Full Coverage

  • Exelon Executive Sees Potential Return to Regulated Generation to Meet Soaring Demand

    Four years after separating from Constellation Energy, Exelon is expanding its transmission business and pressing for a greater role in power generation. Executive Vice President Carim Khouzami explains why rising data center demand, tightening capacity reserves, and shortcomings in PJM’s wholesale markets are changing the utility company’s strategy. When Exelon completed its separation from Constellation […]

  • Austrian Start-Up Pitches Container-Sized Thorium Reactor, With Storage Coming First

    Emerald Horizon plans to sell a hybrid battery and molten-salt storage system now and add an accelerator-driven thorium generator later. The generator remains at an early stage of development. Austria decided against nuclear power in the late 1970s and has not revisited the question since, according to Mario Müller, vice president of research and development […]

  • Beyond the Contract: How Rabigh Reinforcement Reached First Fire 14 Months After Award

    When no suitable vessel was available to carry its gas turbine generators from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, the Rabigh Reinforcement project team turned to the heavy-lift charter market at a time when shipping conditions were already challenging. Drawing on its logistics experience and global agreements, the consortium engaged one of the […]

  • Data Centers, Gas, and Who Pays: Power Association Leaders Find Common Ground

    When the heads of three of the power sector’s biggest trade associations shared a stage at Experience POWER on Sept. 30, the most notable thing was how little they disagreed. Whether the question was data center backlash, grid security, or what to do about gas-plant emissions rules, the answer came back to the same point: […]

  • Beyond the Demand Forecast: Six Questions About Powering Data Centers From DPX 2026

    This year’s Data Center POWER eXchange (DPX), whose programming POWER’s editors curated, was structured to look beyond the scale of opportunity presented by large-load forecasts and delve into the questions they raise. A key focus: What will it take to deliver power infrastructure and data centers on timelines, terms, and operating conditions that both industries […]

  • Google Deal Backs 890 MW of Constellation Nuclear Uprates at 11 PJM Reactors

    Hyperscaler Google and Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear operator in the U.S., have signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) designed to support $4.3 billion of upgrades at 11 nuclear units across the PJM Interconnection, which is slated to add 890 MW of generating capacity from Constellation’s existing reactors by the end of 2032. The […]

  • Community Impact Award Finalist: Philippine Coal Plants’ Scholarship Program

    Just hours before his flight back to work on Aug. 24, 2026, seafarer John Cris Tropicales watched his younger brother graduate with a bachelor’s degree in criminology, reported Ulysses “Chuckie” Rivera, community relations manager for Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd. Co. (QPL) and San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL). It was a milestone that the Tropicales […]

  • Redesigning Steam Turbines for the SMR Era

    Small modular reactors (SMRs) borrow steam turbine engineering from both coal-fired and nuclear plants, but the resulting “wet steam” problem, with exhaust moisture topping 15%, demands a fresh set of

  • Old Data, Still-Valid Lessons: What Two EPRI Studies Confirm About Generator Maintenance

    A shorted rotor winding doesn’t care what year it is. Neither does a cracked retaining ring or a degraded stator insulation system. The physical mechanisms that take generators offline—fatigue

  • Nuclear Plant Restarts Show What Government Can Do With a Clear Mandate

    On Aug. 30, workers at the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert Township, Michigan, began loading 204 fuel assemblies into a reactor vessel that had sat empty since the plant shut down in 2022—the first time in U.S. history that a commercial reactor that had entered decommissioning began reloading fuel. Holtec International Chairman and CEO Dr. […]

  • Bringing a Power Plant’s Worth of Load Onto the Grid: NERC’s Interconnection Reckoning 

    Data centers are connecting to the transmission system faster than the reliability rules were built to handle and behaving nothing like the passive load those rules assumed. Here’s what the North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s (NERC’s) Large Loads Action Plan, a new class of registered entity, and a hard 2026 deadline mean for anyone planning, […]

  • What the DOE’s Quantum Computing Competition Could Mean for Fusion and Battery Materials

    The Department of Energy (DOE) on Sept. 17 announced the Quantum Genesis Q Competition, a $215 million initiative to fund private-sector teams racing to build the world’s first fault-tolerant, scientifically relevant quantum computer. Structured as a milestone-based competition rather than a conventional grant, it will pay out fixed awards of up to $1.5 million per […]

  • A Phased Framework for Adaptive Protection Migration in DER-Heavy Transmission Substations

    This article presents a practical four-phase engineering methodology for migrating legacy transmission substations toward adaptive protection architectures in power systems with high distributed energy resource (DER) penetration. Increasing DER integration introduces significant challenges to conventional protection schemes, including bidirectional power flow, dynamic fault current behavior, relay coordination complexity, and reduced protection reliability in aging substations. […]

  • AI Data Centers Turn to Industrial Boilers and Steam Turbines for Power

    Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers are being built at an unprecedented pace. There are more than 12,000 active projects in the U.S. currently seeking grid interconnection representing 1,570 GW of generator capacity and 1,030 GW of energy storage. Analyst firm Omdia predicts that AI will drive more than 50% of installed power generation capacity over […]

  • Why Crankcase Ventilation Matters in Engine-Based Power

    As reciprocating engines/gensets assume a larger role in distributed generation, data center infrastructure, and other critical duty applications, crankcase ventilation and the resulting emissions warrant increased attention and mitigation. When power generation professionals discuss engine emissions, the conversation typically focuses on the exhaust stack. While this emphasis is justified, it underestimates another emissions pathway: the […]

  • Can U.S. High-Voltage Grid Equipment Supply Keep Pace With 765-kV Expansion and Data Center Demand?

    From two-year bushing lead times and hyperscaler demand to U.S. manufacturing expansion and the emerging 765-kV build-out, Trench Group CEO Bahadir Basdere explains where high-voltage equipment supply is under the most pressure. High-voltage grid components are becoming a critical constraint as utilities, transmission developers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and hyperscalers compete for equipment needed to […]

  • TIDAL PWR, BTQ Develop Blueprint for Quantum-Ready Data Centers

    Texas data center developer TIDAL PWR, which says it has seven projects totaling 9.87 GW in its artificial intelligence (AI) campus development pipeline and designs its campuses to combine utility service and behind-the-meter generation, is collaborating with quantum technology company BTQ Technologies to determine how power and data center infrastructure could eventually accommodate quantum computing […]

  • Ansaldo Returns to U.S. Gas Turbine Market as Equipment Crunch Widens Supplier Field

    A widening gas turbine supply crunch has prompted Ansaldo Energia to explore a new path back into the U.S. generation market after more than 30 years. The Italian manufacturer will supply California-based

  • Condenser Chemistry Management: From Grab Samples to Predictive Digital Twins

    When I walk into the main office of a power plant, it’s always on the main TV screen, along with heat rate, load, and other critical numbers. I’m talking about condenser backpressure. Every power plant manager watches this number (Figure 1), and they should. A PEPSE (Performance Evaluation of Power System Efficiencies) analysis of a […]

  • The Janus Five: 20+ Commercial Nuclear Microreactors, Starting in 2028

    Five advanced nuclear companies will build, own, and operate more than 20 commercial nuclear microreactors across five U.S. Army installations under the Janus Program, a milestone-based effort designed to place the first project into useful service by September 2028 and establish repeatable commercial products. In exclusive interviews, the selected companies told POWER they intend to use the […]

  • U.S. Army Mobilizes $2.2B Janus Program to Deploy More Than 20 Commercial Microreactors

    The U.S. Army has mobilized up to $2.2 billion for a five-year effort to build and operate more than 20 commercial nuclear microreactors across military installations, selecting five reactor developers and five initial sites for a program designed to push advanced nuclear systems beyond federal test programs and into sustained operation by a Sept. 30, […]

  • Shapiro Sets Binding GRID Requirements in Pennsylvania, Targets Data Center Power Costs

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order on Aug. 18 that raises the bar for large data center development in the state, directing agencies to condition favorable permitting treatment and tax benefits on compliance with new energy, infrastructure, environmental, workforce, and community requirements. Executive Order 2026-05 applies its central permitting provisions to data centers with […]

  • PJM Widens Response to Data Center Load as Capacity Shortfalls Deepen

    PJM Interconnection has proposed a new framework that would allow large data centers and other major electricity users to enter service without first securing enough new capacity to cover their demand—but would make the uncovered portion of that load available for reduction before PJM calls on existing pre-emergency demand-response resources if electricity supplies become dangerously […]

  • AVEVA CEO: Sustainability Commitments Must Be Backed by Measurable Results

    As artificial intelligence (AI)–driven data center demand strains grid infrastructure across the U.S. and beyond, operators are facing rising scrutiny from utilities, regulators, and the communities where they build. Caspar Herzberg, CEO of industrial software company AVEVA, argues that the industry’s response can’t stop at sustainability commitments—it requires operational transparency and measurable performance data that […]

  • Contested 5-GW Ridgeline Gas, Solar, and Data-Center Complex in West Virginia Clears Site-Control Question

    The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s (WVDEP) Division of Air Quality (DAQ) has determined that Purcellville, Virginia-based Fundamental Data satisfied the site-control requirements associated with its August 2025 air quality permit for the Ridgeline Facility—a gas turbine power plant that Fundamental Data is planning as the first phase of a project intended to include […]

  • More Data Center Operators Commit to Abbott’s Texas Standards as Power Companies Endorse ERCOT Batch Framework

    A growing group of data center operators—including Dallas-based Skybox Datacenters, Austin-headquartered bitcoin miner and hyperscale developer Mara, and global colocation giant Digital Realty—have publicly committed to comply with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s data center standards and the state’s active audit of projects in the Texas grid operator’s interconnection queue. They join QTS Data Centers, Blackstone’s […]

  • Texas Audit Could Delay 49.8 GW of Data Center Load, Cost Projects Up to $15 Billion, BNEF Warns

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Aug. 3 order pausing all new data center connections to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid until a comprehensive audit is complete could delay 49.8 GW of new data center electricity demand from advancing on the ERCOT system—nearly 20% of the U.S. development pipeline—BloombergNEF (BNEF) said in an Aug. 5 […]

  • The POWER Interview: NRG’s Case for Bring Your Own Power—and the Labor to Build It

    NRG Energy on Aug. 4 unveiled its first Bring Your Own Power (BYOP) project, a 1.2-GW combined-cycle plant in Texas supported by a 15-year contract with an investment-grade “leading global cloud and artificial-intelligence hyperscaler.” The $3.2 billion facility, backed by a customer parent guarantee, is targeted for commercial operation in late 2029 and could be […]

  • Abbott Orders Full Audit of Texas Data Center Interconnection Queue, Threatens to Deny Grid Access

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to conduct a comprehensive audit of every data center advancing through the state’s interconnection queue, warning that projects that fail to disclose ownership, financial, water, and community-impact information could be denied grid access. The […]

  • Is the Power Project Crunch Upending the Owner—EPC Model?

    Developers and contractors at a recent event described how the generation buildout is forcing earlier engineering, procurement, and construction contractor involvement; deeper supply-chain tracking; repeatable