Latest

  • New employee safety training protects propane and butane businesses

    Sponsored by:
    Texas Mutual Insurance Company

    In a growing industry, hiring new employees is a routine practice. Those new workers are vital to your company’s future, but they also present a significant safety risk. How significant? According to OSHA, 40 percent of employees injured at work have been on the job for less than one year. In fact, newly hired employees […]

  • How & Why to Prevent Cavitation in Piping Systems

    Sponsored by:
    Proco Products, Inc.

    Cavitation is a hot topic for engineers, maintenance professionals, and anyone who works with pumping systems—and for good reason. This condition has complicated and difficult-to-identify causes, and its effects can be devastating to equipment, system integrity and overall operations. Preventing cavitation is a full-team effort when it comes to systems operated with centrifugal pumps. It […]

  • California, Again Facing Summer Supply Vulnerabilities, Eyes 20-GW Offshore Wind Goal

    The California Energy Commission (CEC) is mulling a preliminary planning goal for 3 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and potentially expanding it to 10 GW to 15 GW by 2045. If finalized, California’s offshore wind goals would be the most ambitious in the U.S., surpassing even New York’s, which calls for 9 GW by […]

  • DOE Launches $2.5B Fund to Upgrade and Build New Transmission Lines

    The Biden administration has launched efforts to shape the $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Program (TFP), a key Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) initiative dedicated to building out critical new transmission lines and related facilities across the country. The Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office on May 10 issued a joint notice of information (NOI) […]

  • Blue Star and Volvo Penta Build Successful Business Partnership Based on Shared Values

    Close collaboration plays key role as companies achieve growth milestones and tackle new opportunities. When Volvo Penta first approached Blue Star back in 2011, the companies immediately found common ground in their commitment to business ethics. These were the seeds of a fruitful partnership that has only grown stronger over the past decade. “Right from […]

  • Quantum Technology: Applications in Cybersecurity for Power Utilities

    With the advent and implementation of smart grid infrastructure across power utilities, there has been a paradigm shift in the efficiencies of the grid. The use of digital communication technology has led to high-speed communication enablement across various components as well as better data analysis and real-time control. This has proven to be advantageous not […]

  • Three Ways Utilities Can Accelerate EV Adoption

    Electric vehicles are coming. Do you hear them? (Probably not.) The exact speed of our collective embrace of electric vehicles (EVs) will vary around the country—due to factors such as EV familiarity, vehicle availability, purchase prices and incentives—but the cars are coming down the road at a steady clip. In the immediate future, U.S. President […]

  • Recommissioning Legacy Turbine Control Systems for Enhanced Reliability

    Sponsored by:
    MD&A

    Increases in renewable energy on the power grid have increased the need for reliable peaking power.  In many cases, these assets are available but less reliable than they once were due to the age and neglect of their control systems.  In most cases, refurbishment of digital systems from the last 30 years is a viable […]

  • Vogtle Nuclear Expansion Price Tag Tops $30 Billion

    An updated financial report from one of the owners of the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion in Georgia shows the cost to build two new reactors has now topped $30 billion, more than double the original price tag expected for the project. The Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG), one of four groups with an ownership […]

  • Coordinated 7FA Hot Gas Path and 7FH2 Generator Inspection and Repair

    Sponsored by:
    MD&A

    Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis (MD&A) completed a carefully coordinated 7FA gas turbine hot gas path inspection, 7FH2 generator inspection and repairs in just 19 days, providing all services, labor, and parts. The customer contracted MD&A to perform the inspection and emergent repairs on a tight schedule. Our industry experts completed the work on time maintaining full customer communication […]