Hydro

  • History of Power: Dominion Energy’s Fluid Transition

    A company that has corporate roots that go back to the Colonial era, Dominion Energy has been shaped by acquisitions and market forces. It is now in the midst of an extraordinary transformation to expand its

  • POWER Digest [November 2022]

    JX Nippon Acquires NRG’s Share of Petra Nova Carbon Capture Plant for $3.6 Million. ENEOS Group, a Japanese energy and non-ferrous metals business group that owns JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration, will

  • Massive Projects Move Forward as Groups Celebrate Global Hydropower Day

    A new 16-GW hydropower project in China and a 9-GW plant in Indonesia are among several projects being highlighted as part of Global Hydropower Day, being celebrated Oct. 11 as the hydro sector notes the importance of the technology to the world’s power generation. The Baihetan Hydropower Station in China is being developed by Jinsha […]

  • Switzerland Secures 250-MW GE Gas Power Temporary Power Plant For Crucial Winter Reserve

    The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) will install 250 MW of temporary reserve power—via eight trailer-mounted GE Gas Power TM2500 mobile aeroderivative gas turbine units—to secure critical power supplies this winter. GE Gas Power said the units, which will be located at GE’s Manufacturing Center in Birr, in the Swiss canton of Aargau, near […]

  • The Big Picture: Power Plant Additions Over the Decades [Infographic]

    The deployment of new power plants in the U.S. over the past 14 decades has hinged on policies, markets, technologies, and new industry players. Every decade has presented its own state of multidimensional, multivariate complexity. The ongoing “energy transition,” which has been characterized by the addition of smaller, carbon-free resources, marks another pivotal period in […]

  • POWER Digest (October 2022)

    Saft Installs Batteries on Italian Islands. Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, has installed seven maintenance-free Flex’ion lithium-ion battery systems supporting a microgrid with solar plants on the

  • Australia Taking ‘Renewable’ Approach to Decommissioning Coal Plants

    Australia stands at a crossroads when it comes to its energy strategy. On the one hand, the country has moved to embrace clean energy in the past few years, with renewables growing to 29% of total generation

  • History of Power: The Evolution of the Electric Generation Industry

    POWER magazine was launched in 1882, just as the world was beginning to grasp the implications of a new, versatile form of energy: electricity. During its 135-year history, the magazine’s pages have

  • Oxford Group: Decarbonizing Energy Would Save $12 Trillion

    A new study from business and environmental researchers at Oxford University disputes the notion that a strategy to transition global power generation toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels is too expensive to pursue. The study, released Sept. 13 and published in the journal Joule, reports that decarbonizing the world’s energy systems would save […]

  • California Declares Stage 3 Emergency Alert, Warns Rotating Outages Possible

    California’s grid operator issued a Stage 3 energy emergency alert (EEA) at 5:17 p.m. PST on Sept. 6, warning it would order rotating power outages to lower soaring power demand and stabilize its grid, if necessary. The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) cautiously raised the emergency alert from Stage 2, which it had declared earlier […]

  • TVA Successfully Completes a Dam Safety Modification Project for the Ages

    When a sinkhole was discovered near the base of the Boone Dam embankment, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s dam safety engineers went to work determining the best fix. The complexity of the work and quality

  • THE BIG PICTURE: Hydropower’s Climate Risks

    While hydropower provides about 16% of global electricity generation today, climate change is predicted to drive various changes in hydrology that could translate into a spectrum of risks for hydropower production. A recent study published in the journal Water estimates 61% of all global hydropower dams will be in basins with very high or extreme […]

  • 2022 Experience POWER, Distributed Energy Conference, and HydrogeNext Show Preview

    Again, this year, Experience POWER will be co-located with the Distributed Energy Conference (DEC) and HydrogeNext, giving attendees the opportunity to learn from and network with trailblazers from the power industry, who are leading the way in the world’s energy transition. These three events cover the full energy value chain for the power industry, delivering […]

  • POWER Digest [September 2022]

    New Transformer Improves Power System Reliability for Zimbabweans. An Emergency Power Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project funded by ZimFund reached the last leg of implementation on July 10 with the delivery

  • Biden Signs Bill to Transform U.S. Energy, Combat Climate Change

    President Biden’s signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) should provide further impetus for growth of U.S. renewable energy, coming on the heels of a report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that installations of solar and wind power accounted for more than two-thirds of new domestic utility-scale generation in the first six months […]

  • Southern Company: A History of a Prolific Power Technology Pioneer

    Atlanta-based energy giant Southern Co. has rapidly evolved to keep in step with the evolution of power. As part of its corporate growth, the company has notably pioneered technologies that have reshaped

  • POWER Digest [August 2022]

    Emerson Involved in Coal-to-Biomass Switch. Albioma, a French independent energy provider, is working with Emerson, a global technology and software company, on the transition of the Bois Rouge 108-MW

  • Energy Security, Climate Change Initiatives Endure with Surprise U.S. Senate Deal

    The inclusion of an estimated $369 billion in energy security and climate change investments in a July 27–unveiled U.S. Senate budget reconciliation proposal has prompted optimism from a range of energy sectors. Less than two weeks after negotiations on clean energy and climate provisions within the reconciliation package hit an impasse and suggested their demise, […]

  • Experts Say Hydropower Needs to Double by 2050 to Meet Climate Goals

    Global installed hydropower capacity rose by 26 GW in 2021 to 1,360 GW, but that’s far short of the progress needed to achieve the world’s climate change mitigation goals. “We know that to keep climate change below 2°C, or the more challenging 1.5°C net zero target, we will need to see a huge increase in […]

  • Explosion, Fire Reported at Hoover Dam

    A transformer exploded and caught fire at Hoover Dam in Nevada on July 19, according to local officials. Bureau of Reclamation official Jacklynn L. Gould said that at about 10 a.m. local (Pacific) time, the A5 transformer at the site caught fire. The blaze was extinguished at about 10:30 a.m., according to Gould. Gould said […]

  • Wudongde Project Takes Hydro to New Heights

    A multi-year, multibillion-dollar undertaking on China’s Jinsha River has achieved several “firsts” for the hydropower sector, earning POWER’s highest honor thanks to its development, design, and

  • Risks and Opportunities: It’s an Interesting Time to Be in the Power Industry

    War rages in Europe. Natural gas prices are through the roof. Drought threatens hydro production. Weather extremes are becoming commonplace. Supply chains are strained. Demand for electricity is headed

  • Rick Perry Believes in Nuclear Power—Is He onto Something or on Something?

    Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas (2000–2015) and former U.S. Energy Secretary (2017–2019), who has more recently been in the news because of his support for legalizing psychedelic drugs, including

  • California Drought Could Severely Limit Hydropower This Summer

    Drought in California could nearly halve the state’s hydroelectric generation this summer, pushing up wholesale power prices in the West, and forcing the state to rely on natural gas generation and out-of-state imports, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects in a new analysis. The EIA suggests in a supplement to its May 2022–released Short-Term Energy Outlook […]

  • POWER Digest [June 2022]

    Twenty20 Energy Will Build Gas-Fired Plant in Papua New Guinea. Singapore-based Twenty20 Energy Systems in April announced it would design and build a new gas-fired power plant in Hela province, Papua New

  • NERC Warns of Mounting Reliability Risks, Urges Preparation for Challenging Summer

    An unprecedented array of risks—ranging from capacity shortfalls, extreme weather, extended drought, supply chain issues, cybersecurity, solar PV tripping, fuel constraints, to wildfires—could imperil the reliability of nearly every North American bulk power system (BPS) region west of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) this summer, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) warned in […]

  • ERCOT, MISO Warn of Potential Power Supply Shortfalls

    (Updated—May 6, 2022) The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) over the past week separately expressed concerns about power supply uncertainties in the face of upcoming warmer-than-normal temperatures. MISO raised an alarm on April 28 when it said that it projects “insufficient firm resources” to cover the summer […]

  • History of Power: Duke Energy’s Century-Old Legacy

    Duke Energy, one of the largest energy companies in the world, grew out of a system of lakes and dams along the Catawba River to generate power for the Piedmont Carolinas. While the company has sustained a

  • There’s Value in Old Power Generation Components

    Equipment from both renewable and thermal energy power plants is finding new life in the recycling market. The market for recycled power equipment components is getting a boost due to ongoing global supply

  • Advanced Analytics Applications Power Predictive Maintenance Efforts

    Moving from reactive to predictive maintenance requires the right tools for use by subject matter experts. As the power industry continues to advance from preventative to predictive maintenance, one thing is