Latest Stories by Kennedy Maize

Turning Public Transit into a Solar Paradigm
Turning Public Transit into a Solar Paradigm

An innovative project that combines solar power with electric buses is POWER’s Distributed Energy Award winner. The microgrid it created can help the community during emergencies, as well as during…



New Life for Dead and Dying Coal Plants?
New Life for Dead and Dying Coal Plants?

As coal plants are retired, power companies must decide what to do with sites. Some old plants have been added to the National Register of Historic Places and repurposed as…


Market Transitions: The MOPR Merry-Go-Round
Market Transitions: The MOPR Merry-Go-Round

The PJM Interconnection’s Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR) was introduced in 2006 as a floor to bar new generators from artificially depressing capacity auction clearing prices through below-cost bids. In…


Biomass Power: Environmental Benefit or Numbers Game?
Biomass Power: Environmental Benefit or Numbers Game?

Many bioenergy industry proponents put forth carbon neutrality as a basis for their support. However, the claim may not hold up under scrutiny. By some accounts, biomass power plant emissions…


Water, Heat, Metal: A Crucial and Difficult Dance
Water, Heat, Metal: A Crucial and Difficult Dance

Proper water chemistry has always been important for dependable steam plant operation, but it may be even more critical today due to changes in operating routines and increased plant cycling.…


The Convoluted Tale of U.S. Coal Ash Management
The Convoluted Tale of U.S. Coal Ash Management

Sometime around midnight on Dec. 22, 2008, a dike at the coal ash dewatering pond for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) 1,400-MW Kingston power plant in Roane County, Tennessee, failed.…


Battery Storage: Perils and Promise
Battery Storage: Perils and Promise

Lithium-ion battery technology promises the first realistic approach to fully integrating intermittent solar and wind into the U.S. power system. Despite its recent growth and great potential, the battery technology…


Coal-to-Gas Power Shift Driven by Economics
Coal-to-Gas Power Shift Driven by Economics

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s third coal plant conversion to gas combined cycle generation, at the venerable Allen plant near Memphis, Tennessee, created the most-efficient combined cycle plant in its fleet…