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Legal & Regulatory
Risk-Based NERC Compliance: Assessing Risk to Bulk Power System Generation
Ensuring the reliability of the power system is the responsibility of many industry participants. In this POWER exclusive, one regional reliability entity, the Midwest Reliability Organization, explains its role. In response to the 2003 Blackout—which affected parts of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, plus portions of the Canadian province of Ontario—the U.S. Congress mandated adoption […]
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Nuclear
GE-Hitachi Exits Nuclear Laser-Based Enrichment Venture
GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is pulling out of Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), a company that in 2012 got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) unprecedented approval to build and operate a full-scale laser uranium enrichment facility. The move was precipitated by a change in business priorities, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the GLE’s proprietary SILEX technology is […]
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Commentary
Power Work Shifts
For most of the history of the power industry, utility jobs were secure and long-tenured. Though they continue to offer greater stability than many other comparably paid jobs, forces on both sides of the
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International
POWER Digest
Ghana Starts Up Key Gas-Fired Power Unit. Ghana has inaugurated the first of two 180-MW units of a natural gas–fired power plant that it is banking on to boost the West African country’s electric reliability. President John Dramani Mahama inaugurated the first unit of the Sonon-Asogli project at Kpone, near the capital Accra, on April […]
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Hydro
Venezuela Faces Existential Power Troubles
Oil-rich Venezuela is gripped by a power crisis so debilitating that the government has instituted four-hour daily blackouts across most of the country, forced hotels and malls to generate their own power, and
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Legal & Regulatory
The Perils of Second-Guessing FERC
It’s axiomatic that state governments believe they can manage their own affairs better than the federal government. But our system reserves certain bailiwicks for federal oversight, and one of those is the
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Renewables
Proposal for Offshore Wind Battery Storage Launched
Plans are under way to install a pilot 1-MWh lithium battery–based storage system in 2018 at the world’s first floating wind farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The “Batwind” system, to be installed at
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Coal
Trump Picks North Dakota Lawmaker as Key Energy Advisor
Donald Trump, presumptive Republican nominee for president, has chosen a back-bench Republican congressman with a lot of experience in state energy regulation as his advisor on energy issues
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Coal
SaskPower Carbon Capture Facility Operating More Reliably
SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture facility is now operating with a reliability rate of over 92%.
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Renewables
Renewable Energy Development Breaks Records and Leaps Ahead of Fossil Fuels Worldwide
Hands down, 2015 was a record year for global investment in renewable energy. Excluding large hydroelectric projects, the amount of money committed to renewables rose 5%, to $285.9 billion, exceeding the previous record of $278.5 billion reached in 2011.