Sonal Patel
Articles By

Sonal Patel

Sonal Patel is a national award-winning multimedia journalist and senior editor at POWER magazine with nearly two decades of experience delivering technically rigorous reporting across power generation, transmission, distribution, policy, and infrastructure worldwide.

  • DOE Picks Nuclear Designs for First Microreactor Experiments at INL’s New Test Bed

    The Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled three nuclear microreactor developers that will design the first experiments at Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) new Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) test bed, which repurposes the Experimental-Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) containment structure.  Westinghouse, Radiant Nuclear, and Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. (USNC) will receive a combined $3.9 million to further their […]

  • POWERnews—Oct. 19, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   October 19, 2023 U.S. Unveils Seven Regional Hydrogen Hubs, Awards $7B to Kickstart National Hydrogen Network Seven regional hydrogen hubs spanning Appalachia, California, the Midwest, the Gulf Coast, the American heartland, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Pacific Northwest are poised to receive $7 […]

  • Constellation Planning Significant Nuclear-Powered Hydrogen Facility at LaSalle

    Constellation Energy will use a portion of newly announced federal funding for the Midwest Hydrogen Hub (MachH2) to build “the world’s largest nuclear-powered clean hydrogen facility” at its 2.3-GW LaSalle Clean Energy Center in Illinois. The company on Oct. 16 said it plans to leverage a $1 billion award announced by the Department of Energy (DOE) last […]

  • U.S. Deploys $3.5B Boost for Grid Resilience: Major Projects Revealed

    Fifty-eight projects spearheaded by major U.S. power stakeholders will receive up to $3.5 billion in federal funding to improve grid flexibility and boost power system resiliency against extreme weather and climate change, the Biden administration announced on Oct. 18. The projects mark the  Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first competitive selections under the Grid Resilience and […]

  • U.S. Unveils Seven Regional Hydrogen Hubs, Awards $7B to Kickstart National Hydrogen Network

    Seven regional hydrogen hubs spanning Appalachia, California, the Midwest, the Gulf Coast, the American heartland, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Pacific Northwest are poised to receive $7 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program (H2Hubs). The selections, unveiled by the Biden administration on […]

  • POWERnews—Oct. 5, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   October 5, 2023 UK Shortlists Six Nuclear Designs in SMR Competition, Intends to Award Contract by Summer 2024 Six nuclear designs will advance to the next phase of the UK’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competition, a fast-track measure that could result in […]

  • SRP Shifts from Traditional IRP to ‘Holistic’ Power Planning

    Salt River Project (SRP) has become one of the first U.S. utilities to shift from an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to an Integrated System Plan (ISP), a “holistic roadmap” that takes into account evolving power system needs, energy affordability, and carbon reduction goals. The pioneering move by the public power entity that provides power and […]

  • GAO: EPA Relies on Outdated Systems to Manage Air Quality Data

    Two IT air quality data systems that inform the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) regulatory and compliance decisions are outdated, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has suggested. The federal agency must make progress to develop a business case to replace them, it said.  The congressional watchdog in a report made public on Sept. 29 […]

  • UK Shortlists Six Nuclear Designs in SMR Competition, Intends to Award Contract by Summer 2024

    Six nuclear designs will advance to the next phase of the UK’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competition, a fast-track measure that could result in a government contract within the next 10 months as part of a strategy to deliver operational SMRs by the mid-2030s. EDF, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), Holtec Britain, NuScale Power, Rolls Royce SMR, […]

  • Melaka: Malaysia’s 2.2-GW Cutting-Edge Combined Cycle Gas Power Plant

    The Edra Melaka Power Plant (EMPP), the world’s second GE 9HA.02 gas turbine power plant, is the largest combined cycle gas-fired power plant currently in operation in Malaysia. A POWER Top Plant winner, the

  • Decommissioning Dilemmas: Navigating the End-of-Life Challenges in Clean Energy Sources

    Planning, building, operating, or overhauling power plants has long been an emphasis in the power sector—and an important one, given that the creation of new power capacity plays an outsized role in

  • China’s Pingshan Phase II Sets New Bar as World’s Most Efficient Coal Power Plant

    Pingshan Phase II, a cutting-edge 1.4-GW ultrasupercritical coal-fired unit, achieves a remarkable net efficiency of 49.37%—making it the world’s most efficient coal-fired power plant. The state-of-the-art

  • POWERnews—Sept. 28, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 28, 2023 Nucor and Helion Target 2030 for Utility-Scale Fusion Power Plant Nucor Corp., a manufacturer of steel and steel products, and Helion, a fusion energy company, are collaborating to develop a 500-MW fusion power plant to supply baseload electricity to […]

  • SPP Set to Become First RTO Straddling Eastern and Western Interconnections

    The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is poised to become the first regional transmission organization (RTO) to provide coordinated operation across the Eastern and Western Interconnections, bridging a historic gap to potentially boost regional reliability, savings, and efficiencies. SPP, which has operated as an RTO since 2004, currently has 110 member companies in its Eastern Interconnection […]

  • Major Engineering Services Contract Launches Poland’s First Nuclear Power Project

    Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ), Poland’s designated entity tasked with developing the country’s first nuclear plant in Pomerania, has signed an engineering services contract with a Westinghouse-Bechtel consortium, allowing site-specific work to begin on the AP1000 power plant. The companies announced the “historic” contract on Sept. 27, one week after nuclear technology giant Westinghouse and global […]

  • POWERnews—Sept. 21, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 21, 2023 FERC, NERC Reveal Disturbing Details From Winter Storm Elliot Inquiry Incremental unplanned generation outages triggered during Winter Storm Elliot spiked to 90.5 GW—significantly more than the 61.8 GW during Winter Storm Uri in 2021—representing 13% of the U.S. portion […]

  • FERC, NERC Reveal Disturbing Details from Winter Storm Elliott Inquiry

    Incremental unplanned generation outages triggered during Winter Storm Elliott spiked to 90.5 GW—significantly more than the 61.8 GW during Winter Storm Uri in 2021—representing 13% of the U.S. portion of anticipated resources in the Eastern Interconnection. That finding, one of many disturbing details unveiled by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Electric […]

  • TVA Exploring Carbon Capture Feasibility for Two Gas-Fired Power Plants

    The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is poised to study the feasibility of retrofitting two gas-fired power plants—a combined capacity of 1.8 GW—in Mississippi and Kentucky with post-combustion carbon capture technology to remove more than 90% of their carbon emissions.  The non-profit U.S. corporate agency and Canadian energy infrastructure firm TC Energy on Sept. 14 said they will […]

  • POWERnews—Sept. 14, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 14, 2023 Wyoming Energy Authority Makes Investment Toward Microreactor Deployment BWX Technologies (BWXT) said it was awarded a “two-phase, two-year contract” with the Wyoming Energy Authority (WEA) to assess the viability of deploying small-scale nuclear reactors in the state to… Palisades […]

  • DOD Advances X-Energy Mobile Nuclear Microreactor as Second Project Pele Design

    The Department of Defense (DOD) has moved to develop a second transportable microreactor under Project Pele, granting X-energy a contract option to advance the design of its mobile advanced nuclear microreactor prototype. The one-year contract option will continue to provide funding for X-energy’s nuclear technology development, allowing the firm to develop its design to meet […]

  • Petra Nova, Pioneering Power Plant Carbon Capture Unit, Is Up and Running Again, says JX Nippon

    Petra Nova, one of the world’s only two carbon capture and storage (CCS) retrofits at a commercial power plant, has restarted operations, JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration Corp. announced on Sept. 13. The project, which is designed to remove more than 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from a 240-MW flue gas slipstream from […]

  • POWERnews—Sept. 7, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 7, 2023 ERCOT Issues First Level 2 Emergency Alert Since Winter Storm Uri The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on Sept. 6 issued an Energy Emergency Alert 2 (EEA 2) after grid conditions quickly deteriorated around sunset (7:30 p.m.) as […]

  • India Begins Commercial Operation of First Domestically Designed 700-MWe PHWR Nuclear Reactor

    India has begun commercial operation of its first domestically designed 700-MWe pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) at the Kakrapar nuclear power plant in Gujarat, state-owned Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. (NPCIL) reported on Aug. 30. Commercial operation of  Unit 3 at Kakrapar Atomic Power Project, which is located near the city of Vyara in the […]

  • ERCOT Issues First Level 2 Emergency Alert Since Winter Storm Uri

    The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on Sept. 6 issued an Energy Emergency Alert 2 (EEA 2) after grid conditions quickly deteriorated around sunset (7:30 p.m.) as demand soared and operating power reserves plunged. The grid operator said that the emergency operations were necessary “due to a combination of dropping operating reserves and frequency.” […]

  • Hydropower Horizons: Pioneering a Pelton Turbine Breakthrough

    Voith Hydro in 2022 replaced four vertical Pelton turbines at Verbund’s 75-year-old 326-GWh Gerlos 1 pumped storage facility in Austria with a first-of-its-kind horizontal six-nozzle Pelton turbine

  • South Korea’s First ‘K-Gas Turbine’ Begins Commercial Operation

    Marking a significant inroad to establish a South Korean foothold in the world’s gas turbine technology market, heavy industrial company Doosan Enerbility this summer began commercial operation of its first

  • POWERnews—Aug. 31, 2023

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 31, 2023 Arizona Site Will Host Long-Duration Energy Storage Project An innovative battery energy storage project, using a non-lithium technology, will be deployed at a research center in Arizona. Salt River Project (SRP), the state’s community-based, not-for-profit public power utility,…   […]

  • U.S. Air Force Selects Fast Microreactor for Nuclear Power Pilot

    The U.S. Air Force’s first nuclear microreactor planned for Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska under a federal nuclear microreactor pilot program will be an Oklo liquid metal-cooled fast reactor. The Defense of Logistics Agency (DLA), acting on behalf of the Department of Air Force (DAF), on Aug. 31 issued a Notice of Intent to Award […]

  • Dispute Brews About Wind Farm’s Role in Kenya’s Nationwide Blackout

    Kenya’s government is pinning a nationwide blackout on Aug. 25 to the loss of 270 MW from the 310-MW Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant (LTWP), though the wind generator has denied it was the cause. The blackout, which lasted more than 20 hours, began at about 9:45 p.m. on Friday, plunging the East African country’s […]

  • Centrus, Oklo Set Out to Solidify HALEU Fuel Cycle, Trade Advanced Nuclear Power and Fuel

    Centrus, a firm poised to demonstrate high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) production, will partner with microreactor technology developer Oklo on several pioneering steps to build out the HALEU front-end supply chain, including pivotal commercial deconversion capabilities. The landmark collaboration could also make Centrus one of Oklo’s first commercial power off-takers for two reactors planned in Southern […]