Markets
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Nuclear
Is the U.S. Too Reliant on Foreign Uranium for Nuclear Power Plant Fuel? [PODCAST]
The nuclear power industry is struggling in the U.S. Several reactors are at risk of early closure due to difficulty competing in the wholesale power markets. New units being built in South Carolina have been abandoned, while the only other nuclear construction project in the U.S.—the Plant Vogtle expansion in Georgia—is behind schedule and over […]
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Renewables
AES and Siemens, Two Power Giants, Join Forces on Energy Storage
Underscoring energy storage’s new vital role in power company operations, Siemens and AES Corp. have launched a joint company, Fluence Energy, that provides technology solutions paired with engineering and services capabilities. AES and Siemens on January 11 announced that Fluence, which merges AES Energy Storage and Siemens’ energy storage team, received all government approvals for the […]
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Renewables
EIA Report: Gas-fired Generation Will Continue to Outpace Coal
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its first look at expected power generation in 2019, and its conclusions are much the same as those it expects in 2018—the use of natural gas to produce electricity will continue to rise, and the use of coal will continue to decline. EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook, released January […]
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Legal & Regulatory
FERC Rejects DOE’s Proposed Grid Resiliency Rule
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has rejected the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) controversial proposed rule on grid reliability and resilience pricing, initiating instead a new proceeding that will examine the resilience of the bulk power system. The DOE’s “Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule” proposed on Sept. 29 directed FERC—an independent regulatory government agency that is […]
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Renewables
What Is the Future of Independent Power?
Merchant markets for independent power producers in the U.S. are unfavorable, and many companies in the sector have slumping profits—even big losses—as they ponder where to go in the months and years
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Commentary
Hope in the New Year: Opportunities Abound for the Power Industry
There are challenges facing the power industry in 2018, but there are also a lot of exciting opportunities. Renewable energy and gas-fired generation are expected to continue growing, but changes in federal
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Commentary
How to Build a Regulator-Approved Beneficial Electrification Program
Utilities across the U.S. are aware of beneficial electrification (BE) programs, but wide adoption has been held up by uncertainty about their potential and broader role in the evolving regulated utility
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Commentary
Gas Power Generation Thrives, Turbine Manufacturers Struggle
The amount of electricity produced by gas-fired power generation has been increasing steadily in the U.S. for more than 25 years. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that in 1990 about 372.8
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Legal & Regulatory
Europe’s Power Generation Industry Evolves
The European Union (EU) is unequivocally continuing down a path of global climate and energy leadership while bringing online more carbon-neutral fuel systems throughout its 28 member states, closing in on the 2020 goal of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from 1990 levels. Indeed, the newly released European Environment Agency’s (EEA’s) Trends […]
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Legal & Regulatory
The Big Picture: Energy Transitions [INFOGRAPHIC]
An energy transition is underway across the world. Market upheaval, defining events, and recent policy changes have accelerated a shift away from coal toward renewables. Here is how this transformation played out for some of the world’s major economies over the past decade. Graphs show percent of each fuel source of total generation for that […]