Full Coverage
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Nuclear
Westinghouse Files to Update AP1000 Design Certification, Make Vogtle Expansion the U.S. Reference Plant
Westinghouse has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to renew and update the design certification for its AP1000 reactor, formally proposing Vogtle Unit 4’s as‑built configuration as the new standard reference plant for future AP1000 projects in the U.S. If accepted and docketed, the submittal—Revision 20 of the AP1000 Design Control Document (DCD)—would establish “a […]
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Nuclear Recycling
Nuclear Recycling Has Reached a Prime Moment—and the U.S. May Be Running Out of Time
A new think tank assessment argues that economics, proliferation concerns, and waste management barriers have shifted enough to make commercial nuclear fuel recycling viable in the U.S.—but only if Washington acts before the window closes. A think tank has warned the Trump administration that it has a narrow window to make the U.S. the first […]
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Energy Security
Keeping the Lights On: How Cuba Is Fighting an Energy Crisis Under Tightened Sanctions
The current state of the national power grid in Cuba is a response to an exceptionally complex scenario, marked by the intensification of the U.S. embargo and its direct impact on fuel supplies. This was the message delivered by First Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Argelio Jesús Abad Vigoa, during his appearance on the […]
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Legal & Regulatory
DOE’s Section 202(c) Emergency Orders Since May 2025: 43 and Counting
Since May 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued more than 40 emergency orders and extensions under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act—more than in any comparable period in the past two decades. The orders have fallen into two broad categories: retirement deferrals, which compel utilities and grid operators to keep specific generating […]
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Research and Development
The Genesis Mission: How AI Supercomputing Is About to Reshape American Science and Energy
Dr. Dario Gil, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Under Secretary for Science, lays out a bold vision to double the productivity of U.S. research and development (R&D) within a decade—and explains why energy and artificial intelligence (AI) are two sides of the same coin. After 22 years at IBM, where he rose to senior vice […]
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History
Chernobyl at 40: The World’s Worst Nuclear Power Accident and Where It Stands Now
On the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, POWER sent a freelance photographer and correspondent to the site in Ukraine to document the massive decommissioning effort still underway—and the new
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Data Centers
Full Throttle: Five Trends Reshaping the Gas Power Boom
A once-predictable industry is moving at hyperscale speed. Here are five trends defining the biggest gas power buildout in a generation. Natural gas power is in the middle of its biggest buildout in a
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Gas
Cracking the Power Supply Chain Code
The power industry finds itself in an uncomfortable bind. Demand for electricity is surging, driven by data center buildouts, broad electrification, and the retirement of aging coal fleets, but the equipment
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Energy Security
Europe’s Grid Is Already a Hybrid War Target—Most Utilities Aren’t Ready
European electricity infrastructure has become a target of sustained hybrid warfare, and a new report from Eurelectric, the region’s power sector trade group, finds that most of the continent’s utilities
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T&D
Every Fifth Pole: Ameren’s Staggered Strategy for Grid Hardening
Ameren Illinois and Ameren Missouri found a “creative” way to strengthen their utility service territory by strategically installing fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite utility poles by Creative
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News
POWER Digest [April 2026|
Hatch and Hydrostor Partner to Deliver World’s Largest Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage Project. Global engineering firm Hatch and long-duration energy storage (LDES) developer Hydrostor announced Feb
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Energy Security
Battery Storage Is Reshaping the Grid; Integration Strategy Will Shape the Outcome
The electric sector is standing at a pivotal moment. Utilities are no longer observers in the renewable transformation but instead are becoming direct owners and operators of technologies that were once primarily developed, financed, and managed by third-party developers. Among these technologies, battery energy storage systems (BESS) are moving to the center of long-term generation […]
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Commentary
How Artificial Intelligence Can Accelerate Power Delivery to the U.S. Grid
Power demand in the U.S. is rising faster than the grid was designed to accommodate, driven in large part by rapid growth in data centers. Large, concentrated data center loads are clustering in regions where
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Environmental
Smart Systems Power Up Modern Emissions Monitoring
Capable new lasers with quantum cascade and tunable diode technologies lay the foundation for accurate, low-maintenance, and fast-response continuous emissions monitoring systems to monitor multiple gas
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Gas
How Energas Turned an Environmental Concern into Cuba’s Cheapest Power
Energas is a company that stands as a successful example of foreign investment for over 20 years. Its partners include the Cuban state-owned companies Unión Eléctrica (UNE) and CubaPetróleo (CUPET), and its foreign partner is Sherritt International. With an installed capacity of 480 MW across three plants—Energas Boca de Jaruco (Figure 1), Energas Puerto Escondido, […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Solar Power Satellites and Orbital Data Centers—International Space Law Implications
In 2011, I published an article in the Boston University Journal of Science & Technology Law examining space-based solar power (SBSP) and the issue of property rights in space, and more specifically, in geostationary orbit (GEO), under the current regime of international treaties and policies. Today, as the demand for computing power grows, that question […]
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Finance
BlackRock’s Infrastructure Arm Leads $250 Million Bet on Commercial Building Efficiency as a Grid Asset
Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of investment giant BlackRock following its acquisition in 2024, has led a $250 million upsizing of Budderfly’s debt facility, bringing the total facility to $550 million and boosting the Shelton, Connecticut-based Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) company’s cumulative capital base well past $1 billion. The transaction, announced on March 25, also includes […]
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Business
Investing in Energy’s ‘Anti-Fragile’ Future
With federal tax credits under threat and regulatory stability in short supply, Bala Nagarajan, managing director of the energy investments team at S2G Investments, explained what he looks for in a company. “Is the product or the solution sold by this business cheaper, faster, better than the incumbent solution?” he asked. If so, it’s worth […]
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T&D
Anatomy of a Blackout: Findings from the Spain-Portugal Grid Collapse Final Report
An analysis of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) Expert Panel’s final report on the April 28, 2025, Iberian Peninsula power grid incident. On a mild, sunny Monday in late April 2025, the power grids of Spain and Portugal collapsed in less than 90 seconds. At 12:33 p.m. Central European Summer […]
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Nuclear
Nuclear Sprint: DOE and Industry Race to Meet Trump’s Target
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources convened March 19 for a full committee hearing to examine the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) implementation of President Trump’s May 2025 nuclear energy executive orders. Three witnesses—DOE Assistant Secretary Theodore Garrish, Kairos Power CEO Dr. Michael Laufer, and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Director Dr. John C. Wagner—testified, […]
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Workforce
How a University and Industry Partner Are Building Tomorrow’s Power Workforce
The power industry is staring down a workforce crisis. An aging labor force is heading for the exits, new recruits aren’t arriving fast enough to replace them, and a historic wave of energy infrastructure investment is only widening the gap. Against that backdrop, a partnership between Stony Brook University and Haugland Group—an infrastructure services company […]
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Gas
GE Vernova, IHI Achieve 100% Ammonia Combustion in F-Class Gas Turbine Test
GE Vernova and Japanese integrated heavy industry group IHI Corp. have demonstrated for the first time that full-scale combustor components for GE Vernova’s F-class gas turbines can operate on 100% ammonia at full-load conditions, clearing a critical technical barrier in their joint effort to decarbonize dispatchable power. The test was conducted at IHI’s Large-Scale Combustion […]
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Trends
The Frog Is Dead: North America’s Power Grid Faces Its Biggest Reckoning in a Generation
For much of the 21st century, the North American power sector drifted along on near-zero demand growth. Utilities retired aging coal plants, developers filled interconnection queues with wind and solar, and investors looked elsewhere for excitement. Then came the data center boom—and seemingly overnight, the industry found itself in a full-blown supply crisis. In a […]
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Data Centers
Hyperscalers Sign White House Pledge to Fund Data Center Power, Grid Upgrades
Seven of the nation’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) companies and hyperscalers signed a White House-brokered agreement March 4 committing to build, procure, or fund new generation capacity sufficient to cover the electricity demands of their data centers—and to pay for all grid infrastructure upgrades required to connect them, without passing those costs to residential or […]
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Legal & Regulatory
A Historic First: NRC Clears TerraPower’s Natrium Nuclear Reactor for Construction
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 4 authorized staff to issue a construction permit for TerraPower’s Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 in Kemmerer, Wyoming—the first commercial reactor the agency has approved for construction in nearly a decade, and the first approval for a commercial non–light water reactor design in more than 40 years. The […]
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Data Centers
EQT, GIP Move to Take AES Private in $33B Bet on Data Center Power Demand
A private equity–led consortium has agreed to take AES Corp. private in a $33.4 billion deal that—if completed—will shift one of the largest U.S.-listed power companies and a major data‑center renewables supplier into private ownership. AES’s board says the move, which comes as load growth and capital needs are rising across the sector, is designed […]
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blackouts
THE BIG PICTURE (Infographic): Blackouts in 2025
Major power outage events in 2025 reveal a broad spectrum of reliability risks, spanning voltage instability and protection failures to extreme weather and heat-related transmission stress. Compared with recent years, which were largely characterized by weather-driven disruptions and resource-adequacy events, 2025 incidents more clearly highlight vulnerabilities in interconnected system operations, including voltage management, reactive power […]
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Microgrid
Powered Remotely: Microgrids Connect Rural Communities with Sustainable Energy Security
Microgrids are bringing greater energy independence to rural and remote communities. ABB’s microgrids experts outline how today’s smart localized power generation and distribution systems lessen far-flung homes and businesses’ reliance on costly fossil fuels and fragile national grid infrastructures. Protecting Remote Communities from Energy Insecurity It’s easy for town and city dwellers to take the […]
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Technology
Why the Promise of AI Is Real, but Potential Yet Unrealized
While artificial intelligence (AI) adoption has spread rapidly, meaningful productivity gains remain elusive because organizations have conflated easy-to-deploy horizontal AI tools with the domain-specific
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Legal & Regulatory
The Real Barriers to Power Sector Carbon Capture
Despite growing technical maturity, post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects for power generation continue to face decisive hurdles. Integration complexity, financing structures, and risk