2005. She later moved to New York City and established Adafruit Industries.
In 2010, Adafruit offered a reward for whoever could hack Microsoft's Kinect to make its motion sensing capabilities available for use for other projects. This reward was increased to $2,000 and then $3,000 following Microsoft's concerns about tampering.
The company had $22 million in revenue in 2013 and $33 million in 2014.
Company name.
The name Adafruit comes from Fried's online moniker "Ladyada", itself a homage to computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace. The company's goal is to get more people involved in technology, science and engineering.
Products.
In addition to distributing third-party components and boards such as the Raspberry Pi, Adafruit develops and sells its own development boards for educational and hobbyist purposes. In 2016, the company released the Circuit Playground, a board with an Atmel ATmega32u4 microcontroller and a variety of sensors, followed in 2017 by the more powerful Atmel SAMD21 based Circuit Playground Express. They, like many Adafruit products, are circular in shape for ease of use in education and wearable electronics projects, along with the FLORA and Gemma, the company's wearable electronics development platforms. In 2017, Adafruit Industries best selling product was the Circuit Playground Express
NeoPixel.
NeoPixel is Adafruit's brand of individually-addressable red-green-blue (RGB) LED. They are based on the WS2812 LED and WS2811 driver, where the WS2811 is integrated into the LED, for reduced footprint. Adafruit manufactures several products with NeoPixels with form factors such as strips, rings, matrices, Arduino shields, traditional five-millimeter cylinder LED and individual NeoPixel with or without a PCB. The control protocol for NeoPixels is based on only one communication wire. Adafruit provides an Arduino library and a Python Library to help with the programming of NeoPixels. In addition to the traditional RGB technology, Adafruit manufactures a red-green-blue-white (RGBW) variant of NeoPixel for all products except those that feature a NeoPixel Mini 3535. Those integrate an additional white LED in the package for extra possible color mixes and selectable white color temperature (the company sells single NeoPixels with a 6000K, 4500K and 3000K color temperature).
CircuitPython.
In January, 2017, Adafruit introduced CircuitPython, a fork of the MicroPython programming language optimized to run on select Adafruit products. CircuitPython currently runs on Adafruit boards with a flash memory chip and one of the following microcontrollers: Atmel SAMD21 (M0), Atmel SAMD51 (M4), and the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840.
In 2019, resources for CircuitPython were moved to circuitpython.org, a move to show that the number of third-party boards using CircuitPython had grown beyond those only manufactured by Adafruit. This includes both CircuitPython for microcontrollers and CircuitPython on single-board computers using a compatibility layer Adafruit named 'Blinka', to access general-purpose input/output functionality and compatibility with a library of over 160 sensors and drivers.
Feather development boards.
The Feather development boards constitute Adafruit's broadest platform of "Arduino-like" boards. The boards all share similarities in that they have the same form factor, same pinout, similar microcontrollers, and feature lithium polymer battery charging. Certain boards have special features in addition to the microcontroller breakout, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cellular network connectivity or built-in prototyping space or SD card communication. The name "Feather" comes from the fact that the boards are small, thin, light and easily powered from a battery. In addition to the boards themselves, Adafruit engineers and manufactures "FeatherWings", which are expansion cards allowing the addition of features such as an LCD, a NeoPixel array or DC motor drivers.
Adafruit Learning System.
In addition to manufacturing and selling electronic devices, Adafruit regularly publishes tutorials featuring their products. The tutorials show how to build projects, highlighting their products' abilities and strengths. The site hosts close to 2400 guides and articles written by collaborators. The guides range from teardowns of existing wearable electronic devices to 3D printing projects to overview and introduction of Adafruit merchandise and how to build projects.
Presence on YouTube.
Adafruit Industries has a substantial presence on the online video streaming website YouTube. The channel has been active since April 2, 2006. The company was awarded a YouTube Silver Play Button in August 2015 for having surpassed 100,000 subscribers and, as of the end of 2020, has 352,000 subscribers. Adafruit creates different types of videos, all on electronics, with most featuring one of their products. Each week, several live shows are streamed.
Ask an Engineer.
This weekly show was started in 2010 in Fried's living room. The concept was that viewers could ask her questions about engineering while she was assembling an electronics kit and Phillip Torrone, her spouse, was preparing shipments. The show is broadcast on YouTube with behind-the-scenes content available on Discord. The company states that this is the longest-running live electronics show. Some of the sections of the stream are new products where Fried demonstrates new products; Time Travel, where the hosts look back on the world of makers, hackers, artists and engineers and often highlight a special person or event; 3D Printing, where they showcase a special project or product related to the industry; a Q&A session; and a trivia question, where the first viewer with the correct answer wins a product. There is sometimes a section dedicated to Raspberry Pi and Arduino news and a section where the hosts read a positive email they have received. The show airs on Wednesdays at 8PM ET on the company's YouTube channel and is still run by Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone, with guests often present. As of February 2016, there have been almost 200 editions of the show, totalling almost 7 million minutes watched, a half million video views and 33 thousand playlist views.
Show-and-Tell.
Show-and-Tell is Adafruit's live show where makers from all around the world share electronic projects they are currently working on. The show is first broadcast at 7:30PM ET on Wednesdays, and runs for 30 minutes. It is hosted by Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone and uses the Google+ Hangouts platform. Over the four years that it has been running, Show-and-Tell has been produced more than 200 times, collecting more than 2.8 million minutes watched, about 500,000 video views and with 27,000 playlist views.
3D Hangouts with Noe and Pedro Ruiz.
3D Hangouts with Noe and Pedro Ruiz goes over the 3D printing industry (most typically about desktop FDM printers). Every week, on Thursday, a 30-minute edition is released where the two brothers discuss news about the industry, specific projects that they are working on, share 3D printing tips and tricks and answer viewer's questions and comments. They also showcase projects and prints from the online community. The show was started in 2014.
John Park's Workshop.
The weekly John Park's Workshop show is broadcast live from John Edgar Park's workshop as he builds creative technology projects – from mystery boxes to ninja timers to synthesizers to coffee robots – while teaching viewers the skills to create their own. The creations made by Park demonstrate the weekly project (which is later developed into a tutorial on Adafruit's Learning System), covers fundamental tips and tricks for working with the featured tools and materials, interacts with viewers, and answers questions over chat messaging systems in YouTube and Discord.
Wearable Electronics with Becky Stern.
Wearable Electronics with Becky Stern was Adafruit's live show dedicated to the wearable electronics industry. It was hosted by the American artist Becky Stern. In the show, industry news, projects, techniques and materials were covered and discussed. It aired every Wednesday at 2PM ET and was produced for 122 episodes, from 2013 to 2016. The last edition was streamed on February 10, 2016.


List of power stations in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's electricity demand is currently met by nine thermal power stations, fifteen large hydroelectric power stations, and fifteen wind farms, with a smaller share from small hydro facilities and other renewables such as solar. Most hydroelectric and thermal/fossil fuel–based power stations in the country are owned and/or operated by the government via the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), while the renewable energy sector consists mostly of privately run plants operating on a power purchase agreement with the CEB.
Per CEB's 2016 generation report released in mid-2017, the country has a total combined installed generation capacity of , of which 2,115 MW (52.65%) was from thermal (900 MW/22.40% from coal and 1,215 MW/30.25% from fuel oil), 1,726 MW (42.97%) from hydroelectricity, and the remaining 176 MW (4.38%) from other renewable sources such as wind, biomass, and solar. These generation sources produced a total of of electricity during that year, of which , , and was from thermal, hydro, and other renewables, respectively.
Non-renewable.
As of 2015, 1,464 MW of the total thermal installed capacity was from state-owned fossil fuel power stations: 900 MW from Lakvijaya, 380 MW from the state-owned portion of Kelanitissa, 160 MW from Sapugaskanda, and 24 MW from Uthuru Janani. The remaining 641 MW of the installed thermal capacity are from six privately owned power stations. All thermal power stations run on fuel oil, except Lakvijaya, which run on coal.
In an attempt to lower the current consumer tariff for electricity, the government has decided not to renew the power purchase agreements of privately owned thermal power stations when their licences expire, as it has done with the six now-decommissioned private power producers listed below. The government will utilize the new Sampur plant combined with new renewable sources to accommodate the lost private-sector capacity, with plans to introduce nuclear power after 2030.
The 500 MW Sampur Power Station was in early stages of development since 2006, but was subsequently cancelled in 2016 due environmental concerns. Prior to its cancellation, the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy also made a statement that no more coal-fired power stations will be commissioned, making Lakvijaya the only coal-fired power station in the country. Any future thermal power stations will also be natural gas–run, to reduce the nation's carbon footprint.
Renewable.
Hydroelectric.
Hydroelectricity has played a very significant role in the national installed power capacity since it was introduced in the 1950s, with over 50% of the total grid capacity met by hydroelectricity in 2000–2010. Hydroelectricity was popularized as early as the 1920s by Devapura Jayasena Wimalasurendra, who is considered as the "Father of Hydropower" in Sri Lanka. It lost its majority share on the power grid when further thermal power stations were introduced in 2010. The hydropower resource in Sri Lanka is divided into two main regions based on water resource, namely the Mahaweli Complex and Laxapana Complex.
While most hydroelectric power stations are named after their water source (i.e. the name of the dam and/or reservoir), a number of facilities have different names due to the fact that they are located larger distances apart (connected via underground penstocks). Further information on each power station is included in the corresponding water source article (i.e. dam). Privately owned "small-hydro" facilities (which are limited to a maximum nameplate capacity of by state policy), are excluded from this list.
Solar power.
Solar power is a relatively young segment in the energy industry of Sri Lanka. As of 2015, only a few grid-connected solar farms were operational, including a state-run facility. Despite at least half a dozen private companies applying for development permits for photovoltaic and solar thermal projects, most have not actually commenced construction.
Wind power.
Sri Lanka's wind power sector saw activity as early as 1988, when studies were conducted to build a pilot wind project in the Southern Province. More than a decade later, the state-owned 3 MW Hambantota Wind Farm was commissioned. The industry stayed dormant till 2003, when the National Renewable Energy Laboratory conducted further wind power studies in the island, before which the industry went into dormancy for a further seven years.
Unlike the other industries, Sri Lanka's wind energy industry witnessed a sudden boom in 2010, with the commissioning of the Mampuri Wind Farms, the first private-sector wind project in the country's history. It then suddenly crashed over the following four years after numerous scandals and hidden political dealings surfaced, involving key governing bodies such as the Sustainable Energy Authority and Ceylon Electricity Board, along with a number of senior individuals.
The last privately owned first-come, first-served style wind farm projects, the Pollupalai and Vallimunai Wind Farms, were completed in late 2014, by when the construction of new privately owned wind farms were suspended until further notice by presidential order. The largest private-sector beneficiaries of the "wind power boom" are Windforce and Senok, which currently own seven and three separate wind farms respectively, of the total of 14 privately owned wind farms in operation as at 2015. The other companies in the market include the semi-private LTL Holdings, Aitken Spence, and Willwind, which are currently operating four wind farms in total.


Enel Russia

Enel Russia (Full name: Public Joint Stock Company Enel Russia; former names: OGK-5 and Enel OGK-5) is a Russian power generation company created by the reorganization of RAO UES, a former united power company of Russia. The company is registered in Yekaterinburg and its headquarters are in Moscow. The Italian Enel Group owns a majority stake of the company (56%).
History.
The company was founded as OGK-5 on 27 October 2004. In October 2006, the company ran an initial public offering, offering 5.1 billion shares with a total value of US$459 million. In June 2007, Enel bought 29.99% of the shares in the company, previously owned by RAO UES. In October 2007, Enel increased its stake to 37.15% and later to 56.43%. On 7 July 2009, the company was renamed Enel OGK-5 and was registered as Enel Russia on on 8 August 2014.
On 25 June 2015, its name changed from Open Joint Stock Company Enel Russia to Public Joint Stock Company Enel Russia. The new abbreviated company name was PJSC Enel Russia.
In 2019, Enel sold the 3,800 MW Reftinskaya GRES coal-fired plant, its largest coal-fired plant, to the Kuzbassenergo company. The transfer was completed on 1 July 2020.
In 2020, Enel signed a deal to expand renewable energy development in the Republic of Tatarstan in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Operations.
The gross installed electrical capacity of Enel Russia is 5,628.7 MW for power generation and 2,032 Gcal/h for heat generation. Enel Russia operates Konakovskaya GRES, Nevinnomysskaya GRES, and Sredneuralskaya GRES in addition to its wind farm projects.
Sredneuralskaya GRES.
Sredneuralskaya GRES (SUGRES) is a thermal power plant powered by natural gas with a total installed electric capacity of 1,578.5 MW. The plant's 1st stage includes five medium pressure boilers ( abs) and three turbo-units with a capacity of 16 MW, 46 MW, and 16 MW. In 2017, SUGRES decommissioned turbo-units Nos.1, 2, and 5 (with a total capacity of 78 MW). The 2nd stage includes three high pressure boilers ( abs) and three turbo-units with respective capacities of 100, 100 and 38 MW. The 3rd stage features two two-boiler single-turbine units for supercritical parameters with capacities of 310 and 300 MW, and the 4th stage includes one two-boiler single-turbine unit for supercritical parameters with a capacity of 300 MW. The 4th stage also includes a CCGT unit with a capacity of 419 MW. The power plant also has a gas turbine expansion station (GTES) with a capacity of 11.5 MW.
The installed heat capacity of the plant is 1,327 Gcal/h. On 6 January 1936, the first turbo-unit was put into operation. In 1937 the second turbine was put into operation, and in 1939 the third turbo-unit was put into operation. Between 1950 and 1953, the first complex automation of thermal processes in the country started at SUGRES. In 1960, a high powered district heating system providing an output of 1,150 Gcal of heat power and 2,000 tons of hot water per hour for the cities of Sverdlovsk, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, and Sredneuralsk was put into operation at SUGRES. In 1985, SUGRES put into operation a water treatment and heating facility with a capacity of 6,000 t/h. The facility was supplied by a water conduit drawing from the Volchikhinskoye water reservoir. Such filtration facilities had not previously been used in the Soviet energy sector.
In 1982, SUGRES converted the first stage of the power plant from coal to natural gas, with oil as a backup fuel. On 25 July 2011, a new 410 MW CCGT was put into operation. The installed capacity of Sredneuralskaya GRES CCGT is 419 MW.
Nevinnomysskaya GRES.
Nevinnomysskaya GRES is one of the largest thermal power plants in the North Caucasus. It is located in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai. The installed electric capacity of GRES is 1,530.2 MW and heat capacity is 585 Gcal/hour. Nevinnomysskaya GRES consists of a combined heat and power (CHP) facility (185 MW, 585 Gcal/hour), open set condensate power units (935 MW), and a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) unit (410.2 MW). 12 turbines and 14 boilers are installed at the power plant. The water supply for the power equipment is drawn from the Great Stavropol Canal and the Kuban River. The plant's main fuel is natural gas and its backup fuel is oil. The first turbo-unit of Nevinnomysskaya GRES was put into operation on 25 June 1960. The startup of a newly constructed 410.2 MW CCGT on 15 July 2011 resulted in a significant increase in the power plant's installed capacity.
Konakovskaya GRES.
Konakovskaya GRES (KGRES) is located on the banks of the Volga River near Konakovo, Tver Region, and is one of the region's largest suppliers of electric power and heat. The installed electric capacity of the power plant is 2,520 MW and its heat capacity is 120 Gcal/hour. The power plant includes 8 power units with a total capacity of 300–325 MW. The power plant was built in two phases, each with 4 power units and 4 turbo-units, bearing a capacity of 300 MW per phase. The construction of Konakovskaya GRES began in 1962. On 10 January 1965, the first power unit was put into operation. The construction of Konakovskaya GRES was fully completed in 1969. The plant's main fuel is natural gas. Its backup fuel is oil.
Wind farms.
In June 2017, Enel Russia won the tender for the construction of two windfarms, one in the Murmansk Region with an installed capacity of 201 MW and one near Azov in the Rostov region with a capacity of 90 MW. On 23 May 2019, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Azovskaya wind farm construction was held. In June 2019, following federal tender results, Enel Russia was awarded construction of the 71 MW Rodnikovsky wind farm in the Stavropol region. On 19 September 2019 construction began on the 201 MW Kolskaya wind farm, the largest renewable project in the Arctic Circle.
Corporate issues.
The company's share capital is 35,371,898,370 rubles divided into ordinary shares with a par value of 1 ruble.
Enel Russia shares are included in the first level quotation list at the exchange platform of MICEX Stock Exchange.
The company's income for 2019, according to IFRS, was RUB65.8 billion. The EBITDA evaluation put their income at RUB15.73 billion, and their net ordinary income is RUB7.453 billion.
Giorgio Callegari has been the chairman of the board since 23 April 2020. Stephane Zweguintzow has been the general director since 2 June 2020.


Beijing Jingneng Power

Beijing Jingneng Power Co., Ltd. (, ) is a Beijing coal power producer and district heating supplier listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Description.
Beijing Jingneng Thermal Power Co., Ltd. is located in Shijingshan District of Beijing. It was founded in 2000 by the former Beijing International Power Development & Investment Corporation and former North China Electric Power Group Corporation, with 3 other shareholders, and became Beijing's first modern joint-stock power heat enterprise with a registered capital of 570 million yuan.
Public trading.
Following an IPO on May 10, 2002, the company was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the first Beijing thermoelectric power company to be listed. At year end 2010 the company's main shareholders were Beijing International Energy Ltd. (39.88% of shares), Shanxi International Electricity Group Co., Ltd. (26%), and Beijing Energy Investment Holding (Group) Co., Ltd. (10.68%). The company's main business includes: thermal power generation, production and sale of electrical equipment, power generation equipment maintenance, and gypsum sales. In 2010, the company total installed capacity was 186 million kilowatts, with total assets of nearly 60 billion yuan.


Bekasi Power

PT Bekasi Power is a power plant located in West Java, Indonesia. It is a subsidiary of PT Jababeka Tbk which was established in 2007. As a 130 megawatt (MW) power plant generated by steam and gas (PLTGU), it strengthens Bekasi – Karawang electricity system through Cibatu substation owned by PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN). This state-owned company can only meet the needs of about 60 percent. To meet the rest, private sector needs to get involved.
A reliable and sustainable electricity supply with an international standard is a must for an industrial estate. Bekasi Power plant is therefore constructed to guarantee Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for a total of seven industrial zones including Jababeka. By delivering reliable electricity at a competitive price, this plant supports Jababeka business as well as surrounding areas, boosting Indonesia's power capacity and industrial growth for the upcoming years.
Government and private by collaboration.
The cooperation between Bekasi Power and PLN is considered as a contribution to government's program. Through the scheme of cooperation all electricity will be purchased by PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) at a price of Rp 1,050 per kilowatt hour (kWh). The scheme lasts for 20 years. Later, the electricity will be redistributed to Jababeka Industrial Estate and its surroundings. PLTGU Bekasi Power, according to the Managing Director, is generated by gas supplied by state-owned companies i.e. PT Pertamina and PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN). Each day, the supplied gas needed is 23 million BTU (British Thermal Units). A BTU is a measure of the energy content in fuel, and is used in the power, steam generation, heating and air conditioning industries. Natural gas is usually measured in BTUs.
Increasing the capacity.
To anticipate the future demand, Jababeka as the holding company has anticipated that soon the capacity shall be increased. In order to build and double the capacity, a sufficient land has been prepared to accommodate the increased capacity from currently 130 MW to 2 x 130 MW.
Future investors definitely need certainty to make sure their business works well. Therefore, industrial estate with complete infrastructure will surely interest them. And when the government has limited capacity and resources to provide, it is the turn of the private sector to engage. The cooperation between PLN and PLTGU Bekasi Power is a solution to overcome these obstacles.
In term of manufacturing a power plant, private sector needs to see in broader scope. As the President Director's said: "We cannot solely rely on the sale of land, we need other income. One of them comes from the electricity sales to government." He also emphasized that the electricity sales turnover to PLN has resulted Rp. 1 trillion because 100% output will be absorbed by PLN.
Expanding to other areas.
Realizing the good prospect, the company is eager to grow the same business. It will continue to develop the same PLTGU project in several other areas. The areas that are now being observed are: the Special Economic Zone Tanjung Lesung, Kendal Industrial Estate, Cilegon and Morotai. They will also follow suit. If the area requires additional power supply then the construction of power plant will also be built to meet the energy needs.
In term of future development, Bekasi Power has a plan to double the capacity from currently 130 MW to 2 x 130 MW in 2020. Ten years later, in 2030, they plan to increase to 3 x130 MW as a Green & Sustainable Energy Power Plant. At that time they will support electricity for all aspects in Bekasi, Cikarang, and Karawang i.e. housing, traffic system, industrial park, International Trade Center, commercial area, etc.
High demand from industrial estates.
The demand for electricity for industrial estate is inevitable. This is reflected in the efforts of the Ministry of Industry which in the next five years plans to develop 15 new industrial areas which will be supported by electricity supply up to 11,064 MW. The government believes that to meet these needs, developers of each industrial estate must build their own power plants. They should not only rely on government power project plans but also to build their own factories.
A total of 11,064 megawatts will be allocated to 13 industrial estates outside Java as the government's priority programs for industrial acceleration. Two other areas are located in Java, namely in Gresik, East Java and in Demak, Central Java. The demand for electricity for each industrial estate is clearly different. As in Batulicin, for example. In an industrial area of 530 hectares in South Kalimantan province, electricity needs 2,650 MW. Compare it to Sayung Industrial Estate in Demak, Central Java which requires only 42 MW. Differences in electricity demand occur not only because of the condition of the region but also the allocation. For industrial zones that focus on processing and refining minerals clearly require more electricity than labor-intensive industries.
Selling price.
When a power plant is to be built in an industrial estate, it should also take into account the issue of price. According to the Chairman of the Indonesian Industrial State Association the imbalance between energy availability and the price offered is not a new issue. In general, entrepreneurs in industrial areas are currently getting prices stun above expectations. Electricity price of US$0.12 per kWh in Bantaeng Industrial Park, according to him, is still too expensive. The ideal price range for the industry is supposed to be US$0.08 –0.10 per kWh. Therefore, entrepreneurs must be careful in choosing the source of power to obtain the economic price.
Import tax.
Building a power plant by a private company will always be fully supported by the government of the Republic of Indonesia. One of its supports is to apply tax deductions when importing components from abroad. "Components of power plants that have not been produced domestically and must be imported, can be tax deductible to only 10%."


Run of River Power

Run of River Power or ROR Power is a Canada-based energy company. It develops renewable, sustainable energy through its portfolio of run-of-river and biomass projects in British Columbia.
History.
In June 2005, Run of River listed on the TSX Venture Exchange by conducting a private placement of 14.8m shares at $0.60/share to raise $8.9m. These funds, and a $13m loan from Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services, were used to purchase a 90% interest in Rockford Energy, which included the Brandywine Creek facility and five other nearby projects, from Ledcor Power. The company was acquired by Concord SCCP General Partner (I) Inc. in May 2014 and delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange.
Power Projects.
Brandywine Creek (8MW, 34-40GWh/yr).
This project was awarded a 20-year power purchase agreement in BC Hydro's 2001 Call for Green Energy Projects. Construction work was carried out in less than one year by Ledcor Power and the project was commissioned in May 2005. Capital costs were originally estimated at $11m, but additional fish studies and agreements with local government and First Nations inflated costs to $14m.
Annual revenues have been estimated at roughly $2.2m for a total of "around $50 million" over 20 years. However, according to a 2008 report, Run of River's Brandywine project is "money-losing".
Development Projects.
Skookum Power Project (25MW, 68GWh/yr).
A 40-year PPA was awarded to Run of River Inc. in 2008 Call. Current plans call for construction of the $94m project to begin in 2012 and commissioning in Jan 2014.
Upper Pitt River (155MW).
This project, proposed by Run of River's subsidiary Northwest Cascade Power Ltd., included seven generation facilities and a 42 km transmission line that would have passed through Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. Capital costs were estimated at $350m.
The proposal reached the pre-application stage of British Columbia's Environmental Assessment process before being terminated by Environment Minister Barry Penner, who refused to redraw park boundaries in order to accommodate the required transmission line. While Run of River's management and the local First Nation were united in their opposition to this decision, the firm is currently seeking an alternative transmission route.


Cathode bias

In electronics, cathode bias (also known as self-bias, or automatic bias) is a technique used with vacuum tubes to make the direct current (dc) cathode voltage positive in relation to the negative side of the plate voltage supply by an amount equal to the magnitude of the desired grid bias voltage.
Operation.
The most common cathode bias implementation passes the cathode current through a resistor connected between the cathode and the negative side of the plate voltage supply. The cathode current through this resistor causes the desired voltage drop across the resistor and places the cathode at a positive dc voltage equal in magnitude to the negative grid bias voltage required. The grid circuit puts the grid at zero volts dc relative to negative side of the plate voltage supply, causing the grid voltage to be negative with respect to the cathode by the required amount. Directly heated cathode circuits connect the cathode bias resistor to the center tap of the filament transformer secondary or to the center tap of a low resistance connected across the filament.
Design.
To find the correct resistor value, first the tube operating point is determined. The plate current, the grid voltage relative to the cathode and the screen current (if applicable) are noted for the operating point. The cathode bias resistor value is found by dividing the absolute value of the operating point grid voltage by the operating point cathode current (plate current plus screen current). The power dissipated by the cathode bias resistor is the product of the square of the cathode current and the resistance in ohms.
Any signal frequency effect of the cathode resistor may be minimized by providing a suitable bypass capacitor in parallel with the resistor. In general, the capacitor value is selected such that the time constant of the capacitor and bias resistor is an order of magnitude greater than the period of the lowest frequency to be amplified. The capacitor makes the gain of the stage, at the signal frequencies, essentially the same as if the cathode was connected directly to the circuit return.
In some designs, the degenerative (negative) feedback caused by the cathode resistor may be desirable. In this case, all or a portion of the cathode resistance is not bypassed by a capacitor.
In class A push-pull circuits a pair of tubes driven by identical signals 180 degrees out of phase may share a common unbypassed cathode resistor. Degeneration will not occur because, if the grid voltage versus plate current characteristics of the two tubes are matched, the current through the cathode resistor will not vary during the 360 degrees of the signal cycle.
Comparison with fixed bias.
Cathode bias, as a solution, is often the alternative to using fixed bias. Robert Tomer, in his 1960 book about vacuum tubes, which mainly concerned itself with strategies for improving tube lifespan, condemned fixed bias designs in favor of cathode bias. He said that fixed bias, unlike cathode bias, does not provide a margin for error that protects the system from inevitable differences between vacuum tubes nor does it protect against run-away conditions caused by tube or circuit malfunctions. He also asserted that most tube specialists consider fixed bias operation to be dangerous. Despite this stance, fixed bias is commonly used in tube amplifiers today. Tomer identified the trend toward fixed bias designs in 1960 but was not certain about the reasons for it.


Mount Sibayak

Mt. Sibayak () is a stratovolcano overlooking the town of Berastagi in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Although its last eruption was more than a century ago, geothermal activity in the form of steam vents and hot springs remains high on and around the volcano. The vents produce crystalline sulfur, which was mined on a small scale in the past. Seepage of sulfurous gases has also caused acidic discolouration of the small crater lake.
Sibayak is a term from the Karo Batak language referring to a founding community. It is relatively easy to climb and has been a tourist attraction since colonial times.


Ceylon Electricity Board

The Ceylon Electricity Board - CEB (; ), is the largest electricity company in Sri Lanka. With a market share of nearly 100%, it controls all major functions of electricity generation, transmission, distribution and retailing in Sri Lanka. It is one of the only two on-grid electricity companies in the country; the other being Lanka Electricity Company (LECO). The company earned approximately Rs 204.7 billion in 2014, with a total of nearly 5.42 million consumer accounts.
It is a government owned and controlled utility of Sri Lanka that takes care of the general energy facilities of the island. The Ministry of Power and Energy is the responsible ministry above the CEB. Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), established by an CEB Act No. 17 of 1969, is under legal obligation to develop and maintain an efficient, coordinated and economical system of Electricity supply in accordance with any Licenses issue
Subsidiaries.
CEB has following subsideries
Electricity Generation.
Hydro power.
Electricity generation by CEB is primarily done by hydro power. Hydro power is the oldest and most dependent source of electricity generation, taking a share of nearly 42% of the total available grid capacity in December 2014, and 37% of power generated in 2014. Hydropower generation facilities has been constantly under development since the introduction of the national grid, but is currently declining due to the exhaustion of the resource.
In 2014, then Media Spokesperson at the CEB, Senajith Dassanayake said the generation of hydro power has dropped to 37%; as a result, 60 percent of the electricity needs have to be fulfilled by thermal energy.
Thermal Power.
The Norocholai Coal Power Station, the only coal-fired power station in the country is owned by CEB; it was commissioned in late-2011 and finished in 2014, under loans from Export-Import Bank of China. It added further of electrical capacity to the grid. The Sampur Coal Power Station, is currently under consideration in Trincomalee.
Coal Power Development.
In 2011, Ceylon Electricity Board opened a new coal power plant named Puttalam Lakvijaya. On 13 February 2011 it was synchronized with the system.
On 17 September 2014, US$1.35 billion coal-fired Norochcholai Power Station was commissioned by the Chinese President Xi Jinping on his visit to Sri Lanka. The Export-Import Bank of China provided a US$450 million loan for the first 300 megawatt unit at the power plant. The power plant was officially commenced on 16 September 2014.
Wind Power Development.
CEB lunch Sri Lanka largest wind farm Thambapavani added to national grid. Project stated in 2014. Power station generate more than 800 MW.
Controversies.
Losses.
Ceylon Electricity Board has lost 25.5 billion rupees in 2011, and run up debts of 121 billion rupees with a petroleum distributor and independent power producers.
In 2012, the CEB lost 61.2 billion rupees and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation which supplied fuel below cost 89.7 billion rupees. To cover up the loss, the CEB increased power tariffs in large scales. The CEB expected to get revenues of 223 billion rupees—or 45 billion rupees more than the earlier tariff—from the price hike, but subsequently lost 33 billion rupees in 2013 on total expenses of 256 billion rupees.
On 16 September 2014, after officially opening a completed $1.35 billion Chinese-financed 900 MW coal power plant project, Sri Lankan President at the time, Mahinda Rajapaksa addressed the nation saying that the electricity bills of the people will be reduced by 25%. The CEB stated that it will take about two weeks to come up with a process of creating electricity bills to reflect the reduction in prices.
Employee Tax.
The CEB has been accused of Tax fraud by the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), which has claimed that CEB has not deducted PAYE from its engineers and senior staff since 2010 amounting to Rs. 3465 million. CaFFE has claimed that this amount has been recovered from the consumer instead.


RMA tube designation

In the years 1942-1944, the Radio Manufacturers Association used a descriptive nomenclature system for industrial, transmitting, and special-purpose vacuum tubes. The numbering scheme was distinct from both the numbering schemes used for standard receiving tubes, and the existing transmitting tube numbering systems used previously, such as the "800 series" numbers originated by RCA and adopted by many others.
The system assigned numbers with the base form "1A21", and this numbering scheme is occasionally referred to by tube collectors and historians as the "1A21 system".
The first digit of the type number was 1-9, providing a rough indication of the filament/heater power rating (and therefore the overall power handling capabilities) of the tube. The assigned numbers were as follows:
The second character was a letter broadly identifying the class of tube:
The last 2 digits were serially assigned, beginning with 21 to avoid possible confusion with receiving tubes or CRT phosphor designations.
Multiple section tubes (like the 3E29 or 8D21) are assigned a letter corresponding to ONE set of electrodes.
Oddities.
Like all tube numbering systems, there are many inconsistencies between theory and practice. For example, there is no assigned letter code for cathode-ray tubes. Some unusual types received rather mundane sounding designations, based solely on electrode count, because there was no better place to put them. For example, the 2F21 is not an actual hexode, but a pattern generating monoscope tube. Some very exotic types received generic designators, even when there was a more appropriate designator available. For example, the 2H21 "phasitron" phase modulator tube used in early FM broadcast transmitters was assigned an "H" (octode) designator, when it would have been a perfect candidate for the otherwise unused "T" category for deflection controlled tubes.
The first-digit filament/heater power rating confusingly gathers valves of widely-differing ratings. The 2G21 is a subminiature Triode-Hexode, with a maximum anode (plate) current of some 0.2 milliamps and a maximum voltage of 45 volts. The 2J42 Magnetron, with a power output of some 7 kilowatts, is rated for anode current of 4.5 amps (pulse peak) at anode voltage of 5,500 volts.
Famous types.
Many of the "1A21" series are well known to collectors and restorers of WW2 vintage radio equipment. A short list of well-known or historic types numbered under this system:
This numbering system was abandoned in 1944 in favor of a non-descriptive numbering system of 4 digit numbers beginning with 5500. This new system persisted until the final days of tubes, with type numbers registered up into the 9000 series.