O&M
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O&M
Why Crankcase Ventilation Matters in Engine-Based Power
As reciprocating engines/gensets assume a larger role in distributed generation, data center infrastructure, and other critical duty applications, crankcase ventilation and the resulting emissions warrant increased attention and mitigation. When power generation professionals discuss engine emissions, the conversation typically focuses on the exhaust stack. While this emphasis is justified, it underestimates another emissions pathway: the […]
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Connected Plant
Energy Management Goes Beyond Monitoring to Decision-Making
Utilities and independent power producers have spent years adding sensors to their generating fleets and creating dashboards to view what they relay. But visibility into how a plant is operating isn’t the same as knowing what to do about it—and that gap is where Siemens Energy’s Omnivise Energy Management System is increasingly shedding light, explained […]
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Business
Is the Smart Money Buying Operators Rather Than Megawatts?
The wait for a large gas turbine now runs longer than the time it takes to design, permit, and build the plant it will sit in. Order one today from any of the three largest manufacturers, and the delivery slot
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Connected Plant
Condenser Chemistry Management: From Grab Samples to Predictive Digital Twins
When I walk into the main office of a power plant, it’s always on the main TV screen, along with heat rate, load, and other critical numbers. I’m talking about condenser backpressure. Every power plant manager watches this number (Figure 1), and they should. A PEPSE (Performance Evaluation of Power System Efficiencies) analysis of a […]
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Technology
Making Energy Intensity a Controlled Variable
Rising power costs and load increases have elevated energy monitoring and analysis on plant agendas, but consumption only becomes controllable once it is reliably measured per unit produced and modeled
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Water
Manage Water Use in Power and Energy With Reliable Process Instrumentation
From green hydrogen and coal wastewater, to data center cooling and steam cycle chemistry, reliable measurement helps power producers moderate water use, protect critical equipment, and comply with
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Gas
Supercritical CO2 for Gas Turbines: Accelerating Speed to Power
Many simple-cycle gas turbines are running harder than they were ever intended to—yet steam retrofits have never penciled out for most of that fleet. Supercritical CO 2 bottoming cycles change the economics
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Supply Chains
Matching Fasteners to the Application: Five Quality Controls
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the domestic power system is facing mounting pressure from growing electricity demand, a backlog of generation interconnection requests, and an aging transmission
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O&M
How IoT and Industrial AI-Enabled Grids Are Transforming Utility Operations
Electricity grids historically have been relatively predictable systems. Power flowed in one direction, from centralized generation facilities through transmission and distribution networks to homes and
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Engineering
How Full-Train Validation Is Raising the Reliability Benchmark for High-Power Steam Turbines
Triveni Turbine validated a complete 60-MW turbine-generator train—not just the turbine—inside its own factory, using a dynamometer to simulate real load conditions before the package ever reached its
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Wind
The Billion-Dollar Blind Spot in Wind Turbine Maintenance
Wind turbine blade health strategies must get smarter to adequately support rapid advancements in turbine engineering. Over the last decade, global wind capacity has almost tripled. One of the keys to this growth story has been the sector’s ability to manufacture and deploy ever-larger wind turbines at pace. Today’s onshore models are, on average, three […]
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Commentary
Understanding NERC Impact Ratings and Compliance Timing for Generation Control Facilities
For power generation operators navigating the complex landscape of North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) compliance, two critical questions frequently arise: when does a generation control facility become a Low Impact BES (Bulk Electric System) Control Center, and when does it escalate to Medium Impact status? Understanding these thresholds is essential for proper planning and […]
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Gas
Rayburn Energy Station: A Cooperative’s Answer to Texas-Sized Risk
For Rayburn Electric Cooperative, ownership of the 758-MW combined cycle plant in Sherman, Texas, means stable rates, hardened reliability through heat waves and winter storms, and a hedge against the
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O&M
From 18 Forced Outages to Zero Missed Starts: How CPS Energy’s Arthur von Rosenberg Plant Rebuilt Its Reliability
A deliberate shift from reactive maintenance to a reliability-centered operating culture cut the 500-MW combined cycle plant’s forced outage rate by 90%—and delivered perfect availability through Texas’s
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Electrification
Safety at Speed: Modern Grids Demand a Different Approach
At 4:30 a.m., before the sun is up, a lineworker steps onto a site that did not exist six months ago. By mid-morning, crews from three different contractors will be working in parallel: civil teams finishing trenching, electricians pulling cable, another crew preparing for energization. The schedule is tight. The handoffs are constant. On paper, […]
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O&M
Making Waste-to-Energy Plants More Reliable With Burner Retrofits
Inconsistent fuel quality puts constant strain on aging waste-to-energy boiler systems. Modernizing startup burners, combustion controls, and flame detection can restore reliability and keep plants
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Energy Storage
The BESS Connection to the Grid—Ensuring Flexibility and Reliability
When designed to interface directly with a utility’s medium-voltage infrastructure, battery energy storage systems (BESS) must meet stringent performance, protection, and reliability requirements that extend
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Technology
Rediscovering Digital Twins for a New Power Era
Modern power challenges—from renewables and microgrids to artificial intelligence factories—are driving renewed adoption of digital twins as flexible, high-fidelity environments for zero-risk
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O&M
Severe Service Control Valves for Power Plants: Reducing Cavitation, Noise, and Maintenance Costs
Power industry severe service applications can be difficult, but new advanced trim designs and external noise reduction devices have created higher-performing and more cost-effective alternatives. Power industry applications practically define the phrase “severe service.” Elevated temperatures and pressures, cavitation, erosive solids, and high noise all conspire to push control valve technology to its very limits. […]
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Commentary
Wildfire Liability Is Becoming a Data Problem, Not Just a Legal One
For years, utility wildfire liability was largely framed around a straightforward question: who caused the fire? That question still matters, but it is no longer the only one that matters.
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Data Centers
White paper: Measuring and monitoring emissions at data centers. A practical guide to compliance and performance
Sponsored by:Thermo Fisher ScientificAs data centers expand to meet growing AI, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure demands, many facilities are incorporating onsite power generation to support reliability and accelerate deployment. This shift creates new emissions monitoring, reporting, and compliance responsibilities. Download this white paper for a practical overview of emissions monitoring strategies for data centers with onsite […]
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O&M
A Water Plant That Happens to Make Power: Inside the Moccasin Rewind
At a 57-year-old hydro plant where the real product is drinking water for 2.7 million people, GE Vernova replaced two original generators on a four-month outage window—proving that reliability, not output
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Trends
Enhance Power Generation Reliability With Advanced Analytics and AI
Utilities and power generation companies are bolstering operational efficiency and plant reliability by implementing advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI)–driven predictive maintenance
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O&M
The Future of Field Operations: A Better App Strategy for Mobile Crews
Shadow a utility work crew for a day and you would be amazed at how many obstacles, inefficiencies, and headaches they face from the mobile applications they use. These teams are productive despite those applications, not because of them.
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Offshore Wind
Blending Marine and Energy Technologies for Floating Offshore Wind
The unique demands of floating offshore wind turbines require a blend of specialized coating systems engineered to help prevent corrosion and extend asset service life in some of the world’s harshest environments.
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Gas
On-Demand Webinar: Simplifying real-time natural gas monitoring with integrated process Raman and flow measurement
Sponsored by:Thermo Fisher ScientificThis webinar explores an integrated approach to natural gas monitoring that combines real-time, in-line process Raman spectroscopy with advanced flow measurement and control. Process Raman technology provides continuous gas composition and heating value (BTU) measurements, while the flow computer platform delivers standardized flow calculations, operational monitoring, and remote visibility from wellhead to pipeline. Attendees will […]
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Nuclear
In a First for Advanced Nuclear: Siemens Energy Turbine Package Advances for Oklo’s Aurora-INL
The steam turbine and generator package for Oklo’s first Aurora powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory (INL)—a pioneering application of a commercially established industrial turbine platform at the heart of a first-of-a-kind advanced reactor’s conventional island—is in active production at Siemens Energy’s facilities in Görlitz and Erfurt, Germany. In details provided to POWER, both companies confirmed the […]
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Research and Development
Quantum Sensor Ambitions: A New Horizon for Utility Innovation
Meeting the increasingly important but complex needs of the energy industry requires not only excellent design and engineering, but also advanced sensor capabilities that extend beyond the limits of current technology. A piece of the solution for enhanced technology will come from quantum sensors, which leverage quantum mechanics to deliver tools that will push past […]
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Legal & Regulatory
From Tail Risk to Design Baseline: How the Grid Is Adapting to Extreme Heat
System planners and grid operators are treating extreme heat as an assumed operating condition given new pressures, including drought, demand growth, and fuel concerns. Will it be enough? For decades, the U.S. power system treated extreme heat as a tail risk, managed through seasonal readiness—something for which to prepare. But hotter conditions are now arriving […]
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Legal & Regulatory
What Utilities Need to Know About the 900-MHz ‘NextNav’ FCC Proceeding
NextNav, a Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) company with a history of telecommunications mergers, requested a rule change that would allow it to build out a network of high-power broadband operations. The proposed rule would impact every U.S. electric utility.