Technology

  • Using Data Analytics to Support Asset Management and Optimization

    In the competitive power market that exists today, utilities must utilize data to optimize their assets. With proper analysis, individual units, as well as fleets of plants, can balance operating costs

  • Digital Strategies for Power Plant Optimization

    The power generation sector has been challenged by trends in digitalization, growth of intermittent renewables, equipment performance improvements, new generation, and storage technologies. Digitalization is a

  • Technology in Construction: Choosing and Implementing Solutions

    In Part I of this three-part series, which was published in the May 2020 issue of POWER and titled “Technology in Construction: Predicting and Adapting to Change,” recent trends in technology adoption

  • How to Optimize Your Facility While Using Variable Quality Fuel Gas

    The composition and heating values of fuel gas can vary from one moment in time to another. Using a Coriolis flow meter to obtain a mass flow measurement, rather than relying on a standard volume flow

  • Equipment Showcase: Tools and Operational Supplies

    The proper tools and operational supplies are important for the efficient operation of power plants and other industrial facilities. Such facilities each have their own combination of operations that need to

  • The POWER Interview: Optimizing Operations with IoT Technology

    Some experts have predicted there will be as many as 50 billion connected devices in service by the end of this year. That number basically includes all of the equipment, sensors, and gadgets around the world that together make up the internet of things (IoT). But how are they all connected, what allows them to […]

  • MOVA Technologies Announces Successful Pollutant Capture Testing in Partnership with Virginia Tech

    ~ Will Launch National Search for Commercial Development of Technology ~ Pulaski, VA — MOVA Technologies Inc., a Pulaski-based emerging technology company researching pollution control strategies for industrial emissions, today announced the successful completion of initial proof-of-concept (POC) testing of gaseous contaminants (CO2, SO2, NO) through the Advanced Propulsion and Power Laboratory at Virginia Tech. […]

  • Hydrogen Fueling Turbines at Japan Refinery

    A pilot hydrogen project has begun providing fuel for the gas turbines at a facility near Tokyo, Japan. Chiyoda Corp. on June 25 said the project using imported hydrogen is now powering generators at the Toa Oil Co. refinery in Kawasaki. Chiyoda, along with Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., and Nippon Yusen, has been working […]

  • GE Integrating AI to Enable Performance-Informed Gas Turbine Inverse Design

    GE researchers developing an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)- enabled inverse design framework that allows performance metrics to create more optimized designs for industrial gas turbine (IGT) aerodynamic components   Project aims to achieve a 30-50% reduction in design cycle times, or from 1 year to a few months Partnered with University of […]

  • Big Lift for Newly Launched Siemens Gamesa 14-MW Offshore Wind Turbine

    Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has conditionally received an order for 100 units of its newly launched SG 14-222 DD offshore wind turbine model—one of the largest wind turbine models ever introduced to date. The 14-MW units are to be installed at innogy’s proposed 1.4-GW Sofia Offshore Wind Farm in the UK starting in 2024. […]

  • Lessons From New Jersey on Power Grid Protection

    After Superstorm Sandy pummeled the great State of New Jersey in 2012, more than two million households were without power, many for close to two weeks. A silver lining is that this disaster occurred in the fall, after the heat of summer and before the onset of freezing conditions. With Sandy, New Jersey and the […]

  • Big Data: The New Age of ‘Fortune Telling’ Requires Human Collaboration More Than Ever

    Ancient Chinese fortune tellers used heated metal pokers to create cracks in bones or empty turtle shells. By reading the patterns in the cracks, they attempted to calm the unease that comes with the innate uncertainty of the world—especially the ancient world. They predicted the future and doled out advice that affected the fate and […]

  • Hydrogen May Be a Lifeline for Nuclear—But It Won’t Be Easy

    Four U.S. nuclear generators—Energy Harbor, Xcel Energy, Exelon, and Arizona Public Service (APS)—are making headway on projects to demonstrate hydrogen production at nuclear plants, but scaling those efforts up to net new end-users and sources of revenue is still ridden with hurdles, company officials said in a panel discussion at the American Nuclear Society’s (ANS’s) […]

  • IEA: COVID-19 Crushed Global Natural Gas Demand

    Hit hard by response to the COVID-19 pandemic, global gas demand in 2020 is set to to tumble by twice the amount lost after the 2008 global financial crisis—its largest annual decline in history—the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its latest annual market report Gas 2020.  As of June 2020, the fall has been […]

  • Developers Make Progress on Solar-Powered Hydrogen Projects

    Two projects focused on solar-powered hydrogen production made notable steps forward recently. One project, supported by Ricardo plc and the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), will investigate “using existing solar capacity to produce hydrogen as an alternative to high-carbon fossil fuels.” While the other, developed by HyperSolar Inc., will begin the manufacturing process for its […]

  • The Importance of a Resilient Power System

    It’s hurricane season in the U.S., which runs from June 1 through the end of November, and there have already been three named storms. The most recent was Tropical Storm Christobal, which was the earliest third-named Atlantic storm on record when it formed on June 2. It made landfall in the U.S. along the northern […]

  • World’s First Integrated Hydrogen Power-to-Power Demonstration Launched

    A consortium of European companies, research institutes, and universities have launched the world’s first demonstration of a fully integrated power-to-hydrogen-to-power project, at industrial scale and in a real-world power plant application. The four-year project to demonstrate HYFLEXPOWER, which has achieved a technology readiness level of 7, will convert a 12-MWe combined heat and power (CHP) […]

  • NERC: Summer 2020 Reliability Rife With Unknowns

    Despite COVID-19’s impact on power demand, disrupted pre-season generation preparation, and an expected highly active hurricane and wildfire season, industry appears well-positioned to meet peak demand this summer under anticipated weather in nearly all parts of the North American bulk power system (BPS).  Other than in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), anticipated reserve […]

  • The POWER Interview: Ameresco’s CEO on Efficiency, Renewables, and Resilience

    The present and future of power generation is and will be driven by new technologies, those designed to increase the efficient use of electricity while limiting emissions and supporting resiliency. It’s a challenging time for those in energy. Developing solutions to solve issues in the power sector involves navigating an uncertain and ever-changing regulatory landscape, […]

  • T-Point 2 Is a Proving Ground for Gas Turbine Advancements

    It may be unusual to recognize a demonstration facility with POWER’s Plant of the Year award, but T-Point 2 is a remarkable unit that is poised to change the way power plants operate. Besides validating new

  • Rethinking Wastewater Treatment for Better FGD Economics

    POWER’s 2020 Water Award goes to Saltworks Technologies for successfully piloting a novel application of a 50-year-old technology at a coal plant. The company’s solution promises to slash costs of treating

  • Smart Neighborhood Wins Smart Grid Award

    Alabama Power’s Smart Neighborhood integrates a microgrid into a community filled with high-performance homes containing energy-efficient systems and connected appliances. The innovative initiative, which

  • Fusion Energy Is Coming, and Maybe Sooner Than You Think

    The joke about fusion energy is that it’s 30 years away and always will be. But significant recent advances in fusion science and technology could potentially put the first fusion power on the grid as soon

  • Industry to Explore Decentralized Nuclear Waste Disposal

    Efforts to explore whether it is feasible to permanently dispose of high-level nuclear waste in deep horizontal boreholes under next-generation nuclear reactor sites got a boost in late April as nuclear waste

  • Equipment Showcase: Construction Equipment

    Construction equipment is a critical part of the power generation industry, as new facilities are built and older facilities are upgraded to enhance efficiency and comply with evolving regulations. The

  • How Our Current Power Grid Is Failing Us

    As coal prices fluctuate and regulations increase, utilities are phasing out dirty coal sources. With renewable energy like solar and wind set to become the fastest-growing sources of electricity generation in

  • Executing Successful Projects with Reality Capture Technology

    Standard general arrangement drawings, and piping and instrumentation diagrams, serve a purpose, but they are not ideal records for as-built project documentation. 3D reality capture offers a better

  • [VIDEO] POWER Insights: Nuclear Reactor with 3D-Printed Core Slated for Operation in 2023

    In the first installment of POWER’s brand new video interview series, POWER Insights, Kurt Terrani, technical director of the Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) program, talks to POWER Senior Associate Editor Sonal Patel about the innovative microreactor program spearheaded by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and project partners, including Idaho National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and […]

  • Large cogeneration project in Japan is expanded by 20 Spanner Re2 systems

    Since the beginning of 2019, only ten, then twenty wood-power plants from Spanner Re2 GmbH including peripherals with above-average plant runtimes have been in operation. By the end of this year, the customer will install additional wood-power plants with an electrical output of 1 MW. Neufahrn i. NB. Spanner Re2, based in Neufahrn in Lower […]