T&D
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Commentary
Energy: The Most Critical 7% of America’s GDP
The true engine of America’s economy might surprise you. It’s not tech. It’s not artificial intelligence, finance, or manufacturing. It’s energy. Energy accounts for just 7% of America’s gross domestic product (GDP), but, as former FERC Chair Mark Christie put it, “it’s the foundational 7% … everything else in our economy and lifestyle flows from it.”
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Finance
Investor-Owned Utilities to Spend $1.1T in Grid Boost as Power Demand Spirals
America’s investor-owned electric companies are poised to deploy record-setting investment to launch one of the most aggressive infrastructure modernization campaigns in industry history in a bid to confront unprecedented electricity demand growth and prepare for a fundamentally transformed energy landscape. In total, over the next five years, the industry is poised to invest more than […]
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Engineering
Mining Our Nation’s Scrap to Transform Our Electric Grid
Today’s demand for energy is extraordinary and expected to continue rising. The rapid growth of data centers, reshoring manufacturing operations and electrification of transportation has accelerated the market demands for electricity. Rethinking how industries use, and re-use materials is central to both the future of the electrified world and the work of Nucor, North America’s […]
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Electrification
Hitachi Energy, Grid United Advance North Plains Connector to Link Eastern and Western Grids
Hitachi Energy and high-voltage interregional infrastructure developer Grid United have launched the next phase of a collaboration to strengthen transmission capacity between three energy markets straddling the Eastern and Western grids in the U.S., formalizing an agreement for the North Plains Connector (NPC), a ±525 kV, 3-GW high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) line spanning roughly 420 miles […]
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T&D
Modernizing Central America’s Multinational High-Voltage Backbone
Grid operator Empresa Propietaria de la Red (EPR) is modernizing Central America’s 230-kV SIEPAC backbone with advanced communications, fault-location tools, and cybersecurity to meet the unique challenges of a multinational high-voltage grid.
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Nuclear
Igniting Fusion: The Key to Closing Our Energy Gap and Powering the Future
Fusion is the only technology that can deliver continuous, dispatchable power 24/7/365. Not only is fusion clean, sustainable, and cost-effective, but fusion plants can also be built into existing urban and industrial locations, plugging directly into today’s grid, significantly lowering development time and deployment costs.
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Research and Development
Laser Wireless Power Transmission Breakthrough Could Transform Remote Energy Delivery
NTT Inc. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) conducted an optical wireless power transmission experiment using a laser beam to wirelessly transmit energy over a distance of one kilometer. By irradiating a laser beam with an optical power of 1 kW, the team succeeded in receiving 152 W of electric power. This marks the world’s […]
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O&M
Wildfires and Outages: How AI Can Fix Utility Vegetation Management
Vegetation is a much-needed part of the natural world and is essential for life to thrive on Earth. Yet, when unmanaged, it’s also one of the greatest threats to the grid and a leading culprit for causing outages. Fallen branches topple powerlines, roots damage underground cables, and overgrown trees close to energized wires are known […]
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Trends
Why Power Plants Need AI That Engineers Can Trust
America’s power producers face growing pressure to do more with less. A rapidly evolving grid, increasing demand, aging infrastructure, and policy uncertainty have created a system where traditional approaches to reliability are no longer enough. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) recently issued its 2025 RISC report, highlighting the leading risks facing America’s power […]
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Data Centers
Eaton Offers Solution to Detect AI-Related Load Spikes for Power
Intelligent power management company Eaton said it has launched technology for identifying large fluctuations in energy demand from artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure. The edge-based solution, available via a firmware update for its Eaton Power Xpert quality (PXQ) event analysis system, helps detect AI power bursts, including potential subsynchronous oscillations (SSO) in data centers. The […]
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