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Forecasting the direction of the U.S. electric power industry for 2007, much less the distant future, is like defining a velocity vector; doing so requires a direction and speed to delineate progress. In this special report, POWER’s first stab at prognostication, the editors look at current industry indicators and draw conclusions based on their more than 100 years of experience. To borrow verbatim the title of basketball legend Charles Barkley’s book: I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It.

Following the money invested in projects is a viable way to compare growth trends for power projects using the four major generation types: coal, natural gas, nuclear, and renewable.

One expert has called it the "digital delta"—the seemingly endless challenges in refurbishing U.S. nuclear plants with digital instrumentation and controls. But it appears more like a deep ditch, where even those seeking to license new reactors could get stuck. Here’s the latest on the issues, experience, and results—plus recommendations for getting the industry out of the mud and back on the road.

Ongoing maintenance is critical to the performance and longevity of underwater structures such as cooling water intake tunnels. Commercial divers or robotic vehicles can do the needed inspections, but such manual methods require a costly plant shutdown and provide only qualitative results. ASI Group Ltd. has designed and built an advanced, dual-axis sonar system that works in fast-moving water and can deliver quantitative data about the extent and location of debris buildup on submerged assets.

A healthy and productive workforce is one that has been thoughtfully recruited and properly trained. Understanding the role and relationships of those and other attributes in the overall workforce supply chain is an essential management function. Here’s a roadmap for your consideration.

The conflicting challenges of operating a plant beyond its prime and Exelon’s commitment to manage carbon emissions from its power system are pushing the company’s plant engineers to innovate. An example: Fairless Hills Generating Station was given a complete overhaul and now burns landfill gas that otherwise would be treated as waste.

Safety issues related to the use of gaseous chlorine for disinfecting cooling water are pushing plant operators to examine other alternatives. Two units of Cardinal Generating Station recently switched to a liquid chlorination system, with pumpless vacuum injection, that was easy to install and has proven reliable. That switch has resulted in one less safety headache for the operations staff and one less invitation to regulatory scrutiny.

January 1885 The cover story of this issue reviewed the latest power generation technology then entering the market. “The Fishkill vertical direct acting condensing engine . . . has a heavy bed-plate of box form, with pillow-block for main journal cast on. The upright frames are A-shaped, with hollow cylindrical legs, which rest on the […]

The recently published Long-Term Reliability Assessment from the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) found that several areas of the U.S. and Canada risk falling below minimum capacity target levels within three years, as demand continues to outpace new supply. This risk of supply shortages requires action. In addition to the usual solutions of more […]

When Charles Dickens began A Tale of Two Cities with, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” he was referring to the French Revolution of the late 18th century. But Dickens’ words apply equally well to the American generation industry of the late 20th century. A decade of overbuilding U.S. […]