The POWER Podcast

More than 100 of the world’s largest energy companies are betting that artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize how electricity gets made, moved, and managed. But they’re not waiting for Silicon Valley to build it for them—they’ve taken matters into their own hands through an EPRI-led consortium. That initiative is the Open Power AI Consortium, which EPRI launched in March 2025 to drive the development and deployment of an open AI model tailored for the power sector. According to its mission statement, the Open Power AI Consortium “aims to evolve the electric sector by leveraging advanced AI technologies to innovate the way electricity is made, moved, and used by customers. By fostering collaboration among industry leaders, researchers, and technology providers, the consortium will drive the development and deployment of cutting-edge AI solutions tailored to enhance operational efficiencies, increase resiliency and reliability, deploy emerging and sustainable technologies, and reduce costs while improving the customer experience.” “We’re really looking at building an ecosystem to accelerate the development and deployment, and recognizing that, while AI is advancing rapidly, the energy industry has its own unique needs, especially around reliability, safety, regulatory compliance, and so forth. So, the consortium provides a collaborative platform to develop and maintain domain-specific AI models—think a ChatGPT tailored to the energy industry—as well as sharing best practices, testing innovative solutions in a secure environment, and long term, we believe this will help modernize the grid, improve customer experiences, and support global safe, affordable, and reliable energy for everyone,” Jeremy Renshaw, executive director for AI and Quantum with EPRI, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. Among the consortium’s members are some of the largest energy companies in the world, including Constellation, Con Edison, Duke Energy, EDF, Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), New York Power Authority (NYPA), Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), Saudi Electricity Co., Southern Company, Southern California Edison, Taiwan Power Co., and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). It also includes entities like Amazon Web Servies (AWS), Burns and McDonnell, GE Vernova, Google, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Interconnection Authority, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP), Khalifa University, Microsoft, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), PJM, Rolls-Royce SMR, and Westinghouse Electric Co. “For many years, the power industry has been somewhat siloed, and there were not many touch points or communication between global utilities, technology companies, universities, and so forth. So, this consortium aims to facilitate making new connections between these important and impactful organizations to increase collaboration and information sharing that will benefit everyone,” Renshaw explained. EPRI, together with Articul8 and NVIDIA, has already developed the first set of domain-specific generative AI models for electric and power systems aimed at advancing the energy transformation. Although the technology has not been released publicly, it will be made available soon as an NVIDIA NIM microservice for early access. This development sets the foundation for more to come.

In a special edition of The POWER Podcast, released in collaboration with the McCrary Institute’s Cyber Focus podcast, POWER’s executive editor, Aaron Larson, and Frank Cilluffo, director of the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security and Professor of Practice at Auburn University, discuss the evolving power grid and cybersecurity challenges. Specifically, they highlight the shift taking place from centralized power stations to more distributed energy resources, including solar farms and wind turbines. The conversation touches on the importance of a reliable power grid and the need to protect critical infrastructure. “From a national security standpoint, from an economic standpoint, from a public safety standpoint, if you don’t have power, all these other systems are somewhat irrelevant,” Cilluffo said. “There’s no infrastructure more critical than power.” Cilluffo noted that artificial intelligence (AI) is requiring increasingly more power, which can’t be ignored. “If we want to be AI dominant, we can’t do that if we’re not energy dominant,” said Cilluffo. “The two are in inextricably interwoven—hand in glove. And if you start looking at where the country wants to be technologically, if we want to lead, we really need to continue to double down, triple down, and look at all sorts of sources of energy as well.” While renewables are clearly leading when it comes to new generation being added to the grid today, emerging technologies including small modular reactors, fusion power, deep dry-rock geothermal, and space-based solar power, are on the horizon, promising potentially game-changing energy options. “And not to put a fine point on it, but you mentioned so many different forms of energy, and I’m reminded of the old test, the A, B, C, or D, all of the above. This sounds like it is clearly an all of the above,” Cilluffo proposed. Meanwhile, the enormous energy buildout in China was discussed. China is not just leading, but truly dominating the world in the construction of wind, solar, nuclear, coal, and energy storage projects in 2025, both in terms of capacity and projects under development. This leadership is evident across all five sectors, frequently accounting for the majority, or at least a plurality, of new global construction and installation. “China is a primary focus of a lot of our [Cyber Focus] podcast discussion, but it’s a race we cannot afford to lose, whether it’s around AI, quantum. And, I think you’re spot on; to get there, they recognize the need to really quadruple down on energy,” said Cilluffo. “I still think that we [the U.S.] want to be at the vanguard driving all of this.” And while it’s widely known that cybersecurity is critically important to energy systems, it’s often not prioritized the way it should be. “Everyone needs to be cyber aware, cyber informed,” Cilluffo said. “These are issues that we have to invest in. It can’t be an afterthought. It has to be something that everyone thinks through. And the reality is, don’t think it’s someone else’s problem: a) it’s all of our problems, and b) don’t think that it can be looked at after the balloon goes up—you need to be thinking all of this well in advance.”

The name Mike Richter is well-known among hockey fans. Richter spent 15 years in the National Hockey League as a goalie for the New York Rangers, including in 1994 when he was a fixture in the net during the team’s Stanley Cup winning season. Richter was also recognized as the most valuable player for the U.S.’s 1996 gold medal winning World Cup team, as well as a member of three U.S. Olympic teams, including in 2002 when the team won the silver medal. Richter was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008. But what is likely lesser known is that Richter is the current president of Brightcore Energy, a leading provider of integrated, end-to-end clean energy solutions to the commercial, institutional, and government markets. The Armonk, New York–headquartered company’s services include high-efficiency geothermal-based heating and cooling systems for both new construction and existing building retrofits, among other things. Brightcore’s turnkey, single-point solution encompasses all project development phases including preliminary modeling, feasibility and design, incentive and policy guidance, construction and implementation, and system performance monitoring. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Richter noted that heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for commercial, industrial, and municipal buildings consume an enormous amount of energy in a place like New York City. Furthermore, the emissions associated with these systems can be significant. “If you can address that, you’re doing something important, and that’s really where our focus has been, particularly the last few years,” he said. Geothermal Heating and Cooling Systems Traditional geothermal often requires significant open space for the geothermal borefield and can have material time implications in project development. Brightcore says its exclusive UrbanGeo solution combines proprietary geothermal drilling technology and techniques that increase the feasibility of geothermal heating and cooling applicability while reducing construction development timelines. “We typically go between 500 and 1,000 feet down,” Richter explained. “The ambient temperature of the ground about four feet down below our feet here in New York is 55 degrees [Fahrenheit] year-round.” The constant and stable underground temperature is the key to geothermal heating and cooling systems. Even when the air above ground is extremely hot or freezing cold, the earth’s steady temperature provides a valuable heating or cooling resource. A geothermal system has pipes buried underground that fluid is circulated through, and a heat pump inside the building. In winter, the fluid in the pipes absorbs warmth from the earth and brings it inside. There, the heat pump “compresses” this heat, raising its temperature so it can warm the building air comfortably—even when it’s icy cold outside. In summer, the system works in reverse. The heat pump pulls heat out of the building’s air, sending it through the same underground pipes. Since the earth is cooler than the hot summer air, it acts like a giant heat sponge, soaking up unwanted heat from the building. This process cools the living space easily and efficiently, using a lot less energy than a regular air conditioner because the ground is always cooler than the hot outdoor air. So, whether it’s heating or cooling, a geothermal system can keep buildings comfortable by moving heat between the building and the earth. “[It’s] pretty straightforward and very, very efficient and effective, particularly—and this is key—at the extremes,” said Richter. “Air source heat pumps are excellent and they continue to get better,” he added.

In the proverbial shadow of the Naughton Power Plant, a station in Kemmerer, Wyoming, that will stop burning coal at the end of this year, TerraPower is constructing what it calls “the only advanced, non-light-water reactor in the Western Hemisphere being built today.” The project represents more than just a new power source—it’s a symbolic passing of the torch from fossil fuels to next-generation nuclear technology. “We call it the Natrium reactor because it is in a class of reactors we call sodium fast reactors,” Eric Williams, Chief Operating Officer for TerraPower, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. The Natrium design is a Generation IV reactor type, which is the most advanced class of reactors being developed today. “These designs have a greatly increased level of safety, performance, and economics,” Williams explained. Williams said the use of liquid metal coolant enhances safety. “Liquid metals are so excellent at transferring heat away from the reactor, both to exchange that heat into other systems to go generate the electricity or to remove the heat in an emergency situation,” he said. “For the Natrium reactor, we can do that heat removal directly to air if we want to, so that provides a very robust safety case for the reactor.” The design is also safer because it can run at low pressure. “The primary system is at atmospheric pressure; whereas, current pressurized water reactors have to pressurize the system to keep the liquid from boiling—to keep it in a liquid state,” Williams explained. “Liquid metal sodium doesn’t boil until about 800 to 900 degrees Celsius, and the reactor operates down at 500 degrees Celsius, so that can remain a liquid and still be at a very high temperature without having to pressurize it.” The liquid metal coolant also provides performance benefits. “One of those is the ability to store the energy in the form of molten salt heat coming out of the nuclear island,” said Williams. “That is really giving us the ability to provide basically a grid-scale energy storage solution, and it really matches up well with the current needs of the modern electricity grid.” Meanwhile, the energy storage aspect also allows decoupling the electricity generation side of the plant—the energy island—from the reactor side of the plant, that is, the nuclear island. That allows the energy island to be classified as “non-safety-related” in the eyes of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). “That side of the plant has nothing to do with keeping the reactor safe, and that means the NRC oversight doesn’t have to apply to the energy island side of the plant, so all of that equipment can be built to lower cost and different codes and standards,” Williams explained. Notably, this also permits the grid operator to dispatch electricity without changing anything on the nuclear island. “That allows a different kind of integrating with the grid for a nuclear plant that hasn’t been achieved yet in the U.S.,” Williams said. “We’re very excited about that—the safety, the performance, and economics—and it really gives us the ability to have a predictable schedule, and construction will be complete in 2030.” While there is clearly a lot that needs to be done, and first-of-a-kind projects rarely go off without a hitch, Williams seemed pleased with how the project was progressing. “We’re really excited to be working in the state of Wyoming. It is just an outstanding state for developing any kind of energy project, including nuclear energy. The people in the community are really welcoming to us. The state legislators are always looking for ways to remove any obstacles and just explain to us how to get the permits we need and everything. So, the project has been going really well from that standpoint,” he said. In the end, Williams appeared confident that TerraPower would hit its current target for completion in 2030.

The world’s electricity grids are facing unprecedented strain as demand surges from electrification, data centers, and renewable energy integration, while aging infrastructure struggles to keep pace. Traditional approaches to grid expansion—building new transmission lines and substations—face mounting challenges including sometimes decade-long permitting processes, escalating costs that can reach billions per project, and growing public resistance to new infrastructure. This mounting pressure has created an urgent need for innovative solutions that can unlock the hidden capacity already embedded within existing transmission networks. What Are GETs and What Do They Do? Grid enhancing technologies (GETs) represent a transformative approach to this challenge, offering utilities the ability to safely increase power flows on existing transmission lines by up to 40% in some cases without the need for new construction. These advanced technologies—including dynamic line ratings (DLR) that adjust capacity based on real-time weather conditions, high-temperature advanced conductors that can carry significantly more current, and sophisticated power flow controllers that optimize electricity routing—work by maximizing the utilization of current infrastructure. Rather than building around bottlenecks, GETs eliminate them through smarter, more responsive grid management. On an episode of The POWER Podcast, Anna Lafoyiannis, program lead for the integration of renewables and co-lead of the GET SET (Grid Enhancing Technologies for a Smart Energy Transition) initiative with EPRI, explained that GETs can be either hardware or software solutions. “Their purpose is to increase the capacity, efficiency, reliability, or safety of transmission lines. So, think of these as adders to your transmission lines to make them even better,” Lafoyiannis said. “Typically, they reduce congestion costs. They improve the integration of renewables. They increase capacity. They can provide grid service applications. So, they’re really multifaceted—very helpful for the grid,” she said. “At EPRI, we think of them as kind of like a tool in a toolbox.” The economic and environmental implications are profound. Deploying GETs can defer or eliminate the need for costly new transmission projects while accelerating the integration of renewable energy resources that are often stranded due to transmission constraints. As utilities worldwide grapple with the dual pressures of modernizing their grids and meeting ambitious clean energy targets, GETs offer a compelling path forward that leverages innovation over infrastructure expansion to create a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable electricity system.

As the world transitions toward renewable energy sources, geothermal power has emerged as one of the most promising, yet underutilized, options in the clean energy portfolio. Unlike solar and wind, geothermal offers consistent baseload power generation capacity without intermittency challenges, making it an increasingly attractive component in the renewable energy mix. The geothermal sector has shown increasing potential in recent years, with technological innovations expanding its possible applications beyond traditional volcanic regions. These advances are creating opportunities to tap into moderate-temperature resources that were previously considered uneconomical, potentially unlocking gigawatts of clean, renewable power across the globe. It's within this expanding landscape that companies like Gradient Geothermal are pioneering new approaches. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Ben Burke, CEO of Gradient Geothermal, outlined his company’s innovative approach to geothermal energy extraction that could transform how we think about energy recovery from oil and gas operations. Modular and Mobile Geothermal Solutions Gradient Geothermal differentiates itself in the geothermal marketplace through its focus on modular, portable equipment designed specifically for oil field operations, geothermal operators, and potentially data centers. Unlike traditional geothermal installations that require permanent infrastructure, Gradient’s equipment can be moved every six to 18 months as needed, allowing clients to adjust their thermal capacity by adding or removing units as requirements change. “The advantage of mobility and modularity is really important to oil and gas operators,” Burke said. The company’s solution consists of two main components: an off-the-shelf organic Rankine cycle (ORC) unit and a primary heat exchanger loop. This system can handle various ratios of oil, gas, and water—even “dirty” water containing sand, brines, and minerals—and convert that heat into usable power. One of the most compelling aspects of Gradient’s technology is its ease of installation. “Installation takes one day,” Burke explained. “It’s two pipes and three wires, and it’s able to sit on a gravel pad or sit on trailers.” This quick setup contrasts sharply with traditional geothermal plants that can take years to construct. The units come in three sizes: 75 kW, 150 kW, and 300 kW. The modular nature allows for flexible configurations, with units able to be connected in series or parallel to handle varying water volumes and temperatures.

U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn into office for the second time on Jan. 20, 2025. That means April 30 marks his 100th day back in office. A lot has happened during that relatively short period of time. The Trump administration has implemented sweeping changes to U.S. energy policy, primarily focused on promoting fossil fuels while curtailing renewable energy development. The administration declared a “national energy emergency” to expedite approvals for fossil fuel infrastructure and lifted regulations on coal plants, exempting nearly 70 facilities from toxic pollutant rules. Coal was officially designated a “critical mineral,” with the Department of Justice directed to investigate regulatory bias against the industry. Additionally, the administration ended the Biden-era pause on approvals for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities, signaling strong support for natural gas expansion. On the environmental front, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced 31 deregulatory actions designed in part to “unleash American energy.” The administration is also challenging the 2009 EPA finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health—a foundational element of climate regulation. President Trump announced the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, effective in early 2026, and terminated involvement in all climate-related international agreements, effectively eliminating previous emissions reduction commitments. Renewable energy has faced significant obstacles under the new administration. A six-month pause was imposed on offshore wind lease sales and permitting in federal waters, with specific projects targeted for cancellation. The administration issued a temporary freeze on certain Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funds designated for clean energy projects. Policies were implemented to weaken federal clean car standards, potentially eliminate electric vehicle (EV) tax credits, and halt funding for EV charging networks—indirectly affecting power generation by potentially reducing electricity demand from EVs. Yet, the administration’s tariff policy may end up impacting the power industry more than anything else it has done. “One thing in particular that I think would be hard to argue is not the most impactful, and that’s the current status of tariffs and a potential trade war,” Greg Lavigne, a partner with the global law firm Sidley Austin, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. In April, President Trump declared a national emergency to address trade deficits, imposing a 10% tariff on all countries and higher tariffs on nations with large trade deficits with the U.S. These tariffs particularly affect solar panels and components from China, potentially increasing costs for renewable energy projects and disrupting supply chains. Meanwhile, the offshore wind energy industry has also taken a hard hit under the Trump administration. “My second-biggest impact in the first 100 days would certainly be the proclamations pausing evaluation of permitting of renewable projects, but particularly wind projects, on federal lands,” said Lavigne. “That is having real-world impacts today on the offshore wind market off the eastern seaboard of the United States.” Despite the focus on traditional energy sources, the Trump administration has expressed support for nuclear energy as a tool for energy dominance and global competitiveness against Russian and Chinese nuclear exports. Key appointees, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, have signaled a favorable stance toward nuclear power development, including small modular reactors. All these actions remain subject to ongoing legal and political developments, with their full impact on the power generation industry yet to unfold.

The power industry supply chain is facing unprecedented strain as utilities race to upgrade aging infrastructure against a backdrop of lengthening lead times and increasing project complexity. This supply chain gridlock arrives precisely when utilities face mounting pressure to modernize systems. As the industry confronts this growing crisis, innovations in procurement, manufacturing, and strategic planning are essential. “Utilities can optimize their supply chain for grid modernization projects by taking a collaborative approach between the services themselves and how they can support the projects, as well as having a partner to be able to leverage their sourcing capabilities and have the relationships with the right manufacturers,” Ian Rice, senior director of Programs and Services for Grid Services at Wesco, explained as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “At the end of the day, it’s how can the logistical needs be accounted for and taken care of by the partnered firm to minimize the overall delays that are going to naturally come and mitigate the risks,” he said. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wesco is a leading global supply chain solutions provider. Rice explained that through Wesco, utilities gain access to a one-stop solution for program services, project site services, and asset management. The company claims its tailored approach “ensures cost reduction, risk mitigation, and operational efficiencies, allowing utilities to deliver better outcomes for their customers.” “We take a really comprehensive approach to this,” said Rice. “In the utility market, we believe pricing should be very transparent.” To promote a high level of transparency, Wesco builds out special recovery models for its clients. “What this looks like is: we take a complete cradle-to-grave approach on the lifecycle of the said project or program, and typically, it could be up to nine figures—very, very large programs,” Rice explained. “It all starts with building that model and understanding the complexity. What are the inputs, what are the outputs, and what constraints are there in the short term as well as the long term? And, really, what’s the goal of that overall program?” The answers to those questions are accounted for in the construction of the model. “It all starts with demand management, which closely leads to a sourcing and procurement strategy,” Rice said. “From there, we can incorporate inventory control, and set up SOPs [standard operating procedures] of how we want to deal with the contractors and all the other stakeholders within that program or project. And that really ties into what’s going to be the project management approach, as well in setting up all the different processes, or even the returns and reclamation program. We’re really covering everything minute to minute, day to day, the entire duration of that project, and tying that into a singular model.” But that’s not all. Rice said another thing that sets Wesco apart from others in the market is when it takes this program or project approach, depending on the scale of it, the company remains agnostic when it comes to suppliers. “We’re doing procurement on behalf of our customers,” he said. “So, if they have direct relationships, we can facilitate that. If they’re working with other distributors, we can also manage that. The whole idea here is: what’s in the best interest of the customer to provide the most value.”

As the presidential inauguration loomed on the horizon in January this year, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Loan Programs Office (LPO) published a “year-in-review” article, highlighting accomplishments from 2024 and looking ahead to the future. It noted that the previous four years had been the most productive in the LPO’s history. “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the Office has announced 53 deals totaling approximately $107.57 billion in committed project investment––approximately $46.95 billion for 28 active conditional commitments and approximately $60.62 billion for 25 closed loans and loan guarantees,” it said. Much of the funding for these investments came through the passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The LPO reported that U.S. clean energy investment more than doubled from $111 billion in 2020 to $236 billion in 2023, creating more than 400,000 clean energy jobs. The private sector notably led the way, enabled by U.S. government policy and partnerships. “There were 55 deals that we got across the finish line,” Jigar Shah, director of the LPO from March 2021 to January 2025, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast, while noting there were possibly 200 more projects that were nearly supported. “They needed to do more work on their end to improve their business,” he explained. That might have meant they needed to de-risk their feedstock agreement or their off-take agreement, for example, or get better quality contractors to do the construction of their project. “It was a lot of education work,” Shah said, “but I’m really proud of that work, because I think a lot of those companies, regardless of whether they used our office or not, were better for the interactions that they had with us.” A Framework for Success When asked about doling out funds, Shah viewed the term somewhat negatively. “As somebody who’s been an investor in my career, you don’t dole out money, because that’s how you lose money,” he explained. “What you do is you create a framework. And you tell people, ‘Hey, if you meet this framework, then we’ve got a loan for you, and if you don’t meet this framework, then we don’t have a loan for you.” Shah noted that the vast majority of the 400 to 500 companies that the LPO worked closely with during his tenure didn’t quite meet the framework. Still, most of those that did have progressed smoothly. “Everything that started construction is still under construction, and so, they’re all going to be completed,” said Shah. “I think all in all, the thesis worked. Certainly, there are many people who had a hard time raising equity or had a hard time getting to the finish line and final investment decision, but for those folks who got to final investment decision and started construction, I think they’re doing very well.” Notable Projects When asked which projects he was most excited about, Shah said, “All of them are equally exciting to me. I mean, that’s the beauty of the work I do.” He did, however, go on to mention several that stood out to him. Specifically, he pointed to the Wabash, Montana Renewables, EVgo, and Holtec Palisades projects, which were all supported under the LPO’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, as particularly noteworthy. Perhaps the most important of the projects Shah mentioned from a power industry perspective, was the Holtec Palisades endeavor. Valued at $1.52 billion, the loan guarantee will allow upgrading and repowering of the Palisades nuclear plant in Covert, Michigan, a first in U.S. history, which has spurred others to bring retired nuclear plants back online. “[It’s] super exciting to see our first nuclear plant being restarted, and as a result, the Constellation folks have decided to restart a nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania, and NextEra has decided to restart a nuclear reactor in Iowa. So, it’s great to have that catalytic impact,” said Shah.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has for many years been evaluating emerging nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors, as part of technology innovation efforts aimed at developing the energy system of the future. TVA—the largest public power provider in the U.S., serving more than 10 million people in parts of seven states—currently operates seven reactors at three nuclear power plants: Browns Ferry, Sequoyah, and Watts Bar. Meanwhile, it’s also been investing in the exploration of new nuclear technology by pursuing small modular reactors (SMRs) at the Clinch River Nuclear (CRN) site in Tennessee. “TVA does have a very diverse energy portfolio, including the third-largest nuclear fleet [in the U.S.],” Greg Boerschig, TVA’s vice president for the Clinch River project, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “Our nuclear power plants provide about 40% of our electricity generated at TVA. So, this Clinch River project and our new nuclear program is building on a long history of excellence in nuclear at the Tennessee Valley.” TVA completed an extensive site selection process before choosing the CRN site as the preferred location for its first SMR. The CRN site was originally the site of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor project in the early 1980s. Extensive grading and excavation disturbed approximately 240 acres on the project site before the project was terminated. Upon termination of the project, the site was redressed and returned to an environmentally acceptable condition. The CRN property is approximately 1,200 acres of land located on the northern bank of the Clinch River arm of the Watts Bar Reservoir in Oak Ridge, Roane County, Tennessee. The CRN site has a number of significant advantages, which include two existing power lines that cross the site, easy access off of Tennessee State Route 58, and the fact that it is a brownfield site previously disturbed and characterized as a part of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor project. The Oak Ridge area is also noted to have a skilled local workforce, including many people familiar with the complexities of nuclear work. “The community acceptance here is really just phenomenal,” said Boerschig. “The community is very educated and very well informed.” TVA began exploring advanced nuclear technologies in 2010. In 2016, it submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for an Early Site Permit for one or more SMRs with a total combined generating capacity not to exceed 800 MW of electricity for the CRN site. In December 2019, TVA became the first utility in the nation to successfully obtain approval for an Early Site Permit from the NRC to potentially construct and operate SMRs at the site. While the decision to potentially build SMRs is an ongoing discussion as part of the asset strategy for TVA’s future generation portfolio, significant investments have been made in the Clinch River project with the goal of moving it forward. OPG has a BWRX-300 project well underway at its Darlington New Nuclear Project site in Clarington, Ontario, with construction expected to be complete by the end of 2028. While OPG is developing its project in parallel with the design process, TVA expects to wait for more design maturity before launching its CRN project. “As far as the standard design is concerned, we’re at the same pace, but overall, their project is about two years in front of ours,” said Boerschig. “And that’s by design—they are the lead plant for this effort.” In the meantime, there are two primary items on TVA’s to-do list. “Right now, the two biggest things that we have on our list are completing the standard design work, and then the construction permit application,” Boerschig said, noting the standard design is “somewhere north of 75% complete” and that TVA’s plan is to submit the construction permit application “sometime around mid-year of this year.”

A virtual power plant (VPP) is a network of decentralized, small- to medium-scale power generating units, flexible power consumers, and storage systems that are aggregated and operated as a single entity through sophisticated software and control systems. Unlike a traditional power plant that exists in a single physical location, a VPP is distributed across multiple locations but functions as a unified resource. VPPs are important to power grid operations because they provide grid flexibility. VPPs help balance supply and demand on the grid by coordinating many smaller assets to respond quickly to fluctuations. This becomes increasingly important as more intermittent renewable energy sources—wind and solar—are added to the grid. “A virtual power plant is essentially an aggregation of lots of different resources or assets from the grid,” Sally Jacquemin, vice president and general manager of Power & Utilities with AspenTech, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “As a whole, they have a bigger impact on the grid than any individual asset would have on its own. And so, you aggregate all these distributed energy resources and assets together to create a virtual power plant that can be dispatched to help balance the overall system supply to demand.” VPPs provide a way to effectively integrate and manage distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, small wind turbines, battery storage systems, electric vehicles, and demand response programs. VPPs can reduce strain on the grid during peak demand periods by strategically reducing consumption or increasing generation from distributed sources, helping to avoid blackouts and reducing the need for expensive peaker plants. Other benefits provided by VPPs include enhancing grid resilience, enabling smaller energy resources to participate in electricity markets that would otherwise be inaccessible to them individually, and reducing infrastructure costs by making better use of existing assets and reducing peak demand. VPPs enable consumers to become “prosumers,” that is, both producers and consumers of energy, giving them more control over their energy use and potentially reducing their costs. “Virtual power plants are becoming important, not only for utilities, but also in the private sector,” Jacquemin explained. “Because of the commercial value of electricity rising and the market system rates, it’s now profitable for these virtual power plants in many markets due to the value of power that they can supply during these periods of low supply.” AspenTech is a leading industrial software partner, with more than 60 locations worldwide. The company’s solutions address complex environments where it is critical to optimize the asset design, operation, and maintenance lifecycle. AspenTech says its Digital Grid Management solutions “enable the resilient, sustainable, and intelligent utility of the future.” “At AspenTech Digital Grid Management, our software is in control rooms of utilities around the world,” said Jacquemin. “All utilities know they need to be investing in their digital solutions and modernizing their control room technology in order to meet the demands of the energy transition. So, utilities need to be focusing more time and more money to ensure that their software and their systems are capable of enabling that utility of the future.”

Net-demand energy forecasts are critical for competitive market participants, such as in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and similar markets, for several key reasons. For example, accurate forecasting helps predict when supply-demand imbalances will create price spikes or crashes, allowing traders and generators to optimize their bidding strategies. It’s also important for asset optimization. Power generators need to know when to commit resources to the market and at what price levels. Poor forecasting can lead to missed profit opportunities or operating assets when prices don’t cover costs. Fortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) is now capable of producing highly accurate forecasts from the growing amount of meter and weather data that is available. The complex and robust calculations performed by these machine-learning algorithms is well beyond what human analysts are capable of, making advance forecasting systems essential to utilities. Plus, they are increasingly valuable to independent power producers (IPPs) and other energy traders making decisions about their positions in the wholesale markets. Sean Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Amperon, a company that provides AI-powered forecasting solutions, said using an Excel spreadsheet as a forecasting tool was fine back in 2005 when he got started in the business as a power trader, but that type of system no longer works adequately today. “Now, we’re literally running at Amperon four to six models behind the scenes, with five different weather vendors that are running an ensemble each time,” Kelly said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “So, as it gets more confusing, we’ve got to stay on top of that, and that’s where machine learning really kicks in.” The consequences of being ill-prepared can be dire. Having early and accurate forecasts can mean the difference between a business surviving or failing. Effects from Winter Storm Uri offer a case in point. Normally, ERCOT wholesale prices fluctuate from about $20/MWh to $50/MWh. During Winter Storm Uri (Feb. 13–17, 2021), ERCOT set the wholesale electricity price at its cap of $9,000/MWh due to extreme demand and widespread generation failures caused by the storm. This price remained in effect for approximately 4.5 days (108 hours). This 180-fold price increase had devastating financial impacts across the Texas electricity market. The financial fallout was severe. Several retail electricity providers went bankrupt, most notably Griddy Energy, which passed the wholesale prices directly to customers, resulting in some receiving bills of more than $10,000 for just a few days of power. “Our clients were very appreciative of the work we had at Amperon,” Kelly recalled. “We probably had a dozen or so clients at that time, and we told them on February 2 that this was coming,” he said. With that early warning, Kelly said Amperon’s clients were able to get out in front of the price swing and buy power at much lower rates. “Our forecasts go out 15 days, ERCOT’s forecasts only go out seven,” Kelly explained. “So, we told everyone, ‘Alert! Alert! This is coming!’ Dr. Mark Shipham, our in-house meteorologist, was screaming it from the rooftops. So, we had a lot of clients who bought $60 power per megawatt. So, think about buying 60s, and then your opportunity is 9,000. So, a lot of traders made money,” he said. “All LSEs—load serving entities—still got hit extremely bad, but they got hit a lot less bad,” Kelly continued. “I remember one client saying: ‘I bought power at 60, then I bought it at 90, then I bought it at 130, then I bought it at 250, because you kept telling me that load was going up and that this was getting bad.’ And they’re like, ‘That is the best expensive power I’ve ever bought. I was able to keep my company as a retail energy provider.’ And, so, those are just some of the ways that these forecasts are extremely helpful.”

When you think of innovative advancements in nuclear power technology, places like the Idaho National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology probably come to mind. But today, some very exciting nuclear power development work is being done in West Texas, specifically, at Abilene Christian University (ACU). That’s where Natura Resources is working to construct a molten salt–cooled, liquid-fueled reactor (MSR). “We are in the process of building, most likely, the country’s first advanced nuclear reactor,” Doug Robison, founder and CEO of Natura Resources, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. Natura has taken an iterative, milestone-based approach to advanced reactor development and deployment, focused on efficiency and performance. This started in 2020 when the company brought together ACU’s NEXT Lab with Texas A&M University; the University of Texas, Austin; and the Georgia Institute of Technology to form the Natura Resources Research Alliance. In only four years, Natura and its partners developed a unique nuclear power system and successfully licensed the design. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a construction permit for deployment of the system at ACU last September. Called the MSR-1, ACU’s unit will be a 1-MWth molten salt research reactor (MSRR). It is expected to provide valuable operational data to support Natura’s 100-MWe systems. It will also serve as a “world-class research tool” to train advanced reactor operators and educate students, the company said. Natura is not only focused on its ACU project, but it is also moving forward on commercial reactor projects. In February, the company announced the deployment of two advanced nuclear projects, which are also in Texas. These deployments, located in the Permian Basin and at Texas A&M University’s RELLIS Campus, represent significant strides in addressing energy and water needs in the state. “Our first was a deployment of a Natura commercial reactor in the Permian Basin, which is where I spent my career. We’re partnering with a Texas produced-water consortium that was created by the legislature in 2021,” said Robison. One of the things that can be done with the high process heat from an MSR is desalinization. “So, we’re going to be desalinating produced water and providing power—clean power—to the oil and gas industry for their operations in the Permian Basin,” said Robison. Meanwhile, at Texas A&M’s RELLIS Campus, which is located about eight miles northwest of the university’s main campus in College Station, Texas, a Natura MSR-100 reactor will be deployed. The initiative is part of a broader project known as “The Energy Proving Ground,” which involves multiple nuclear reactor companies. The project aims to bring commercial-ready small modular reactors (SMRs) to the site, providing a reliable source of clean energy for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Geothermal energy has been utilized by humans for millennia. While the first-ever use may be a mystery, we do know the Romans tapped into it in the first century for hot baths at Aquae Sulis (modern-day Bath, England). Since then, many other people and cultures have found ways to use the Earth’s underground heat to their benefit. Geothermal resources were used for district heating in France as far back as 1332. In 1904, Larderello, Italy, was home to the world’s first experiment in geothermal electricity generation, when five lightbulbs were lit. By 1913, the first commercial geothermal power plant was built there, which expanded to power the local railway system and nearby villages. However, one perhaps lesser-known geothermal concept revolves around energy storage. “It’s very much like pumped-storage hydropower, where you pump a lake up a mountain, but instead of going up a mountain, we’re putting that lake deep in the earth,” Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems, explained as a guest on The POWER Podcast. Sage Geosystems’ technology utilizes knowledge gleaned from the oil and gas industry, where Taff spent more than 35 years as a Shell employee. “What we do is we drill a well. We’re targeting a very low-permeability formation, which is the opposite of what oil and gas is looking for, and quite frankly, it’s the opposite of what most geothermal technologies are looking for. That low permeability then allows you to place a fracture in that formation, and then operate that fracture like a balloon or like your lungs,” Taff explained. “When the demand is low, we use electricity to power an electric pump. We pump water into the fracture. We balloon that fracture open and store the water under pressure until a time of day that power demand peaks. Then, you open a valve at surface. That fracture is naturally going to close. It drives the water to surface. You put it through a Pelton turbine, which looks like a kid’s pinwheel. You spin the turbine, which spins the generator, and you generate electricity.” Unlike more traditional geothermal power generation systems that use hot water or steam extracted from underground geothermal reservoirs, Sage’s design uses what’s known as hot dry rock technology. To reach hot dry rock, drillers may have to go deeper to find desired formations, but these formations are much more common and less difficult to identify, which greatly reduces exploration risks. Taff said traditional geothermal energy developers face difficulties because they need to find three things underground: heat, water, and high-permeability formations. “The challenge is the exploration risk, or in other words, finding the resource where you’ve got the heat, the large body of water deep in the earth, as well as the permeability,” she said. “In hot dry rock geothermal, which is what we’re targeting, you’re looking only for that heat. We want a low-permeability formation, but again, that’s very prevalent.” Sage is now in the process of commissioning its first commercial energy storage project in Texas. “We’re testing the piping, and we’re function testing the generator and the Pelton turbine, so we’ll be operating that facility here in the next few weeks,” Taff said. Meanwhile, the company has also signed an agreement with the California Resources Corporation to establish a collaborative framework for pursuing commercial projects and joint funding opportunities related to subsurface energy storage and geothermal power generation in California. It also has ongoing district heating projects in Lithuania and Romania, and Taff said the U.S. Department of Defense has shown a lot of interest in the company’s geothermal technology. Additionally, Meta signed a contract for a 150-MW geothermal power generation system to supply one of its data centers.

Imagine a field of solar panels floating silently in the endless day of Earth’s orbit. Unlike their terrestrial cousins, this space-based solar array never faces nighttime, clouds, or atmospheric interference. Instead, they bathe in constant, intense sunlight, converting this endless stream of energy into electricity with remarkable efficiency. But the true innovation lies in how this power is transmitted to power grids on Earth. The electricity generated in space is converted into invisible beams of microwaves or laser light that pierce through the atmosphere with minimal losses. These beams are precisely aimed at receiving stations on Earth—collections of antennas or receivers known as “rectennas” that capture and reconvert the energy back into electricity that can be supplied to the power grid. This isn’t science fiction—it’s space-based solar power (SBSP), a technology that could revolutionize how clean energy is generated and distributed. While conventional solar panels on Earth can only produce power during daylight hours and are at the mercy of weather conditions, orbital solar arrays could beam massive amounts of clean energy to Earth 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, potentially transforming the global energy landscape.