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The POWER Podcast

The POWER Podcast

Auteur(s): POWER
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 The POWER Podcast provides listeners with insight into the latest news and technology that is poised to affect the power industry. POWER’s Executive Editor Aaron Larson conducts interviews with leading industry experts and gets updates from insiders at power-related conferences and events held around the world.All rights reserved
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  • 202. Amazon Data Centers Aren’t Raising Your Electric Bills—They May Be Lowering Them

    202. Amazon Data Centers Aren’t Raising Your Electric Bills—They May Be Lowering Them
    Dec 29 2025
    As electricity demand from data centers continues to surge, a persistent question has dogged the industry: Are residential ratepayers footing the bill for massive tech infrastructure? According to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and an independent study it commissioned, the answer is a definitive no. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Mandy Ulrich, senior manager of energy and water for Americas East at AWS, outlined the company’s energy strategy and discussed findings from a study by Energy and Environmental Economics Inc. (E3) that examined how Amazon data centers impact local power systems. Study Finds Data Centers Generate Surplus Revenue The E3 study evaluated Amazon data centers across a diverse set of utility territories, including large investor-owned utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Dominion Energy, mid-size utilities like Entergy, and cooperatives such as Umatilla Electric Cooperative in the Pacific Northwest. “The simple answer is that Amazon data centers are not being subsidized by other utility customers,” Ulrich said. The study projects that Amazon’s data centers will generate $33,500/MW of surplus value in 2025, increasing to $60,650/MW by 2030. For a typical 100-MW Amazon data center, that translates to $3.4 million in surplus revenues in 2025 and approximately $6.1 million by 2030. These surplus funds—revenues above the utility’s regulated rate of return—can be used by utilities to modernize grid infrastructure, improving reliability for all customers. Grid Investment Benefits All Customers The study found that Amazon data centers are driving investments in grid infrastructure that support not just their own operations but also local residential and commercial growth. Ulrich pointed to Entergy Mississippi as a prime example, where the utility is using investments from Amazon and other large customers to fund a $300 million “Superpower Mississippi” grid reliability campaign—at no cost to residential customers—targeting a 50% reduction in outages within five years. Innovative Rate Structures Prevent Cost-Shifting While the E3 study validates that existing rate policies have been effective in preventing cross-subsidization, Ulrich emphasized that AWS continues to work with utilities on innovative approaches to ensure large industrial customers pay their fair share. She highlighted a Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) project as a “groundbreaking model.” Under this first-of-its-kind agreement, Amazon is investing in 3 GW of electrical capacity, with 2.4 GW dedicated to data center operations and 600 MW reserved specifically to support grid reliability for all NIPSCO customers. The structure creates a separate generation company (GenCo) that operates under a “commercial contract term,” Ulrich explained. By operating as a separate entity, GenCo isolates the cost of new growth to data centers. “The data center companies that drive new demand for electricity will fund the generation and transmission infrastructure they require, ensuring that regular customers don’t shoulder those costs, even if the customer leaves before contract completion,” NIPSCO said in a Nov. 24 press release. “NIPSCO’s existing customers will have no financial responsibility for powering Amazon data centers,” Ulrich said. NIPSCO said, “This structure is expected to provide value to customers by generating approximately $1 billion in cost savings that will be returned to current NIPSCO customers as credits on monthly electric bills over the project’s 15-year duration.”
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    27 min
  • 201. The Uranium Renaissance: Revitalizing America’s Nuclear Supply Chain

    201. The Uranium Renaissance: Revitalizing America’s Nuclear Supply Chain
    Dec 10 2025
    As the global demand for clean energy intensifies, nuclear power is enjoying a resurgence not seen in decades. However, this renewed interest has exposed a critical vulnerability in the U.S. energy sector: a massive disconnect between uranium consumption and domestic production. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Thomas Lamb, president and CEO of Myriad Uranium, discussed some of the complexities of the nuclear fuel cycle and how junior exploration companies are racing to secure America’s energy future. The Great American Supply Deficit To understand the urgency of the current uranium market, one must first grasp the sheer scale of consumption. A single large-scale nuclear reactor consumes approximately 400,000 to 500,000 pounds of uranium oxide concentrate (U3O8) annually, depending on design, capacity, and operating efficiency. The U.S. operates 94 commercial reactors today, resulting in a national consumption of roughly 37 million to 47 million pounds of U3O8 per year. The domestic production figures, however, paint a starkly contrasting picture. “The United States consumes, for very round numbers, 50 million pounds of uranium per year, and produces a million pounds of uranium per year,” Lamb explained. To be more specific, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic production of U3O8 was 677,000 pounds in 2024, and it’s been much lower than that in the not-too-distant past. This imbalance creates a precarious reliance on foreign imports. Lamb noted that Kazakhstan alone produces more than 40% of the world’s uranium. More concerning for U.S. national security is the country’s reliance on Russia, where a surprisingly high percentage of U.S. reactor fuel bundles are sourced. “You have a worldwide supply deficit, and then you have an enormous domestic production deficit in the United States relative to consumption. That makes the U.S. vulnerable,” Lamb said. “What if Kazakhstan, China, [and] Russia kind of work together? What if they cut off the United States? What if some other things happen? The U.S. could be short of uranium.” Revitalizing History: The Copper Mountain Project Myriad Uranium is positioning itself to fill this gap by revitalizing past assets rather than starting from scratch. The company’s flagship asset, the Copper Mountain Uranium Project in Wyoming, was a focal point of Union Pacific’s energy subsidiary in the 1970s. Union Pacific invested approximately CA$117 million (in 2024 dollars, US$84.7 million) into the site, planning a large-scale mine to fuel reactors in Southern California that were ultimately never built due to the post-1979 nuclear freeze. Because the project was abandoned due to external market forces rather than a lack of resources, it represents a “brownfield” opportunity. “In our case, we already know it’s there because a lot of the work was done,” Lamb said. “Now, we just have to … bring the information current,” he added.
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    47 min
  • 200. Emerson Addresses Power Industry’s AI-Driven Demand Surge

    200. Emerson Addresses Power Industry’s AI-Driven Demand Surge
    Dec 1 2025
    The power industry is experiencing unprecedented demand growth, driven largely by data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This surge is creating both opportunities and challenges for utilities, equipment manufacturers, and the broader power generation ecosystem. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Seth Harris, growth director for Emerson’s Power business in North America, discussed how the company is helping the industry navigate this transformative period. With 20 years at Emerson across various roles, Harris brings a comprehensive perspective on the evolving needs of power generation facilities. The Data Center Effect The conversation around power generation has fundamentally shifted. Data centers are forcing utilities to rethink everything. “I’m focused on the power markets, but I can’t tell you the last time I was able to have a conversation about power without somehow referencing the data center aspect of it,” Harris said. This demand is affecting multiple stakeholders simultaneously. Manufacturers of turbines, heat recovery steam generators, control systems, valves, and instruments are all facing unprecedented orders. The challenge extends beyond simply meeting demand. Companies must rapidly scale up manufacturing capabilities and engineering resources that have been stagnant for years. Extending Plant Lifespans Among the things that must be rethought are decisions on existing plant operations. In some cases, power plants that were previously scheduled for retirement are now being extended. “The ability to deliver power as quickly as possible is certainly top of mind as this kind of race to deliver on the technology promises coming from AI and the various use cases for data centers has really put those existing assets in a place where they have to focus on driving the most efficiency and reliability they possibly can,” said Harris. However, many owners haven’t been investing in these plants beyond the necessities, which means upgrades are often needed to keep the plants operating efficiently. “The technology has come a long way since those facilities were originally built,” Harris explained. Furthermore, operational expectations are changing. Rather than operating as baseload units, these legacy facilities may now only be called on to provide peaking or backup power, which means control systems may need upgrades to accommodate for that as well. Harris said retrofitting existing plants “has been a bit of a boom from an Emerson standpoint.”
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    18 min
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