UFTO Bulletin #18

February 2, 1996

To: UFTO Members:

. . in this issue: . . . . . . . . .

Where has January gone?

1. Enclosed is an updated UFTO roster. Note some new/changed email addresses. Also, a page from the current version of the new Subscriber Briefing, listing the key themes of UFTO in Year #2.

2. Update on the “By-Topic” mission:

– The Filemaker database is taking shape. We should have virtually all of our information to date loaded in an “alpha” version this month, which will enable me to do topical cut & pastes on request. Still a few bugs to work out, but it’s looking good. If anyone wants a copy of the database, we can do that, so long as it’s clearly understood that it won’t be “commercial grade” software.

– “Breakthrough Technology Conference” (Electrotechnology) in Tampa, April 24-6 —
See enclosed ad from Electrical World. I hope you and someone from your marketing group will attend. We’ll hold an UFTO group meeting in conjunction with this event. See attached questionnaire, and encourage your industrial technology/customer rep types to send someone.

— 2nd Topical Conference — PNL has offered to work with us on arranging some kind of a meeting–and even to host it. Please indicate any prefences about time, place and topic — see questionnaire. [How about Delivery — T&D? Or Environment?]

[PLEASE– fill out the attached questionnaire and fax it back to me, if you haven’t already. Thanks.]

3. I attended a one day conference in Cambridge MA in January, onCold Fusion and related developments, and am making a number of contacts as a result. This is in the category of “early warning radar”, though there are indications this whole business may be farther along than we think. See the enclosed “UFTO Comment.” (Also see UFTO Faxgram, March 25, 1995, for another discussion of “way out” technology.)

4. The Capstone turbogenerator story is moving very fast. They’re in contact with literally 100’s of utilities world wide, and signing up several a week as distributors. The usual utility industry time scales don’t apply. This situation will not wait for people watching from across the action gap who plan to look into it “soon”.

5. I have additional info on the PNL/Viatec waste acid detox and reclamation process, for metal-bearing spent acids in iron and steel, electroplating, galvanizing, and semiconductor industries. Any size of operation can be accommodated. They report paybacks of 6 months to 2 years. The company can be reached at 509-375-3268

6. I plan to attend the Technology Partnering workshop in Washington, February 26-27, sponsored by McGraw Hill, and featuring a number of high level government and industry speakers. Let me know if you or anyone from your company might be there.

7. You will get a copy of the Sandia U.S.-Russian Fuel Cell Conference proceedings sent directly to you in another month or two. I’ve given Sandia your name and address. Also, I’ve obtained some interesting material on fuel cell work in Europe. Let me know if you’d like copies.

UFTO Technology Nugget

February 2, 1996

• The International Utility Efficiency Partnerships (IUEP) is an industry wide initiative of the Climate Challenge, which is the partnership between utilities and the DOE to promote reductions in CO2 and greenhouse gases. The IUEP is overseen by EEI, and now has a WWW page at http://www.ji.org.

Contact: Michael Rucker, 202-508-5510, michree@eei.org.

• The United BioEnergy Commercialization Association (UBECA) encourages the development of biomass resources. Membership includes electric utilities, power producers, EEI, APPA, NRECA, EPRI and DOE. They are currently developing a national and international initiative to be cofunded by federal and private money. (One UFTO member is already participating.)

Contact: Amy Van Horn, UBECA, 202-296-8663

• The Reliability Analysis Center (RAC) in Rome NY is sponsored by the DOD Defense Technical Information Center and is operated by the IIT Research Institute. They provide an extensive array of publications, training courses and technical support. RAC is a focal point for reliability, maintainability and quality of components and systems, serving both the the DOD and commercial industry. They collect, analyze and publish databases on quality and reliability and evaluates and publishes information on engineering techniques and methods.

Contact: Michael Rossi, RAC Deputy Director, 315-339-7087

WWW home page is at: http://iitri.com/RAC/

A Product Catalog available. Call Gina Nash at 800-526-4802. Also ask for their video, and get their free quarterly “RAC Journal” sent to the right people in your company.

• A partnership consisting of American Superconducting, Lockheed Martin, Southern California Edison, and Los Alamos National Laboratory have demonstrated a 2.4-kilovolt high-temperature superconducting (HTS) current limiter prototype. The demonstration was funded by DOE’s Superconductivity Partnership Initiative program (described in the 9/94 UFTO reports on Argonne and Oak Ridge National Lab). American Superconductor expects to commercialize HTS current limiters by the end of the decade.

Tests performed at SCE indicated that all performance goals for this device were met. In addition, tests of the prototype demonstrated two other attractive features for utilities — this new, fully automated device can be used as an extremely fast circuit breaker and can interrupt multiple faults. One of the unique components of this new fault current limiter is its high temperature superconducting coil that is connected into the electric power grid using a solid-state switch.

Contacts: Gary Dishaw, Southern California Edison
Eddie Leung, Project leader, Energy & Power Systems (E&PS),
Lockheed Martin, San Diego, CA

• The state of the art in home insulation has advanced considerably in recent years. A comprehensive overview appears in the current issue (Feb/March 1996) of Fine Homebuilding magazine. It was written by Alex Wilson, editor of Environmental Building News, a bimonthly newsletter, $127/year, on environmentally sustainable design and construction. May be a good complement to E-Source and materials from the National Labs. 802-257-7300.