News

COMMENTARY Launched last week by New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the “Green New Deal” appears to pick up where President Franklin Roosevelt left off with his “Second Bill of Rights” announced in his 1944 State of the Union Address1. More manifesto than mandate, the Green New Deal seeks to be a lens through which legislators’ […]

Multibillion-dollar energy deals that both Siemens and General Electric (GE) signed with the Iraqi government last year may not come to fruition, according to the country’s electricity minister. The Financial Times on February 10 reported that Luay Al-Khatteeb, who took his post late last year after the deals were brokered, told the newspaper, “I don’t […]

ORLANDO, FLA. — GE Digital (NYSE: GE) today announced a powerful new version of iFIX, its award-winning HMI/SCADA software, used by nearly 20,000 industrial organizations around the world for plant-wide connectivity, visibility and control. Part of the Predix portfolio, the new iFIX 6.0 improves operational productivity by providing plant operators with high performance to give […]

GE Power’s financials spun out further on a dismal trajectory during the fourth quarter of 2018, plagued by slack market demand for products and services, technical glitches of a flagship gas turbine model, and poor project execution. Despite a series of divestments and corporate reshuffles, including of leadership, for the 12 months that ended on […]

In line with customer preferences, U.S. investor-owned electric companies are heavily invested in decarbonization and electrification, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) told Wall Street analysts and bankers on Feb. 6. In its annual presentation to potential investors and industry observers, the trade association that represents U.S. investor-owned electric companies lamented a number of uncertainties affecting […]

Paul DeCotis, senior director in West Monroe Partners’ Energy and Utilities practice, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. West Monroe, in partnership with Greentech Media, conducted a survey of more than 1,700 utility customers, 140 utility executives and managers, and more than two dozen regulators in major markets across North America. Its findings were […]

February 5, 2019 – Bentley Systems announces the availability of OpenUtilities™ DER Planning & Design Assessment Solutions, the latest of Bentley’s electric utility software offerings that provide decision support and cost-based models and simulations for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) integration. In partnership with Siemens’ Digital Grid business unit, OpenUtilities Solutions for DER empowers electric utilities, […]

New Secure Media Exchange release goes beyond malware detection to identify next wave of USB attack types, keeping human authentication part of security  HOUSTON, Feb. 4, 2019 — Honeywell (NYSE: HON) today announced the latest release of Secure Media Exchange (SMX), a cybersecurity solution to protect industrial operators against new and emerging Universal Serial Bus (USB) […]

Visual MESA™ Multi-Period Optimizer (VM-MPO) 6 will reduce costly uncertainty in planning, scheduling and trading of energy over multiple time periods across portfolios of generation assets and different asset classes Houston, TX, February 4, 2019 – KBC (A Yokogawa Company) today announced the release of a new high-fidelity analytics technology, VM-MPO 6. It will allow […]

Allen-Bradley CompactLogix 5480 controller combines Logix control and Windows-based computing in one platform MILWAUKEE, February 4, 2019 — Industrial workers can strengthen their grasp of production and make more informed operating decisions with the new Allen-Bradley CompactLogix 5480 controller by Rockwell Automation. The controller marries a Logix control engine and the Microsoft Windows 10 IoT […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) want to explore how federal and state authorities could incentivize cybersecurity and physical security in the power and natural gas sectors. The agencies issued a notice on Feb. 4 announcing they would jointly hold a technical conference on Thursday, March 28, 2019, from […]

System Environmentally Qualified through operating voltages up to 7.2 kV (Greenville, SC — February 04, 2019) The North American leader in engineered solutions for electric motor and generator repair services has raised the bar again, completing Environmental Qualification (EQ) of its Class F+ and Class H medium-voltage nuclear insulation systems for use in Class 1E […]

San Jose, California – February 4, 2019 – Bedrock Automation, the maker of the world’s most secure open industrial control system (ICS), has established a partnership agreement with Wood, a globally recognized integration provider.  Under the agreement, Wood’s automation and control group will deliver Bedrock Open Secure Automation (OSA®) to its clients in energy and […]

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO), which is phasing out coal-fired power as part of its “Your Energy, Your Future” plan announced late last year, on Feb. 1 said it will develop three new wind farm projects in the state that will add about 800 MW of renewable power generation capacity to its portfolio. The […]

Behind the digital tools that make the industrial internet of things (IIOT) in the power generation and chemical process industries are people. The upcoming Connected Plant Conference—Feb. 19–21, 2019, in Charlotte, North Carolina—will recognize the achievements of 11 individuals and companies who are fast risers in the field. Through insight and experience, these “Game Changer” champions […]

COMMENTARY On January 29, POWER magazine published a local viewpoint from one of the members of the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel (DCDEP). In the commentary, Alex Karlin urged the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to take immediate action to replace the current DCDEP with an independent community advisory panel for purposes of monitoring and […]

In 2017, the 10 largest power companies, ranked by their installed generation capacity, owned 18% of total global installed capacity, while the next-largest 15 owned around 10%—meaning that the top 25 companies own nearly 30% of global installed power generation capacity, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Chinese companies account for more than one-eighth of global installed […]

Interest in hydrogen-powered fuel cells for transportation and machinery applications appears to have kicked up of late, with several companies announcing major developments. Hydrogen Batteries for Spanish Port. The Port of Valencia in Spain in January said it is readying to implement a planned €4 million pilot project to power container-manipulating machinery with hydrogen batteries. The […]

The threat to power grid resilience and reliability due to the continued retirement of coal-fired power plants has generated calls for immediate action. A severe weather event such as the “bomb cyclone” or

Power generators continue to expand their use of digital technologies. Data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are all part of a rapid transformation in how utilities are improving the

An Electric Power Research Institute-led collaborative utility project, called I4Gen (Insight through the Integration of Information for Intelligent Generation), is exploring new technologies for digitally

A key aspect of any digitization effort is providing easy access to data by engineersand other experts so they can perform advanced analytics to improve outcomes. In the March 2018 issue of POWER, an article

Industrial control system cybersecurity is today largely focused on securing networks, and efforts largely ignore process control equipment that is crucial for plant safety and reliability, leaving it woefully

Hydroelectric power doesn’t get much attention in today’s discussions of how to generate electricity, particularly in a world looking to boost renewable technologies such as wind and solar. But the oldest

It is fairly common for power plant engineers and maintenance managers to focus on fireside issues rather than waterside issues during routine maintenance outages. However, that could be a mistake. Waterside

Thermohydraulic simulations can provide detailed heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) data to help determine the root cause of failures, predict the degree of wear from various mechanisms, and assess the

Utility-sponsored energy-efficiency programs have always seemed like a contradiction to me. Obviously, power companies make money by selling electricity, so encouraging customers to install energy-efficient

The Connected Plant Conference is a forum designed for professionals in the power generation and chemical process industries who are leading digital adoption at all stages. Sessions are tailored to offer

A new distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) is being deployed in Western Australia, designed to manage distributed energy resources (DERs) across nearly 1 million square miles, with a focus on

China’s power sector reforms represent perhaps the world’s largest industrial reform program, with important consequences on both domestic and global levels. In 2015, Erdaoqiao, a settlement in southwest