News

Xcel Energy on April 6 announced the sale of the 760-MW Mankato Energy Center (MEC) gas-fired power plant in Minnesota, less than three months after purchasing the plant for $650 million from Southern Co. Xcel had said the MEC was an important piece of the utility’s goal to be carbon-free by 2050. Xcel reached a […]

Support Directed to First Responders, Community Relief Funds, and Teachers NRG Energy CEO, Mauricio Gutierrez, shares details of the company’s $2 million donation supporting COVID-19 relief efforts PRINCETON, N.J. – As the battle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic continues, NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) announces broad efforts to aid those on the front lines of […]

The need to reduce carbon emissions is real. In 2018, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that global emissions would need to reach net-zero (or carbon-neutral) by 2050 to prevent severe climate change impacts. Electricity is a major contributor—electricity generation was responsible for approximately 33% of total CO2 emissions in the U.S. in […]

Scientists at SSC RF TRINITI JSC, a subsidiary of Rosatom’s science division, this week announced they have developed a method of disinfecting and sterilizing medical instruments, clothing, equipment, and facilities using mobile devices for the production of concentrated ozone. The action is one of several initiatives undertaken by Rosatom, the Moscow-based Russian state nuclear corporation, […]

With the growth of distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar, wind turbines, battery energy storage systems, electric vehicles, and demand response technology, distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) are becoming increasingly important for utilities. Brad Williams, vice president of Industry Strategy with Oracle Utilities was a guest on The POWER Podcast. He touched on a […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) latest annual energy flow chart suggests that in 2019, for the second year in a row, wind and solar made up the largest increases in U.S. energy supply, but American consumption of energy fell after a record year in 2018. The national lab’s annual U.S. energy flow chart, or Sankey […]

In the face of widespread disruption driven by economic, regulatory and consumer forces, the energy sector is increasingly adopting digital technologies to transform the industry and bring it into the future. However, this move to modernization can unintentionally expose organizations to a range of new security threats that must be addressed. Digital Transformation—A Move to […]

PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest regional transmission organization (RTO), is intensifying its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, preparing campuses for worker sequestration and closely coordinating with generators and transmission owners across its system as they grapple with workforce and supply impacts. Although most of PJM’s employees—with the exception of system operators and other essential personnel—are […]

It’s a rite of spring for the U.S. nuclear power industry. Plant operators schedule refueling outages, taking a reactor offline not only to refuel but also to perform repairs or other maintenance, and facility upgrades. It’s a task made more problematic this year, as social distancing and travel restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic […]

The start of a new decade marks a critical moment for utilities. As the pace of change accelerates, industry leaders are facing choices that will determine which companies prosper in the new competitive landscape and which languish as slow-growth commodity businesses. West Monroe’s 2020 Energy and Utilities Outlook provides a guide to planning for a […]