POWER Podcasts

As the global demand for clean energy intensifies, nuclear power is enjoying a resurgence not seen in decades. However, this renewed interest has exposed a critical vulnerability in the U.S. energy sector: a massive disconnect between uranium consumption and domestic production. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Thomas Lamb, president and CEO of Myriad […]

The POWER Podcast is available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, iHeart, TuneIn, SoundCloud, and some other podcast apps. Follow the links below to subscribe via your favorite platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube YouTube Music Amazon Music iHeart TuneIn SoundCloud The POWER Podcast Archive: The Uranium Renaissance: Revitalizing America’s Nuclear Supply Chain […]

The POWER Podcast is available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, iHeart, TuneIn, SoundCloud, and some other podcast apps. Follow the links below to subscribe via your favorite platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube YouTube Music Amazon Music iHeart TuneIn SoundCloud The POWER Podcast Archive (Dec. 4, 2024 – Dec. 1, 2025): Emerson […]

The power industry is experiencing unprecedented demand growth, driven largely by data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This surge is creating both opportunities and challenges for utilities, equipment manufacturers, and the broader power generation ecosystem. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Seth Harris, growth director for Emerson’s Power business in North America, discussed […]

Taiwan stands as one of Asia’s most dynamic economies, a densely populated island of approximately 23 million people compressed into just 36,000 square kilometers. The island is a global technology powerhouse, producing more than 60% of the world’s semiconductors and serving as home to manufacturing giants that supply everything from smartphones to advanced computing systems. […]

Public power utilities are community-owned, not-for-profit electric utilities that deliver reliable, low-cost electricity to about 2,000 communities serving more than 55 million Americans. Among the cities served by public power utilities are Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Los Angeles, California; Jacksonville, Florida; and Seattle, Washington. The Large Public Power Council (LPPC) is the voice of large […]

Despite nuclear power’s unmatched ability to produce reliable, carbon-free energy at scale, it is often dismissed by clean energy advocates in favor of renewable resources like wind and solar. Cost arguments and public misconceptions around safety and radioactive waste have kept it out of many mainstream climate strategies. But as Tim Gregory argues in his […]

More than 100 of the world’s largest energy companies are betting that artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize how electricity gets made, moved, and managed. But they’re not waiting for Silicon Valley to build it for them—they’ve taken matters into their own hands through an EPRI-led consortium. That initiative is the Open Power AI Consortium, which […]

In a special edition of The POWER Podcast, released in collaboration with the McCrary Institute’s Cyber Focus podcast, POWER’s executive editor, Aaron Larson, and Frank Cilluffo, director of the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security and Professor of Practice at Auburn University, discuss the evolving power grid and cybersecurity challenges. Specifically, they highlight […]

The name Mike Richter is well-known among hockey fans. Richter spent 15 years in the National Hockey League as a goalie for the New York Rangers, including in 1994 when he was a fixture in the net during the team’s Stanley Cup winning season. Richter was also recognized as the most valuable player for the […]

In the proverbial shadow of the Naughton Power Plant, a station in Kemmerer, Wyoming, that will stop burning coal at the end of this year, TerraPower is constructing what it calls “the only advanced, non-light-water reactor in the Western Hemisphere being built today.” The project represents more than just a new power source—it’s a symbolic […]

The world’s electricity grids are facing unprecedented strain as demand surges from electrification, data centers, and renewable energy integration, while aging infrastructure struggles to keep pace. Traditional approaches to grid expansion—building new transmission lines and substations—face mounting challenges including sometimes decade-long permitting processes, escalating costs that can reach billions per project, and growing public resistance […]

As the world transitions toward renewable energy sources, geothermal power has emerged as one of the most promising, yet underutilized, options in the clean energy portfolio. Unlike solar and wind, geothermal offers consistent baseload power generation capacity without intermittency challenges, making it an increasingly attractive component in the renewable energy mix. The geothermal sector has […]

U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn into office for the second time on Jan. 20, 2025. That means April 30 marks his 100th day back in office. A lot has happened during that relatively short period of time (Figure 1). The Trump administration has implemented sweeping changes to U.S. energy policy, primarily focused on promoting […]

The power industry supply chain is facing unprecedented strain as utilities race to upgrade aging infrastructure against a backdrop of lengthening lead times and increasing project complexity. As one Midwestern utility executive recently noted, “Transformers that once arrived in three months now take up to two years to source,” highlighting a crisis that extends far […]

As the presidential inauguration loomed on the horizon in January this year, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Loan Programs Office (LPO) published a “year-in-review” article, highlighting accomplishments from 2024 and looking ahead to the future. It noted that the previous four years had been the most productive in the LPO’s history. “Under the Biden-Harris […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has for many years been evaluating emerging nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors, as part of technology innovation efforts aimed at developing the energy system of the future. TVA—the largest public power provider in the U.S., serving more than 10 million people in parts of seven states—currently operates seven reactors […]

A virtual power plant (VPP) is a network of decentralized, small- to medium-scale power generating units, flexible power consumers, and storage systems that are aggregated and operated as a single entity through sophisticated software and control systems. Unlike a traditional power plant that exists in a single physical location, a VPP is distributed across multiple […]

Net-demand energy forecasts are critical for competitive market participants, such as in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and similar markets, for several key reasons. For example, accurate forecasting helps predict when supply-demand imbalances will create price spikes or crashes, allowing traders and generators to optimize their bidding strategies. It’s also important for asset […]

When you think of innovative advancements in nuclear power technology, places like the Idaho National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology probably come to mind. But today, some very exciting nuclear power development work is being done in West Texas, specifically, at Abilene Christian University (ACU). That’s where Natura Resources is working to construct […]

Geothermal energy has been utilized by humans for millennia. While the first-ever use may be a mystery, we do know the Romans tapped into it in the first century for hot baths at Aquae Sulis (modern-day Bath, England). Since then, many other people and cultures have found ways to use the Earth’s underground heat to […]

Imagine a field of solar panels floating silently in the endless day of Earth’s orbit. Unlike their terrestrial cousins, this space-based solar array never faces nighttime, clouds, or atmospheric interference. Instead, they bathe in constant, intense sunlight, converting this endless stream of energy into electricity with remarkable efficiency. But the true innovation lies in how […]

The rapid rise of data centers has put many power industry demand forecasters on edge. Some predict the power-hungry nature of the facilities will quickly create problems for utilities and the grid. ICIS, a data analytics provider, calculates that in 2024, demand from data centers in Europe accounted for 96 TWh, or 3.1% of total […]

District energy systems employ a centralized facility to supply heating, cooling, and sometimes electricity for multiple buildings in an area through a largely underground, mostly unseen network of pipes. When district energy systems are utilized, individual buildings do not need their own boilers, chillers, and cooling towers. This offers a number of benefits to building […]

Most POWER readers are probably familiar with levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and levelized value of energy (LVOE) as metrics used to help evaluate potential power plant investment options. LCOE measures the average net present cost of electricity generation over a facility’s lifetime. It includes capital costs, fuel costs, operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, financing […]

Steam is used for a wide variety of critical processes across many industrial sectors. For example, the food and beverage industry uses steam for sterilization of food processing equipment; cooking, pasteurization, and sterilization of food products; cleaning and sanitizing production lines; and providing heat for various food preparation processes. Pulp and paper facilities use steam […]

Hydrogen is becoming increasingly important to the electric power generation industry for several reasons. One is that hydrogen offers a promising pathway to decarbonize the power sector. When used in fuel cells or burned for electricity generation, hydrogen produces only water vapor as a byproduct, making it a zero-emission energy source. This is crucial for […]

Power plant construction and retrofit projects come in all shapes and sizes, but they all generally have at least one thing in common: complexity. There are usually a lot of moving pieces that must be managed. This can include sourcing the right materials and components, getting equipment delivered to the site at the right time, […]

The POWER Podcast is available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, iHeart, TuneIn, SoundCloud, and some other podcast apps. Follow the links below to subscribe via your favorite platform: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube YouTube Music Amazon Music iHeart TuneIn SoundCloud The POWER Podcast Archive (Dec. 14, 2023 – Nov. 21, 2024): Communication […]

On Dec. 22, 2008, a major dike failure occurred on the north slopes of the ash pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Kingston Fossil Plant. The failure resulted in the release of approximately 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash spilling onto adjacent land and into the Emory River. The Kingston spill is considered […]