Technology

Utilities have long been accused of slow-walking innovation. Fair or not, the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and the subsequent wariness from those responsible for maintaining our most critical infrastructure, has only intensified that perception. But make no mistake: we’re in the midst of the most-rapid technological evolution of utilities in the power grid’s […]

Hydrogen has long been positioned as a cornerstone of the energy transition. But after an intense hype cycle, the conversation is shifting toward a more practical phase defined by targeted deployment and measurable value. Rather than serving as a universal solution to decarbonization, hydrogen is increasingly being recognized for what it does best: complementing electrification […]

A $350 million Department of Energy (DOE) coal-revival program has put $18.5 million toward the TerraSpark Energy Campus, a 1.6-GW greenfield project in West Virginia pairing Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) supercritical boilers with Mantel Capture’s molten borate carbon capture. In responses to POWER, developer TerraSpark laid out a 2030 startup target, a 95% to 98% […]

The electricity conversation in America has become increasingly focused on one question: How do we meet rising demand? The surge in artificial intelligence, data centers, electrification, and domestic manufacturing is placing unprecedented pressure on the grid. The industry’s response has largely centered on adding supply, such as building more generation, expanding transmission, and accelerating new […]

MiCo Co. Ltd. announced that its subsidiary, Hyundai Heavy Industries Power Systems Co. Ltd. (HPS), has signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire a 100% stake in Netherlands-based NEM Energy B.V. from Mutares SE & Co. KGaA, a German-listed investment firm. The transaction, which includes NEM Energy’s German subsidiary NEM Balcke-Dürr GmbH, is scheduled […]

A Colorado-based fusion energy company said the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) has approved the company’s preconceptual technical design for its commercial fusion power plant.

As fire-weather risk expands beyond California, utilities are turning to sub-kilometer, asset-level forecasts to support public safety power shutoff decisions they can defend in front of regulators. When the National Weather Service (NWS) issued routine convective outlooks on the morning of May 27, 2025, public guidance for the Houston metro called for widespread 30 to […]

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.

The power generation sector, including electric utilities and grid operators, recognizes the value of moving equipment underground to mitigate outages, lessen risks to assets, and reduce the chances of that equipment causing a wildfire.

Companies are deploying a variety of strategies in efforts to strengthen the power grid against severe weather and other issues.

From EOP-012-3 to Order 587-AB, from Cold Weather Critical Component inventories to dual-fuel conversions, the bulk power system has spent five years rewiring how it prepares for extreme cold. Winter Storm Fern, the latest test, showed the system ran “very close to the edge.” The last five winters have given the North American power sector […]

Antares Nuclear Inc.’s Mark-0—a sodium heat-pipe-cooled microreactor fueled by high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel compacts—has achieved zero-power criticality at Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) Reactor and Critical Experiment (RACE) facility, becoming the first advanced reactor to reach that milestone under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program. The development, announced on June […]

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced the company has published five peer-reviewed physics basis papers detailing its work on the group’s ARC fusion power plant.

Fusion energy group Helion said the company has completed a $465-million Series G investment round, increasing the Everett, Washington-based group’s valuation to $15.5 billion. Helion is among dozens of U.S. and global companies working to commercialize fusion power.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the energy system: While the expansion of wind and solar power continues to progress across Europe, AI will ensure the efficient use of every generated kilowatt-hour. Intelligent algorithms that synchronize generation and consumption in real time will help stabilize grids, avoiding expensive curtailment. Software will become an important tool for […]

Colorado-headquartered Xcimer Energy has announced the start of operations for Phoenix, what the company calls the largest privately owned laser system in the world. Phoenix, named after the legendary bird from Greek and Egyptian mythology, is the company’s prototype for commercializing laser fusion.

Another U.S.-based energy company said its technology has achieved key performance metrics that advance its goal of commercial fusion by the mid 2030s. California-headquartered Pacific Fusion on June 2 said its core pulsed power technology is on track to achieve net facility gain by 2030. That’s the state where the “entire fusion machine produces more […]

According to the State of the Global Climate 2024 report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the continued rise in global temperatures is driving a measurable increase in both the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Among these, tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and typhoons, as well as extreme precipitation events, have emerged as […]

POET, a South Dakota-headquartered company and the world’s largest producer of biofuels, has joined with Antora Energy to commission a 5-GWh, multi-day thermal energy storage system at POET’s bioprocessing facility in Big Stone City, South Dakota. Antora is supplying batteries from the company’s recently expanded San Jose, California gigafactory. The companies earlier in May said […]

Uptime has become the defining performance metric of the modern data center. As digital services underpin everything from financial markets to transport systems, tolerance for disruption has all but disappeared. For mission-critical environments, 99.999% availability and just five minutes of downtime per year aren’t the dream, but the baseline. Industry performance is improving. According to the Uptime Institute’s Annual Outage Analysis 2025, data center service availability has […]

New Jersey-based Thea Energy, one of several U.S. companies working to commercialize fusion energy, said the company has raised $100 million in Series B funding. Thea is advancing stellarator technology to provide baseload fusion power. The company, which has several investors, is moving toward beginning construction of its Helios power plant (Figure 1) by the […]

VoLo Earth and Equal Ventures co-lead Series A in grid technology firm building an “operating system” to help utilities consolidate data and maximize value across operations — from data center load to renewables growth to distributed energy resources. Texture, the grid software platform that provides utilities a single view of every device and data source […]

Finnish energy group Steady Energy has signed a letter of intent with Alva-yhtiöt, the city of Jyväskylä’s water and energy group, to study the suitability of small-scale nuclear power as a source of district heating for the city.

Fives ProSim, a subsidiary of the Fives Group and an expert in industrial process simulation and optimization, announces the release of ProSimPlus Python API. This new solution enables users to run the engine of ProSimPlus, a leading software dedicated to the design, simulation, and optimization of continuous industrial processes, directly from the Python environment. A […]

Dr. Remy Notermans, director of Strategic Planning for Atom Computing, a Boulder, Colorado-based group developing large-scale quantum computers, recently provided POWER with information about how quantum computing works. Notermans discussed how quantum computing can benefit electric utilities and the power generation sector.

A year after President Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 14300 directing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to cut red tape and speed nuclear deployment, the agency is claiming a string of historic firsts, a backlog of rules in motion at unprecedented scale, and an internal reorganization due to take effect next month. In a news […]

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 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its environmental assessment (EA) of the proposed 320-MW Long Mott Generating Station at Dow’s Seadrift site in Texas, issuing a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the four-reactor X-energy project. According to X-energy, the NRC completed the environmental review in under a year, marking the first time […]

Expected annual energy yield (PVout) is a fundamental number for every utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) project. It informs the design, shapes the budget, feeds the financial model, and influences what investors and lenders are willing to accept. Behind every expected yield estimate, however, is a range of uncertainty. Part of it comes from the solar resource […]

Technology group Wärtsilä has signed two equipment supply contracts with Origem Energia for the development of new balancing power projects in Brazil. The contracts announced May 13 cover the supply of two batches of 18 Wärtsilä 34SG balancing engines.