Aaron Larson

July 17, 2019 Egypt Megaproject: An Expedited Power Transformation Winning POWER’s highest honor is a set of three gas-fired power plants and related infrastructure—the Egypt Megaproject—which was the single biggest order ever in Siemens’ long history. Completed… Read More A Brief History of GE Gas Turbines July marks two important milestones that set gas-fired generation […]

July 10, 2019 EPA Delayed on Proposed ELG Revisions for Steam Power Plants The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is behind on its proposed revisions to the Obama administration’s effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for steam electric power plants.  In an e-mail to POWER on… Read More Wheeler: Keeping U.S. Coal Sector Alive Will Benefit ‘International Environmental […]

The price of lithium-ion batteries has plummeted over the past decade. Battery pack prices averaged $1,160 per kWh in 2010, according to BloombergNEF, but they dropped to $176 per kWh last year, and experts suggest they could be less than $100 by 2024. Tony Cooper, general manager of Green Cubes Technology’s Motive division, was a […]

Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), owner of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR (European Pressurized Water Reactor) nuclear unit that is under construction in Finland, has said fuel will not be loaded in the reactor before the end of August, while it awaits completion of a schedule review being conducted by the construction consortium. Meanwhile, EDF, which is […]

Power plants are capturing operational data in ever-increasing amounts. However, analyzing all the data can be challenging. A number of tools are available that can help. In this episode of The POWER Podcast, two experts from one technology provider explain how big data can be analyzed to identify trends and create actionable information to solve […]

More than 2 million new solar PV installations were installed in the U.S. in the first three months of 2019—a new record for the first quarter of the year—according to the Wood Mackenzie/Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) U.S. Solar Market Insight report, which was released this week. Utilities led the way, installing 1.6 GWdc of […]

Power plant SO2 and NOx emissions have decreased 92% and 84%, respectively, since Congress passed major amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990. Meanwhile, mercury air emissions from power plants have decreased 90% since 2000, as federal limits on mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants went into effect in 2015. […]

June 19, 2019 Where Is the Microgrid Market Headed? 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… Read More MHPS, Magnum Will Build 1-GW Renewable Energy Storage Facility in Utah Mitsubishi Hitachi […]

The natural gas industry is doing quite well and the future looks bright to many observers. “We’re at a really great moment for the natural gas industry in the U.S. Production is growing dramatically. Shale continues to provide tremendous improvements technologically, bringing the cost down and growing the production, extending access to U.S. gas. At […]

Talen Montana—part-owner and operator of the Colstrip Steam Electric Station—announced that Units 1 and 2 at the coal-fired power plant will be retired by year-end, well ahead of a previously announced July 2022 closure date. “The decision to retire Colstrip Units 1 and 2 comes after extensive review and exhaustive efforts over the last few […]

June 12, 2019 The POWER Interview: GE Unleashing a Hydrogen Gas Power Future Since the 1940s, when General Electric (GE), launched its gas turbine operations, the company has pioneered and commercialized a lengthy list of gas turbine technologies, large and small. As the… Read More Piloting Boiler Startup at Lightspeed Many combined cycle power plants […]

June 6, 2019 How the U.S. Is Investing in Advanced Coal Technologies The U.S. is investing heavily to ensure its future coal-fired power fleet will be cleaner, more efficient, and more flexible, experts said at the 9th International Conference on Clean Coal… Read More India’s Coal Future Hinges on Advanced Ultrasupercritical Breakthroughs India is striving […]

June 5, 2019 Power Marketer to Tri-State: We’ll Buy and Close Your Coal Plants A wholesale power provider in Colorado wants to supply the state’s largest electric cooperative with power from mostly renewable sources, saying it will pay Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association to… Read More Illinois Passes Landmark Coal Ash Legislation Illinois became the […]

“Without action to provide more support for nuclear power, global efforts to transition to a cleaner energy system will become drastically harder and more costly,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), wrote in his foreword to the IEA’s recently released report titled Nuclear Power in a Clean Energy System. The report […]

The power industry is changing and power companies must evolve to stay competitive. Many businesses are transitioning from vertically integrated, centralized utility structures to more-distributed models. JEA offers a good case in point. JEA is a not-for-profit, community-owned utility located in Jacksonville, Florida. It serves an estimated 466,000 electric, 348,000 water, 271,000 sewer, and 11,000 […]

May 22, 2019 Best Practices for Wind Project Partial Repowering 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… Read More Bringing the Heat: Geothermal Making Inroads as Baseload Power It’s energy that has […]

When it comes to gas turbines, size matters. Although the market for large, heavy-duty gas turbines has been challenging in recent years, demand for industrial gas turbines—generally units with output ranging from about 5 MW to 100 MW—has been growing, according to Reed Lengel, product line manager for SCC-800 solutions with Siemens Energy. “When you […]

May 15, 2019 Siemens Will Exit Power, Gas, Renewable Businesses Siemens will spin off and give up its majority stake in its lucrative Gas and Power division—comprising its conventional power generation, power transmission, oil and gas, and related services businesses—and… Read More Insights Into Siemens’ Stunning Gas and Power, Renewables Shakeup In the days following […]

Combined heat and power (CHP), also known as cogeneration, is the concurrent production of electricity or mechanical power and useful thermal energy (heating and/or cooling) from a single source of energy. Although it may not be widely recognized outside of industrial, commercial, institutional, and utility circles, CHP has been providing highly efficient electricity and process […]

May 8, 2019 Enhanced Wastewater Treatment Technology for Ash Transport Water 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… Read More Sponsored Content Don’t Let Your Efficiency Evaporate Corrosive environments. Costly blowdowns. […]

Marc Yeston kicked off the Combustion Turbine Operations Technical Forum (CTOTF) spring conference on April 29 in St. Augustine, Florida, with a keynote presentation focused on safety, and how power plant managers and supervisors can improve safety programs. Yeston (Figure 1) has worked as a flight paramedic, a federal and state law enforcement officer, a […]

Offshore moorings have a long tradition in the oil and gas industry. Even though most offshore mooring systems feature similar components, they differ a lot in design, depending on the bathymetries, the metocean data, and the design of the platform they support. But despite the wide range available in the market, the fast development of […]

The malicious threat landscape for industrial control systems (ICSs) is constantly evolving and getting more sophisticated, thereby raising the need to have visibility, implement protective controls, and perform continuous monitoring. As a result, it is important to take a look at the attack vectors of some malware/malicious events—such as Triton—that have occurred over the last […]

Utilities deploying precise timing in their networks have an additional choice in evaluating solutions based on whether or not the devices are IEEE certified for compliance to the appropriate IEEE 1588 Power Profile. To reach this point, years of effort from the IEEE, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and […]

April 25, 2019 GE Power Engineer Implicated in Turbine Technology Theft for China’s Benefit    A former GE Power engineer and a Chinese businessman conspired to steal General Electric (GE) trade secrets related to gas and steam turbine technologies to benefit China, the U.S. Department… Read More Sempra Energy Exits U.S. Renewables Sector Sempra Energy […]

April 24, 2019 Duke Energy Projects Lead Carolinas' Solar Expansion Duke Energy announced it will develop six utility-scale solar power projects in North Carolina, among 14 solar projects chosen as part of the state’s Competitive Procurement of… Read More Wind Industry Prepares for Massive Expansion Construction activity on wind projects across the U.S. surged to […]

April 17, 2019 Inside NET Power: Gas Power Goes Supercritical  A project to demonstrate a novel power cycle that promises to produce low-cost, reliable, and flexible power from natural gas—while generating no atmospheric emissions, and fully capturing carbon dioxide—is inching… Read More What Are Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles? While conventional power plant cycles produce power […]

Time is winding down for lawmakers interested in enacting legislation to save the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear plant. That message was amplified on April 5 when Exelon Corp. filed the federally required Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The PSDAR details plans for TMI Unit 1 after its final […]

April 10, 2019 N.C. Officials Order Duke Energy to Excavate Coal Ash Ponds North Carolina officials have ordered Duke Energy to excavate all its coal ash storage ponds in the state, saying the utility’s current plan for its coal ash sites does not… Read More Sponsored Content Don’t Let Your Efficiency Evaporate Corrosive environments. Costly […]

PG&E Corp. announced on April 3 the appointment of William “Bill” Johnson as the company’s new president and CEO. It also announced the appointment of 10 new directors to its board of directors. The board appointments will be effective as of the next in-person board meeting, which will be held as soon as practicable, the […]