Aaron Larson
Articles By

Aaron Larson

  • Award-Winning Hydropower Project Helps Electrify Ethiopia

    The government of Ethiopia has set a goal of providing access to electricity to all its citizens by 2025. It still has a long way to go, but projects such as the Genale Dawa III hydropower station are helping

  • Benefits of Reciprocating Engines in Power Generation

    Many experts believe power plants constructed with reciprocating engines are the ideal complement to intermittent renewables. Recip plants are extremely flexible. Facilities can be sized for almost any use

  • Is LCOE the Best Metric for Choosing New Power Resources?

    Costs for wind and solar power systems have been declining for years thanks to technology improvements, economies of scale, and fierce competition in auctions. In the second half of 2019, the levelized cost of

  • Best of POWER—August 31, 2020

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 31, 2020 Construction Begins on New Gas Plant in Alberta Macquarie Capital and a handful of other development sponsors announced they have successfully closed financing for the C$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion U.S.) Cascade Power Project, a 900-MW combined cycle natural…   […]

  • Exelon Makes Plans to Retire Byron and Dresden Nuclear Plants in 2021

    In a stunning announcement, Exelon Generation, which operates the largest U.S. fleet of nuclear plants—21 reactors at 12 facilities in Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania—said it will retire the Byron and Dresden generating stations next fall for economic reasons. “Although we know in our heads that shutting down the uneconomic Illinois plants is necessary […]

  • Derecho Damage Results in Early Retirement of Duane Arnold Nuclear Power Plant

    The Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC, Figure 1)—a 615-MW nuclear power plant located in Palo, Iowa—will reportedly not restart after high winds caused extensive damage to the station’s cooling towers. The plant owner, NextEra Energy Resources, had planned to retire the unit on Oct. 30, but after assessing damage caused by an Aug. 10 derecho, […]

  • PI System Software-Maker OSIsoft Being Acquired by AVEVA

    In a $5 billion deal, engineering and industrial software company AVEVA has agreed to acquire OSIsoft, maker of the PI System, which is a market-leading operational data software solution. “Combining AVEVA and OSIsoft is yet another significant milestone in our journey to achieving the ambitious growth goals that we have set,” Craig Hayman, CEO of […]

  • China Will Get ‘Green’ Hydrogen from Siemens-Sourced System

    Siemens Energy will provide a hydrogen production system for a fueling station in Beijing, China. The company said it will be the “first megawatt green hydrogen production project in China.” “The decarbonization of the energy systems is a challenge that every country must face. Siemens Energy is the company that can provide its customers with […]

  • Best of POWER—August 17, 2020

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 17, 2020 Innovative Byproduct-Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Plant Completed The largest industrial hydrogen fuel cell power plant in the world and the first to use only hydrogen recycled from petrochemical manufacturing has been placed in service by Hanwha Energy…   South […]

  • Innovative Byproduct-Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Plant Completed

    The largest industrial hydrogen fuel cell power plant in the world and the first to use only hydrogen recycled from petrochemical manufacturing has been placed in service by Hanwha Energy at its Daesan Industrial Complex in Seosan, South Korea. The innovative plant uses “recycled hydrogen from petrochemical manufacturing” supplied by the Hanwha Total Petrochemical plant […]

  • How to Find the Lowest-Cost Option for Electricity in Competitive Markets

    How electricity is delivered to customers in the U.S. is complicated. Consumers in some states have no choice who supplies their power; state commissions regulate utilities as vertically integrated electricity providers. Other states utilize a competitive model in which power producers can openly access transmission infrastructure and participate in wholesale electricity markets. Yet, there isn’t […]

  • COAL POWER Direct—August 5, 2020

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 5, 2020 EPA Changes Closure Requirements in Coal Ash Rule The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on July 29 finalized several changes to the regulations for disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCRs), or coal ash, from electric utilities. The changes…   […]

  • Group to Cities: Get Out of Nuclear Project While You Can

    The Utah Taxpayers Association has urged cities and towns that have subscribed to the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) small modular reactor (SMR) project to withdraw from the venture before a Sept. 14 deadline that would lock them into a share of billions of dollars in costs associated with the undertaking. Rusty Cannon, vice […]

  • Efficiency a Priority at Caofeidian Coal Power Plant

    Coal power may be struggling in some parts of the world, but it’s doing just fine in China. New plants are coming online featuring state-of-the-art technology. Two ultrasupercritical units added at the

  • Success Through Engineered Upgrades and a Focus on Behavior

    It sounds kind of strange, but you don’t always know, what you don’t know. That was the case at a Thai coal plant. When it started burning Indonesian subbituminous coal, operators didn’t know how dusty

  • Electric Transmission Grid Problems and Solutions

    Many of the electric transmission grids in service around the world were designed and built more than a half century ago. While changes and upgrades have obviously been made over the years, the systems were

  • How to Build an On-Time, On-Budget Nuclear Power Plant

    Building a new nuclear power plant is challenging. Nuclear construction projects always seem to be behind schedule and over budget. Even in the late 1960s and early 1970s—arguably nuclear power’s

  • EPA Changes Closure Requirements in Coal Ash Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on July 29 finalized several changes to the regulations for disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCRs), or coal ash, from electric utilities. The changes include giving utilities more time to design clean-up and closure plans for their coal ash storage sites. The changes stem from an opinion issued Aug. […]

  • Amicarella ‘Demystifies’ the Role of CEO for Women

    The power generation industry has historically been a male-dominated industry, but today there are a number of women who have risen through the ranks to positions of leadership. Ana Amicarella, CEO of EthosEnergy, is one of them. EthosEnergy is a leading independent service provider of rotating equipment services and solutions to the power, oil and […]

  • Best of POWER—July 27, 2020

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 27, 2020 Rains Complicate Ethiopian Hydro Dam Dispute July 23, 2020: Ethiopia said it had reached a “major common understanding” with Egypt and Sudan related to the first filling and annual operation of the 6.4-GW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), paving… […]

  • [VIDEO] POWER Insights: The Amazing DIII-D Fusion Project

    The DIII-D National Fusion Facility, operated by General Atomics for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is the largest magnetic fusion research facility in the U.S. The mission of the DIII-D research program is to establish the scientific basis for the optimization of the tokamak approach to fusion energy production. The DIII-D program is a […]

  • Using Autonomous Drones in the Power Sector

    Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have been dabbled with throughout the power industry for years. POWER featured a drone on its cover in April 2014, and has published many articles on drone technology since then. Yet, the technology has been used more as a novelty in the power sector up to this point. As […]

  • Duke Energy Has New CCGT Plant in Asheville

    Duke Energy Progress, the Duke Energy subsidiary that serves about 1.6 million customers in the Carolinas, announced the completion of its new Asheville Combined Cycle Station in Arden, North Carolina. The company said the $817 million combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) facility (Figure 1) includes two power blocks with a total of four generators and […]

  • Rural Electric Cooperatives: Debt Rules Need to Change

    The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) is working feverishly to get a provision into the next COVID-19 stimulus package that would allow electric cooperatives to reprice loans from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) at current low interest rates without penalties. The change could save co-ops more than $10 billion. The RUS, which is a […]

  • Xcel Energy Approved to Run Two Coal Units on Seasonal Basis

    The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel Energy’s request to offer two of its coal units into the Midcontinent Independent System Operator market on a seasonal basis. That means the company can idle the two units for six months of the year, which is expected to save customers money while also reducing air emissions. “This […]

  • New Milestone Reached in NuScale’s Push to License Small Modular Reactor

    NuScale Power has completed its second submittal to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) for pre-licensing Vendor Design Review (VDR) of its small modular reactor (SMR). A pre-licensing VDR is an optional service provided by the CNSC when requested by a supplier. It provides a mechanism that enables CNSC staff to provide feedback early in […]

  • Renewable Energy Growth Stymied by Pandemic, but Optimism Is High

    The renewable energy sector was on a steep growth curve entering 2020 with a lot of experts predicting a record year. Then COVID-19 disrupted the entire world, causing trouble in supply chains and putting millions of workers in unemployment lines. However, a new report released by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), a renewable […]

  • GAS POWER Direct—July 15, 2020

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 15, 2020 Featured Siemens' Roadmap to 100% Hydrogen Gas Turbines Aligning with a target set by European industry association EUTurbines, Siemens Gas and Power in January 2019 rolled out an ambitious roadmap to ramp up the hydrogen capability in all its […]

  • Best of POWER—July 13, 2020

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 13, 2020 Featured Siemens' Roadmap to 100% Hydrogen Gas Turbines Aligning with a target set by European industry association EUTurbines, Siemens Gas and Power rolled out an ambitious roadmap to ramp up the hydrogen capability in all its gas turbine models […]

  • What Is DERMS and How Can It Help Utilities?

    A distributed energy resource management system, or DERMS, is a software platform used to manage a group of distributed energy resource (DER) assets—such as rooftop photovoltaic solar panels, behind-the-meter batteries, or a fleet of electric vehicles—to deliver vital grid services and balance demand with supply to help utilities achieve mission-critical outcomes. As a guest on […]