A new assessment tool developed by engineers at Oregon State University (OSU) could allow people, agencies, and communities interested in developing small-scale hydropower plants in remote places to easily and accurately assess whether a potential project would meet their current and future energy needs. The free, open-source computer modeling package dubbed the Hydropower Potential Assessment […]

The U.S. nuclear power business is in trouble, and Exelon has six units totaling more than 5,300 MW of dependable capacity on the chopping block. How will the Chicago electricity giant respond? Perhaps by acquiring more nuclear capacity? Chicago-based Exelon Corp., the largest nuclear power generator in the U.S., is facing what could be the […]

Danish firm DONG Energy has begun building one of the world’s first bioresource power plants that will produce electricity from household waste by using enzymes to convert the waste to biogas. The commercial 5-MW plant under construction in the UK city of Northwich could be commissioned in early 2017. It will use the company’s proprietary […]

P OWER Editor Gail Reitenbach interviewed King Lee of Lloyd’s Register on June 29 at the World Nuclear Exhibition in Le Bourget, France. The firm is a “non-profit distributing charity with a public benefit

UK Abolishes Climate Change Department. As part of the major governmental shakeup triggered by Brexit—the UK’s momentous vote to leave the European Union—newly appointed UK Prime Minister Theresa May

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) this June approved 20-year license extensions for the aging Takahama 1 and 2 reactors, a first for the power-strapped country that has been conflicted about the future of its nuclear power plants since the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe in 2011. A regulatory system established in the aftermath of Fukushima limits the […]

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) deployed its first commercial PB3 PowerBuoy—a wave energy conversion system that incorporates energy storage—off the coast of New Jersey this July. The Pennington, N.J.–based firm has been working to advance its PowerBuoy technology since the firm was founded in 1994. Development of the wave energy conversion technology for naval and civilian […]

Asset data is crucial in the power generation industry. Without it, utilities are forced to speculate about how long their assets will last, when they will need repair, and which strategies will maximize plant efficiency. With it, plant owners have the tools to drive down operational and maintenance costs while ensuring highly reliable power delivery. […]

In an industry as slow-moving as power generation, where planning horizons are measured in decades and assets can remain in operation for the better part of a century, it’s rare that things happen fast enough to catch anyone by surprise. But that’s exactly what’s happened to the U.S. merchant nuclear business over the past four […]

Owner/operator: Louisville Gas and Electric Co. and Kentucky Utilities Kentucky has always been coal country, but times are changing, and its generation fleet is changing with them. Facing the prospect of costly emissions control upgrades at the 60-year-old Cane Run Generating Station, Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities opted to retire the aging facility […]

Owner/operator: A2A When a plant goes into mothballs—especially because of poor economics—it’s often a harbinger of impending retirement. Upgrades to improve performance may help, but in changing markets, returns can be highly uncertain. Italian energy firm A2A partnered with GE to return one plant to profitability with a combination of hardware improvements and cloud-based analytics. […]

To alleviate chronic power shortages, the first gas turbine unit at this fast-tracked 640-MW plant was synchronized to the grid within a record-breaking 159 days—two days ahead of schedule. The revolution in

Owner/operator: APR Energy Within roughly 90 days, APR Energy set up a 60-MW turnkey power plant—complete with novel natural gas filtration and compression solutions—to support the operations of a massive Egyptian polyethylene plant until a bigger, permanent power plant can be built. It all began in April 2013, when Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Co. (ETHYDCO) […]

A unanimous vote by New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission (PRC) today determined that Public Service Co. of New Mexico (PNM) will be allowed to provide new renewable capacity to a proposed Facebook facility through a special service agreement.

According to a Duke University study, future climate warming will likely cause only minor reductions in power output at most U.S. coal- and gas-fired power plants.

Turkish President Erdogan’s meeting with Russia’s President Putin could signal a major shift in energy flows into the EU and increase the West’s dependence on Russian gas, which could open the door wider for U.S. LNG.

Tony Clark, the only Republican on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, announced Aug. 4 that the agency’s September meeting will be his last.

We’ve all probably purchased a “lemon”—an item that didn’t work as advertised—but when that lemon is a $2.1 billion power plant, you can’t just return it. For Longview Power’s management team, taking a “belts-and-suspenders” approach to problem-solving allowed them to identify root causes, make changes, and convert their lemon into “lemonade.” Most people expect a […]

The governments of Ireland and Northern Ireland have big ambitions for their unified electricity market, including a wind-heavy 40% renewable generation target by 2020. Making that happen while delivering safe, reliable electricity to customers across the island means a sea change in how the grid is operated. One of the first big steps is installation […]

To satisfy China’s more stringent water use and air pollution rules, developers of the new 1.3-GW ultrasupercritical coal-fired Changxing Power Plant used a novel forward osmosis–based brine concentration

Effectively managing time, budget, and resources has always been the goal of companies involved in constructing power generation projects, but today the challenges in meeting those goals can be greater than ever. Any power generation company involved in new construction or an upgrade or retrofit project hopes it will see completion safely, without exceeding schedule […]

Southern Co., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned utilities, appears torn between enormous recent investments in advanced coal and nuclear technologies—the company’s successful strategy in the past—and a competing sense that natural gas and distributed energy might be the company’s ultimate future. The Southern Company, based in Atlanta, Ga., is a regional utility behemoth, mostly […]

Electrical cable and conduit offers a reliable and proven way to get power where it needs to go, but that doesn’t mean it is always the best method. Busway can save space, while offering a less-expensive, more-flexible power distribution solution for applications where change and adaptation are important. As is the case in many other […]

Readers of a certain age will recall a scene in the movie Jaws when the local police chief, having glimpsed the gigantic shark up close from the back of the deck, reels back into the cockpit to observe: “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” In climate change, we have reached the “bigger boat” moment. […]

Dutch power grid operator TenneT on June 10 unveiled plans for a large-scale island transmission hub in the North Sea that could connect numerous offshore wind farms and transmit their generated power to the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, Norway, Germany, and Denmark via direct current (DC) cables. Those cables, or “spokes” could also serve as […]

A severe water crisis gripping India this year has forced several of the country’s hydroelectric and thermal power plants to shut down. At least 10 of India’s 29 states have been stricken by severe drought after the monsoons failed for two seasons in a row (as of the start of July, the monsoons had still […]

Poland, a country where hard coal and lignite power plants currently generate about 85% of the power, has passed a law that stymies a wind power expansion and is now mulling draft legislation that will help boost investments in new coal capacity. The eastern European country has bucked the trend toward renewable power that many […]

Court Forces Bulgaria to Pay for One of Two Canceled Reactors at Belene. Bulgaria’s National Electricity Co.(NEK) should pay Russia’s Atomstroyexport nearly $620 million in compensation for its canceled two-unit Belene nuclear plant, an international arbitration court in Geneva ruled in mid-June. The 2-GW plant was in the offing for more than two decades before NEK […]

I’ve developed something of a love/hate relationship with awards. Initially, it’s exciting to spot outstanding or unusual projects for our POWER awards, but over time, any number of things can happen to those plants, making them appear less than stellar. Sometimes it’s changing policy or market conditions that make a record-setting plant completely uneconomic (see […]

In a major shakeup of a power sector currently monopolized by a state-owned giant, South Korea has moved to partially open its electricity generation market to private companies in a bid to improve efficiency