POWER

Fifty years ago this July, NASA successfully landed men on the moon and safely returned them to Earth. In this year’s documentary about the mission, Apollo 11 , director Todd Douglas Miller draws on a

It’s no secret that the power industry workforce is aging and managers are struggling to find qualified candidates interested in filling open positions. In my April column, I referenced a

Ansaldo Leads Research Initiative for Low-NOx High-Hydrogen Retrofit Solution. The Dutch government has awarded six partners—Ansaldo Thomassen, Delft University of Technology, OPRA Turbines, Vattenfall

A blockchain pilot wrapped up by European transmission operator TenneT and storage solutions provider sonnen Group this May showed “tremendous potential” when used to network decentralized home storage

The Department of Energy (DOE) in March 2018 released a 52-page report outlining its multi-year strategy to improve cybersecurity. In the report’s introduction, Assistant Secretary Bruce J. Walker noted that

Numerous articles have boldly declared Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to be the first of many climate change-related bankruptcies to come. The authors wag their fingers in caution at corporations across

Increasingly, today’s electric power grids are interacting with microgrids and in more complex ways. Yet, much work needs to be done to integrate microgrids and flexible demand into the wide-area synchronous

Evolving environmental regulations have forced many coal power plant operators to re-evaluate how they handle water and ash. Many units have been retrofit with dry handling systems, but there are other

The Combustion Turbine Operations Technical Forum (CTOTF) recently announced the winners of the first CTOTF/POWER Innovation Excellence awards, which recognize outstanding performance in various combustion

Decarbonization is becoming firmly entrenched in utility business strategies to address risks and opportunities posed by climate change. But setting out a sound plan amid so many uncertainties poses a number

The smart grid offers great promise to transform the electric system, enabling two-way communication between providers and consumers over the network, and allowing new services that can save electricity and

Turbine control manufacturers often suggest retrofit projects are the only viable strategy to resolve control system end-of-life or obsolescence issues. But do plant operators really need to upgrade turbine

Partial wind project repowering enables owners to generate more energy from their sites, extend the life and improve the availability of their projects, and take advantage of extended renewable energy

Power and energy construction projects are often complex and nearly always full of risks. On some jobs, miscalculating schedules and underestimating material expenses can result in hundreds of millions of

Heat exchangers are vital equipment for power plant operation. Many different types of heat exchangers exist, but for applications that cannot afford cross contamination of shell-side and tube-side fluids

A continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS) is required in the U.S. under Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations to continuously collect, record, and report emissions data from industrial

Stories about seismic changes ready to hit utilities and transform their century-old business models fill power industry newsletters and media. But rarely do I see any purveyors of industry news provide a

The power grid is a pretty complex system. Electricity is generally produced on an as-needed basis. Generators ramp up and down based on demand. However, energy storage systems are beginning to change how

In preparation for a large-scale power sector shift toward decarbonization, several major power equipment manufacturers are developing gas turbines that can operate on a high-hydrogen-volume fuel. According to

Meeting increasing worldwide demand for wind energy depends on reliable turbine performance, and performance can significantly benefit from optimized main shaft and gearbox bearing selection. Wind turbine

While the new Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ) program initially has drawn widespread interest regarding real estate development, it also appears likely to generate promising opportunities for green energy

Strained water resources across the world necessitate innovative ways for power plants to more efficiently use, and reuse, the water that is available. At the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National

What Discourages Utilities from Adopting Microgrids to Advance Grid Modernization?

Consumer interest in rooftop solar is higher than ever. The most recent numbers from Pew Research show 89% of U.S. adults favor the expanded use of solar power, while only 9% oppose. Historically, this interest has only been met by solar salespeople, which can create a consumer protection risk. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken notice: […]

Colorado lawmakers are considering legislation (HB19-1037) designed to help the state’s investor-owned utilities gracefully back out of non-economic coal-fired power plants. Colorado is at the forefront of

Attemperation equipment is necessary to control steam temperatures at many power plants. However, when the equipment functions improperly or the design is flawed, thermal quenching/shock can damage piping

Boiler feedwater valves operate under severe service conditions and are subject to premature failure from seat leakage, cavitation, particulates, and frequent cycling. However, once the type and root cause of

Reality capture uses laser scanning hardware to record the as-built conditions of any environment in a series of scans. These scans, once stitched together, create a holistic picture of structures, equipment

When the blades of individual Kaplan turbines are not continuously adjusted to achieve peak efficiency, the result is non-optimal performance and unnecessarily high mortality of downstream migrating fish

Creating a faster-than-real-time Energy Management System (EMS) is a huge challenge for the power industry. In order to be considered faster-than-real-time, the EMS must be capable of executing within a