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.

  • POWERnews—Sept. 11, 2025

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 11, 2025 NRC Accepts COLA for Fermi America’s Behemoth Four-Unit AP1000 Nuclear Plant in Texas The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted for review initial portions of a combined license application (COLA) from Dallas-based Fermi America to build and operate four […]

  • EPA Streamlines Preconstruction Permitting to Accelerate Power Plants, Data Centers, and Manufacturing Reshoring

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued new guidance under its New Source Review (NSR) preconstruction permitting program that could allow power plant developers to begin certain non-emissions‐related site work—such as installing concrete pads, grading, and utility trenching—before obtaining a Clean Air Act construction permit. The change, described in a sparse set of paragraphs […]

  • Consumers Energy to Sell 13 Michigan Hydro Dams for $1 Each

    Consumers Energy will sell its 13 hydroelectric dams along five Michigan rivers to Confluence Hydro, an affiliate of Hull Street Energy—for a price of $1 a piece. A Consumers Energy spokesperson confirmed the symbolic “technical sale” price of $1 for each dam, adding that the company has also entered into a 30-year agreement to purchase […]

  • NRC Accepts COLA for Fermi America’s Behemoth Four-Unit AP1000 Nuclear Plant in Texas

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted for review initial portions of a combined license application (COLA) from Dallas-based Fermi America to build and operate four Westinghouse AP1000 reactors in Carson County, Texas. The proposed project—which will be called the “President Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus” (also known as Project Matador)—is slated […]

  • POWERnews—Sept. 4, 2025

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 4, 2025 TVA, ENTRA1 Sign Agreement for 6-GW, Six-Plant Nuclear SMR Collaboration The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will collaborate with ENTRA1 Energy—NuScale’s exclusive global strategic partner—to develop a 6-GW nuclear portfolio, including six ENTRA1 Energy power plants on TVA sites, the […]

  • Two More UK AGR Nuclear Plants Get Further Lifetime Extensions

    EDF will extend the lifetimes of two UK nuclear power plants—Heysham 1 in Lancashire and Hartlepool in Teesside—by an additional 12 months to March 2028 in a bid to secure the country’s energy security as it faces a looming nuclear capacity cliff and heightened reliance on imported gas. The French-owned utility confirmed that 1.2-GW Heysham 1 in […]

  • TVA, ENTRA1 Sign Agreement for 6-GW, Six-Plant Nuclear SMR Collaboration

    The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will collaborate with ENTRA1 Energy—NuScale’s exclusive global strategic partner—to develop a 6-GW nuclear portfolio, including six ENTRA1 Energy power plants on TVA sites, the companies announced on Sept. 2. Under the agreement, ENTRA1 Energy will develop and own nuclear assets across TVA’s seven-state service region, selling electricity to the nation’s […]

  • Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for ERCOT

    In just 12 months, Sage Geosystems and San Miguel Electric Cooperative built the world’s first pressure geothermal system. It is now poised to deliver long-duration, dispatchable storage for the Electric

  • Policy Shift, Private Sector Drive Put Nuclear Recycling Back on the Table

    Over nearly five decades, nuclear waste has been treated as an intractable problem, locked in dry casks, relegated to repositories that are slow to materialize, and generally viewed as a costly liability

  • POWER Digest [September 2025]

    Hitachi Energy, E.ON Ink $700M Deal to Strengthen German Grid. Hitachi Energy, the world’s largest transformer manufacturer, has signed a deal worth up to $700 million with German utility E.ON to supply

  • TerraPower Eyes Utah for Second Commercial Natrium Reactor as AI Demand Reshapes Western Grid

    Nuclear innovation firm TerraPower has teamed with the Utah Office of Energy Development (OED) and Flagship Companies, a Salt Lake City-based land development firm, to explore siting a Natrium advanced nuclear reactor in Utah. The effort, which could mark the next phase of TerraPower’s expansion beyond its much-watched reactor demonstration project in Wyoming, has the […]

  • POWERnews—Aug. 28, 2025

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 28, 2025 Federal Grid Interventions Enter a Second Phase as DOE Extends Emergency Orders The Trump administration's unprecedented use of emergency grid authorities entered a second phase in August 2025, as the Department of Energy (DOE) extended three critical reliability orders. […]

  • Federal Grid Interventions Enter a Second Phase as DOE Extends Emergency Orders

    The Trump administration’s unprecedented use of emergency grid authorities entered a second phase in August 2025, as the Department of Energy (DOE) extended three critical reliability orders. The measures signal that this year’s historic string of federal interventions—staked in Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act—are likely to continue beyond the traditional summer peak and […]

  • Constellation Outlines Nuclear Expansion Plans at Clinton Site as Meta Partnership Strengthens

    Constellation Energy is evaluating specific regulatory pathways to enable potential deployment of advanced nuclear reactors at its Clinton Clean Energy Center. The measure could mark the first concrete steps toward next-generation nuclear development at the Illinois site now that the competitive generator has finalized a landmark 20-year agreement with Meta. Constellation disclosed on Tuesday that […]

  • DOE Allocates Second Round of HALEU Fuel to Three U.S. Nuclear Companies

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled three more companies to which it will allocate high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) under conditional commitments in a bid to support advanced reactor development and domestic fuel production. The Aug. 26 announcement marks the second round of allocations under DOE’s HALEU Availability Program but it links to two […]

  • POWERnews—Aug. 21, 2025

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 21, 2025 TVA Inks First U.S. Utility PPA for Gen IV Nuclear Power in Landmark Three-Way Deal with Google, Kairos The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has signed a first-of-its-kind power purchase agreement (PPA) with advanced nuclear technology firm Kairos Power to […]

  • Vattenfall Narrows SMR Field to Two Finalists: GE Vernova’s BWRX-300 and Rolls-Royce SMR

    Swedish utility Vattenfall has narrowed its small modular reactor (SMR) supplier selection to two finalists—GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GVH’s) BWRX-300 and the Rolls-Royce SMR—for potential construction of new nuclear capacity adjacent to its Ringhals plant site on Sweden’s Värö Peninsula. The announcement represents a critical step in what could become Sweden’s first new nuclear build project in more than 40 years. While the utility ultimately intends […]

  • Aalo Atomics Secures Capital, Regulatory Backing for 2026 Modular Nuclear Project at INL, Eyes Potential First Data Center Pairing

    Advanced nuclear firm Aalo Atomics has secured new capital and regulatory backing to complete construction of its 10-MWe Aalo-X reactor at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The project, recently selected under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) new Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, will demonstrate cold criticality by July 2026 in an unusually aggressive federal milestone for advanced […]

  • TVA Inks First U.S. Utility PPA for Gen IV Nuclear Power in Landmark Three-Way Deal with Google, Kairos

    The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has signed a first-of-its-kind power purchase agreement (PPA) with advanced nuclear technology firm Kairos Power to buy power from the company’s planned Hermes 2, a molten salt nuclear reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The deal makes TVA the first U.S. utility to contract for electricity from a Gen-IV reactor. Under […]

  • POWERnews—Aug. 14, 2025

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 14, 2025 Building ChatGPT for the Power Industry: EPRI Leads the Way More than 100 of the world’s largest energy companies are betting that artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize how electricity gets made, moved, and managed. But they’re not waiting for […]

  • Trump Names Democrat David Rosner as FERC Chairman

    President Trump has appointed David Rosner as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), elevating the Democratic commissioner to lead the independent energy regulator after Republican Mark Christie stepped down from the position. Rosner has served as a FERC commissioner since June 2024 and officially assumed the chairman role on Aug. 13. The appointment […]

  • POWERnews—Aug. 7, 2025

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 7, 2025 Google, I&M Strike Landmark Deal to Share Clean Capacity and Flex AI Load American Electric Power (AEP) subsidiary Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) has filed a special customer-specific contract with technology giant Google that could create a dual-purpose arrangement to […]

  • DOE Approves Fifth Loan Disbursement to Holtec for Historic Restart of Palisades Nuclear Plant

    The U.S. Department of Energy released an $83.2 million loan disbursement to Holtec International on Thursday, bringing total federal funding to $335.1 million as the company moves toward completing America’s first commercial nuclear reactor restart. The fifth installment under DOE’s $1.52 billion loan guarantee follows key Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)  approvals that authorized Holtec to […]

  • Trump Administration to Overhaul Drone Rules, Fast-Track Nuclear Reactor Deployment on the Moon

    The Trump administration has proposed new drone regulations that will eliminate case-by-case approval processes for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS)  operations, while Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy confirmed accelerated plans to deploy a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Transportation (DOT), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and […]

  • Google, I&M Strike Landmark Deal to Share Clean Capacity and Flex AI Load

    American Electric Power (AEP) subsidiary Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) has filed a special customer-specific contract with technology giant Google that could create a dual-purpose arrangement to address power capacity constraints in one of the fastest-growing digital infrastructure regions in the U.S. AEP on Aug. 4 announced that the two companies filed a petition to the […]

  • Doubling Down on Reliability: Karachi’s Engineered Smart Grid Breakthrough

    Faced with soaring demand and limited visibility into upstream grid assets, Karachi-based K-Electric engineered an in-house special protection system that delivers more than 600 MW of secure power imports to

  • Delays, Rollbacks, and Diverging Paths: The Global State of Power Plant Emissions Controls

    In recent years, analysis of the world’s power plant emissions appears to have centered largely on carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), mainly because carbon dominates global accounting frameworks and climate goals. In

  • POWERnews—July 31, 2025

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 31, 2025 DOE’s Fifth Emergency Order—for PJM—Caps Summer of Escalating Grid Risk The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued its fifth 202(c) emergency order this year, directing PJM Interconnection to override environmental limits and dispatch an oil-fired power generating unit in […]

  • DOE’s Fifth Emergency Order—for PJM—Caps Summer of Escalating Grid Risk

    The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued its fifth 202(c) emergency order this year, directing PJM Interconnection to override environmental limits and dispatch an oil-fired power generating unit in Maryland strictly as needed to avert possible blackouts in the Baltimore region. The July 28 order, issued under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, authorizes […]

  • PJM’s Record-High Capacity Prices Spark Sector Reckoning as Market Signals, Policy Battles Intensify

    Capacity prices in PJM Interconnection’s latest auction spiked to the market’s price ceiling, hitting $329.17/MW-day across the board for the 2026/2027 delivery year—the maximum allowed under new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rules. The regional transmission organization’s (RTO’s) competitive Base Residual Auction (BRA), conducted on July 9, 2025, and released on July 22, secured 134,311 […]