Power Demand

How do you know when you’re in a technological renaissance? When science, technology, and economics have lined up to produce something new. COMMENTARY In Europe it took artists, scientists, and craftspeople until 1550 to recognize that they had created the Renaissance—about 200 years into the revival of the classical teachings of ancient Greece and Rome, […]

A field demonstration on a 500-MW-class coal-fired unit shows how targeted fuel chemistry can mitigate severe slagging and fouling while delivering measurable operating benefits—including approximately 50% lower superheater spray demand, 53% lower reheat spray demand during comparable trial conditions, lower air preheater (APH) inlet gas temperatures, improved combustion flexibility, reduced selective catalytic reduction (SCR)-inlet NOx […]

Artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and electrification are increasing U.S. electricity demand. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates data centers could account for 11.8% of electricity consumption by 2030, within a projected range of 9.5%–15.3%. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts electricity consumption to increase by approximately 2.2% in 2026 and a further 1.6% in […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has offered Constellation Energy a conditional loan commitment of up to $5 billion to finance nuclear power uprates and modernization at eight plants in Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The proposed investments could add nearly 1.1 GW of generating capacity to the nation’s existing nuclear fleet. The commitment marks the agency’s […]

The data center buildout underway across North America is charging ahead at full speed and may even surpass original forecasts. Facility owners are no longer planning incremental expansions. The demand for data, driven by the rapid adoption and maturation of artificial intelligence (AI), now has them planning in gigawatts. Demand has increased; expectations have changed, […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the power requirements of modern data centers. At this point in the timeline of AI’s continued evolution, this statement should not be controversial. The deployment of increasingly large GPU clusters for training and inference purposes, such as NVIDIA’s 72-GPU Vera Rubin model, is causing rack power densities to climb from […]

Four years after separating from Constellation Energy, Exelon is expanding its transmission business and pressing for a greater role in power generation. Executive Vice President Carim Khouzami explains why rising data center demand, tightening capacity reserves, and shortcomings in PJM’s wholesale markets are changing the utility company’s strategy. When Exelon completed its separation from Constellation […]

  An Ecolab executive brief for fossil power plant operators, engineers, and specifiers focused on condensate polishing performance. The document argues that condensate polishing resin selection should be viewed as a turbine-life and asset-protection decision, not a commodity purchase. It identifies five critical resin characteristics that influence water quality, equipment protection, resin longevity, operating efficiency, […]

  Keep water chemistry under control when flexible operation, aging assets, and workforce turnover put fossil-plant reliability at risk. Download the infographic to see how high-performance resins coupled with leading expertise can help protect critical equipment, stabilize operations, and reduce the risk of costly excursions and outages. Explore practical approaches for improving condensate polishing, extending […]

When no suitable vessel was available to carry its gas turbine generators from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, the Rabigh Reinforcement project team turned to the heavy-lift charter market at a time when shipping conditions were already challenging. Drawing on its logistics experience and global agreements, the consortium engaged one of the […]

When the heads of three of the power sector’s biggest trade associations shared a stage at Experience POWER on Sept. 30, the most notable thing was how little they disagreed. Whether the question was data center backlash, grid security, or what to do about gas-plant emissions rules, the answer came back to the same point: […]

Hyperscaler Google and Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear operator in the U.S., have signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) designed to support $4.3 billion of upgrades at 11 nuclear units across the PJM Interconnection, which is slated to add 890 MW of generating capacity from Constellation’s existing reactors by the end of 2032. The […]

Over 2,060 gigawatts. That is the staggering volume of generation and storage capacity currently trapped waiting in U.S. interconnection queues. According to data from RMI, the typical project now takes almost five years—stuck in administrative and transmission review before a single watt can be delivered to the grid. In 2008, it was only two years. For […]

For most Americans, electricity is so woven into daily life that we rarely consider what its absence means. Hospitals depend on it to preserve medicines and operate equipment. Schools, factories, farms, and businesses depend on it to function. Reliable electricity is one of the foundations of a modern economy. COMMENTARY Yet 655 million people worldwide […]

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) has announced a conditional loan commitment of up to $4.2 billion to finance uprates and modernization at Vistra’s Beaver Valley nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and its Davis-Besse and Perry plants in Ohio. The projects could add 433 MW of new nuclear capacity and preserve […]

POWER’s 2026 Reinvention Award goes to Dominion Energy South Carolina’s Parr Station, where new dual-fuel turbines replace decades-old peaking units and extend a century-long pattern of reinvention at one

A high-voltage insulator can look unchanged for years while its operating environment steadily alters the conditions on its surface. Salt carried inland from a coast, industrial residue, road dust, moisture, ultraviolet radiation, and repeated weather cycles create an exposure history that can influence electrical performance and maintenance demands long before an asset reaches a predetermined […]

Late in construction of Total Hydrogen Solutions’ new hydrogen plant in Katy, Texas, someone cut and stole the incoming high-voltage cable. The theft forced a complete replacement of the affected run just as the team was preparing for utility energization. “It was a frustrating hurdle, but the team coordinated the replacement and kept moving toward […]

The issue of load growth for the power grid and electric utilities has an overlooked answer: reinvesting in the coal-fired power plant sites being retired.

  Traditional magnetic induction-based instrument transformers have served the power industry reliably for decades, but a new generation of low-power alternatives is gaining ground — particularly in data centers and industrial facilities where accuracy, size, and integration with digital secondary systems matter. This paper reports on LPIT history, standardization, and some of the applications in […]

  Data centers face big challenges, from processing trillions of search queries, storing billions of emails and photos and serving countless hours of video every day while at the same time developing ways of decreasing their energy and carbon footprints and increasing data security. In this episode, Angad Sandhu, CTO of Giga Energy (director of […]

  Data centers commonly deploy looped medium-voltage (MV) distribution systems with automated protection and control schemes to deliver exceptionally high levels of power availability. However, these automation schemes rely on communications infrastructures where latency and scalability can affect fault-response performance. This paper presents a robust, hybrid FLISR strategy that integrates centralized and decentralized control to […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers are being built at an unprecedented pace. There are more than 12,000 active projects in the U.S. currently seeking grid interconnection representing 1,570 GW of generator capacity and 1,030 GW of energy storage. Analyst firm Omdia predicts that AI will drive more than 50% of installed power generation capacity over […]

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 […]

NextEra Energy says an artificial intelligence (AI)–driven dispatch and outage-scheduling tool has saved its customers more than $20 million so far this year. Santee Cooper expects a custom AI weather-forecasting model to help it avoid spot-market purchases that can cost $100,000 an hour during extreme weather. Both utilities say the tools moved from concept to […]

The U.S. power grid is entering a period unlike any it has experienced in decades. Rapid electrification, domestic manufacturing, and the exponential growth of artificial intelligence are reshaping electricity demand. A recent report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, projects that data centers alone could account for between 9.5% […]

Lower-emissions gas sourcing, efficient combined-cycle generation, and carbon capture-ready construction offer hyperscalers a way to meet data center power demands without compromising on emissions. As

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

Technology giant NVIDIA is furthering its support of artificial intelligence (AI) and data center construction. Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a group that supports the AI buildout by providing power sources and infrastructure for site development, on August 21 said it has entered into a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to advance the development of digital infrastructure across the […]

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order on Aug. 18 that raises the bar for large data center development in the state, directing agencies to condition favorable permitting treatment and tax benefits on compliance with new energy, infrastructure, environmental, workforce, and community requirements. Executive Order 2026-05 applies its central permitting provisions to data centers with […]