The Ramgen engine is based on the ramjet, the earliest form of jet engine and one still used on missiles. A ram jet gets its thrust from burning fuel in air compressed by its forward motion, then expelling the exhaust to create a forward force.

The Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) has been tasked by DOE to undertake a major new $2.5 million program in electric power system reliability research and technology development.

Thermal Energy International "has received international market patent protection for its revolutionary 90% reduction "Low NOx'' FLU-ACE Air Pollution Control and Heat Recovery technology, for application to all natural gas, oil, and coal burning energy process waste exhaust gases."

There is a common perception in the utility industry that power quality should be dealt with at the service entrance. As a general rule, however, managers of commercial and industrial facilities know that the real problems are inside the plant--their own (heavy) equipment is usually the cause of disruptions to their own sensitive loads.

This weekly information has been compiled by Energetics, Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy. Questions or comments on subscribing to the weekly should be directed to either Jennifer Bergman, Energetics, jbergman@energeticsinc.com, or Diane Pirkey, U.S. Department of Energy.

ULTRA-NETª improves reliability by providing a low cost, real time, monitoring of critical operating parameters, and enabling the automation of systems that are dispersed over a wide geographical area. It also can be used to augment or replace older communication systems (which can help justify the cost of automation projects).

The industry pays a lot of attention to Fuel Cells and there are many sources of information, so UFTO doesn't attempt to cover this huge topic except for unusual or less visible developments.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is about to embark on what may become the most far-reaching restructuring process to date. Motivated in large part by the advent of distributed resources (small generation and storage technologies) and the California Alliance for Distributed Energy Resources (CADER), the CPUC will evaluate over the next 12 months.

15 Dec 1998 UFTO Note - Microturbine Test Programs 14 Dec 1998…

Edison Technology Solutions is offering a subscription program to test microturbines. It will involve actual testing on a uniform basis of up to 8 "pre-commercial" and commercial units from different manufacturers. Two units will commence testing early in January. Subscribers will have timely access to detailed test data and analyses of performance and interconnection issues.

A variety of hybrid concepts have been discussed for several years by DOE. ETS is supporting an approach using the pressurized Siemens-Westinghouse tubular SOFC. It uses the microturbine compressor to pressurize the fuel cell to approximately three atmospheres.

Sandia's Energy Storage Program has published a new report on power conversion systems which gives a comprehensive overview of the various design approaches, the current state of the art, and recommendations for future development (specifically targeting cost reduction).

With the European Union's Electricity Directive set to formally start opening Europe's electricity markets on February 19, 1999, new research from Andersen Consulting suggests that American utilities investing in Europe will be faced with an entirely new market structure within a few years.

On October 7, 1998, NIST announced results of nine ATP competitions conducted in 1998, including a general competition open to proposals from any area of technology and eight competitions in focused technology areas. If carried through to completion, the 79 projects will be funded at approximately $224 million from private industry, matched by approximately $236 million from the ATP.