Business

Spanish wind giant Gamesa will absorb Siemens’ wind power business, including wind services, creating a new combined company—one of the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturers—that will have its global headquarters in Spain. The companies on June 17 signed binding agreements to merge and form the new company. Siemens will hold a 59% stake and consolidate […]

  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled details of the Clean Energy Incentive Program (CEIP), a voluntary measure central to the judicially stalled Clean Power Plan that seeks to provide guidance to states and tribes that want to meet goals under the plan when it becomes effective. The final Clean Power Plan, finalized in […]

The importance of RTO maintenance
RTOs or Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers control emissions without producing harmful byproducts or hazardous waste. They help destroy volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and other odorous emissions created during normal manufacturing and industrial processes by combusting them into carbon dioxide and water. RTOs pass hot exhaust gas and cooler

A Minnesota law that bans power imports from new out-of-state coal-fired power plants is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court has deemed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on June 15 upheld a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota that found that the statute’s prohibitions had the effect […]

Panels at the 2016 Edison Electric Institute convention focused on technologies and policies at what’s often called the “grid edge.”

The Edison Electric Institute has forged a new partnership with startup incubator 1776 to accelerate the pace of innovation in energy.

EEI Convention keynote speaker Keren Elazari urged electric utilities to partner with “friendly hackers.”

  Even though it may dominate forecasts, natural gas–fired generation faces a troubled expansion in the U.S., according to experts from a variety of stake-holding entities—including an industry group, a utility, a generator, and a pipeline company. Challenges that have few solutions—from price volatility, to gas transport concerns, to rule uncertainty—may upend the nation’s dependence […]

Fresh on the heels of its decision to finally move ahead with the long-anticipated retirements of the Quad Cities and Clinton nuclear plants in Illinois, Exelon officials told an Iowa newspaper that its Byron and Three Mile Island (TMI) plants face the same challenges and could be forced into retirement without changes to markets and […]

Domestic uranium production is falling to levels not seen since the early 2000s, which are themselves equal to production during the dawn of the nuclear age in the 1950s. Prospects for any sort of rebound look bleak, as a joint venture between GE, Hitachi, and Toshiba is looking to import Russian-designed fuel assemblies for use in […]

Power generators have always had to make afetyome changes as each new generation enters the sector, but today’s new workers are bringing with them attitudes and skills that challenge traditional plant management, for good and ill. Here’s what some companies and plants are doing to make the best use of younger workers while getting them […]

GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is pulling out of Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), a company that in 2012 got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) unprecedented approval to build and operate a full-scale laser uranium enrichment facility. The move was precipitated by a change in business priorities, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the GLE’s proprietary SILEX technology is […]

Ghana Starts Up Key Gas-Fired Power Unit. Ghana has inaugurated the first of two 180-MW units of a natural gas–fired power plant that it is banking on to boost the West African country’s electric reliability. President John Dramani Mahama inaugurated the first unit of the Sonon-Asogli project at Kpone, near the capital Accra, on April […]

An industry rooted in tradition is facing unprecedented changes and challenges, and meeting them requires “thinking big” and embracing disruptive technologies that will change how we think about electricity generation and delivery. That was the message from the keynote session at ELECTRIC POWER 2016.  Two senior power sector executives opened the 2016 ELECTRIC POWER Conference […]

The annual panel discussion by high-level leaders from diverse power companies is a cornerstone of the ELECTRIC POWER Conference & Exhibition, and it has been consistently emblematic of the state of the

GE Digital Twin
The Analytic Engine Behind Digital Transformation
Gathering machine sensor data for analysis across a power plant is only the beginning. The Digital Twin takes analytics to the next level by creating a virtual analytic model of assets within the plant. With the GE Digital Twin power companies can:

Understand how assets are performing

Discover the Power of Digital
eBook: 14 Power Companies Show Tangible Gains with Digital
From balancing asset life and performance to managing variations in market conditions and fuel costs, power leaders everywhere are using data and analytics as a strategic asset to drive efficiencies and increase profitability for their business. In this eBook, learn how they

Kansas City–based Great Plains Energy has agreed to purchase Westar Energy—Kansas’ largest electric utility—in a combined cash and stock transaction with an enterprise value of about $12.2 billion. The deal was announced on May 31. When complete, Westar will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Plains Energy, which also owns Kansas City Power and […]

Exelon’s Quad Cities and Three Mile Island nuclear plants have failed to clear the PJM capacity auction for the 2019–2020 planning year, and the future looks grim for at least one of those plants. The Chicago-headquartered company on May 25 confirmed that the two plants would not receive capacity revenue for the period. It also […]

Donald Trump, presumptive Republican nominee for president, has chosen a back-bench Republican congressman with a lot of experience in state energy regulation as his advisor on energy issues

Even if the final Clean Power Plan is not implemented, U.S. electricity-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will remain well below 2005 levels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a comparison of two cases looking forward through 2040. The cases are part of the agency’s May 17–released Annual Energy Outlook 2016 Early Release (AEO2016 Early […]

Your company is growing: The number of products you manufacture and the pace at which they are produced require a new post-production strategy. Your capacity to properly execute technology-based industrial cleaning projects must adapt to the changing needs of your company and keep up with your fast-moving operation. A reliable, respected industrial cleaning supplier can

Fort Calhoun Station (FCS) appears to be the next in a string of nuclear plants that have ceased operations or plan to retire as a result of difficult economics. Tim Burke, president and CEO of Omaha Public Power District (OPPD)—the plant’s owner—presented senior management’s recommendation to close FCS by December 31, 2016, to the board […]

Fuel cells powered by natural gas, biogas, and hydrogen are a rapidly expanding option for distributed generation, with fuel cell­­–based power plants being deployed in capacities into tens of megawatts. But as the technology improves and costs begin to scale, opportunities for other applications are being explored. One such application may even go beyond power […]

The world’s frenzied economic growth through 2040 won’t be matched by electricity demand growth, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) says in the International Energy Outlook 2016 (IEO2016 ) released on May 11. World net electricity generation will jump 69% by 2040, the IEO2016 reference case projects, but that is still well below “what it would […]

GE’s shopping spree in the power sector continued on May 10 as GE Power signed an agreement with Doosan Engineering & Construction to acquire the Korean firm’s heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) business for $250 million. According to GE, the acquisition will allow it to expand its offerings for combined cycle power plant solutions. The […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is conducting a formal investigation concerning costs and delays plaguing Mississippi Power’s Kemper integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant. Southern Co., Mississippi Power’s parent company, revealed the investigation in a recent 10-Q financial filing. The company said that while it is fully cooperating with the SEC, it believes the […]

Five nuclear projects—two old, one new, two planned—faced milestones this week as their owners confronted the realities of the U.S. nuclear market. Exelon Seeks Nuclear Support In Illinois, Exelon again warned that the long-challenged Clinton and Quad Cities plants would shut down unless the Illinois legislature passed a bill that would provide economic support for the […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors voted on May 5 to surplus the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant property in northern Alabama so it can be offered for sale and potentially put to better use. The decision comes after months of consideration. On February 16, the TVA notified employees, customers, economic development interests, other stakeholders, […]