Power

Artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and electrification are increasing U.S. electricity demand. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates data centers could account for 11.8% of electricity consumption by 2030, within a projected range of 9.5%–15.3%. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts electricity consumption to increase by approximately 2.2% in 2026 and a further 1.6% in […]

The nation’s electric grid depends heavily on foreign-made equipment, much of it from China. Depending on how the Dept. of Energy (DOE) chooses to implement Executive Order 14421 through its pending rulemaking for national security purposes, it has the potential to prohibit fully any Chinese-made equipment on the transmission grid. COMMENTARY The significance of Executive […]

The data center buildout underway across North America is charging ahead at full speed and may even surpass original forecasts. Facility owners are no longer planning incremental expansions. The demand for data, driven by the rapid adoption and maturation of artificial intelligence (AI), now has them planning in gigawatts. Demand has increased; expectations have changed, […]

Data centers do what any industry would to continue operations during a power outage: Quickly pivot to their own emergency energy. As reported in several media outlets, a 10-minute grid outage in late July of this year on the East Coast caused data centers to hop off the main grid and switch over to their […]

Officials in Virginia have voted to approve a plan for a massive natural gas-fired power plant in the central part of the state near the James River. Supervisors in Cumberland County, about an hour west of the state capital Richmond, on October 20 voted 3-1 in support of the Cumberland Energy Center, a 3,000-MW gas-fired […]

Data released by energy officials in India shows that more than half of the country’s coal-fired power units are operating with low stockpiles of fuel, as power demand surges and generation from other resources lags. The country’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on October 19 said 96 coal-fired units have critically low amounts of coal on […]

Emerald Horizon plans to sell a hybrid battery and molten-salt storage system now and add an accelerator-driven thorium generator later. The generator remains at an early stage of development. Austria decided against nuclear power in the late 1970s and has not revisited the question since, according to Mario Müller, vice president of research and development […]

Severe weather conditions have become constant. Cyclones, storms, heatwaves, floods, and droughts continue to put critical infrastructure, homes, livelihoods, and lives at risk in the U.S. and around the world. Heat waves and droughts are the second-deadliest weather category, causing critical infrastructure instability, power line inefficiency, thermal sagging, and overloaded transformers that can lead to […]

  An Ecolab executive brief for fossil power plant operators, engineers, and specifiers focused on condensate polishing performance. The document argues that condensate polishing resin selection should be viewed as a turbine-life and asset-protection decision, not a commodity purchase. It identifies five critical resin characteristics that influence water quality, equipment protection, resin longevity, operating efficiency, […]

  Keep water chemistry under control when flexible operation, aging assets, and workforce turnover put fossil-plant reliability at risk. Download the infographic to see how high-performance resins coupled with leading expertise can help protect critical equipment, stabilize operations, and reduce the risk of costly excursions and outages. Explore practical approaches for improving condensate polishing, extending […]

NTPC Limited, India’s largest electric utility, has signed a power purchase agreement with 247 Solar and will deploy that company’s Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology as part of its energy strategy. The companies on October 15 said it will mark the first commercial project for 247 Solar and its solar thermal tech. The Virginia-based company […]

Captona LLC, a North American investment firm, has announced its latest preferred equity investment in partnership with Nexamp, a fully-integrated distributed generation and community solar company. The investment announced October 13 support the financing of 55 MW of solar generation and 5 MWh of battery storage capacity across 10 projects in four states (Illinois, Maine, […]

Utility-scale solar plants can lose energy without experiencing a complete equipment failure. Dust accumulation can reduce module output, inverter derating can constrain power conversion, tracker faults can leave arrays at suboptimal angles, and communication problems can prevent operators from recognizing underperformance promptly. Some losses are unavoidable, but others can be identified, quantified, and corrected through […]

Utilities and energy organizations are making major infrastructure investments while facing intense pressure to keep service affordable and meet regulatory expectations. Protecting cash flow requires a clear, timely view of where money is being spent across the organization. When spending is spread across disconnected systems and complex operations, finance teams can struggle to track budgets […]

This article draws on lessons from the first triennium of PSE&G’s Energy Efficiency (EE) program and how those experiences have helped shape our approach as the program has progressed. Intended for energy companies, industry peers and others involved in shaping or advancing energy efficiency efforts, the article shares insights on program management and delivery, customer […]

Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ) has commissioned Westinghouse Electric Co. to begin procuring long-lead items (LLIs) for the first AP1000 unit of the Lubiatowo-Kopalino nuclear power plant project. This is one of the most important stages in preparing for the start of construction and ensuring that the project is completed on schedule. “This is an extremely […]

American Electric Power (AEP), which said in July that it had secured about 13 GW of gas turbines for deployment through 2031, this week announced plans for a $4 billion, 702-MW Bloom Energy fuel cell plant in Wyoming to supply Google and purchased 190 MW of Mainspring Energy linear generators under an agreement for up […]

When no suitable vessel was available to carry its gas turbine generators from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, the Rabigh Reinforcement project team turned to the heavy-lift charter market at a time when shipping conditions were already challenging. Drawing on its logistics experience and global agreements, the consortium engaged one of the […]

Wisconsin-based We Energies has announced a plan to build a new natural gas-fired power plant at the site of an existing gas-fired facility in the state. The utility earlier this month filed an engineering plan with state regulators for construction of a 750-MW station at the Fox Energy Center, in Wrightstown in the Fox Valley […]

When the heads of three of the power sector’s biggest trade associations shared a stage at Experience POWER on Sept. 30, the most notable thing was how little they disagreed. Whether the question was data center backlash, grid security, or what to do about gas-plant emissions rules, the answer came back to the same point: […]

Hyperscaler Google and Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear operator in the U.S., have signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) designed to support $4.3 billion of upgrades at 11 nuclear units across the PJM Interconnection, which is slated to add 890 MW of generating capacity from Constellation’s existing reactors by the end of 2032. The […]

Power plants have largely optimized individual assets. The next opportunity lies in how assets, resources, and operating decisions work together. Power producers are experts at optimizing equipment. Decades of advancement in engineering and operating practices have improved the performance of gas turbines, pumps, steam systems and other critical assets. Operators can measure unit-level performance in […]

Data centers increasingly serve a pivotal role in the global economy, driving artificial intelligence (AI) systems, cloud transactions, and e-purchases. Historically lead‑acid, and more recently, lithium‑ion batteries have supplied backup power, but safety, sustainability, longevity, and high-power performance progressively place zinc batteries as the preferred solution for uninterruptible power supply. With the recent announcement that […]

Energy infrastructure developer and investor LS Power said it has successfully closed the LS Power Equity Partners VI (Fund VI) with total fund commitments of about $6 billion. Fund VI, which was launched in January of this year, was oversubscribed and fully allocated against its hard cap by July, which was well in excess of […]

California-headquartered Clearway Energy Group said it has closed financing and begun construction of the Swan Energy Center, a 650-MW solar facility located on portions of formerly strip-mined land in northwestern Bates County, Missouri. The project is San Francisco-based Clearway’s first in Missouri. Its output is contracted under a 20-year power purchase agreement. The Swan array, […]

Fusion energy company Xcimer Energy said it has finalized an agreement for up to $30.5 million in additional federal funding through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. The new DOE award, announced October 6, is for the program’s second budget period. It brings the total DOE funding for potential Milestone payments […]

Fit Energy, a developer of energy solutions for data center projects, has announced plans for a fuel cell power generation and data center project in Newport Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The project received township zoning approval for both uses in August of this year. Fit Energy on October 6 said engineering and the remaining permitting […]

Power plants generate a large amount of maintenance and inspection information every day. Operators complete rounds. Technicians document repairs. Contractors submit reports. Engineers review abnormal conditions. Reliability teams analyze failures. Asset managers track age, condition, criticality, and replacement plans. The challenge is not always that power generation facilities lack data. The challenge is that much […]

It’s tempting to think the transition to cleaner homes depends entirely on better technology or larger government incentives. Those certainly matter. But history suggests something else matters just as much: Making the cleaner option easier to understand, easier to finance, and easier to buy. The automobile industry offers perhaps the clearest example. Electric drivetrains existed […]

The systems used to design, operate, manage and insure energy infrastructure are struggling to keep pace with the rapid buildout of new power capacity, according to a new report by commercial property insurer FM. The FM Power & Renewables Report examines how the rapid expansion of power infrastructure, driven by artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, […]