The U.S. power industry lacks forward-looking ways to measure grid resiliency and traditional reliability metrics could become irrelevant as more intermittent generation inundates the bulk power system. But rather than continually looking backward to learn from ever-increasing emergencies or close-shaves, power system operators must work to cultivate a balanced portfolio that considers all aspects of […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 24, 2020 Former SpaceX Engineers Tout New Microreactor A California company is gathering funding for development of a portable nuclear microreactor, designed for use in areas where other forms of power generation are not practical. Radiant, founded by… GE Throws in […]

The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), a planned experimental fast neutron reactor that the Department of Energy (DOE) says is crucial to support domestic advanced nuclear reactor research and development has cleared “Critical Decision 1,” paving the way for the engineering design phase to begin. Critical Decision 1—also known as “Approve Alternative Selection and Cost Range”—is […]

Marking another major federal effort to address potential supply chain risks to the bulk power system (BPS), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Sept. 17 sought industry’s perspective on a number of important considerations, including possible actions the regulatory body could take to address security gaps. The U.S.-based power sector, meanwhile, has moved quickly […]

Entergy Corp., an integrated energy company with a 30-GW power generating fleet, took a bold step toward decarbonization on Sept. 23, announcing it would join forces with Mitsubishi Power to integrate green hydrogen into utility businesses in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.  Entergy will focus on developing hydrogen-capable combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) facilities and […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 17, 2020 DOE-Backed Hydrogen Project Underway in Texas A California energy company is collaborating with its parent and the University of Texas on a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project to show that renewable hydrogen can be a… Hitachi Out of […]

Hitachi will formally end business operations on the Horizon Nuclear Power Plant in the UK, citing an “investment environment” that has become “increasingly severe due to the impact of COVID-19.”  The Tokyo, Japan–headquartered conglomerate’s move comes 20 months after it first suspended plans to build the plant in Wylfa Newydd in Wales as part of […]

New Jersey on Sept. 9 opened a second state offshore wind solicitation that could triple its committed capacity from 1.1 GW to 3.5 GW. The state this week also laid out a final strategy for how it will achieve its November 2019–expanded offshore wind target of 7.5 GW by 2035.  New Jersey’s five-member Board of […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 10, 2020 Georgia Power: New Vogtle Unit Still Set for 2021 Startup The target in-service dates for two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant site in Georgia remain November 2021 and November 2022, respectively, Georgia Power said in a […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Sept. 6 took the rare but drastic action of issuing an emergency order under the Federal Power Act (FPA) to authorize the maximum operation of three natural gas–fired facilities on the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO’s) grid whose full capability had been stranded by federal air quality and […]

General Electric International Inc. (GE) and consortium partner Taiwanese engineering services firm CTCI have bagged a multi-billion-dollar engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for five combined cycle gas-fired power units in Taiwan.  The consortium will build three new units at the 3.9-GW Hsinta Power Plant and two new units at the 2.6-GW Taichung Power Plant. […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   September 3, 2020 Mitsubishi Power Snags Hydrogen Integration Contracts for 2 GW of New Gas Power Three major gas-fired power projects—a total of 2.1 GW—in Eastern competitive markets that are slated to come online between 2023 and 2025 have chosen hydrogen pathways […]

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Bill Gates’ nuclear innovation startup TerraPower are ready to demonstrate a “cost-competitive” advanced nuclear reactor system that will integrate a 345-MWe sodium fast reactor (SFR) with a molten salt energy storage system under a unique energy system architecture. The advanced nuclear technology developed under a joint development agreement is […]

Three major gas-fired power projects—a total of 2.1 GW—in Eastern competitive markets that are slated to come online between 2023 and 2025 have chosen hydrogen pathways to ensure their long-term viability as states increasingly emphasize energy system decarbonization.  The plants, which represent a total investment of $3 billion, will adopt integrated green hydrogen solution packages […]

Uniper’s Falkenhagen site in Germany hosted two major pilots to produce “green” hydrogen and methane from wind power, opening up prospects for lucrative new revenue streams from decarbonized assets that

The 50-MW Delingha concentrated solar power tower plant located on the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau in China was developed, built, and continues to be refined by a company dedicated to solar tower technology

Construction of the 10-MW Supercritical Transformational Electric Power (STEP) pilot plant in San Antonio, Texas, is inching along, and developers in July announced that the building to house the innovative

BP made headlines in early August when it announced it wants to develop about 50 GW of net renewable generating capacity by 2030—a 20-fold increase from the 2.5 GW deployed in 2019—as part of a new

At the end of 2019, 125 projects larger than 1 MW were co-located with other generators or storage at a single point of interconnection across the U.S., according to a July 2020 report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These “hybrid/co-located” projects, which exist in various configurations, represent a combined 13.4 GW of generating capacity and […]

Milestone for First 700-MW Domestically Built Indian Nuclear Reactor. Unit 3 of the Kakrapar nuclear power plant in the Indian state of Gujarat—an indigenously designed 700-MW pressurized heavy water reactor

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 27, 2020 Analysis Supports Competitive Southeast Power Market A new report from two groups that study energy policy supports the establishment of a fully competitive regional electricity market in the U.S. Southeast, something already being discussed by at… Derecho Damage Results […]

Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA), the entity that manages Idaho National Laboratory (INL), has initiated contract negotiations with a team lead by Bechtel National Inc. (BNI) and supported by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Terra Power to back the design and build phase of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Versatile Test Reactor (VTR).  The announcement […]

A major fire at the Srisailam Left Bank Hydel Power Station in India’s Telegana state on August 20 killed nine people and seriously injured three others. There is now a wide-ranging federal investigation into its cause.  According to plant owner and operator, Telangana State Power Generation Corp. Ltd. (TSGenco), the tragic accident occurred at about […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 20, 2020 Barakah Nuclear Plant Now Sending Power to Grid Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sent its first electricity to the UAE grid on August 19, according to a statement from… California […]

California’s governor demanded an investigation into the cause of a series of power outages—the first since an energy crisis in 2001—that blacked out parts of the state in recent days.  California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has struggled to ensure reliability since Friday, Aug. 14, when, amid triple-digit temperatures, it declared a statewide Stage 2 Emergency, […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has moved to redesignate four new areas of Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Texas as being in attainment of air quality standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2).  The proposed actions issued over the past week provide a potential reprieve for several coal power plants, which would have needed costly pollution controls to […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   August 13, 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… Six Investing […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform to substantially boost national energy research experimental capability and allow the scientific community to explore fundamental challenges related to integrated energy systems at scale.  ARIES, which the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, developed over this […]

Investors in the global power and utilities sector embraced agendas that created long-term value during the first half of this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled the world. Recent activity points to several interesting trends that will likely persist in a post-crisis world and may even accelerate change in the sector, new analyses from global […]

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) are teaming on a notable five-year-long initiative to accelerate development and demonstrate low-carbon technologies that they say are needed to help private companies and governments achieve increasingly ambitious decarbonization goals by 2050. The Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI), officially launched on Aug. 10, is […]