O&M

With hundreds of 7FA and 7EA gas turbines approaching end-of-life thresholds and industry-wide constraints on forgings and shop capacity, MD&A has invested a decade in reverse engineering, supply chain development, and production of rotor components to offer utilities an independent path forward. The gas turbine bubble of 2000 to 2004 saw between 600 and 700 […]

How industrial middleware unlocks the full value of operational data AI and why most AI programs fail without it   Power companies are being asked to deliver higher reliability while their operating environment becomes more dynamic. Conventional power generation: must run with greater flexibility, grid assets must absorb new load patterns, renewable portfolios must operate […]

Duke Energy’s 11-unit nuclear fleet finished 2025 with a capacity factor greater than 97%—its best result on record. For Steven Capps, Duke’s senior vice president and Chief Nuclear Officer, that number is the foundation everything else has to sit on. “2025 was the best year we have had in terms of overall capacity factor for […]

There has never been a time when so much power was needed so fast. Driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, more data center capacity is in development or under construction now than has been built in all of history. According to analyst firm Industrial Info Resources (IIR), each month of 2025 saw at least […]

Khalid Mandri is president of ABB Installation Products. Mandri recently provided POWER with his insight about how electrification supports decarbonization, and how it aligns with optimizing power infrastructure, including the grid.

Operators are trying to coax more output from aging fleets, with fewer experienced people, under increasingly unforgiving reliability expectations. In that environment, preventive maintenance has become an

Modern predictive maintenance depends on sensors and data streams that double as attack surfaces. Protecting the grid now means treating cybersecurity as a reliability discipline. In the interconnected age of

As the first generation of wind turbines ages out of manufacturer service agreements, operators are discovering that the smarter path forward isn’t wholesale replacement—it’s re-engineering components to

Aging programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are exposing power generation and industrial water facilities to growing operational risk. A structured migration strategy can reduce downtime, strengthen cybersecurity, and position plants for a digital future.

Utilities now operate in a far more dynamic environment shaped by distributed energy resources, an increasing number of distributed generation sites, and the emergence of large, high-demand loads and a growing number of connected devices across the grid.

Across the power sector, plant owners are confronting a fundamental question: how long can existing assets continue to operate safely and economically? What was once a long-range planning exercise has become an immediate strategic priority, driven by a convergence of market, operational, and policy pressures. Load demand is rising at a pace many utilities and […]

With the ever-surging demand to power everything from data centers to growing industries, the need to incorporate new energy sources into our grid has never been more pressing, nor challenging.

Though severe weather can happen at any time, April 1 is often considered the start of severe weather season—and now more than ever, utilities need reliable, accessible weather information to keep their staff safe and operations running smoothly.

To thrive amid increasing demand, companies must digitally transform and integrate advanced technologies into their daily operations.

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

Ameren Illinois and Ameren Missouri found a “creative” way to strengthen their utility service territory by strategically installing fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite utility poles by Creative

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.

Overcoming architectural fragmentation in your control environment Many power plants were constructed incrementally over time – control system, adding OEM-supplied turbines and balance-of-plant controllers, proprietary firmware, relays – layer by layer. What was never fully designed was how these systems would function as a single organism over a 30- to 40- year asset life. The […]

Over the past two decades, utilities have invested billions of dollars building a smarter grid—deploying sensors, automated substations, and advanced analytics platforms capable of monitoring system performance in real time.

Power outages have become increasingly common, and longer in duration, due to extreme weather and temperature events. Behind-the-meter (BTM) batteries are proving their worth, as they have become more than niche devices quietly supporting backup power during storms. These batteries now offer vital support in an increasingly volatile energy ecosystem.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming one of the most significant drivers of global electricity demand. By 2030, data centre consumption is expected to more than double, from 415 TWh to 945 TWh, driven by AI-optimised servers that use up to 10 times the energy of traditional computing. In the U.S., data centres may account […]

In the nuclear energy sector, cybersecurity is inextricably linked to day-to-day operations. It directly impacts physical safety, system reliability, and regulatory compliance, which makes it a persistent challenge to protect highly sensitive systems without interrupting the work required to keep them running safely.

The challenge of upgrading how power is generated, along with needed improvements in electricity transmission and distribution, is being met in a variety of ways by an array of companies.

Global energy company GE Vernova announced the launch of another offering in the group’s GridBeats portfolio, which features software-defined automation solutions designed to modernize electrical grids by improving resilience, efficiency, and flexibility.

Xylem Inc., a global water solutions company, announced the launch of Sensus Evolve, its new intelligent grid platform designed to help electric utilities gain deeper insight, act faster, and adapt to a rapidly changing energy landscape.

Operators of aging F-class units face a narrowing window to plan for rotor life extensions as supply chains tighten and demand surges. The late 1990s and early 2000s marked a frenetic period in American power generation. Deregulation opened the floodgates for independent power producers racing to bring quick-build gas turbine plants online. GE’s 7FA and […]

In recent years, the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape has shifted from quiet curiosity to relentless noise. Conference taglines, vendor solicitations, and slide decks all seem to begin with the same question: What can AI do for you? And too often the answer comes in the form of a catalog of hundreds of “use cases,” neatly […]

Power systems today operate in an environment where reliability and safety must be maintained despite rising loads, expanding interconnections, and increasing dependence on distributed energy resources. One of the most important technologies that supports this stability is the digital overcurrent relay.

For more than 60 years, polyethylene (PE) and ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR) underground cables have powered communities, industries, and progress. The hope was these cables could last decades before needing to be replaced, but due to water treeing—microscopic moisture-induced formations that degrade insulation and threaten reliability, they’re aging more rapidly than expected. With traditional replacement being costly and labor-intensive, it was time for a new solution.

Hydropower is among the most mature and reliable renewable energy technologies, but its dependability rests on thousands of tonnes of rotating equipment humming quietly for decades. Generators are at the heart of those units, and their performance hinges on bearings that carry enormous radial and axial loads. When a bearing fails, the result is not […]