Business

Westmoreland Coal Co., the nation’s largest independent coal producer, announced March 15 that it has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will operate as a new, privately held company. The company, headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, near Denver, said its assets, including three mines in Montana, are now owned and operated by Westmoreland Mining LLC, a […]

The chief executive of Vistra Energy Corp. last week said coal is not likely to regain market share in the U.S. power market. Curtis Morgan, in a panel discussion March 14 at the CERAWeek event in Houston, Texas, said “coal is on its way out. More and more plants are being retired.” It’s not the […]

Houston, March 14, 2019 – BlueVoyant and IronNet Cybersecurity today announced a partnership to deliver advanced, collective cyber defense and threat-detection capabilities to small-to-medium-sized energy providers in the United States. The joint offering will deliver IronNet’s threat analytics platform along with the industry’s first and only real-time collective cyber defense capability through BlueVoyant’s superior managed […]

HOUSTON, 14 March 2019-Wood has secured a contract from Siemens to install a new Siemens HL-class gas turbine at a power generating station in North Carolina. The award will see Wood mobilize a team of around 400 people to the project site to deliver this notable construction project for a period of approximately 11 months. […]

The U.S. has agreed to build six nuclear power plants in India, according to a joint statement from the two countries issued March 13 in Washington, D.C. The countries held two days of talks this week, discussing international security and nuclear cooperation. The talks involved Andrea Thompson, the U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control […]

Eric Effinger Promoted; David Clem and Jameel Allen Join Growing Team LOUISVILLE, KY (March 13, 2019) – Charah® Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: CHRA) (the “Company”), a leading provider of environmental and maintenance services to the power generation industry, today announced the following promotion and new hires, which expand the Company’s strong leadership bench. “We are pleased to promote […]

PORTLAND, OREGON (March 7, 2019) — ESS Inc., the leading manufacturer of safe, low-cost and long-duration energy storage systems, announced that it is now including 10-year insurance coverage on its long-duration energy storage products through Munich Re, one of the world’s leading insurance companies. The innovative policy provides warranty backstop for ESS Inc.’s proprietary flow battery technology, supporting the system […]

Eight Years of Operating Experience with 99.3% Fleet Reliability Lake Mary, Florida – (March 11, 2019) Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS), the 2018 global market share leader in orders for Heavy Duty Gas Turbines (100 MW and greater), today announced that their global fleet of J-Series gas turbines had amassed over 750,000 hours of commercial […]

Exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. continue to rise, as the use of natural gas for power generation increases in countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, and Mexico. Data from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) shows that four U.S. LNG export facilities combined to ship 483 LNG cargoes in 2018, a […]

GE Blends Hardware and Software Technologies to Improve Performance at Sorgenia Power S.p.A.’s Combined-Cycle Power Plant in Termoli, Italy Project Provides Greater Operational Visibility, Flexibility and Plant Reliability to Enhance Sorgenia’s Existing Energy Infrastructure Project Aligned to Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development Principles Underpinning Sorgenia’s Growth Both as a Producer and a Supplier of Electricity […]

The technology group Wärtsilä has been contracted to deliver a power plant to the Commonwealth of Bahamas. The 132-MW engine power plant has been ordered by the local utility, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL), on a full engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) basis. The plant will be delivered as a fast-track project as it is […]

HOUSTON, March 11, 2019 — McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE: MDR) and Baker Hughes, a GE company (NYSE: BHGE) have announced today that they have been awarded subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF) and subsea production system (SPS) equipment contracts by BP for the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim natural gas project, located offshore Mauritania and Senegal. BP, […]

A Wyoming bill designed to keep coal-fired power plants operating in the state was signed into law by the state’s governor last week, one of several developments worldwide that impacted the power generation landscape in early March. Also in the U.S., the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) defended its hiring of a contractor that led the […]

Royce Peters, senior technical coordinator for the Carpenters International Training Center (ITC) in Las Vegas, Nevada, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. The ITC is the largest and most-comprehensive training facility of its kind in the world. Following the completion of phase six of construction in 2018, the center now has more than 1.2 […]

Brüel & Kjær Vibro (B&K Vibro) announced that it had received an order for the supply of VC-8000 SETPOINT® systems and services for monitoring a 250 MW gas/coal fired steam turbine, generator and main boiler feed pump at the Huntly power station, the largest in New Zealand. Huntly is owned by Genesis Energy, the third […]

An estimated 91% of U.S. coal power plants that submitted groundwater monitoring data as required by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 2015 Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule have unsafe levels of one or more contaminants, a collaborative analysis of the monitoring data by several environmental groups suggests.  The March 4 report is significant because power […]

Florida Power & Light (FPL) on March 4 announced plans to build four new solar power plants this year, with each expected to come online in early 2020. The company has rapidly expanded its solar power portfolio in recent years; the four new plants will join 18 others already operating in the state. FPL also […]

GE will provide its record-setting HA gas turbine, the company’s most advanced and efficient technology, for a project in eastern Ohio GE has secured 30+ orders for the HA in North America alone, and the HA recently surpassed 250,000 operating hours from 30+ commercially operating units ATLANTA; March 6, 2019 – GE Power (NYSE: GE) […]

Grappling with a historically low planning reserve margin of 7.4%, owing to a mass of coal plant closures, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is forecasting record electric use this summer and warns it could issue energy alerts at “various times.”  ERCOT said its March 5–released final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) for […]

– Installation of more than 1 million solar panels included as part of FPL’s plan to add 30 million more solar panels by 2030 – New solar plants will create about 800 jobs as Florida continues to lead the nation in solar-related employment – With 18 solar power plants in operation and four more on […]

Detecting machine problems has never been so easy. New portable sensor and intuitive mobile app from SKF puts simplified inspection, machine health data collection and expert analysis within everyone’s reach. Lansdale, Pa. — March 4, 2019 — SKF Pulse™ combines an easy-to-use handheld sensor with a new mobile app, allowing users to quickly monitor rotating […]

Several developments worldwide impacted the power generation landscape in the past week, including more news about the closure of a coal-fired power plant in Alabama, the restart of a geothermal facility in Hawaii, and construction of a biomass-fueled power plant in Japan. In addition, a company said it plans a $150 million investment in three […]

The New York-based hedge fund aiming to take over New Mexico’s San Juan Generating Station (SJGS), targeted for closure by state lawmakers, wants to refit the 46-year-old, coal-fired plant to use carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. Acme Equities LLC said last week that retrofitting the 847-MW plant with CCS technology would cut carbon emissions […]

Johannesburg, South Africa (March 2, 2019) – Zimbabwe recently resumed the construction of the $1.5 billion Hwange Expansion Project for Units 7 and 8 as it aims to progressively implement the Vision 2030 which will transform Zimbabwe into an upper middle class economy. The $1.488 billion project is being funded by China Exim Bank, Sinohydro […]

Energy supplies are tight in the Pacific Northwest, a region that has been stricken with unseasonably frigid weather and is bracing for deep freezes as a mass of Arctic air descends on the region.    The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a federal power marketer that sells wholesale power from 31 federal dams and one nuclear […]

After the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami, and ensuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011, Japan issued stringent safety regulations and reviews that affected its entire 50-reactor fleet. It meant that as each Japanese nuclear reactor entered its scheduled maintenance and refueling outage, it could not returned to operation until restart […]

One of the oldest energy efficiency ideas—combined heat and power—is prospering in the U.S. and looks promising elsewhere as the world searches for low-cost energy by increasing efficiency while lowering

After Hurricane Maria left the island of Puerto Rico in ruins, the ProCaribe liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) hub continued to operate, ensuring vital energy resources were available even in the wake of this

Fast neutron reactor systems have the potential to extract 60 times more energy from uranium compared to existing thermal reactors, and they contribute to a significant reduction in the burden of radioactive

As the world grapples with climate change concerns, carbon capture and storage could be the holy grail for continued fossil fuel use. Projects have come online that prove its feasibility, but costs can be