ABB (United Kingdom)

Abstract Marine legislation, the key means by which the conservation of marine biodiversity is achieved, has been developing since the 1960s. In recent decades, an increasing focus on ‘holistic’ policy development is evident, compared with earlier ‘piecemeal’ sectoral approaches. Important marine legislative tools being used in the United Kingdom, and internationally, include the designation of marine protected areas and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) with its aim of meeting ‘Good Environmental Status’ (GES) for European seas by 2020. There is growing evidence of climate change impacts on marine biodiversity, which may compromise the effectiveness of any legislation intended to promote sustainable marine resource management. A review of key marine biodiversity legislation relevant to the UK shows climate change was not considered in the drafting of much early legislation. Despite the huge increase in knowledge of climate change impacts in recent decades, legislation is still limited in how it takes these impacts into account. There is scope, however, to account for climate change in implementing much of the legislation through (a) existing references to environmental variability; (b) review cycles; and (c) secondary legislation and complementary policy development. For legislation relating to marine protected areas (e.g. the EC Habitats and Birds Directives), climate change has generally not been considered in the site‐designation process, or for ongoing management, with the exception of the Marine (Scotland) Act. Given that changing environmental conditions (e.g. rising temperatures and ocean acidification) directly affect the habitats and species that sites are designated for, how this legislation is used to protect marine biodiversity in a changing climate requires further consideration. Accounting for climate change impacts on marine biodiversity in the development and implementation of legislation is vital to enable timely, adaptive management responses. Marine modelling can play an important role in informing management decisions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Submarine cable transmission and grid interconnections will play a critical role in enabling Ireland and the UK to develop their rich renewable energy resources, in particular offshore wind power. Generation based on renewables has a rapidly varying output, which requires complete control of the power flows to the main AC grid, as well as reactive power control at the transmission terminals. It also requires asynchronous interconnections between main AC grids for security of supply and power export. VSC-based HVDC transmission schemes can fulfil this combination of requirements. (6 pages)

Series compensation is an efficient and cost effective means for improving the transmission capability of power grids. It minimizes the number of transmission lines needed for a certain power transmission capacity of an inter-connector. With series capacitors, the capability of already existing power lines can be increased considerably, thereby decreasing the need for building new lines in cases where the need for power transmission in a system is growing. Installing series compensation is typically also less costly as well as less time consuming than building new lines. The paper presents some basic mechanisms for series compensation in power grids, fixed as well as thyristor-controlled, some salient design features as well as operational experience from a few cases for improving interregional power transfer in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way. (5 pages)

ABB PFMaster solids flow meters have proven to be very useful worldwide in coal-fired power stations for monitoring and controlling Pulverised Fuel (PF) velocity and mass-flow rates at various locations in the boiler fuel supply system. However, little has been published of the meter's response on a pneumatic conveyor where both the air and the solids input were each measured independently. This is a brief report of tests carried out on a two such metersin a university pneumatic conveyor.