Technology

  • THE BIG PICTURE: Siemens’ Corporate History

    Siemens AG, the global technology conglomerate that today has headquarters in both Berlin and Munich, in May 2019 announced it will spin off its energy units to focus on its digital “core.” The news has stunned many in the power sector, where Siemens has clenched a formidable presence since 1866. But restructuring at Siemens is […]

  • How Residential Energy Storage Could Help Support the Power Grid

    Household batteries could contribute to making the grid more cost effective, reliable, resilient, and safe—if retail battery providers, utilities, and regulators can resolve delicate commercial, operational, and policy issues. The growth of battery storage in the power sector has attracted a great deal of attention in the industry and media. Much of that attention focuses […]

  • Moonshots and Megaprojects

    Fifty years ago this July, NASA successfully landed men on the moon and safely returned them to Earth. In this year’s documentary about the mission, Apollo 11 , director Todd Douglas Miller draws on a

  • POWER Digest [June 2019]

    Ansaldo Leads Research Initiative for Low-NOx High-Hydrogen Retrofit Solution. The Dutch government has awarded six partners—Ansaldo Thomassen, Delft University of Technology, OPRA Turbines, Vattenfall

  • Blockchain Pilot Shows Promise for Grid Balancing

    A blockchain pilot wrapped up by European transmission operator TenneT and storage solutions provider sonnen Group this May showed “tremendous potential” when used to network decentralized home storage

  • Strengthening the Energy Sector’s Cyber Preparedness

    The Department of Energy (DOE) in March 2018 released a 52-page report outlining its multi-year strategy to improve cybersecurity. In the report’s introduction, Assistant Secretary Bruce J. Walker noted that

  • Where Is the Microgrid Market Headed?

    Increasingly, today’s electric power grids are interacting with microgrids and in more complex ways. Yet, much work needs to be done to integrate microgrids and flexible demand into the wide-area synchronous

  • Piloting Boiler Startup at Lightspeed

    Many combined cycle power plants are being operated as peaker plants, rather than as baseload units. That can pose a problem for economizer safety valves. Pilot-operated safety valves offer several advantages

  • Temperature Monitoring Protects Low-Voltage Assets

    Early detection of increased temperatures helps avoid power distribution asset-related failures and unplanned shutdowns. Wireless technologies make implementing this predictive maintenance solution practical

  • IIoT and the Future of Hydropower

    Hydropower has evolved through multiple industrial revolutions. Today, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 offer solutions to take the industry to a whole new level. Rules-based analysis

  • Wireless Monitoring Improves Power Plant Operations

    Wireless pressure gauges keep nine continuous emissions monitoring systems operating reliably, and wireless position monitoring helps close the loop on 90 control valves. Existing operations in power plants

  • Innovative Fabric Structures Offer Power Plants Options

    The design of a power plant often revolves around efficiency and mapping out operations in a manner that decreases unnecessary expenditures, while increasing productivity. This challenge produces the need for

  • Transformer Reliability: An Overview of Data-Driven Decision-Making

    Are you properly quantifying and assessing the health of your plant’s transformers? Oil testing, infrared scanning, electrical testing, and inspection provide a much deeper understanding of what is happening

  • Harrington Hoists, Inc. Introduces Model HFH Fork Truck Hook

    Manheim, PA – Harrington Hoists, Inc. introduces their HFH Fork Truck Hook which is designed to lift and carry loads on the fork of a fork truck using a single latched hook or swivel hook. It is available to fit fork widths of 5¼ to 7 inches and 3¼ to 3 inches in height with […]

  • The POWER Interview: GE Unleashing a Hydrogen Gas Power Future

    Since the 1940s, when General Electric (GE), launched its gas turbine operations, the company has pioneered and commercialized a lengthy list of gas turbine technologies, large and small. As the decarbonization movement gains pace and more renewables flood the landscape, the company’s gas turbines have taken on new crucial roles to provide dispatchability and flexibility. […]

  • Enel Green Power First in North America to Deploy New Predictive Maintenance Technology at Geothermal Plants

    The software technology, created by NarrativeWave, will enable Enel Green Power North America to better anticipate maintenance needs at its geothermal sites saving the company time and money The technology has now been deployed at all of Enel Green Power’s North American geothermal sites, Cove Fort, Salt Wells and Stillwater BOSTON, May 30, 2019 (GLOBE […]

  • MHPS, Magnum Will Build 1-GW Renewable Energy Storage Facility in Utah

    Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) and Magnum Development, the owner of a large and geographically rare underground salt dome in Utah, have teamed to develop a massive project that could store up 1,000 MW of renewable energy year-round and provide it to variability-challenged Western power markets.  The companies this week signed a memorandum of understanding […]

  • Nuclear Power Needed for Clean Energy Future

    “Without action to provide more support for nuclear power, global efforts to transition to a cleaner energy system will become drastically harder and more costly,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), wrote in his foreword to the IEA’s recently released report titled Nuclear Power in a Clean Energy System. The report […]

  • Framatome receives US Department of Energy GAIN voucher to support development of Lightbridge Fuel

    Framatome received a voucher from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program to support development of Lightbridge Fuel™ in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This is Framatome’s third GAIN voucher and its first supporting the Lightbridge Fuel design conducted by Enfission LLC, the joint venture between Framatome […]

  • Illinois Passes Landmark Coal Ash Legislation

    Illinois on May 27 became the third state in the nation to pass legislation requiring coal ash protections beyond federal requirements.  The state’s House passed the Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act (SB 9) in a 77-36 vote on Monday, only weeks after Senate passage of the bill in a 39-9 vote on May 9. The […]

  • Aggreko to provide first energy storage system for PEC

    Austin, Texas – May 28, 2019 – Aggreko, the world’s leading provider of mobile and modular power solutions, has signed an agreement with Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC), the largest electric cooperative in the U.S., to install and commission the utility’s first-ever battery energy storage system: a 2.25 MW / 4.5 MWh project in Johnson City, […]

  • SCHADE Bridge Reclaimer with Active Harrow to homogenise Coal Mix

    The Australian mining company South32 has awarded SCHADE Lagertechnik GmbH an engineering order for a harrow modification, which became necessary after the alteration of the coal specification at the DMO (Douglas-Middelburg Optimization) coal mine in South Africa. DMO operates a coal mine in the Province of Middelburg, around 160 km east of Johannesburg, to supply […]

  • MHPS Receives Contract for Complete Renovation of Flue Gas Desulfurization System at the Dětmarovice Power Station in the Czech Republic

    Advanced Technology to Comply with Strict European SOx Regulations – Renovation will provide compliance with EU’s Industrial Emissions Directive on SO2, with completion and delivery scheduled for mid-2020 – MHPS’ world-leading market share and reliability significantly contributing to an improvement global environment YOKOHAMA, Japan, May 23, 2019 – (JCN Newswire) – Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, […]

  • GE Gains Vattenfall’s Backing for Massive 12-MW Offshore Wind Turbine

    Swedish utility Vattenfall will take up deployment of the massive 12-MW Haliade-X offshore wind turbine in Europe, marking a major milestone for GE Renewable Energy’s effort to boost sales of the largest turbine currently on the market.  The two companies agreed to cooperate after a year of “intensive exchanges during which Vattenfall conducted an in-depth […]

  • [UPDATED] EPA Sets Schedules for Long List of Power Plant Regulatory Actions 

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will act on a spate of power plant rules over the next year, its newly released agenda of regulatory and deregulatory actions shows. The May 23-released “Spring 2019 Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions” lists 35 new actions, along with 57 actions that it considers “deregulatory.” The list includes new […]

  • Atom Power Introduces First Digital Circuit Breaker

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 21, 2019) — Atom Power, inventor of the world’s first and only digital circuit breaker, today announced its technology is listed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), the governing standard for consumer safety. This is the first time in the history of commercial power distribution that a digital solid-state circuit breaker has been listed […]

  • The POWER Interview: CleanSpark’s Bryan Huber Talks Microgrids, C&I Installations

    Commercial and industrial (C&I) sites increasingly are looking for ways to increase the reliability and resiliency of their power supply, along with controlling their energy costs. These C&I projects include distribution centers, data centers, office parks, hospitals, college campuses, and also military bases. CleanSpark, a San Diego, California–based technology company which specializes in the optimized […]

  • GE Is Banking on Africa’s Burgeoning Power Market

    Sub-Saharan Africa’s power generation capacity is projected to surge 4% annually through 2040, and its current energy mix—which is today dominated by hydro and coal—will likely be more diversified as interest rises in renewables such as solar and wind, General Electric (GE) said in a white paper surveying market opportunities in the region that it […]

  • Dispute Flares About Equipment at Abandoned V.C. Summer Nuclear Project

    The fight about who owns equipment at the now-abandoned V.C. Summer 2 and 3 AP1000 reactors in South Carolina intensified on May 14, as key stakeholder Santee Cooper sued lead contractor Westinghouse for certification documentation related to that equipment.  The lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, […]

  • Industrial Gas Turbine Demand Grows [PODCAST]

    When it comes to gas turbines, size matters. Although the market for large, heavy-duty gas turbines has been challenging in recent years, demand for industrial gas turbines—generally units with output ranging from about 5 MW to 100 MW—has been growing, according to Reed Lengel, product line manager for SCC-800 solutions with Siemens Energy. “When you […]