News

GE’s GT26 HE upgrade is expected to increase combined-cycle efficiency by about 2.5% and add 44 megawatts of power at baseload at Drax’s Shoreham Power Station GE to implement gas turbine upgrade in 2021 Upgrade unleashes full performance of the GT26 platform through advanced technology from GE’s H-Class, F-Class and additive manufacturing GE’s hardware and […]

DALLAS, Sept. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Tri Global Energy, LLC, the leading wind developer in Texas and a dominant wind leader in the U.S., and the managers of the Fluvanna Renewable Energy Project, LLC, announced today that project owner and partner, TERNA ENERGY, S.A., has achieved commercial operations on the 158 megawatts (MW) Gopher Creek Wind […]

Winners of The Cleanie Awards—the only comprehensive awards program focused exclusively on the clean energy industry—were unveiled on Sept. 24 during North America Smart Energy Week in Salt Lake City, Utah. “The Cleanie Awards honors companies and individuals at the forefront of innovation for the clean technology and renewables industries,” said Elyssa Haynes, program director for […]

The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) is meeting this week in Salt Lake City, Utah, joining with the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) to present North America Smart Energy Week, which this year includes both the long-running Solar Power International gathering along with Energy Storage International. A big theme this week is the integration of […]

Framatome successfully completed the first of 12 low-pressure feedwater heater replacements at Arizona Public Service’s Palo Verde Generating Station Unit 1 on an expedited schedule during the spring 2019 outage. The remaining replacements will take place over a more than seven-year campaign. “It is rewarding to bring our latest technologies and expertise to support Palo […]

Two companies who recently announced they are creating what they consider North America’s largest behind-the-meter (BTM) deployment of energy storage technology have said they plan to expand the service, providing a long-term solution for controlling costs and promoting energy sustainability for businesses. Executives of the two companies—Honeywell and NRStor C&I—told POWER in a Sept. 23 interview […]

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on Sept. 23 released what it calls a roadmap for solar power, among the group’s first steps into a 10-year period that SEIA has dubbed the “Solar+ Decade.” SEIA on Monday in a news release said its initiative puts solar power on a path to provide at least 20% […]

The newly empowered Republican majority on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) flexed its administrative muscles Sept. 19 at its regular monthly meeting, voting 2–1 to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) to reform rules pertaining to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). It was FERC’s first public meeting since July, when the […]

Two formidable U.S. coal power generators this week separately revised their carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets. Duke Energy announced it would achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. American Electric Power (AEP), meanwhile, said it would extend its target from 60% to 70% from 2000 levels by 2030, and by more than 80% by 2050—but it […]

Ocean Wind Gets NJ BPU Backing for Oyster Creek Wind Project. Ocean Wind LLC this month received support from New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to develop a wind project with both offshore and onshore components, with a connection to the grid at the site of the former Oyster Creek nuclear station. Ocean Wind, […]

Highview Power recently unveiled its modular, giga-scale cryogenic energy storage technology, the CRYOBattery™. The company has announced a partnership with Tenaska to help develop four giga-scale plants in the U.S., with the first expected in in Texas. The company also is working on a fifth project in the Midwest. The technology uses ambient air to […]

Xcel to Take Advantage of Distributed Intelligence and Distribution Automation LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — Sept. 17 — Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI), which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, and Xcel Energy entered an agreement to secure smart meters that will allow for collaboration to improve customer experience and utility operations […]

A Vistra Energy subsidiary on Sept. 16 said it will close the nearly 60-year-old E.D. Edwards coal-fired plant in Bartonville, Illinois, by year-end 2022 under a settlement between the company and environmental groups the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Respiratory Health Association. The groups made a joint announcement Monday of the […]

A coalition of nine utility companies is suing the Trump administration over its plan to replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. New York-based Consolidated Edison said the Affordable Clean Energy, or ACE, rule undermines efforts the companies already have in place to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power generation. The companies, who call their group […]

For some utilities, community solar is a way to offer consumers access to clean energy without requiring investment in rooftop solar. For others, it presents a means of strategically placing solar resources in the most beneficial locations. Meanwhile, many utilities view it as an opportunity to learn how best to integrate distributed energy resources (DERs). […]

Reliable power is essential for all facilities, but it is even more critical for places like hospitals, data centers, and military bases. Therefore, many decision-makers are purchasing power generator sets (gensets) to supply their facilities during emergencies. It is crucial to consider where the genset will be positioned and how it will be operated. If […]

Average natural gas prices at Henry Hub in 2020 could fall to below $2/MMBtu —a level “not seen in decades”—owing to a persistent oversupply, a new report from information and analytics firm IHS Markit suggests.  Prices could fall despite strong demand for natural gas, both domestically, including for power generation, as well as for exports. […]

What is a superconductor? One definition says, “a material that can conduct electricity or transport electrons from one atom to another with no resistance.” “At the base physics level, what a superconductor does is it moves a lot more power per unit volume or per unit weight, so you have a very high energy-dense material […]

Exelon’s Byron Unit 2 nuclear power plant has completed installation of EnCore Fuel, Westinghouse Electric Co.’s accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) solution, marking the start of the first test of uranium silicide fuel pellets in a commercial nuclear reactor.  The installation, completed during the plant’s scheduled 18-day spring refueling outage this April, but publicly announced on Sept. […]

FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), Xcel Energy, and Arizona Public Service (APS) will demonstrate hydrogen production at three nuclear plants they own starting in 2020 and 2021. The projects, selected as part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy’s Advanced Reactor Development Project funding pathway, aim to improve long-term competitiveness of the nuclear sector […]

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and Glendale Water and Power, through the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA), on May 16, 2019, received SCPPA’s approval on agreements with 8minute Solar Energy (8mSE) for the installation of a 300-MW/1,200-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) located at 8mSE’s Eland Solar and Storage Center. […]

With shifts in political winds come shifts in agency legal interpretations. In January 2017, the solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) issued a formal legal opinion interpreting the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) to prohibit the incidental take (accidental injury or death) of migratory birds. This “midnight” legal opinion was widely viewed […]

Hawk Measurement releases a new non-contact radar level transmitter that uses FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) technology. Hawk Measurement Systems (HAWK), a global leader in measurement solutions, has announced the release of their new SENATOR™ Radar Level Transmitter product line. The SENATOR™ Radar Level Transmitter is a non-contact sensor that uses FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous […]

Cost. The dirtiest word in clean energy—especially with operations and maintenance (O&M) costs set to rise globally to $17 billion in 2020 in the wind industry. Part of saving on O&M costs means taking a look at the inefficient processes that skilled workers are doing as part of O&M procedures to optimize their time. A […]

It’s been a summer of power outages as extreme weather has been wreaking havoc on the electrical grid. Violent thunderstorms, tornadoes, and record-high temperatures have all taken turns knocking out the power across the East, from Michigan and Wisconsin to Washington, D.C. The lights even went out in Times Square and Manhattan’s West Side due […]

Five-Year Extension of Services Provided to Miami Fort and Zimmer Power Plants in Ohio LOUISVILLE, KY (September 10, 2019) – Charah® Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: CHRA) (the “Company”), a leading provider of environmental and maintenance services to the power generation industry, today announced that it recently was awarded a contract extension to provide byproduct sales and […]

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) wants to cap its liabilities from damages caused by California wildfires at about $18 billion, according to the reorganization plan filed by the bankrupt utility September 9 in federal court in San Francisco. The amount is less than half what creditors, including insurance companies and wildfire victims, say they are […]

New York City may soon be powered with two new power barges outfitted with eight Siemens 76-MW aeroderivative gas turbines.  Under a Sept. 5-announced contract signed by Astoria Generating Co. (AGC) and Siemens, the power barges—a relatively new Siemens offering based on a concept it calls “SeaFloat”—will replace two of four existing power barges at […]

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) reportedly will soon file a restructuring plan that includes more than $14 billion in equity commitments, as the utility looks to recover from billions of dollars in liabilities tied to its role in California wildfires that caused the company to file the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history. Bloomberg on […]

Last year, five of the world’s 449 operable nuclear reactors reached 50 years of operation for the first time, four first-of-their kind reactor designs were brought online, and while the industry showed capacity factor impacts from load-following, the global nuclear fleet performed  at an average capacity factor of about 80%, says a new report from […]