POWERnews

In 2023, U.S. utilities have a multipronged ambition to realize: how to provide customers with reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy, and safe water. However, increased pressure around decarbonization and the adoption of cleaner energy sources, electrification, and related infrastructure needs, and customer-driven disruption will make this energy trilemma even more difficult to balance. Management at […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   December 8, 2022 Small Modular Reactors Aren’t Difficult Nuclear Waste Generators Many experts believe small modular reactors (SMRs), which are generally classified as nuclear power reactors with an electrical output of 300 MW or less, offer great promise for supplying the… Co-Firing […]

Many experts believe small modular reactors (SMRs), which are generally classified as nuclear power reactors with an electrical output of 300 MW or less, offer great promise for supplying the world with carbon-free energy. Several SMR designs are under development by companies around the world including NuScale Power, GE-Hitachi, Terrestrial Energy, TerraPower, Toshiba, X-energy, and […]

Power generators are exploring how they can retrofit coal-fired power plants to enable co-firing with ammonia, part of their strategy to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). The latest project to look at the concept is led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which on Dec.  7 announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) […]

Are today’s Distributed Control Systems ready for what tomorrow could bring? Johan Björklund of leading global technology company ABB believes they are. Here he looks at how the DCS is adapting to meet the changing demands of users. Distributed Control Systems (DCS) have been around for nearly half a century. Of course, both industrial processes […]

GE Gas Power announced on Dec. 6 that it has deployed an “innovative technical solution” on four TM2500 aeroderivative gas turbines at the California Department of Water Resources’ (DWR’s) sites in Yuba City and Roseville, California (Figure 1). The solution reportedly reduced nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by more than 90%, surpassing […]

Two countries seeking to expand development of their nuclear power programs have announced new projects. Iranian officials on Dec. 3 said construction of what would be that country’s second nuclear power plant has begun. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s government on Dec. 4 said it is looking for investors to support development of what would be the country’s […]

Mitsubishi Power is expanding its geothermal infrastructure in Indonesia. The company has received an order from PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE), a subsidiary of the state-owned oil and gas group PT Pertamina, for construction of a 55-MW unit at the Lumut Balai Unit 2 geothermal power station. The order is for a steam turbine, generator, […]

According to Elon Musk, solar and batteries go together like peanut butter and jelly. The sustainability of renewable energy relies on the deployment of energy storage systems for the storage of energy harnessed by renewable sources. The reduction in the cost to manufacture battery energy storage systems (BESSs) has catapulted the use of these types […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   December 1, 2022 Transformer Failures Disrupted Water Supplies in Houston For Nearly Two Days A nearly two-day-long boil water order that shuttered schools and businesses and affected as many as 2.2 million customers in Houston—the nation's fourth-largest city— was caused by a […]

Competition for a new unit of up to 1.2 GW at the Czech Republic’s Dukovany nuclear power plant site has stepped up, with France’s EDF, South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), and a Westinghouse-Bechtel team submitting initial bids, Czech utility ČEZ, said on Nov. 30. Elektrárna Dukovany II, a. s. (EDU II), a […]

A nearly two-day-long boil water order that shuttered schools and businesses and affected as many as 2.2 million customers in Houston—the nation’s fourth-largest city—was caused by a power outage stemming from the failure of two city-owned transformers. The incident began on Nov. 27 at 10:30 a.m. when “a ground trip and current overload” tripped the […]

Tuas Power Generation will upgrade two of the four operating turbines at a gas-fired power plant in Singapore, part of the company’s efforts to make the facility more efficient and support government efforts to decarbonize the country’s power generation sector. Mitsubishi Power, part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, on Nov. 30 said it received a contract […]

The UK government will bolster a proposal to build Sizewell C with a £679 million ($815 million) investment, giving the twin EPR nuclear power plant project—a combined 3.2 GW—new flexibility to proceed. The UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on Nov. 29 said that with the final investment decision, it intends to […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   November 28, 2022 NERC Warns of Tight Generation Resources, Fuel Supply Issues This Winter Power shortfalls could be rife over the next three months across a large portion of the North American bulk power system (BPS), particularly during extreme and prolonged cold […]

Two Chinese companies announced production of the largest offshore wind turbine built to date, a 16-MW unit developed by China Three Gorges (CTG) and Goldwind. The groups on Nov. 24 showed off the turbine at a factory in Fujian province. The turbine has a 252-meter rotor diameter, with a 50,000-meter sweep area. The hub height […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   November 23, 2022 DOE Grants First-Round Civil Nuclear Credit Award—$1.1B—to Diablo Canyon  The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first round of funding from its $6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) Program is poised to go to Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s only operational… […]

The Biden administration has reversed a controversial Trump-era rule that barred plan fiduciaries from considering climate change and other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when choosing retirement investments and exercising shareholder rights, such as proxy voting.  A final rule issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) on Nov. 22 removes restrictions issued in two […]

Uranium has been one of the best-performing asset classes in 2022, according to data supplied by HANetf’s Sprott Uranium Miners UCITS ETF (URNM). In fact, the uranium spot price has increased 24.12% during the year through Oct. 31, according to the fund. October was a particularly strong month for uranium oxide (U3O8), which is used […]

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first round of funding from its $6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) Program is poised to go to Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s only operational nuclear plant. Pacific Gas & Electric  (PG&E), Diablo Canyon’s owner, could receive up to $1.1 billion in credits to extend the 2.2-GW plant’s operation for […]

Energy storage systems (ESS) are expanding far beyond the batteries being deployed at power plants, at substations, in microgrids, or at locations along the power grid to support the electricity transmission and distribution network. Systems for commercial and industrial enterprises, and increasingly by homeowners for residential use, are helping lead the expansion of energy storage. […]

Hurricane Ian, which struck Florida in late September last year, was a devastating storm and a harsh reminder of the impact of Mother Nature’s wrath. Unfortunately, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and powerful, and our aging grid is struggling to keep up. COMMENTARY Sanibel Island on Florida’s west coast, for example, lost power […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has accepted Abilene Christian University’s (ACU’s) construction permit application for a 1-MWth nuclear non-power Molten Salt Research Reactor (MSRR) facility planned for the university’s campus in Abilene, north-central Texas. The acceptance—which essentially marks the NRC “docketing” of the application—formally kicks off the regulatory agency’s review of ACU’s proposed Nuclear Energy […]

Officials from Russia and Egypt marked another milestone in construction of the latter’s first nuclear power plant, with a ceremony Nov. 19 to announce pouring of the “first concrete” for Unit 2 of the El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Saturday’s event came three weeks after a construction permit was issued for that unit by the Egyptian […]

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   November 17, 2022 NERC’s Warns of Tight Generation Resources, Fuel Supply Issues This Winter Power shortfalls could be rife over the next three months across a large portion of the North American bulk power system (BPS), particularly during extreme and prolonged cold […]

Power shortfalls could be rife over the next three months across a large portion of the North American bulk power system (BPS), particularly during extreme and prolonged cold conditions, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) has warned. The nation’s designated Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) in its latest Winter Reliability Assessment, issued on Nov. 17, said […]

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) is a national Department of Energy (DOE) program led by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) that allows collaborators to harness the world-class capabilities of the U.S. National Laboratory System. NRIC supports the construction and demonstration of advanced reactor systems through a suite of services and capabilities. “Our vision is […]

European energy giant EnBW will pilot switching a 114-year-old coal-fired waste incineration and district heating power plant in Stuttgart-Münster, Germany, to gas-fired technology while ensuring the regionally significant plant will be ready to combust hydrogen “as quickly and completely” as possible. Siemens Energy on Nov. 17 sealed an agreement with the utility for an overall […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have settled to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act with four separate large-scale solar farm owners in Alabama, Idaho, and Illinois. The solar farm owners—all subsidiaries of large international finance and investment companies—used a common construction contractor for their farms. The federal […]

Hydropower projects frequently face resistance from environmental groups for a variety of reasons. One of the more common objections to hydro is the high turbine-induced mortality of fish. The passage of fish through hydroelectric turbines can quickly prove fatal—a danger that increases with the size of the fish. Furthermore, if several hydropower plants are located […]