Technology

Although new microgrid configurations, technologies, and business models are still evolving in the U.S., some lessons have been learned in the past few years. Aside from the fact that financing nontraditional/non-campus microgrids is hard, if there’s one overarching lesson, it’s that a microgrid designed to provide only one benefit or rely on only one generation source is unlikely to succeed.

Duke Energy is testing a hybrid ultracapacitor-battery energy storage system (HESS) at its Rankin Substation in Gaston County, N.C., in an effort to find a more effective way to integrate renewable energy into its system. The project became operational in February, but there is still testing in progress to demonstrate the system’s multiple service applications. […]

Construction of a 50-MWt plant that will demonstrate a novel oxyfuel natural gas power system using Allam Cycle technology with zero atmospheric emissions has kicked off in La Porte, Texas. The demonstration plant is being built by the technology’s developer, Durham, N.C.–based NET Power, along with Exelon Generation, CB&I, and 8 Rivers Capital. NET Power’s […]

The 4-GW three-unit Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station has broken its own generation record, producing the highest electricity output of any nuclear plant in the world. APS, the Arizona utility that operates the plant, said Palo Verde generated 32.5 million MWh in 2015, making it still the only U.S. power plant to ever produce more […]

In late 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published new regulations governing wastewater discharge from steam electric power plants. These new regulations, or effluent limitation guidelines

Generating companies wondering if concerns about cybersecurity are overblown got some rude wake-up calls this winter. The first call came when Ukrainian media reported that a December 23 blackout that left

Gas power technologies set new benchmarks over the past few months as gas turbine “gorillas” Siemens, General Electric (GE), and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA) all reported new

A proposal put forth by China—and one that it says has received “positive responses” and substantial backing from international groups, including the United Nations—foresees a global smart ultra-high-voltage (UHV) grid that transmits only “clean energy.” The Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) outlined by State Grid Corp. Chairman Zhenya Liu on February 25 at the IHS CERAWeek […]

We live in a world of “slow growth and volatility,” said Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, but there’s an opportunity to “make a lot of money” if you have courage in such times.

Mississippi Power’s lignite-fired Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant is seeing yet another delay and $110 million in new costs, a filing with state regulators shows. The company’s December 2015 monthly status report for the nation’s first commercial power plant that will capture and store carbon dioxide anticipates that it will now […]