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Recently in Public Power Current
Rich Wallen, Grant County PUD general manager and CEO, has announced his resignation from the Washington State public power utility. The resignation, which was given to Grant PUD’s Board of Commissioners on May 7, is effective on June 14.
Texas public power utility Austin Energy recently hosted a tour and meeting with a reverse trade mission delegation from Malaysia, sponsored by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.
The PJM Interconnection and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator on May 9 announced today that the organizations will collaborate on an informational interregional transfer capability study, set to be performed during the second half of 2024.
Idaho National Laboratory is seeking a hydropower utility to collaborate on a case study to understand how small hydroelectric plants operating at 10 megawatts or less can be upgraded to provide emergency power to critical loads during outages.
Florida public power utility JEA has promoted two executives to newly created roles to help advance the utility’s goals and objectives, and to further ensure strategic alignment across the organization.
As operational challenges multiply, some utilities have found drones to be an effective tool to optimize limited resources and maintain safe and reliable service. Many utilities have either hired drone service providers that use professional pilots or started dedicated aviation units with their utility. In contrast, Skydio uses artificial intelligence to interpret the visual data coming from the fisheye cameras that serve as a drone’s “eyes.”
Nearly 468,000 MW of new generation capacity is under development in the U.S., which is comparable to the total capacity under development this time last year, the American Public Power Association said.
Santee Cooper has undertaken a major capital project that primarily relies on South Carolina-located companies and resources to increase environmental protections at its two coal-fired generating stations in compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules.