News
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Energy Security
Keeping the Lights On: How Cuba Is Fighting an Energy Crisis Under Tightened Sanctions
The current state of the national power grid in Cuba is a response to an exceptionally complex scenario, marked by the intensification of the U.S. embargo and its direct impact on fuel supplies. This was the message delivered by First Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Argelio Jesús Abad Vigoa, during his appearance on the […]
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Coal
Italy Ready to Restart Coal-Fired Plants, Postpone Total Coal Phaseout
Officials in Italy have said they are prepared to restart that country’s four remaining coal-fired power plants if supply issues for oil and natural gas persist due to the Iran war. The comments from Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin earlier this month came just days after government officials in an energy bill said they would […]
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Nuclear
NRC Extends Operating License for California’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved another 20-year operating license for California’s lone nuclear power plant.
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Legal & Regulatory
DOE’s Section 202(c) Emergency Orders Since May 2025: 43 and Counting
Since May 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued more than 40 emergency orders and extensions under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act—more than in any comparable period in the past two decades. The orders have fallen into two broad categories: retirement deferrals, which compel utilities and grid operators to keep specific generating […]
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T&D
Southwest Power Pool Announces Expansion of Service Territory
The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) said it has successfully expanded its service territory. The SPP’s expanded operations took effect on April 1, and tThe regional transmission organization, or RTO, is now aligned with the Western Interconnection of the U.S. power grid.
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Legal & Regulatory
Energy Projects May Qualify for Millions in Refunds: Revisiting Project Costs After IEEPA Ruling
Renewable energy developers, independent power producers, utilities and investors have spent the past several years navigating a shifting trade environment affecting solar modules, batteries and wind components. Due to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, that now has changed for those who have utilized international supply chains to build their qualifying electric assets.
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Hybrid Power
Aggreko Signs PPA with Mining Group for Hybrid Power Facility in Australia
Aggreko has finalized a landmark power purchase agreement (PPA) with international mining company Harmony Gold for the Eva Copper Mine Project in Northwest Queensland, Australia. The PPA announced April 2 supports development of Australia’s largest off-grid renewable hybrid power facility.
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Energy Storage
Investment Group Acquires Stake in TotalEnergies’ German Energy Storage Portfolio
TotalEnergies has sold a 50% stake in an 800-MW portfolio of battery energy storage projects in Germany to Allianz Global Investors, a Germany-based group that has nearly $640 billion of assets under management.
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Energy Storage
FlexGen Acquires BESS Provider Clean Energy Services
FlexGen Power Systems, which provides battery energy storage software and services, said it has acquired Clean Energy Services (CES). The companies on April 2 said the acquisition “will create an integrated model that accelerates FlexGen’s project delivery, enhances system performance, and strengthens long-term asset reliability for customers.”
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Research and Development
The Genesis Mission: How AI Supercomputing Is About to Reshape American Science and Energy
Dr. Dario Gil, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Under Secretary for Science, lays out a bold vision to double the productivity of U.S. research and development (R&D) within a decade—and explains why energy and artificial intelligence (AI) are two sides of the same coin. After 22 years at IBM, where he rose to senior vice […]
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History
Chernobyl at 40: The World’s Worst Nuclear Power Accident and Where It Stands Now
On the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, POWER sent a freelance photographer and correspondent to the site in Ukraine to document the massive decommissioning effort still underway—and the new
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Data Centers
Full Throttle: Five Trends Reshaping the Gas Power Boom
A once-predictable industry is moving at hyperscale speed. Here are five trends defining the biggest gas power buildout in a generation. Natural gas power is in the middle of its biggest buildout in a
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Electrification
A Powerful Change Supporting Cleaner Energy
Electric utilities and energy consumers have discovered the benefits of electrification as a way to decarbonize operations and take advantage of more intelligent power systems. The push for decarbonization
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Renewables
Geothermal’s Rise a Hot Topic Worldwide
The global surge in energy demand is spurring investment in several sectors, and is bringing renewed interest in areas such as geothermal. The world’s literal hot spots—places such as Iceland, Indonesia, Kenya, and part of the U.S.—are seeing new projects, often as part of testing of advanced technologies such as enhanced geothermal systems (EGS).
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Gas
Cracking the Power Supply Chain Code
The power industry finds itself in an uncomfortable bind. Demand for electricity is surging, driven by data center buildouts, broad electrification, and the retirement of aging coal fleets, but the equipment
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Energy Security
Europe’s Grid Is Already a Hybrid War Target—Most Utilities Aren’t Ready
European electricity infrastructure has become a target of sustained hybrid warfare, and a new report from Eurelectric, the region’s power sector trade group, finds that most of the continent’s utilities
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Renewables
The Hidden Idle Asset Trap: A New Era of BESS Optimization in Europe
Record battery deployments across Europe are masking a growing crisis: assets that are grid-connected but financially idle, stranded by saturated markets and outdated optimization strategies.
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Legal & Regulatory
Guidance for Optimizing Solar Power Project Tax Credits
Most commercial solar projects must now meet rigorous “physical work of a significant nature” requirements to establish federal tax credit eligibility.
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O&M
The Critical Role of Coatings in SMR Design
Electricity demand for data centers worldwide is projected to double by 2030. As a result, developers are looking at small modular reactors (SMRs) to add low‑carbon power generation capacity.
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News
POWER Digest [April 2026|
Hatch and Hydrostor Partner to Deliver World’s Largest Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage Project. Global engineering firm Hatch and long-duration energy storage (LDES) developer Hydrostor announced Feb
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Environmental
Smart Systems Power Up Modern Emissions Monitoring
Capable new lasers with quantum cascade and tunable diode technologies lay the foundation for accurate, low-maintenance, and fast-response continuous emissions monitoring systems to monitor multiple gas
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Renewables
Arevon Starts Construction of $600 Million Cormorant Energy Storage Project
An Arizona-headquartered developer, owner, and operator of renewable energy projects said construction of another major energy storage project is underway in California.
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Finance
BlackRock’s Infrastructure Arm Leads $250 Million Bet on Commercial Building Efficiency as a Grid Asset
Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of investment giant BlackRock following its acquisition in 2024, has led a $250 million upsizing of Budderfly’s debt facility, bringing the total facility to $550 million and boosting the Shelton, Connecticut-based Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) company’s cumulative capital base well past $1 billion. The transaction, announced on March 25, also includes […]
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Commentary
Tri-State’s Vision for Lower Cost, Greater Efficiency About to Become Reality
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and its members constantly look for ways to build long-term reliability and lower costs. On April 1, 2026, Tri-State will take an important step toward these goals by joining the western expansion of the Southwest Power Pool Regional Transmission Organization (SPP RTO West).
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Electrification
UK Government Will Require Solar Power, Heat Pumps in All New British Homes
Officials in the UK have published a planning document that calls for housing developers to install solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes in England starting in 2028. The government on March 24 also said plug-in solar panels that homeowners can self-install on balconies would be widely available in the coming months.
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Renewables
Google Has PPAs for Solar Power from Renewable Energy Group
A Maryland-headquartered utility-scale developer, owner, and operator of solar power and energy storage projects said it has power purchase agreements (PPAs) with technology giant Google for the electricity from two Texas solar installations.
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T&D
Anatomy of a Blackout: Findings from the Spain-Portugal Grid Collapse Final Report
An analysis of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) Expert Panel’s final report on the April 28, 2025, Iberian Peninsula power grid incident. On a mild, sunny Monday in late April 2025, the power grids of Spain and Portugal collapsed in less than 90 seconds. At 12:33 p.m. Central European Summer […]
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Interview
The POWER Interview: Electrification Key for Decarbonization, Energy Efficiency
Electrification has become key for the global move toward cleaner energy, even as government policies continue to impact the use of renewable resources and in some cases embrace continued and even increased support for fossil fuels. Governments and industries wanting to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases look to electrification not only as an environmental […]
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Press Releases
CPUC Backs Renewable Natural Gas Contract from Anaergia Facility
Anaergia Inc. said the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has conditionally approved a long-term biomethane procurement contract supported by Anaergia’s SoCal Biomethane LLC facility, Anew Climate LLC, and Southwest Gas. The project will be the first to supply renewable natural gas (RNG) under California’s Senate Bill (SB) 1440 Biomethane Procurement Program.
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Nuclear
Nuclear Sprint: DOE and Industry Race to Meet Trump’s Target
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources convened March 19 for a full committee hearing to examine the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) implementation of President Trump’s May 2025 nuclear energy executive orders. Three witnesses—DOE Assistant Secretary Theodore Garrish, Kairos Power CEO Dr. Michael Laufer, and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Director Dr. John C. Wagner—testified, […]