POWER

System planners and grid operators are treating extreme heat as an assumed operating condition given new pressures, including drought, demand growth, and fuel concerns. Will it be enough? For decades, the U.S. power system treated extreme heat as a tail risk, managed through seasonal readiness—something for which to prepare. But hotter conditions are now arriving […]

Wildfires are no longer isolated disasters limited to the western United States—they are a growing threat to communities, infrastructure, and electric grid reliability nationwide. For the 42 million Americans served by electric cooperatives, the risk is especially acute. Co-ops power more than half the nation’s landmass, primarily in rural areas where wildfire danger is highest […]

As fire-weather risk expands beyond California, utilities are turning to sub-kilometer, asset-level forecasts to support public safety power shutoff decisions they can defend in front of regulators. When the National Weather Service (NWS) issued routine convective outlooks on the morning of May 27, 2025, public guidance for the Houston metro called for widespread 30 to […]

Utilities, federal agencies, and the national labs have finally assembled the tools to harden the grid against an increasingly hostile environment. The question is whether they can put them together fast enough. When a line of storms tore across the Northeast in late April 2025, racing from Ohio into central Pennsylvania, meteorologists recognized the signature […]

Summer is the season utilities brace for. Demand peaks as air conditioners run flat out, equipment runs hot, and the workforce that keeps the grid alive does so under some of the year’s most punishing conditions. The same months that strain transformers and conductors also strain the people climbing structures and pulling cable beneath them. […]

The power generation sector, including electric utilities and grid operators, recognizes the value of moving equipment underground to mitigate outages, lessen risks to assets, and reduce the chances of that equipment causing a wildfire.

Companies are deploying a variety of strategies in efforts to strengthen the power grid against severe weather and other issues.

From EOP-012-3 to Order 587-AB, from Cold Weather Critical Component inventories to dual-fuel conversions, the bulk power system has spent five years rewiring how it prepares for extreme cold. Winter Storm Fern, the latest test, showed the system ran “very close to the edge.” The last five winters have given the North American power sector […]

Transmission corridors can be difficult to inspect, sometimes requiring helicopters and boots on the ground. A Daytona Beach, Florida, company is using drones to improve the process—at roughly a quarter of

Solar canopies are unlocking clean energy potential in some of the built environment’s most underutilized spaces, but success depends on getting the details right. Solar canopy projects above parking

As artificial intelligence (AI) training reshapes data center power system design, early adopters using battery energy storage systems (BESS), microgrid control, and unified automation are positioning

Why megawatts, siting, firm generation, and power-aware design are becoming the real inner loop of the artificial intelligence (AI) race. “We are knocking on the door of these incredible capabilities. The ability to build basically machines out of sand.” Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, used that phrase at Davos this January to describe how silicon […]

A power paradox is emerging in the hyperscale era: while computing demand is accelerating, power availability is increasingly becoming the constraint that determines where data centers are built, how quickly they can be energized, and how large they can become. In this age of hyperscale data centers, campuses using 300–600 MW of electrical capacity, equivalent […]

On April 7, the Maine House voted 82–62 to advance Legislative Document (LD) 307, a bill sponsored by Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, that would impose a moratorium on artificial intelligence (AI) data

Industry analysts say faster construction timelines, along with lower energy costs, are fueling consistent growth in a solar power sector increasingly constrained by regulators.

Operators are trying to coax more output from aging fleets, with fewer experienced people, under increasingly unforgiving reliability expectations. In that environment, preventive maintenance has become an

Europe is a top market for deployments of energy storage, as companies expand investment for the technology. A recent report from Wood Mackenzie said Europe’s utility-scale pipeline for energy storage exceeds 130 GW, with more 3,000 projects across at least 37 countries.

A Houston-based nuclear technology startup is advancing a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) design that targets outlet temperatures of 950C (1,742F)—well beyond the range of most advanced reactor

After the encouraging developments from last year and the news from fusion startups receiving funding, a familiar pattern is emerging across energy policy discussions in emerging and developing economies

Modern predictive maintenance depends on sensors and data streams that double as attack surfaces. Protecting the grid now means treating cybersecurity as a reliability discipline. In the interconnected age of

As the first generation of wind turbines ages out of manufacturer service agreements, operators are discovering that the smarter path forward isn’t wholesale replacement—it’s re-engineering components to

Powering data centers is receiving significant attention at the federal level with the Department of Energy’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or ANOPR, on large-load interconnections, and with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gathering input on the proposal.

Aging programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are exposing power generation and industrial water facilities to growing operational risk. A structured migration strategy can reduce downtime, strengthen cybersecurity, and position plants for a digital future.

Utilities now operate in a far more dynamic environment shaped by distributed energy resources, an increasing number of distributed generation sites, and the emergence of large, high-demand loads and a growing number of connected devices across the grid.

Across the power sector, plant owners are confronting a fundamental question: how long can existing assets continue to operate safely and economically? What was once a long-range planning exercise has become an immediate strategic priority, driven by a convergence of market, operational, and policy pressures. Load demand is rising at a pace many utilities and […]

By installing optimal components, finetuning utility processes, and partnering with the right suppliers, hyperscalers are improving data center cooling loop performance, which is increasing operational uptime, equipment safety, facility reliability, sustainability, and profitability. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an increasing staple in daily routines, data centers today are undergoing significant architectural shifts. Driven by the […]

Octopus Australia in March broke ground on the $900 million Blind Creek Solar Farm and Battery project. Local officials said the installation is a major milestone for regional infrastructure and energy security in New South Wales (NSW).

On the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, POWER sent a freelance photographer and correspondent to the site in Ukraine to document the massive decommissioning effort still underway—and the new

A once-predictable industry is moving at hyperscale speed. Here are five trends defining the biggest gas power buildout in a generation. Natural gas power is in the middle of its biggest buildout in a

Electric utilities and energy consumers have discovered the benefits of electrification as a way to decarbonize operations and take advantage of more intelligent power systems. The push for decarbonization