International

Just as the election of Donald J. Trump could result in redirected energy policy in the U.S., 2017 elections in France and Germany could reshape plans for electricity infrastructure on the European continent. Also on both continents, some factors and trends will be out of elected officials’ control. “Difficult to see. Always in motion is […]

The past year saw an astonishing number of mergers, acquisitions, and business reconfigurations of electricity and energy companies, without any obvious organizing theory. Is it possible to make sense of the activity, or is it just business Brownian motion—aka, random behavior?  Gas companies spun off power generating assets. Power companies sold offshore businesses. Independent generators […]

How do you get generating company executives and those who interact with the power industry to think outside the box when planning for the future? The answer may involve a board game. Humans are pre-programmed to prefer routine, tradition, and regularity, without questioning whether longevity equals good. Fear of the unknown, and the power of […]

China has officially begun construction of its first offshore nuclear power plant, a demonstration project that will employ the domestically developed ACPR50S small modular reactor (SMR). China General Nuclear Power Corp. (CGN) on November 4 told reporters at a press conference that the project (Figure 6) is a “top priority” that will further the country’s […]

A tumultuous election year that was marked by market turmoil, the events of 2016 clearly showed that big change is afoot for the power sector. Many of POWER‘s bold predictions for 2016, such as that the near-simultaneous surge in U.S. natural gas production and recent enactment of environmental rules would reshape the U.S. power sector, […]

Toshiba Corp.—the parent of Westinghouse Electric Co.—said it might book huge losses as a result of Westinghouse’s acquisition of the nuclear construction and integrated services business CB&I Stone & Webster Inc. (S&W). Westinghouse closed on its agreement with CB&I in December 2015. When the deal was made, Toshiba estimated that the amount of “goodwill” resulting […]

In a joint statement on December 20, the leaders of the United States and Canada announced that they had developed a new partnership that effectively bans additional licenses for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and parts of the Atlantic Ocean.

A joint strategy released by the governments of the U.S. and Canada to thwart the growing threat of cyberattacks on the electric grid sets three priorities that the countries said would be critical to preserving energy and national security. The “Joint United States-Canada Electric Grid Security and Resilience Strategy,” released on December 15, outlines three […]

Germany’s highest court ruled on November 6 that energy firms E.ON, RWE, and Vattenfall have a right to seek compensation as a result of the 2011 decision to prematurely shut down the country’s nuclear fleet. The Merkel government’s order in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, in which three Japanese reactors melted down as a […]

[Note: This article first appeared online on November 1.] The discovery of widespread carbon segregation problems in critical nuclear plant components has crippled the French power industry—20 of the country’s 58 reactors are currently offline and under heavy scrutiny. France’s nuclear safety chairman said more anomalies “will likely be found,” as the extent of the contagion […]

The entire state of South Australia suffered a blackout on the afternoon of September 28. The cause of the event has been disputed, but it has left Australians in a raging debate about the state of the country’s electricity system and policies that will shape its future power mix. The so-called “Black System” event that […]

Cuba is in the midst of a renewable revolution to transform, update, and adapt its fossil fuel–dependent power mix to its current energy needs. Because Cuba has a relatively high solar potential (~ 5 kWh/m2/day), and it is feasible to adapt solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to rural areas, islands, and isolated communities, commercial interest in […]

French multinational power company ENGIE on October 20 inaugurated a mini-network comprising 16 kW of solar photovoltaic panels, a 45-kWh lithium-ion battery bank, and a back-up genset to supply power to Ketumbeine, a village in northern Tanzania with about 800 residents. The PowerCorner project (Figure 6) was launched in early 2015. ENGIE said the project […]

China’s third nuclear reactor built for the export market, Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3, was connected to Pakistan’s grid in mid-October. Chashma 3 is one of two Chinese-designed CNP-300 pressurized-water reactors being built on the site in Punjab Province. Unit 3 is expected to enter commercial operation at the end of 2016 and Unit […]

Owner/operator: Ethiopian Electric Power Corp. Building the 1,870-MW Gibe III hydroelectric project required unprecedented solutions that took into account the remoteness of the site, the narrow gorge where the dam is located, the height of the dam, and challenges in sourcing reliable materials. Split almost diagonally by the East African Rift System, Ethiopia is a […]

Owner/operator: Akca Enerji Geothermal energy has long been handicapped by its need for high-temperature resources to generate economic power, but innovations in binary Organic Rankine Cycle systems are making it possible to exploit low-temperature sites. An innovative plant in Turkey using Italian technology has taken things a step further with a unique two-pressure, multistage, single-disk […]

Owner/operator: Korea South East Power Co., Ltd. Few people would view a large coal plant as a place to generate renewable energy. But a Korean utility took a chance on an innovative approach, harnessing the latent energy of the plant’s cooling effluent to drive a trio of hydroelectric plants, and in so doing, created a […]

Ontario—Canada’s most populous province and its major economic engine—has an electric power supply system so driven by provincial politics that it has pushed the province’s utility generating arm, Ontario Power Generation, into what appear to be incoherent resource policies. Late last September, in a stunning announcement, the Canadian province of Ontario’s Energy Ministry said it […]

China’s Sichuan provincial government has moved to restrict construction of small and medium hydropower projects between 2016 and 2020 in an effort to improve grid planning and efficiency. Policy proposals posted on the Sichuan government’s website in October seek to prohibit small-scale hydropower projects and limit medium-sized plants over the next five years. Reuters reported […]

In a rare intervention, the United Nations’ (UN’s) heritage conservation arm is urging Bangladesh to relocate a proposed 1,320-MW coal-fired power plant because it poses a serious threat to one of the world’s largest mangrove forests. Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Co. Ltd. (BIFPCL)—a joint venture of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and India’s largest power […]

A 52.5-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant commissioned this October in Jordan will generate about 1% of the Middle Eastern nation’s power (Figure 5). 5. Solar carpet. The 52.5-MW Shams Ma’an Solar Power Plant in Jordan was commissioned this October. Courtesy: Business Wire The plant uses more than 600,000 Series 4 thin-film modules manufactured by Arizona-headquartered […]

Nine people, including the chairman and chief engineer of the Fengcheng power plant, have been arrested following a scaffold collapse that killed 74 construction workers on November 24. The scaffold platform had been erected to facilitate work on a cooling tower that was being constructed at the plant located in Yichun City, Jiangxi Province. According […]

Canada’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change on November 21 announced regulatory actions to accelerate the phase-out of coal generation that lacks carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) across the country within the next few decades. The measures announced by Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna are part of a larger transition from “traditional” […]

Meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, during the most recent United Nations climate change conference (COP22), Mission Innovation countries—a group of nations whose stated mission is to accelerate the pace of clean energy innovation—launched seven innovation challenges, designed as a global call to action for the research community, industry, and investors. The challenges are: Smart Grids Off-Grid […]

Russia and China have agreed to expand cooperation on nuclear energy, with Russia to build another two reactors in China in addition to expanding cooperation on fast-reactor technology and floating nuclear plants, Russia’s state-owned nuclear firm Rosatom said in a November 8 statement. The two nations, which share a 4,200-kilometer-long border, have worked together on […]

Although many observers consider Elon Musk—the visionary entrepreneur who leads Tesla Motors and SpaceX—to be a disruptive force threatening the conventional power industry, he believes power companies have a bright future, if his goal to expand the use of electric cars and install vast numbers of rooftop solar systems is achieved. Speaking during a presentation […]

This September, Puerto Rico suffered an island-wide blackout that left 1.5 million utility customers without power for more than 50 hours and reportedly resulted in multimillion-dollar losses for its already troubled economy. The blackout in the U.S. territory with a population of about 3.5 million occurred on September 21, when a blaze erupted in a […]

The International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) is an international nonprofit association of national organizations concerned with the properties of water and steam, particularly

Owner/operator: Rosenergoatom Fast-neutron reactors are pivotal to Russia’s ambitious nuclear power plans. The successful construction, grid-connection, and testing of the country’s first BN-800 reactor at its Beloyarsk nuclear plant is a major achievement in the right direction. Since the Soviet Union began its first experimental nuclear power projects in the 1940s, Russia has embraced nuclear’s […]

China is on an epic build-out of its nuclear generating capacity, and developing indigenous expertise and technology is central to that goal. The first completed plant leveraging the nation’s CPR-1000 design