Commentary

In the September issue of POWER , I wrote about a public utility (JEA) that is exploring privatization, and in October, I looked at a city (Boulder, Colorado) that is exploring municipalization. While I think

In my “Speaking of Power” column last month, I explained that JEA, a community-owned utility in northeast Florida, is contemplating privatization. One of the reasons JEA is considering the change is that

COMMENTARY Texas has the most wind capacity of any state, generating about 16% of its electricity from wind. In August, as temperatures rose above 100F and consumers increased their use of air conditioning, Texas’ grid operators struggled to meet the record demand for electricity. Many of the wind turbines could not operate because the wind […]

COMMENTARY At this point, one thing should be abundantly clear about the Trump administration’s theme on energy policy: the president will do whatever it takes to prop up coal, even if the market and the public choose otherwise. The Trump administration’s latest pro-coal gambit is the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) so-called Affordable Clean Energy rule, […]

I was recently reviewing a report issued last year by BMI Research, a Fitch Group company. The Megatrends 2050 Special Report , as it is called, suggests there are three main trends that will transform the

In line with global emissions targets, energy markets are moving ever more quickly to take up renewables. Such a move is obviously important to ensure carbon reduction targets can be met. This does however create an issue—one that’s not been given the attention it deserves—of the impact this has on the conventional power plants that […]

The Implications of Two Technologies and How They Merge for Next-Generation Intelligence Undoubtedly, as the world becomes more complex and interconnected, digitization and technological innovations are vital components of the global power future. The power industry’s digital transformation is not merely developing alongside the industry, it is infiltrating it—transforming the very fabric of how the […]

What does the 21st century power market look like? That is the question the European Union (EU) is attempting to answer with the new electricity regulation and revised electricity directive passed at the end

Federal courts have been pretty kind to energy infrastructure in recent weeks, particularly in cases involving the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). For starters, this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit removed one of the hurdles to construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The court decided that a new presidential permit—issued […]

The digital revolution is transforming the way that many sectors work and the energy industry is on its way to becoming one of the biggest benefactors of this change. Although there’s no doubt it’s yet to be exploited to its full potential, new innovations and improved processes will see a far greater take-up as organizations […]

It’s no secret that the power industry workforce is aging and managers are struggling to find qualified candidates interested in filling open positions. In my April column, I referenced a

Numerous articles have boldly declared Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to be the first of many climate change-related bankruptcies to come. The authors wag their fingers in caution at corporations across

Fifty years ago this July, NASA successfully landed men on the moon and safely returned them to Earth. In this year’s documentary about the mission, Apollo 11 , director Todd Douglas Miller draws on a

Commercial and industrial (C&I) sites increasingly are looking for ways to increase the reliability and resiliency of their power supply, along with controlling their energy costs. These C&I projects include distribution centers, data centers, office parks, hospitals, college campuses, and also military bases. CleanSpark, a San Diego, California–based technology company which specializes in the optimized […]

While the new Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ) program initially has drawn widespread interest regarding real estate development, it also appears likely to generate promising opportunities for green energy

COMMENTARY The 19th-century electrical grid has had a good run in the United States. For more than 100 years, it has reliably provided electricity to end-users based on the premise that a centralized generation and transmission model was the way to go. Large coal, hydro and (later) nuclear generating facilities would produce huge amounts of […]

What keeps you up at night? The question has become cliché as panel moderators now routinely ask it as a “thought-provoking” final query to close out executive roundtable sessions at industry conferences

Colorado lawmakers are considering legislation (HB19-1037) designed to help the state’s investor-owned utilities gracefully back out of non-economic coal-fired power plants. Colorado is at the forefront of

In an apparent attempt to show supporters he is making good on his pledge to revive the dying coal industry, President Trump has been trying to find a way to funnel tens of billions of dollars to a small

America’s energy mix is undergoing a period of rapid change. The way we generate electricity in this country looks dramatically different than it did just a decade ago, as wind and solar have matured and

If you’ve been following the news, you know that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because it is facing tens of billions of dollars in liability for

There is no industry more concerned with continuity of service than the power industry. Maintaining power supply to constituents is the critical mandate of every plant, whether harnessing energy from the sun, wind, water, coal, or nuclear sources. While consistency is a top priority, the plants themselves are often in a state of flux due […]

COMMENTARY On January 29, POWER magazine published a local viewpoint from one of the members of the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel (DCDEP). In the commentary, Alex Karlin urged the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to take immediate action to replace the current DCDEP with an independent community advisory panel for purposes of monitoring and […]

Utility-sponsored energy-efficiency programs have always seemed like a contradiction to me. Obviously, power companies make money by selling electricity, so encouraging customers to install energy-efficient

The threat to power grid resilience and reliability due to the continued retirement of coal-fired power plants has generated calls for immediate action. A severe weather event such as the “bomb cyclone” or

COMMENTARY Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E’s) bankruptcy underscores the need for an independent advisory board to monitor, and help San Luis Obispo and the surrounding community navigate through, the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant decommissioning process. The existing panel—the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel (DCDEP)—was created by PG&E to serve as a “public relations […]

Izzet Bensusan, managing partner and founder of Captona, a North American-focused investment company that specializes in power generation and energy infrastructure, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. He is very bullish on the renewable energy industry for a variety of reasons. For instance, Bensusan said renewable energy is growing at more than 20% around […]

What is the impact of all electric vehicles (EVs) today and what will be the transformative effect on the grid and energy market? In recent data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), the U.S. had 764,666 light-duty vehicles sold (third in sales behind […]

Digital technology is everywhere today including in most power plants. Computer hardware and software are changing the way plants are operated and maintained. Many technology experts will tell you that

For decades the U.S. has relied on coal for much of its energy supply. States with abundant coal—Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and others—have towns and cities whose economies are driven by the coal industry. Now, as the coal industry declines and those areas struggle, the Trump administration wants to use taxpayer money to save coal […]