Latest
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Coal
Industry in Turmoil: Coal Plants Shutting Down Around the World
Numerous announcements of plant closures during the past week are painting a grim picture for the future of the coal industry. On March 20, several news outlets reported that American Electric Power (AEP) had sent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, notices to workers at half a dozen coal-fired plants. Employees at the […]
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Gas
Drought Continues to Challenge California Grid
The ongoing record drought in California has caused significant changes in the state’s power mix as water available for hydroelectric generation becomes increasingly scarce, according to a recent report from Oakland-based nonprofit the Pacific Institute. The California Independent System Operator warned last year that water shortages were likely to substantially impact the state’s generation, with […]
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Partner Content
Chinese Chemical Plant Optimizes Water Treatment by Replacing Double Pass RO with a Single Pass RO and Liqui-Cel® Contactor System
Electrodeionization (EDI) is widely used in many industrial water treatment systems throughout the world. In order to maximize the operating stability and life expectancy of an EDI system they were often designed with double pass RO using caustic injection pretreatment. However, in response to recent efforts to lower the capital expenditure and operating costs of
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Nuclear
Japanese Utilities to Retire Five Nuclear Reactors
Four Japanese utilities last week announced that they would retire five older reactors rather than implement strict and expensive safety requirements mandated by new nuclear regulations. Kansai Electric Power Co. on March 17 said it will close two reactors (340 MW and 500 MW) at its Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture. On the same […]
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Partner Content
Announcing: SAWHORSE – Among the first ‘Safety Everywhere’ initiatives in industrial safety
National Steel City is proud to launch SAWHORSE: Safety At Work, Home, Office, Recreation, Safety Everywhere program; one of the first industrial safety programs focused on the concept of ‘Security Everywhere.’
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Solar
Total Solar Eclipse “Blacks Out” Europe
Several gigawatts of solar energy faded from European grids during the two-hour solar eclipse that shadowed the continent, as well as parts of Northern Africa and Asia, on Friday morning. But according to the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E)—an organization representing 41 transmission system operators (TSOs) from 34 European countries—grid operators […]
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T&D
Nordlink Consortium Chooses ABB
The consortium behind the Nordlink high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) link between Germany and Norway on Mar. 19 awarded the construction contract for the project to Swiss firm ABB. The $2 billion, 525-kV transmission line will be, at 623 kilometers (km), the longest HVDC connection in Europe. It will transit the North Sea across the Skagerrak strait, […]
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Nuclear
S. Korea Points to N. Korea for Nuclear Plant Hacking
Cyberattacks on Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s (KHNP’s) computer systems last December were committed by a group of North Korean hackers, an interim South Korean investigation has concluded. The Seoul central prosecutors office said in a March 16 statement that the malicious codes used for the nuclear operator hacking were “the same in composition and […]
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Environmental
IEA: For First Time in 40 Years, World Energy Sector GHG Emissions Stalled in 2014
Global emissions of carbon dioxide from the energy sector were unchanged from the preceding year—marking the first time in 40 years in which there was a halt or reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases that was not associated to an economic downturn, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. The Paris-based autonomous organization said in a […]
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Nuclear
Ginna Reliability Deal Draws Fire
The reliability support service agreement (RSSA) that would rescue the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in western New York from an early retirement has come under fire from a group of about 60 large electricity customers—industrial, institutional, and commercial entities—who on Mar. 6 asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject the proposed deal, […]