Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen coined the term "disruptive technology" in his best-selling 1997 book, The Innovator's Dilemma. According to Christensen, a disruptive technology unseats a dominant technology by…
Power
Monthly Issue | December 15, 2006
Information technology (IT) projects foster organizational productivity and growth by improving business processes and enabling the development of new products and services. Surprisingly, given the diversity of project types, most…
Renewables require rethinking just about everything Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are here to stay, with nearly half of U.S. states having adopted some measure to push regulated utilities to use…
The U.S. electric utility industry has long encouraged its customers to get more value from their electricity dollar. Today, the industry—facing volatile costs and mounting concerns about the environment—is coming…
Fireproofing switchyards From an insurance carrier's perspective, we fully condone the use of on-line condition monitoring for large, critical transformers ("Monitoring key gases in insulating oil keeps transformers healthy," POWER,…
FIRE PROTECTION Safeguarding coal-handling assets Coal-fired power plants have millions of dollars invested in conveyor systems and train-unloading equipment. Consistent, reliable performance of this equipment is critical to maximizing plant…
What's in a name? Plenty, if the word is "renewable." Intuitively, most people outside the energy industry consider hydroelectric power "renewable." The dictionary defines the word as follows: "capable…
The row of last-stage blades (LSBs) in a steam turbine's low-pressure (LP) section is a key element of the turbine's design because it defines the machine's overall performance, dimensions, and…
During and following the Cold War, it was assumed that the Soviet Union had produced weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU) from 1950 through 1988 for defense purposes. With the collapse…
Wind power has grown over the past decade from a boutique and unappreciated generating technology to a reliable and much-sought-after resource. Bob Dylan was prescient when he wrote, "The answer,…