Allow me to clarify something, Bryan. I wasn’t poo-pooing the idea of improved T&D systems and lowering losses, but what I was intending to convey was that in terms of $/benefit, there are many other much lower-cost items which can be leveraged right now, which power plants aren’t taking advantage of - and that is where I think there’s more potential benefit. A very, very common example that I run into is fixing leaks. Many power plants have large leaks in their air heater and flue gas systems, sometimes on the order of 30-40% leakage in the air heater, and 10-20% leakage in the flue gas ductwork. These leaks add up to a large amount of extra power consumption at the plant. At one plant I’m working with right now in Michigan, a program of fixing the air heater seals, and extensive welding and patching of the ductwork resulted in a power savings of about 1MW - enough to power about 1,000 homes. If electricity sells at $0.10 per kWh ($100 per MWh) at that part of the country, and this plant runs at full load for about 6000 hours per year (I’ll neglect the scaled-down part-load savings), then this means in one year they have about $600,000 of additional income. The repairs cost about $800,000, so this pays for itself in about 15 months. That free MW also results in a reduction in CO2 emissions, sulfur emissions, NOx, mercury, etc. Sadly, at many utilities even a 15-month payback is considered “too long”, and although the power plants (with my help) can come up with whole laundry lists of ways they can make the plants more efficient and save money and resources, corporate only seems interested in a 6-month (or less!) payback schemes.
Turbine upgrades are another area where large savings can be realized - I’ve seen a turbine improve in heat rate from 8800 Btu/kWh to 7900 Btu/kWh - that is a resulting 10.2% increase in efficiency, which means a corresponding 10.2% greenhouse gas reduction, etc. This sort of thing will cost from $5-$15M per power plant, however, and has a payback period that is measured in years. Again, corporate doesn’t really want to hear that. That’s one reason why I’m becoming convinced that a carbon tax could be a way to help spur the drive to efficiency.
However, ultimately you can only be so efficient, and there are limiting returns.