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.
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 […]
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
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
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 24, 2025 China Breaks Ground for World's Largest Hydropower Station China has started construction of what would be the world's largest hydropower dam. Chinese Premier Li Qiang on July 19 led a ceremony marking groundbreaking for the Motuo Hydropower Station,… […]
Citing a mounting compliance crunch in America’s coal-fired power sector, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized new rules extending key deadlines for coal ash cleanup and management, while floating the prospect of a further 12-month delay. The changes address calls from utilities, engineering contractors, and state regulators for more realistic timeframes to assess, […]
Advanced nuclear technology company Oklo entered into two separate high-profile collaborative agreements this week that seek to supply integrated energy solutions to data centers and large load industrial operations. The alliances—one with Liberty Energy, an energy services and technologies firm, and another with critical digital infrastructure provider Vertiv—mark the newest notch in the growing market […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 17, 2025 Google Signs Deal with Brookfield for 3 GW of Hydropower Capacity Technology giant Google announced the company will buy as much as 3 GW of hydropower generation capacity from Brookfield Renewable, an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management. The companies […]
PPL Corp. and investment giant Blackstone Infrastructure have formed a joint venture to build, own, and operate natural gas combined-cycle generation plants in Pennsylvania specifically designed to serve data center loads through long-term energy service agreements (ESAs). The partnership, unveiled at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh on July 15, represents a strategic […]
The Georgia Public Service (PSC) Commission has unanimously approved Georgia Power’s 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), authorizing a massive energy expansion to accommodate what the utility calls “extraordinary” growth in electricity demand. The PSC’s approval on July 15 allows the Southern Co. subsidiary to proceed with major capacity extensions at its flagship coal, gas, and […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 10, 2025 North Dakota's Largest Coal Plant Could Power Data Centers, Industrial Complex County commissioners in North Dakota have signed off on a rezoning request from a local energy provider, a move that means a large coal-fired power plant could be […]
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has approved a landmark tariff structure requiring large new data center customers to pay for a minimum of 85% of their subscribed electricity usage—regardless of actual consumption—for up to 12 years. The measure marks a pivotal step in Ohio’s efforts to address surging demand from hyperscale data centers […]
Private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners has entered into definitive agreements to acquire 100% of the economic interests in the 484-MW Middletown Energy Center, a combined cycle natural gas power plant in Butler County, Ohio. The firm said on July 10 that the acquisition—structured through a series of transactions with a consortium of sellers—adds a […]
The U.S. power sector seems to be increasingly pulled in two directions. While trundling toward rapid electrification, it is seeking to hold its ground on recent decarbonization triumphs. And while utilities and power companies are racing to add generation capacity, their prospects are limited by aging infrastructure and upended by supply chain constraints that have […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store July 3, 2025 Google Signs Deal to Buy Fusion Energy from Future Virginia Plant Tech giant Google has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to buy at least 200 MW of energy from CFS's planned fusion-based power […]
Nuclear microreactors developed separately by Westinghouse and Radiant are poised to become the first fueled designs tested at the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility—the world’s first dedicated microreactor test bed slated to open at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in early 2026. The first fueled experiment is expected to begin as early as spring 2026. […]
Winning POWER’s highest honor, South Fork Wind—the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in U.S. federal waters—stands as a beacon for the power sector’s ambition to forge new industries in the
Built on degraded tidal flats in China’s Jiangsu Province, CHN Energy’s Rudong project combines 400 MW of offshore photovoltaic generation, grid-scale battery storage, and green hydrogen production with
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store June 26, 2025 Hydropower Growth Continues, Though Policy Challenges Loom in U.S. Hydroelectric power generation hit a 10-year high in Europe in 2024, while hydro growth in other regions—most notably China—kept the technology at the top of the list when it comes […]
In a new pilot program, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued an ambitious challenge: bring at least three advanced nuclear test reactors to criticality by July 4, 2026. Announced in June, the program sidesteps traditional Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing, seeking instead to authorize full-scale reactors on private sites through DOE’s internal review process. […]
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a novel pilot program that will allow private developers to build and operate full-scale advanced nuclear test reactors outside of the national laboratory system, without a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Through a new authorization model grounded in the Atomic Energy Act and a Trump-era […]
Centrus Energy has produced and delivered 900 kilograms (kg) of High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), completing Phase II of its pioneering enrichment contract with the agency. The shipment marks the first significant domestic production of HALEU—a specialized fuel required for many advanced reactors now under development—and stands as a […]
Japanese integrated heavy industry group IHI Corp. and GE Vernova have inaugurated a new Large-Scale Combustion Test (LCT) facility at IHI’s Aioi Works in Hyogo, Japan, marking a pivotal step in their joint effort to commercialize gas turbine combustors capable of burning up to 100% ammonia by 2030. The facility will accelerate full-scale prototype testing […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store June 18, 2025 DOE Opens Door to Private-Sector Demonstrations at MARVEL Nuclear Microreactor Test Bed The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is inviting private-sector nuclear developers to submit proposals for experiments and demonstrations using its Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) […]
Small modular reactor (SMR) technology developer NuScale Power has unveiled research programs that could advance an energy system that integrates its nuclear technology to produce desalinated water and hydrogen, while reusing brine waste as an industrial feedstock. The research, developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and […]
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is inviting private-sector nuclear developers to submit proposals for experiments and demonstrations using its Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) project. The first-of-its-kind operational test bed for advanced microreactor technologies is now 90% through its final design phase, with key components already under fabrication. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), […]
POWER Magazine Jobs White Papers Webinars Events Store June 12, 2025 EPA Weakening Rules on Power Plant Emissions in Boost for Fossil Fuels The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced sweeping changes to regulations on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and other pollutants from coal- and natural gas-fired power […]
Talen Energy has restructured and significantly expanded its nuclear energy agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), finalizing a 17-year, $18 billion power purchase agreement (PPA) that will supply up to 1,920 MW of carbon-free electricity from the 2.5-GW Susquehanna nuclear plant to Amazon’s data centers across Pennsylvania. The deal, announced on June 11, restructures a […]