KEEPING THEIR WORD

Mid-1977 came and went, and where is the plant?

Completed. Yes, sir, there are still some people in the world who will keep their word and to their schedule. (Old men remember the days when this was not newsworthy.)

In any case, what most utilities now use when the load exceeds their base capacity is gas turbines, essentially the same as the turbojet engines of aircraft with the turbo, but not the jet. Fuel is mixed with compressed air, ignited, and turns a turbine as the hot gas expands through its blades. (Instead of forming a jet, as it does in a plane, the gas then goes into an exhaust via a regenerator, where it warms up the air bound for the compressor.) Turbine, compressor and generator are all on the same shaft.

The reason why a gas turbine is kicked in only during peak demand is its low efficiency only about 25%, because much of the power is lost in running the compressor. To which must be added the high cost of its fuel oil or natural gas.

A compressed-air turbine needs these expensive fuels, too, to heat the air before entry, but since it is already compressed (to about 650 psi), the efficiency goes up and less than half of the fuel is needed. That, of course, is not the whole story, because energy and fuel were needed to compress the air the night before. However, that is done on cheap coal-fired or nuclear power, and at a time when the huge investment in base equipment is not fully utilized.

11-77/2

The saving in fuel costs is partially offset by the higher investment cost. NKW's 290 MW compressed-air plant cost $57 million, or about $200 per installed kilowatt. That is cheap by US standards, but it is still 30% more than a gas-turbine unit would have cost them. However, with the fuel savings, the Germans figure they can break even far sooner, and the world is now watching them whether they figured right.And that is how a free market should work in bringing in new technology: Experts risk their own money and are rewarded by profits it they are right or punished by losses if they are wrong; they are watched by others who will jump on the wagon if it pays, and stay away from it if it doesn't; and the consumer benefits. Only a fool would want this system replaced by a bureaucracy of "consumer advocates" who gamble other people's money with nothing but their bigoted hunches to guide them.