Instrumentation & Controls

Power plants have largely optimized individual assets. The next opportunity lies in how assets, resources, and operating decisions work together. Power producers are experts at optimizing equipment. Decades of advancement in engineering and operating practices have improved the performance of gas turbines, pumps, steam systems and other critical assets. Operators can measure unit-level performance in […]

  This eBook explains how organizations in the Power & Utilities industry can evolve from scattered, uncontrolled engineering information to a governed, connected, and AI-ready digital foundation. It introduces Asset Information Lifecycle Management (AILM) as the extension of engineering document control across the full asset lifecycle—keeping engineering records aligned with the physical plant as assets […]

  This customer webinar brings together engineering and IT leaders from Eversource, Great River Energy, and Hoosier Energy to share how their utilities moved from fragmented drawing storage to centralized Engineering Document Management. Through firsthand experiences, the panel explores the risks of shared drives, paper drawings, conflicting revisions, and tribal knowledge—and how a single source […]

  This playbook explores how utilities can use Engineering Document Management (EDM) to improve access to critical engineering information, connect teams, automate workflows, and reduce operational risk. Drawing on real-world experiences from Con Edison, Eversource Energy, Great River Energy, and Hoosier Energy, it demonstrates how centralized document control supports everything from design and capital projects […]

  Traditional magnetic induction-based instrument transformers have served the power industry reliably for decades, but a new generation of low-power alternatives is gaining ground — particularly in data centers and industrial facilities where accuracy, size, and integration with digital secondary systems matter. This paper reports on LPIT history, standardization, and some of the applications in […]

  Data centers face big challenges, from processing trillions of search queries, storing billions of emails and photos and serving countless hours of video every day while at the same time developing ways of decreasing their energy and carbon footprints and increasing data security. In this episode, Angad Sandhu, CTO of Giga Energy (director of […]

  Data centers commonly deploy looped medium-voltage (MV) distribution systems with automated protection and control schemes to deliver exceptionally high levels of power availability. However, these automation schemes rely on communications infrastructures where latency and scalability can affect fault-response performance. This paper presents a robust, hybrid FLISR strategy that integrates centralized and decentralized control to […]

Utilities and independent power producers have spent years adding sensors to their generating fleets and creating dashboards to view what they relay. But visibility into how a plant is operating isn’t the same as knowing what to do about it—and that gap is where Siemens Energy’s Omnivise Energy Management System is increasingly shedding light, explained […]

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 […]

Rising power costs and load increases have elevated energy monitoring and analysis on plant agendas, but consumption only becomes controllable once it is reliably measured per unit produced and modeled

From green hydrogen and coal wastewater, to data center cooling and steam cycle chemistry, reliable measurement helps power producers moderate water use, protect critical equipment, and comply with

Emerson has introduced the Flexim FLUXUS 631 series, a new line of portable, non-intrusive clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters designed to measure liquids, gases, and steam from a single platform. The company unveiled the technology in July, positioning it as the flagship of its portable flow measurement lineup. The 631 series (Figure 1) is built to […]

More than 3 GW of data center load left the PJM system on July 22, 2026, after a single transmission fault. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) investigated the same failure mode in 2024 and found that utility equipment shed none of it. Customer-side protection did all of it. Those settings are about to […]

Critical infrastructure operators should view recent incidents where artificial intelligence (AI) agents escaped containment from test environments and executed successful cyberattacks on a relatively sophisticated production infrastructure as near-misses. This challenge is urgent precisely because AI moves fast and infrastructure moves slow. All indications suggest these were not malicious uses of AI for targeted attacks. […]

Modern power challenges—from renewables and microgrids to artificial intelligence factories—are driving renewed adoption of digital twins as flexible, high-fidelity environments for zero-risk

Last week, Microsoft announced a $60 million, multiyear commitment to the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Genesis Mission, the national initiative to embed artificial intelligence (AI) across the country’s 17 national laboratories. The company’s stated goal, echoing DOE’s own framing, is to help “double the productivity and impact of American research and innovation within a decade.” […]

Power industry severe service applications can be difficult, but new advanced trim designs and external noise reduction devices have created higher-performing and more cost-effective alternatives. Power industry applications practically define the phrase “severe service.” Elevated temperatures and pressures, cavitation, erosive solids, and high noise all conspire to push control valve technology to its very limits. […]

Aalo Atomics’ Aalo-X Critical Test Reactor (CTR)—dubbed “Project First Light”—has reached criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), marking the fourth Department of Energy (DOE)–authorized advanced reactor startup under the federal push to accelerate reactor testing and demonstration. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said July 6 that Aalo’s test reactor, which DOE referred to as […]

Data center developers have mastered server density and cooling, but power interconnection remains stubbornly slow. Modular substations built in factories rather than fields are emerging as the most practical

Utilities and power generation companies are bolstering operational efficiency and plant reliability by implementing advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI)–driven predictive maintenance

This webinar explores an integrated approach to natural gas monitoring that combines real-time, in-line process Raman spectroscopy with advanced flow measurement and control. Process Raman technology provides continuous gas composition and heating value (BTU) measurements, while the flow computer platform delivers standardized flow calculations, operational monitoring, and remote visibility from wellhead to pipeline. Attendees will […]

Meeting the increasingly important but complex needs of the energy industry requires not only excellent design and engineering, but also advanced sensor capabilities that extend beyond the limits of current technology. A piece of the solution for enhanced technology will come from quantum sensors, which leverage quantum mechanics to deliver tools that will push past […]

Utilities have long been accused of slow-walking innovation. Fair or not, the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and the subsequent wariness from those responsible for maintaining our most critical infrastructure, has only intensified that perception. But make no mistake: we’re in the midst of the most-rapid technological evolution of utilities in the power grid’s […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the energy system: While the expansion of wind and solar power continues to progress across Europe, AI will ensure the efficient use of every generated kilowatt-hour. Intelligent algorithms that synchronize generation and consumption in real time will help stabilize grids, avoiding expensive curtailment. Software will become an important tool for […]

VoLo Earth and Equal Ventures co-lead Series A in grid technology firm building an “operating system” to help utilities consolidate data and maximize value across operations — from data center load to renewables growth to distributed energy resources. Texture, the grid software platform that provides utilities a single view of every device and data source […]

On May 5, 2026, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released its CI Fortify initiative, new guidance instructing electric utilities and other critical infrastructure (CI) operators to plan for a geopolitical crisis in which their operational technology (OT) networks are actively compromised and/or their connectivity to telecommunications, internet, vendors, and service providers is gone. […]

As artificial intelligence (AI) training reshapes data center power system design, early adopters using battery energy storage systems (BESS), microgrid control, and unified automation are positioning

Aging programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are exposing power generation and industrial water facilities to growing operational risk. A structured migration strategy can reduce downtime, strengthen cybersecurity, and position plants for a digital future.

Utilities now operate in a far more dynamic environment shaped by distributed energy resources, an increasing number of distributed generation sites, and the emergence of large, high-demand loads and a growing number of connected devices across the grid.

On April 7, Anthropic announced Project Glasswing, a coalition of 12 major technology companies marshaling a new frontier artificial intelligence (AI) model to find and fix critical software vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. While the announcement is framed around technology infrastructure broadly, the implications for the power sector are immediate and serious. Partner posts […]