Full Coverage
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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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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
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Instrumentation & Controls
No Boots on Deck? How AI Enables Autonomous Energy Operations
Artificial intelligence (AI) has pushed the idea of a “one-button start-up” from sci-fi closer to engineering reality. But where is industrial AI for energy operations today, and how far away is that fully
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Energy Security
Overcoming BYOG Chaos with Unified, Layered Control
Bring-Your-Own-Generation (BYOG) is emerging as a practical solution for power-hungry facilities that can’t wait on grid upgrades. Success hinges on a unified control architecture that coordinates diverse
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Gas
Engine Power Plants Surge as Data Centers Drive Unprecedented Demand
Manufacturers respond with gigawatt-scale deployments, fast-start technology, and expanded production capacity. The global appetite for electricity has never been more insatiable, and at the heart of this
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advanced nuclear
China’s Advanced Nuclear Efforts Are Pushing Frontiers
While the bulk of focus on advanced nuclear technology has honed in tightly on the U.S., from enrichment and conversion to advanced fuels, reprocessing strategies, and fast-spectrum systems, several other
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Legal & Regulatory
How America’s Power Regions Chose Their Futures and How That Has Played Out
On April 24, 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 888, requiring all public utilities owning or operating interstate transmission facilities to file open-access
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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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Fusion
NRC Proposes First Dedicated Regulatory Framework for Commercial Fusion Machines
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed the first dedicated federal licensing framework for commercial fusion machines, setting out a technology‑inclusive, risk‑informed approach under its 10 CFR Part 30 byproduct material rules rather than the power‑reactor framework used for fission plants. The proposed rule seeks to place regulatory oversight of fusion‑generated radioactive material within […]
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Finance
Southern Co. Lands Largest Loan in DOE History—$26.5B for Gas, Nuclear, and Grid Projects
The Department of Energy (DOE) has closed a $26.54 billion loan package—the largest single loan commitment in the agency’s history—with Southern Co. subsidiaries Georgia Power and Alabama Power to finance more than 16 GW of “firm” generation and more than 1,300 miles of transmission infrastructure and grid enhancement across the Southeast. The transaction, announced Feb. […]
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Nuclear
Romania’s Coal-to-NuScale SMR Conversion Secures FID, Moves Into Implementation with Caveats
Romania’s state nuclear utility Nuclearelectrica has approved a final investment decision (FID) for a 462‑MWe six-module NuScale module small modular reactor (SMR) project at the former Doicești coal plant. The decision by Nuclearelectrica’s shareholders on Feb. 12 to approve the FID effectively opens a pathway for the Doicești project—Europe’s most advanced SMR deployment—from an “analysis […]