Yellow plume from Portlands part of start up

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Beach residents driving downtown one morning may have seen a menacing yellow plume rising from one of the Portlands Energy Centre's smokestacks.

Joe Reid, an official with Ontario Power Generation, assured passers-by that the foul-looking emissions were part of a start-up test that only lasted about 20 minutes. He said the gas-fired power plant, which has been operating in a single-cycle mode, is preparing to operate in a more efficient combined-cycle mode early next year and was having one of its generators tested.

"The first 20 minutes or so will give you visual on nitrous oxide emissions which are the result of the low operating level required for the commissioning activity," he said. "Once we get past our initial start-up the yellow plume will go away."

Reid said it's similar to starting up a car in the morning and getting lots of smoke. "Over time it dissipates."

A single-cycle plant, which burns natural gas that turns a gas turbine, operates at 35 per cent efficiency. A combined-cycle plant captures waste heat from the first cycle to generate steam that turns a second turbine, allowing the facility to operate at 56 per cent efficiency - meaning 50 per cent more electricity will be generated by the same amount of natural gas.

In combined-cycle mode the plant can produce 550 megawatts of power, up from 250 megawatts in single-cycle mode.

Related News

tesla powerwall

Tesla’s Powerwall as the beating heart of your home

VERMONT - There are more than 100 million single-family homes in the United States of America. If each of these homes were to have two 13.5 kWh Tesla Powerwalls, that would total 2.7 Terawatt-hours worth of electricity stored. Prior research has suggested that this volume of energy storage could get us halfway to the 5.4 TWh of storage needed to let the nation get 80% of its electricity from solar and wind.

Vermont utility Green Mountain Power (GMP) seeks to remove standard electric utility metering hardware and replace it with the equipment inside of a Tesla Powerwall. Mary Powell, President and…

READ MORE
$300 billion plan to dump Russian energy

EU outlines $300 billion plan to dump Russian energy

READ MORE

carillon generating station

Hydro-Québec to Invest $750 Million in Carillon Generating Station

READ MORE

tidal power

Is tidal energy the surge remote coastal communities need?

READ MORE

heatwave-sparks-unprecedented-electricity-demand

Heatwave Sparks Unprecedented Electricity Demand Across Eastern U.S

READ MORE