A Japanese firm has set out to shake up energy storage and transmission with a freshly launched “power transfer vessel” concept that is designed to carry electricity from offshore wind farms to shore. The company’s first electric ship model, which will have an energy storage capacity of 200 MWh, is slated for completion in 2025. […]

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) on Aug. 23 rattled American Electric Power’s (AEP’s) plans to operate the 2.9-GW John Amos and 1.3-GW Mountaineer coal power plants through 2040 when it partly denied cost recovery for expenses that the West Virginia plants need to comply with the federal Steam Electric Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) rule. The […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 19, 2021 EIA: Large-Scale U.S. Battery Power Capacity Slated for Fourfold Expansion in Two Years Large-scale battery power capacity in the U.S. surged 35% over 2020 to reach 1,650 MW, and according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), utilities are planning […]

An experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) National Ignition Facility (NIF) appears to have approached fusion ignition as it recreated the extreme temperatures and pressures at the heart of the sun for a tiny fraction of a second. The momentous step has fueled new optimism for fusion energy. The experiment on Aug. 8 “was […]

Large-scale battery power capacity in the U.S. surged 35% over 2020 to reach 1,650 MW, and according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), utilities are planning to ramp up that capacity by 10 GW over the next two years. In a newly released report, Battery Storage in the United States: An Update on Market Trends, […]

Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) has agreed to sell its 6.8-GW portfolio of non-nuclear generating assets—a fleet of 13 gas plants—to a fund controlled by ArcLight Capital Partners LLC for about $1.92 billion. The sale, which effectively sets up its exit from the competitive generation business, is expected to be completed late in the fourth […]

Marking a notable milestone for nuclear component additive manufacturing, four 3D-printed fuel assembly channel fasteners have been installed and are now operational at Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 2 in Athens, Alabama. Channel fasteners are a type of bracket that attaches to the top of the nuclear fuel assembly to hold […]

Intensifying drought conditions in California and historically low water levels at the Oroville Dam on Aug. 5 forced the state’s Department of Water Resources (CDWR) to shut down the 644-MW Edward Hyatt Power Plant—the fourth largest energy producer of all California’s hydroelectric facilities. Similar conditions across the West are prompting a careful watch over hydropower facilities.

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 5, 2021 Group Buys Pennsylvania Coal Refuse Plants to Power Bitcoin Mining A digital mining company has an agreement to purchase a second power plant in Pennsylvania, as the group increases its coal refuse reclamation operations in the state to provide […]

Marking another milestone in an industry-led accelerated quest to commercialize accident tolerant fuels (ATF), nuclear fuel test rods containing Westinghouse’s EnCore technologies that completed their inaugural cycle at Exelon’s Byron nuclear plant have shipped to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). While initial visual inspections show “no signs of degradation,” the irradiated fuel will now be […]

Entergy Texas will seek approval for a 1.2-GW hydrogen and natural gas–fired combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power facility in Orange County, Texas. The Beaumont-based Entergy Corp. subsidiary on July 29 announced it intends to file a Certificate for Convenience and Necessity with the Public Utility Commission of Texas “within the coming months” to build […]

West Virginia’s only remaining coal refuse–fueled facility, the 80-MW Grant Town Power Project, is a 2021 Top Plant winner for powering on, despite challenges, to remediate 530,000 tons of coal refuse annually while reclaiming roughly 30 acres of land per year. 

Korea Western Power’s Taean Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Power Plant this year marked 4,000 hours of consecutive accident-free operations, setting a new world record for IGCC power plants

China in late June began operating two of the world’s first 1-GW hydropower turbines at the Baihetan Hydropower Station in southwest China. When the project’s 16 generating units are completed by July 2022

South Africa’s longstanding ambitions to expand its nuclear power capacity gained some ground this July, after the nation’s nuclear regulator announced it would convene a public hearing relating to a

The Biden administration is moving to add more safeguards to the nation’s critical infrastructure by establishing a new voluntary public-private collaboration that will focus wholly on industrial control systems (ICS) cybersecurity. The administration formally launched the “Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative” in the “National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems” signed by […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 22, 2021 Years in the Making, GE’s Recent GT26 Gas Turbine Upgrade Exceeds Expectations GE recently announced the completion of the first implementation of its GT26 High-Efficiency (HE) upgrade for the GT26 gas turbine fleet. The work was done at Uniper’s […]

Facing a federal charge for honest services wire fraud in a corruption case related to the billion-dollar nuclear plant bailout in Ohio, FirstEnergy Corp. has agreed to abide by the terms of a three-year deferred prosecution settlement to get the charge dismissed. In court filings on July 22, the Akron, Ohio-based public utility holding company […]

The American Clean Power Association (ACP)—a 2021-launched pan-renewables trade group—may be poised to merge with the U.S. Energy Storage Association (ESA) starting on Jan. 1, 2022. The groups’ intent to pursue a merger, announced on July 22, still requires ESA’s member approval. If successful, it would combine the two trade association’s staff programs and members, […]

Numerous energy facilities were afflicted by the major flooding event that inundated parts of Europe last week, and at least one major power generator has said the damage will likely mount into a “mid-double-digit million euro sum.” The flooding, which was caused by a cold, low-pressure area dubbed “Bernd,” crawled slowly across the continent over two […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 15, 2021 Bechtel, GE Will Lead 3.2-GW Gas Power Project Vietnam's first privately-owned power plant has moved a step closer to fruition, as Delta Offshore Energy chose Bechtel to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) services for a proposed 3,200-MW combined…   […]

The inventor of the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle, a novel power cycle that uses supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2), is collaborating with a subsidiary of Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries to potentially develop the UK’s first 300-MW natural gas–fired NET Power station at an existing site at Teesside, northeastern England.  Zero Degrees Whitetail Development Ltd. (ZDW), a subsidiary of North Carolina-based […]

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has unveiled a roadmap outlining crucial improvements designed to enhance grid reliability, taking into account recent legislation, regulatory mandates, and a recent push by the state’s governor for market incentives that will help the grid bulk up on “adequate and reliable” resources, like natural gas, coal, and nuclear […]

The rapidly spreading Bootleg Fire tripped off transmission lines that transport power from the Pacific Northwest to California and other states over the weekend, prompting the California Independent System Operator (ISO) to issue another Flex Alert—the sixth such conservation notification this summer. According to the state’s Incident Information System, the intense fire in Southern-Central Oregon […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 8, 2021 Reliability-Wary California Will Procure More Energy Resources to Get It Through Summer Stricken by repeated extreme heat events, the prospect of a worsening drought, incremental resource delays, and the “unforeseen” loss of 300 MW in thermal resources, California has […]

Stricken by repeated extreme heat events, the prospect of a worsening drought, incremental resource delays, and the “unforeseen” loss of 300 MW in thermal resources, California has set out to secure additional energy resources to ensure reliability this summer. Responding to a June 29 letter from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California […]

AES Corp. will retire four coal-fired power plants—a total 1,097 MW—in Chile “as soon as” January 2025 if supported by grid requirements under an agreement the Virginia-headquartered company signed with the Chilean government on July 6. The coal closures, which are outlined in what AES described as a “voluntary” retirement plan, represent the “single largest […]

Shell Energy has started up a 10-MW polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer facility—one of the largest of its kind in the world—to produce green hydrogen at its Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland refinery in Wesseling, Germany, and it says plans are underway to expand the plant’s capacity to 100 MW.  The startup of the electrolyzer […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 1, 2021 New Jersey Awards 2.7 GW of Offshore Wind Projects New Jersey utility regulators have issued what officials are calling the largest combined award of offshore U.S. wind generation capacity to date. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU)… […]

Winning POWER’s highest honor is Track 4A, Southern Power Generation’s 1.4-GW natural gas–fired power plant in southern Malaysia that is equipped with the first commercial GE 9HA.02 gas turbines—one of