Transporting household and industrial waste as well as sewage sludge from a treatment plant to a power station can be a messy business. The utility company Linz AG found that a pipe conveyor system offered an optimal solution. The conveyor is not only highly energy efficient, but due to its closed design, it also allows […]

It’s been called “filling the duck pond,” and it’s the increasingly common challenge worldwide of balancing supply and demand when variable renewables are not feeding power to the grid. Gas-fired generation is often filling the pond, but the technology mix matters. The growing portfolio of renewable power generation around the world has made the selection […]

Studies and surveys have predicted a future shortage of skilled workers in the power industry for many years. Unfortunately, the future is here. When qualified workers are difficult to locate, some companies are finding that technology and service contracts allow them to do more with less. It’s no secret that the traditional power industry workforce […]

Wind turbine blades, gearboxes, and generators get most of the attention both within and beyond the power industry. The focus is often on increased capacity and blade lengths, as well as drive train premature failures. That’s natural, because those rotating blades are the most visible part of a wind project. However, successful operation of a […]

In order to comply with the Clean Air Act and subsequent regulations covering emissions, coal-fired utilities have installed multiple pollution control devices. Understanding key operating aspects of this equipment can help you avoid costly maintenance activities and forced shutdowns. Since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, the regulatory environment for control of […]

NextEra Energy consists of a traditional, vertically integrated electric utility with a heavy reliance on nuclear and natural gas—Florida Power & Light—and an aggressive foray into renewable energy outside of Florida—NextEra Energy Resources. Given its recent bid for Hawaii’s electric utility, which has a legacy of oil-fired generation and a state commission pushing renewables, NextEra […]

When the decision is made to retire a power plant, the work of getting there is just beginning. Maintaining safe and reliable generation requires strong leadership, clear communications, and heightened attention to operations and maintenance, staff morale, and post-shutdown plans.   For utilities and other generators facing the challenge of winding down operations at an […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: How U.S. Power Generators Are Preparing for 2015 Generating companies have different challenges topping their lists for the coming year, depending on their service territory—from integrating renewables, to responding to several new federal regulations, to anticipating variable natural gas prices. All, however, are confident their companies have the… READ MORE » […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: How U.S. Power Generators Are Preparing for 2015 Generating companies have different challenges topping their lists for the coming year, depending on their service territory—from integrating renewables, to responding to several new federal regulations, to anticipating variable natural gas prices. All, however, are confident their companies have the… READ MORE » […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: How U.S. Power Generators Are Preparing for 2015 Generating companies have different challenges topping their lists for the coming year, depending on their service territory—from integrating renewables, to responding to several new federal regulations, to anticipating variable natural gas prices. All, however, are confident their companies have the… READ MORE » […]

HOUSTON, TX, (March 5, 2015) – FORTUNE magazine has named PCL Construction to its “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for the 10th consecutive year. PCL, a top general contractor in North America, ranked 67 on the list this year. PCL is one of two commercial construction firms on the list. “It is an […]

Careers in POWER Featured Article: How U.S. Power Generators Are Preparing for 2015 Generating companies have different challenges topping their lists for the coming year, depending on their service territory—from integrating renewables, to responding to several new federal regulations, to anticipating variable natural gas prices. All, however, are confident their companies have the… READ MORE » […]

Unimar Now a certified atex assembler Unimar recEives ATEX cerificate for explosion proof CONTROLS Syracuse, NY: (December 2014) – Unimar Inc., a designer and manufacturer of custom control panels for hazardous environments, proudly announces the completion of the certification process to assemble explosion proof equipment meeting ATEX directives. This includes controls for hazardous duty applications, […]

Here are selected thought-provoking (and even unexpected) comments made by presenters at the 10th annual MIT Energy Conference on Feb. 27 and 28 in Cambridge, Mass. Comments are summarized and paraphrased unless presented in quotes. For more on the event, see “Exelon: The Utility of the Future Views Change as Enabling, Not Disruptive” and the […]

Integrating more variable generation and storage, but no new nuclear units, are among the characteristics Exelon sees in the utility of the future, as outlined by Chief Strategy Officer William A. Von Hoene Jr. at the MIT Energy Conference, held Feb. 27–28. He began his Saturday address by saying that innovation is “absolutely indispensible.” Old, […]

Entergy Louisiana’s two-unit, 560-MW combined cycle plant in Westwego, La., just outside New Orleans, completed construction on Dec. 26, both under budget and several months ahead of its original schedule

The 338-MW Russey Chrum Krom hydropower plant in southwestern Koh Kong province, Cambodia, was inaugurated on Jan. 12. The Chinese-built project is the largest hydropower station located in the Southeast Asian

TIC to Build First U.S. J-series GT Plant. The Industrial Co. (TIC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kiewit Corp. ,was recently awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction contract to build a gas

A facility’s steam turbine ranks at, or at least near, the top of the list of vital power plant equipment. Without it, the thermal energy in pressurized steam can not be converted to rotary motion, which is

If ever there were a case of winning all the battles and losing the war, it would be the saga of the long-delayed-and-now-probably-dead Cape Wind offshore wind project in Massachusetts. As I wrote last year

Water is the lifeblood of a thermal power plant. As such, obtaining clean and pure makeup water and dealing with wastewater has been a requirement since the first steam generating unit went into operation. As

Worldwide, the U.S. is the largest producer of geothermal power; however, geothermal energy provides less than 0.5% of total generation in the U.S. Given geothermal’s small piece of the U.S. electricity pie

Alloys found in the condensate and feedwater systems of power plants include carbon steel for piping, pumps, and in some cases heat exchangers. Many systems still have some copper-based alloys from admiralty

Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) have developed a method to manufacture nanoporous graphene for use in supercapacitors from atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Graphene is a form of carbon that is

With the final Clean Power Plan rule covering existing power plants scheduled for release this summer, and the amount of flexibility that has been afforded to the states to meet emissions targets, states have

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a $2.5 million contract to Finnish environmental and industrial data firm Vaisala to coordinate a study of methods to improve wind energy forecasting in complex

Originally, the modern combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) unit was developed to act as a largely baseload source of generation due to its high thermal efficiency and low initial capital cost. But as markets

The Utah Red Hills Renewable Energy Park, a 104-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant under development by Norwegian firm Scatec Solar at Parowan in southwest Utah, closed financing on Jan. 7 thanks to an

The Lodi Energy Center (LEC) is a 296-MW 1 x 1 combined cycle plant in Lodi, Calif., just north of Stockton and east of the San Joaquin River delta (Figure 1). From the outside, there’s little to distinguish

After decades of potential but limited deployment, fuel cells are beginning to carve out a role in grid-scale generation (see “59-MW Fuel Cell Park Opening Heralds Robust Global Technology Future” in the