Here's to you
TIME magazine’s selection of a Person of the Year often is unusual enough to be covered in other publications. In most years, the pick has been fairly predictable: a high-profile foreign or domestic politico playing high-stakes poker with our collective futures. In others, TIME has stretched the definition of "person"—such as in 1982 (the computer), 1988 (Earth), and 2003 (the American soldier). For 2006, TIME made another curious choice with "You"—individuals who interact via dialog, opinion, and audiovisual content on independent web sites, blogs, and technology platforms like MySpace, YouTube, and podcasts.
Who is/are You? TIME calls You a "community and collaboration on a scale never seen before." With the growing reach and speed of Internet access, unfiltered knowledge and opinion now are available in real time to anyone, anywhere with the inclination and means to log on and search. The number of computer users worldwide passed 1 billion in 2005 and will double by 2011.
Let’s talk
This Internet free-for-all, what TIME calls Web 2.0, "empowers" individuals. Anyone with a camera-equipped cellphone can post images or video of any event—from the mundane to the momentous—for the world to see moments after it takes place. Personal marketing is another obvious application. For example, putative 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama has posted his video introduction to Monday Night Football on YouTube. At press time, the 71-second clip—one of 363 videos he has on the site—was averaging only a 2�-star viewer rating.
Web 2.0 is where individuals can converse, find common ground, and make a difference, according to TIME. In addition to slashing everyone’s 15 minutes of Warholian fame to 15 seconds (or 15 megabytes?), the new media are threatening old media. Traditional newspapers and magazines can no longer monopolize the power of the press because everyone now owns one. The challenge for POWER going forward is to continue using our editors’ deep and wide industry experience to separate the editorial wheat from the chaff. But now we also can include You in the process, via feedback vehicles far richer and more instantaneous than letters to the editor.
125 years and counting
POWER has risen to the challenge of connecting with You in 2007 and beyond by going high-tech. Our new, fuller spectrum of real and virtual information resources is unmatched in the power generation industry. We begin our 125th Anniversary year by taking two big steps: going monthly (the print version of POWER now will be published 12 times a year rather than nine) and making an electronic version of the magazine available on the Web, with notification of its availability delivered to your e-mail in-box. In addition, Coal Power, a sister magazine focused entirely on coal-fired generation, has been redesigned to work in concert with POWER, with which it will share editorial staff and production values. Coal Power will be delivered electronically to subscribers bimonthly, beginning next month.
Ever wonder what the editors of POWER really think about a particular industry issue? Voice your opinion and interact with the editors and your colleagues in real time via Senior Editor Ken Maize’s POWERblog. The value of knowing what’s really going on behind the scenes is priceless. A link to Ken’s blog is on www.powermag.com.
We’ll also be celebrating our anniversary in many other ways during 2007. In March, our new web site will have been equipped with many ease-of-use features. For instance, we’re improving our archive search engine to make finding that old POWER article faster. We’ll also be adding earlier issues to the archives and will continue to do so during the year.
People POWER
I’m still not finished detailing our expansion—the biggest in decades. POWERnews—our industry-leading newsletter with nearly 50,000 subscribers—is now weekly, enabling coverage of breaking news. POWER itself, which remains the flagship publication, has added a New Products department as well as a two-page spread that each month will highlight several representative events of the past 125 years. To create these Retrospectives, I’ve combed through the complete POWER archives. I can tell you that in our industry, there’s really nothing new under the sun; things just get more complicated with time.
Something else we’re doing to remain the voice of the generation industry is having more of its best and brightest write articles about the latest developments in their field of expertise. Brokering these relationships is what POWER does best. I’m pleased to introduce our expanded stable of contributing editors, below.
Staying the course
This magazine’s task hasn’t changed one whit since its debut 125 year ago. My earliest predecessor proved prescient when he wrote in his January 1885 editor’s column that the purpose of POWER is "to foster invention, facilitate research, disseminate knowledge, encourage fraternal union, chronicle current progress, as it is affected by the harnessing of nature’s powers to do man’s work; such will be the pleasant mission, the self-imposed and welcome task of our Journal. In this, we ask the good-will and active, hearty cooperation of all directly interested in the generation and transmission of power. We wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year."
POWER magazine’s contributing editors
POWER is fortunate to have a highly experienced and well-recognized cadre of industry veterans willing to contribute to the magazine on a regular basis. It’s my privilege to introduce POWER magazine’s contributing editors for 2007, in alphabetical order.
—Mark Axford
Mark Axford, gas turbines. Mark Axford has more than 30 years of energy experience as an engineer, product manager, sales and marketing executive, and independent consultant. Mark is president and chief turbine guy for Axford Turbine Consultants LLC. His clients are primarily fleet owners of gas turbine equipment who rely on Mark for advice on O&M contracting and sourcing of turbomachinery. His practice also provides market analysis and forecasting services for clients evaluating acquisitions and new product introductions. From 1978 to 2001, Mark was VP of sales and marketing for GE’s Aero Energy Products division, which was acquired from Stewart & Stevenson Services Inc. in 1998. He can be reached at www.axford.us.
—David Daniels
David Daniels, water treatment. David Daniels has specialized in utility-scale water and steam chemistry since joining Utah Power & Light in 1981. Soon after moving to Radian Corp. in 1988, he began working with the company’s materials group to examine and diagnose failures in boilers, turbines, and similar equipment used by utilities and industrials. This group formed Mechanical & Materials Engineering LLC (M&M Engineering) in 1998. David was a founding member of the company. He has shared his unique perspective on the impact of water and steam chemistry on equipment reliability with POWER’s readers as a contributing editor since 1999. David can be reached at www.mmengineering.com.
—Bill Ellison
Bill Ellison, emissions control. Bill Ellison has specialized in stack gas cleanup—including NOx abatement, flue gas desulfurization, and management of the resulting liquid and solid by-products—for over 40 years. Since 2002 he has focused on the technical and commercial development of technology for optimizing NOx emission reduction in scrubbers. Bill has run his own independent consultancy in Monrovia, Md., since 1981 and has been a contributing editor to POWER since 1996. He can be reached at www.ellisoncon.com.
—Steven Greenwald
Steven F. Greenwald, legal & regulatory. Steven F. Greenwald, a partner in the San Francisco office of the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, has chaired the firm’s 40-member and multijurisdictional Energy Practice Group for the past eight years. He has nearly 30 years’ experience representing major energy industry clients in financings and acquisitions, federal and state regulatory proceedings, negotiations of power purchase, fuel supply, transportation, interconnection agreements, and alternative dispute resolutions and litigation. For the past year, Steven has coauthored POWER’s Legal & Regulatory column and used it to explain and voice his opinion on alternative energy project development. He can be reached at www.dwt.com.
—Chris Hilen
Christopher A. Hilen, legal & regulatory. Christopher A. Hilen, Of Counsel in the San Francisco office of Davis Wright Tremaine, has coauthored POWER’s Legal & Regulatory column with Steven Greenwald for the past year. Chris has 15 years’ experience representing and advising investor-owned and municipal utilities, independent and renewable power producers, large energy users, and private equity funds on a wide range of electric and natural gas matters. He can be reached at www.dwt.com.
—Tim Hurst
Tim Hurst, nuclear power. Tim Hurst is president of his own consultancy—Hurst Technologies Corp. The focus of his more than 30 years’ experience in the generation industry has been strategic planning and implementation of digital instrumentation and controls at nuclear power plants worldwide. Tim is a senior member of ISA’s Power Division Executive Committee and the ANS Human Factors Division Executive Committee. He can be reached at www.hursttech.com.
—Jim Hylko
Jim Hylko, nuclear environmental safety and health. Jim Hylko is an integrated safety management specialist for Paducah Remediation Services LLC, with over 18 years’ combined experience working in commercial nuclear power plants and at the Department of Energy. In 2000, Jim received the Elda E. Anderson Award from the Health Physics Society for his regular contributions to its newsletter. He also is a certified quality auditor for the American Society for Quality and has been a POWER contributing editor since 1996. Jim can be reached at www.prs-llc.net.
—Jim Stanton
Jim Stanton, system reliability. Jim Stanton, system reliability. Jim Stanton is a project manager for ICF International’s Reliability Standard Compliance Practice. A 20-year industry veteran, Jim’s expertise spans electric generator start-up and operations, fuels management, system operations, power trading, market design, and standards development. He is a member of NERC’s Compliance and Certification Committee and Enforcement Sanctions and Disclosure Subcommittee, and he was a charter member of the Standards Authorization Committee. Jim has served on various regional transmission organization stakeholder boards and advisory bodies. He can be reached at www.icfi.com.
—Dick Storm
Dick Storm, coal combustion. Dick Storm, president of the consultancy Storm Technologies Inc., was inspired to become a field service engineer by Steve Elonka’s early Marmaduke Surfaceblow stories in POWER. That was while he was in college. In 2007—with more than four decades of hands-on experience designing, testing, starting up, and optimizing the performance optimization of utility-size pulverized coal-fired boilers under his belt—Dick will begin generously sharing his considerable experience with the readers of POWER. He can be reached at www.stormeng.com.
–Dr. Robert Peltier, PE, Editor-in-Chief