Markets

Washington, D.C. – In a recent letter to PJM Interconnection, America’s Power explained that near-term coal plant retirements could be three times greater than PJM anticipates in its recent white paper, thereby increasing the risk of electricity shortages.  The PJM paper examines the disconnect between increasing coal retirements, growing electricity demand, and the slow addition […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing more stringent discharge standards for three types of coal power plant wastewater as part of an update to its Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs). However, the agency also proposed compliance flexibilities, and in a separate direct final rule, moved to extend a deadline to allow more coal plants to […]

X-energy will demonstrate its four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 advanced nuclear reactor facility under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) at a Dow site in the U.S. Gulf Coast region by the end of the decade—not in Washington State as originally planned. The shakeup stems from a joint development agreement (JDA) the nuclear […]

The power system is changing and electricity suppliers need to adapt or get left behind. Experts weigh in on what leaders should be focusing on and how these items will affect utilities in the future. The

As of December 2022, the Department of Energy (DOE) CHP Installation Database recorded 4,674 combined heat and power (CHP) installations in the U.S., with a combined capacity of 80.4 GW. Installations were all sizes, from large industrial systems that are hundreds of megawatts to small commercial microturbine and fuel cell systems that are tens of […]

Japanese power generator JERA has launched commercial operation of the first of three liquefied natural gas (LNG)–fueled 650-MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units that will modernize the Anegasaki Thermal Power Station, a mammoth 3.2-GW, six-unit gas and oil power plant in Chiba Prefecture.  The new Anegasaki Thermal Power Station Unit 1, opened on Feb. […]

Ontario Power Generation (OPG), GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), SNC-Lavalin, and Aecon have signed a trailblazing six-year alliance agreement designed to bolster the deployment of a BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at the Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP) in Clarington, Ontario. The contract unveiled on Jan. 27—a year after OPG selected GEH’s BWRX-300 for the […]

Siemens Gamesa chief executive Jochen Eickholt acknowledged equipment failures in both the company’s onshore and offshore wind turbines, leading to higher warranty provisions, contributed to a nearly $1 billion net loss for the company in the last three months of 2022. Eickholt on Feb. 2 said the company’s October to December—the group’s fiscal first quarter—loss […]

Americans have much to gain from having a solar project installed in their local community, but their relationship with solar energy is hardly a love affair. The infamous NIMBY (not in my backyard) phenomenon

One of the first U.S.-based wave energy power plants is set to be deployed at AltaSea’s 35-acre campus located at the Port of Los Angeles. Israeli firm Eco Wave Power, which unveiled the project on Jan. 12, said the AltaSea pilot would help the company make inroads in the U.S. Eco Wave’s onshore wave energy […]

SUGAR LAND, Texas (January 5, 2023) – Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) announced the launch of its retail energy platform, CPV Retail Energy, which will initially serve as a retail electric provider for commercial and industrial customers in states within the PJM market and eventually expand into New York and New England. CPV Retail Energy builds […]

So far, utilities have announced plans to retire some 93,000 MW (nameplate) of coal—almost half the existing coal fleet—by the end of this decade. Coal retirements combined with increasing penetration of

Assessments are underway to pin down factors that prompted emergencies, tight grid conditions, and even load-shedding by major entities as Winter Storm Elliot bore down on the North American bulk power system (BPS) this past week.    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), and regional entities affiliated with […]

An Arctic blast felt by a large portion of North America is causing reliability turmoil within some segments in its bulk power system, forcing reliability coordinators to declare emergencies, issue conservation warnings, or shed load. TVA, Grappling With Demand Surge, Resorted to Load Shed Temperatures averaging the single digits across the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) […]

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) has submitted a Generic Design Assessment (GDA) entry application for its BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) to UK authorities, kicking off a key regulatory process that could give the advanced nuclear technology a competitive edge as the country races to potentially triple its nuclear capacity to up to 24 GW by […]

Competition for a new unit of up to 1.2 GW at the Czech Republic’s Dukovany nuclear power plant site has stepped up, with France’s EDF, South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), and a Westinghouse-Bechtel team submitting initial bids, Czech utility ČEZ, said on Nov. 30. Elektrárna Dukovany II, a. s. (EDU II), a […]

Uranium has been one of the best-performing asset classes in 2022, according to data supplied by HANetf’s Sprott Uranium Miners UCITS ETF (URNM). In fact, the uranium spot price has increased 24.12% during the year through Oct. 31, according to the fund. October was a particularly strong month for uranium oxide (U3O8), which is used […]

Days after Poland chose Westinghouse to supply its AP1000 technology to the country’s first nuclear plant in Pomerania, northern Poland, the government and two Polish energy firms signed a letter of intent with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) to “push ahead” with development of a second nuclear plant based on APR1400 technology in Pątnów, […]

Energy giants Chevron and Uniper are pairing with chemical technology companies Air Liquide and LyondellBasell to explore a hydrogen and ammonia production facility along the U.S. Gulf Coast that could support industrial decarbonization and mobility applications in the region and expand clean ammonia exports. The companies, in a joint statement on Oct. 19, said they […]

Unexpectedly steep financial losses suffered by the U.S. renewables market owing to a barrage of extreme weather events over the past summer suggest that project hardening strategies aren’t going far enough, a major renewables insurer is warning. GCube, an international insurer for wind, solar, wave, hydro, and tidal projects around the world in an update […]

POWER magazine is celebrating its 140th anniversary this month. All I can say is “Wow! What an incredible run!”; And, it’s not over yet—we plan to continue putting out a top-notch publication

Germany plans to keep two of its three last nuclear power plants on standby until mid-2023—beyond their year-end closure deadline—to bolster its energy security through the winter. However, the declaration has prompted confusion within Germany’s nuclear industry, which says nuclear plants aren’t suited to perform as operating reserve. Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action […]

The forecast for U.S. solar energy installations in 2022 have been revised downward in a report published by Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on Sept. 8, due in large part to supply chain constraints and an industry-wide slowdown caused by the initiation of an anticircumvention investigation earlier this year. The U.S. […]

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 […]

The threat of climate change is no longer a threat—it’s here and it’s impacting everyone. However, in New Jersey, 10 years after Superstorm Sandy, communities are better prepared than ever to handle

For the growing U.S. hydrogen industry, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is transformative. Today, nearly all hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels to be used as a chemical feedstock and for refining—emitting carbon dioxide in the process. Recently, thanks to state incentive programs, federal funds, and voluntary corporate commitments, clean hydrogen has been gaining ground […]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that electricity generated by natural gas–fired power plants in the lower 48 states reached 6.37 TWh on July 21, setting a new record high for a day. In fact, the previous high, set on July 27, 2020, was broken three times during that week in July, first on […]

Lofty goals have been established in the U.S. for the offshore wind industry. The U.S. Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and Department of Commerce announced a national goal in March 2021 to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. That would mark a significant increase from the 42 MW of offshore […]

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is urging the development of more diverse solar PV supply chains, suggesting the sector’s heavy reliance on China has led to imbalances that pose risks to its future growth. A dedicated study of the world’s solar PV supply chain issued by the Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization on July 7 acknowledges that government […]

Few observers outside the electric utility industry understand the U.S. power grid, often called the world’s largest machine. It’s three grids, actually—the Eastern Interconnect, the Western Interconnect, and the Texas Interconnect. Much of the Eastern and Western Interconnects are subdivided regionally into independent organizations—independent system operators (ISOs) or regional transmission operators (RTOs)—that monitor, coordinate, and […]