COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the power sector has so far been immense, resulting in supply chain disruptions, labor constraints, construction delays, restrictions on business activities, and, crucially, financial challenges. But according to Dr. Colin Parris, senior vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) at GE Digital, the sector’s response has been adaptive, and digitalization […]

Hit hard by response to the COVID-19 pandemic, global gas demand in 2020 is set to to tumble by twice the amount lost after the 2008 global financial crisis—its largest annual decline in history—the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its latest annual market report Gas 2020.  As of June 2020, the fall has been […]

Like other segments of the economy, the renewable energy industry is dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several states still have restricted business activities and are only now considering lifting those restrictions. Many equipment suppliers, contractors, and project owners have sent or received force majeure notices under their respective contracts and disputes may […]

It is human nature to avoid spending money on preparations for an event that may never happen. However, as we all continue to adapt to a COVID-19 world, there is a new awareness of low probability, high impact events. If the consequences of a statistically unlikely event are devastating to the economy, the survival of […]

The coronavirus pandemic has triggered a macroeconomic shock that is unprecedented in peacetime. By the end of the first quarter, its effects on global power demand were deep, the International Energy Agency (IEA) noted in a flagship report released on April 30. The international organization, which has collected daily data for more than 30 countries […]

Standard general arrangement drawings, and piping and instrumentation diagrams, serve a purpose, but they are not ideal records for as-built project documentation. 3D reality capture offers a better

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is not the type of thing enterprise technologists could see in our magic crystal ball. Before the onset of the virus and its effects, I set out three predictions for the energy, utilities, and resources sector for the coming year—but of course, a global shutdown of business, transport, and […]

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has granted a one-year extension of the continuity safe harbor, providing much-needed relief for many wind developers, which, crippled by pandemic-related delays, were racing to complete projects before crucial tax incentives expired at the end of this year.  In its May 27–issued Notice 2020-41, the IRS essentially modified prior […]

A clean energy valuation and risk analytics company said that low demand for energy during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with low prices for natural gas and strong power generation from renewable energy resources, has brought unprecedented low prices for electricity in multiple U.S. markets.  REsurety said its Renewable Energy Market Analytics Platform (REmap) shows that […]

President Trump in a new executive order (EO) has directed federal agencies to rescind, modify, waive, or provide exemptions from regulatory requirements that may inhibit economic recovery.  The Executive Order on Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery, issued May 19, is sweeping and extends beyond the administration’s previous efforts to scale down regulatory mandates—including the […]