Engineering
-
T&D
Software and DLRs Key to Unlocking Power Grid’s Potential
Imagine unlocking 30% more power from our existing grid overnight. That’s the potential we’re ignoring, and it’s costing us billions. The demand for energy is rising, and utilities are struggling to serve this growth. In the U.S., congestion costs have increased from $8 billion in 2021 to more than $11 billion in 2023 despite record […]
-
Renewables
Leveraging VPPs to Prepare Utilities for Extreme Weather
From the Midwest to the South, the U.S. has experienced dangerous cold snaps this winter that challenge grid operators to meet rising heating demands. These temperature extremes are driven in part by climate change, which is why the past decade has had the highest temperature extremes in recorded history, as well as why temperature extremes […]
-
Nuclear
Nuclear Power Renaissance Underway in West Texas
When you think of innovative advancements in nuclear power technology, places like the Idaho National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology probably come to mind. But today, some very exciting nuclear power development work is being done in West Texas, specifically, at Abilene Christian University (ACU). That’s where Natura Resources is working to construct […]
Tagged in: -
Trends
LG&E, KU Propose $3.7B Power Buildout: 1.3 GW of New Gas Plants, $153M Coal Unit Upgrade
PPL subsidiaries Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) have proposed to upgrade environmental controls at a 1974-built coal unit, build two new gas-fired power plants at a combined cost of $2.8 billion, and add 400 MW of battery storage. The measures seek to significantly boost the companies’ capacity to ready […]
-
Electrification
GE Vernova, AWS Address Energy Demand With Collaboration Agreement
GE Vernova and Amazon Web Services announced the companies have signed a strategic framework agreement aimed at supporting AWS’s data center scaling. The groups on March 4 said they would collaborate to address increasing global energy demand, advance grid security and reliability, and decarbonize electric power systems.
-
Nuclear
Kemmerer 1—TerraPower’s Pioneering Fourth-Generation Nuclear Project—Hits Key NRC Milestone Ahead of Schedule
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its draft safety evaluation (SE) a month ahead of schedule—albeit with open items—for TerraPower’s Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1, a pioneering 345-MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) under development in Wyoming. Editor’s note: This article was substantially updated on Feb. 27 at 11 a.m. CST to provide deeper […]
-
Data Centers
Constellation Races to Revive Crane Nuclear Plant Amid Tight Timelines, Market Shifts
Constellation Energy’s ambitious plan to restart the Three Mile Island Unit 1 as the Crane Clean Energy Center (CEC) is proceeding ahead of schedule, shooting for a 2028 start date, despite a new report that suggests Microsoft may be re-evaluating its data center strategy. Just five months after Constellation announced a landmark 20-year power purchase […]
-
T&D
Duke Researchers: Grid Flexibility Key to Accommodate Load Growth
Researchers from Duke University have said that integrating more flexibility into U.S. power grids could help provide the energy needed to power future load growth, particularly the electricity needed to support artificial intelligence and data centers. The group in a Feb. 19 webinar discussed their findings, which are contained in their recent report titled “Rethinking […]
-
Hydrogen
Plug Power Plans Major Hydrogen Production Plants in India
A U.S.-headquartered manufacturer of green hydrogen fuel cells wants to build what the company’s president called “multi-gigawatt” electrolyzer projects in India. Sanjay Shrestha, president of New York-based Plug Power, in an interview with ETEnergy World said, “We will be excited to be doing multi-gigawatt electrolyzer projects in India before the end of 2030 depending on […]
Tagged in: -
Hydrogen
Chinese Research Group Unveils New Lithium-Hydrogen Battery System
A research team at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) has published a study that supports use of a new type of chemical battery system for energy storage and electric vehicles. The USTC team, in their report published in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition, said the system utilizes hydrogen gas as the […]