Lessons Learned

As utility companies begin to jump on the bandwagon of nuclear’s re-emergence, American Electric Power is using a very different approach. Mike Heyeck tells Power and Energy how nuclear’s previous mistakes became the backbone of American Electric Power’s safety program.

“If you build a nationwide grid, it’s more efficient – you have a greater reach of supply resources, and you’re able to reduce supply need”
-Michael Heyeck, American Electric Power

Since the origin of nuclear fission in the 1930s, many attempts have been made to endorse nuclear as a primary source of energy: Eisenhower’s infamous ‘Atoms for Peace’ speech in 1953 and the US navy’s eagerness to develop nuclear power demonstrate America’s willingness to use this energy source. That is, until the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and a general movement against nuclear power stopped short the building of power plants.

As crude oil supplies continue to decline and technology for safer waste disposal increases, the new administration in Washington has begun re-embracing nuclear, and American Electric Power is cleverly devising a strategy to incorporate the power’s previous faults. As SVP of Transmission, Mike Heyeck explains how nuclear energy is being used as a platform upon which to build the company’s safety guidelines.

“Our safety program is very integrated and actually addresses the areas of human performance based upon the model from the nuclear industry, which has been a leader in this. We’ve adopted that from the nuclear industry to address safety, as well as reducing operational errors,” he explains.

AEP is currently the largest transmission system in the US and as the first utility company to create an interstate transmission system, it has set the bar on safety standards. The utility operates 39,000 miles of transmission lines, including more than 2100 miles of 765-kilovolt extra high voltage.

“We’ve been a leader in transmission, not only in technology but in also some of the areas of safety. We are one of the pioneers in live-line maintenance: developing methods for doing so in a safe way, and we also benchmark very well with our safety statistics in the industry,” says Heyeck. “Being geographically dispersed, we still have a local supervision presence and rely heavily on local supervisors to help implement and execute the safety aspects of our business.”

Modeled on Eisenhower’s interstate highway network, AEP’s nationwide transmission system began in 2006 in an attempt to eliminate the transmission ‘bottlenecks’ believed to be dominating the current power infrastructure, particularly within the eastern grid. The plan is build a transmission line that spans the 550 miles between West Virginia and New Jersey, improving transfer capability by approximately 5000 megawatts and reducing transmission line losses by approximately 280 megawatts.

President Obama’s call for 10 percent of electricity to be sourced from renewables by 2012 will inevitably require a change in the current operations of the electric grid. If renewables are to increase, the transference of wind and solar energy from the east coast to the west is going to need a more efficient operation to ensure the energy being used to transfer the generated energy does not create a loss. It certainly seems that AEP is already well aware of this, and is seizing the gap in the interstate market.

Interstate transmission
Since 2006, AEP has expanded its interstate project to become many, using new technologies in a bid to create the most efficient transmission system in the US. “We’re using conductor configurations and metals that are lower loss and therefore more efficient in transmitting power. In fact, the efficiency is well over 99 percent, and we have line losses of less than one percent if we use our new design,” says Heyeck.

However, being the first to set the standard, particularly in safety, does not come without its challenges, Heyeck notes. “One challenge when you have a large workforce is implementing any new practice in a consistent manner, but we’ve been very successful in doing that. Again, learning from the nuclear industry, we have a large body of knowledge to leverage in order to a program such as human performance.”

AEP intends to reduce new generation by facilitating the optimal economic dispatch of existing generation assets. Heyeck believes the current state of the transmission to be “a hodgepodge grid with a lot of constraints,” and that this is largely the problem facing the US energy sector. 

“The system cannot reach the most economic generation; in some cases there are pockets of uneconomic generation that has to run. If you build a robust grid without constraints, you can reach the lowest cost generation, or if you desire to access renewable generation, transmission is the enabler to do that.”

To expand its interstate transmission system, AEP is working in partnership with the American Wind Energy Association to develop a conceptual grid that is capable of connecting 300,000 to 400,000 megawatts of wind generation across the US.

“Most of our wind potential on land is in the midsection of the country, and most of our people are along the coastlines. So connecting that wind requires a grid that is nationwide. Through the partnership, not only are you able to connect that much wind, but you also have a new grid that enhances economic dispatch, and as a result we could save at least 20,000 megawatts in supply because of reduction of constraints and greater efficiencies. In other words, if you build a nationwide grid, it’s more efficient – you have a greater reach of supply resources, and you’re able to reduce supply need.

“We have a number of ongoing projects. One of them emanates from West Virginia into Maryland, and we’re going to file an application to site that transmission line in the next month or two. Another project is in the middle west of the country, in Oklahoma and Kansas, where we are in the process of getting permission from the state planning authorities to build those lines. We have an order from the regulators in Texas to build around one billion dollars of transmission connecting West Texas wind to load centers, and we’re beginning the siting process for those lines,” says Heyeck.

Obama’s proposal
The new administration is heavily focusing on bringing transition to a new digital electricity grid through a series of smart grid features, such as smart meters, distributed generations and demand response. With AEP already installing an interstate system, Heyeck explains that if they as one utility company can successfully instigate such a system, there is no need for federal involvement to establish it.

“We need to be clear when we talk about a ‘federal grid’. We, at AEP, do not believe that you need federal dollars to build an interstate transmission grid. Private investment can be attracted to build transmission. What we need is help with the impediments – a siting process for interstate transmission lines. We would like that to be under a federal authority.

The second impediment is allocating costs for those facilities. We believe costs should be broadly allocated based on energy usage. Once you get those impediments removed, you do not need federal stimulus dollars to build transmission as private investment will be attracted,” he explains.

However, Heyeck does not think this of all matters regarded in the energy plan, and explains how if energy is affectively coordinated, the federal targets for renewables can be achieved.

“In the US, there’s very little penetration of wind and solar energy, although we do now have more nameplate capacity than Germany, which is the second highest penetration of wind sources. But, if you include hydro capability in the US already, we’re somewhere in the neighborhood of less than 10 percent.

“When the Obama Administration talks about 10 percent, they are talking about wind, solar, geothermal and biomass. Hydro certainly ought to be in the mix because we do have a good amount of hydro generation in this country – more than five percent. The impediments to achieving this 10 percent renewable goal are building the transmission fast enough, and the financial and economic constraints of wind developers themselves. So, the goal is achievable.

“The only debate would be whether it’s achievable by the 2012 target. When you’re rising from one to two percent wind and solar energy production to 10 percent, that does require an extraordinary amount of transmission being built, as well as wind farms and solar installations.

“However, many gains could be made with energy efficiency with federal help on the standards for appliances and so on. But energy efficiency is, as some say, the cheapest resource we can get for our energy future,” says Heyeck.

As for bringing back nuclear as a reliable renewable source, Heyeck explains that although there are advantages to learning from our previous mistakes, reinstallation is not necessarily an easy process.

“Transmission ought to be neutral to what the fuel source is, whether it’s renewable or nuclear, but nuclear’s going to take some time. Not just because of the permitting process, but also because of the cost uncertainty.”

Michael Heyeck is Senior Vice President,Transmission for American Electric Power. He was previously Vice President, Transmission Asset Management. Prior to that, he held a leadership position in Corporate Planning and Budgeting for corporate budgeting and economic forecasting and has held various engineering and leadership positions in Transmission Planning and Transmission Operations. He joined AEP in 1976.

Partnership
AEP and Duke Energy have formed a joint venture to build and own new electric transmission assets. The equal partners are looking to build 240 miles of extra-high voltage, 765-kilovolt, transmission lines, linking Greentown Station with Rockport Station, across Indiana.

Operating a 765-kilovolt transmission line provides both economic and environmental benefits to both parties. The line requires less land to carry more power than lower voltage lines, and would also cost less than half as much to build.

“We do not believe that you need federal dollars to build out the interstate transmission grid”
-Michael Heyeck, American Electric Power