Engineering

Developers of a new pumped storage hydropower installation in Washington state said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a 50-year operating license for the project. Rye Development, a U.S.-based developer of pumped storage hydropower, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), on behalf of its Flagship Fund CI V, on January 22 said FERC gave […]

Integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar, wind, batteries, and electric vehicles into the power grid is an important part of the energy transition. Utilities and transmission system operators know they need more flexibility when it comes to power generation and delivery, which involves modernizing infrastructure, using advanced controls, and developing new market rules to manage two-way power flow.

In recent years, the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape has shifted from quiet curiosity to relentless noise. Conference taglines, vendor solicitations, and slide decks all seem to begin with the same question: What can AI do for you? And too often the answer comes in the form of a catalog of hundreds of “use cases,” neatly […]

Power systems today operate in an environment where reliability and safety must be maintained despite rising loads, expanding interconnections, and increasing dependence on distributed energy resources. One of the most important technologies that supports this stability is the digital overcurrent relay.

The electricity sector faces a timing problem that’s becoming impossible to ignore. Data centers, artificial intelligence (AI) deployment, industrial reshoring, and broader electrification are driving load growth at rates not seen in decades—and much of that new demand wants carbon-free, firm power. Nuclear checks those boxes. But can the industry deliver capacity fast enough? POWER […]

Deep Isolation Nuclear, an innovator in nuclear waste disposal technology, on January 13 said the company has successfully completed its Project SAVANT (Sequential Advancement of Technology for Deep Borehole Disposal), a two-year research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E).

Recent breakthroughs at U.S. fusion labs, along with new public-private partnerships, are bringing us closer than ever to realizing fusion energy’s limitless potential. However, the U.S. has a major gap to fill in fusion research and development (R&D), and workforce development.

Hydropower is among the most mature and reliable renewable energy technologies, but its dependability rests on thousands of tonnes of rotating equipment humming quietly for decades. Generators are at the heart of those units, and their performance hinges on bearings that carry enormous radial and axial loads. When a bearing fails, the result is not […]

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (HASI), a leading investor in sustainable infrastructure assets, and Sunrun, a provider of home battery storage, solar, and home-to-grid power plants, announced the closing of an innovative joint venture to finance distributed energy assets. The partnership announced January 6 is expected to ultimately finance more than 300 MW of capacity across […]

In power distribution systems, three-phase transformer configuration directly impacts system reliability and load management. Understanding the trade-offs between Delta and Wye connections enables engineers to

Distributed energy resources (DERs) have become a major part of the power generation landscape, particularly in support of a more reliable and resilient grid. Generating electricity from a variety of sources, including fossil fuels and renewables, using smaller-scale installations is now a key element of demand response and energy efficiency.

Critical plant control systems can be vulnerable to both physical and remote attacks. Marnie and Maya demonstrate some of these vulnerabilities as they become white-hat hackers at a biomass power plant. The

Power plants are engineered with precision down to the smallest detail, yet one critical variable is often considered too late in the process: water chemistry. When it’s considered early in design rather

As AI demand accelerates, the race is on to bend the power curve before it bends the grid. The first electric refrigerators were mechanical curiosities—loud, bulky appliances that consumed staggering amounts of electricity. But they spread anyway, because the productivity gains were too great to ignore. Daily habits shifted. Food systems reshaped. Household labor changed […]

Fusion technology company Thea Energy said it has completed its preconceptual fusion power plant design. The company, founded in 2022 as a spin-out of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University, is advancing the stellarator as part of its Helios system.

Idaho Falls Power celebrated the formal launch of a new natural gas-fired peaking generation plant on December 4, calling the occasion a “major milestone” in its 125-year history.

The dawn of electric semitrucks and other medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles has arrived, and if the technology is going to be widely adopted, we have to come to grips with what this means for our electrical infrastructure.

China’s Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) in November reported it had achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion inside an operating molten salt reactor (MSR). The milestone provides the first

Lubricants used outside their design working conditions can bite you in unexpectedly painful ways. The morning of Monday, December 1, found Marnie Surfaceblow, vice president of Surfaceblow and Associates

The limitations of lithium-ion batteries are prompting a search for longer-duration solutions. Compressed air energy storage (CAES) and other emerging technologies are gaining traction as safer, scalable

Siemens Energy develops conventional islands for small modular reactors. When Rolls-Royce SMR began developing its small modular reactor (SMR)—using a unique factory-built approach to proven pressurized

Global shifts in energy demand are prompting power plants to reassess their production and efficiency needs. Energy-intensive AI data centers and increased renewable power loads to grids demand greater plant flexibility. Ramp-up and shutdown cycles require plants to rely more on cycle chemistry analytics to support fluctuations. The loss of personnel expertise due to layoffs […]

The Global partnership agreement combines Samsung C&T’s EPC expertise with Siemens’ leading capabilities in digitalization, electrification, and automation Collaboration to focus initially on six landmark infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Canada Joint efforts to deliver differentiated, customer-centric solutions in airports, hospitals, buildings and data centers The partnership enables a unified “ONE Tech Company” […]

What’s driving a fundamental shift in engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracting? Equipment lead times. Workforce shortages. Data center timelines. POWER examines how the traditional EPC

From financial dashboards to factory-based assembly, utilities and their contractors are deploying new tools and processes to improve project cost performance. In decades past, the decision to pursue a major

Traditional owner-EPC relationships relied on sequenced approvals and risk allocation tied to project maturity. Today’s interdependent infrastructure, including for the grid, generation, storage, and

The retirement of older thermal power generation facilities, driven by a transition to cleaner forms of energy, has increased in recent years as utilities and other power generators mothball plants that are uneconomic or simply no longer needed.

It’s never been more important than it is today for power construction projects to progress smoothly. With the demand for power growing quickly due to the explosion in data center development, and the trend

A Texas-based developer and operator of next-generation digital infrastructure and integrated power assets announced it has entered into a land option purchase agreement for a site in New Mexico that would feature a vast data center center campus. The plan announced November 6 calls for more than 2 GW of natural gas-fired generation capacity, and 5 GW or more of nuclear power, to energize the 3,500-acre site.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) providing up to $100 million in federal backing for projects focused on restoring and modernizing the nation’s existing coal plant fleet.  The Oct. 31–issued NOFO, administered by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) under the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, […]