POWERGEN Kicks Off in Dallas

POWERGEN International 2025 kicked off in Dallas this morning. Held Feb. 11 - 13, 2025, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, the show brings together folks from the power-generation sector, utilities, engineering, procurement, and construction (EPCs), OEMs, and energy users. 2025 registration is up 11% year over year, sitting at 5,500 (likely closing around 7,000) and 477 exhibiting companies.

The show’s theme continues to be Destination 2050 and is supported by several tracks: POWERGEN Knowledge Hubs on the exhibit floor, the technical conference program, meet-ups, connection lunches, networking receptions, and several keynote addresses.

New at this year's show is Center Stage on the exhibit floor, featuring elevated panels on topics such as plant weatherization and reviving retired nuclear power facilities. The HYDROVISION International event is now part of POWERGEN International, which means there are more hydropower-focused sessions and exhibitors.

"We are thrilled to have them and plan to deliver the best of HYDROVISION at POWERGEN from here on," said Kevin Clark, Content Director of Clarion Events. "We are also introducing Connections Lunches on the exhibit floor, designed to help people connect with fellow attendees over shared interests. There is an increased focus on facilitating connections this year."

Clark outlined several important industry themes being addressed over the course of three days: “The power generation industry is at the intersection of energy transition and energy expansion,” Clark said. “Companies are working to achieve clean energy goals, but this is complicated by exploding energy demand from data centers, manufacturing, and electrification. These are important themes. Renewable energy sources continue to grow, but utilities are also planning for the largest increase in gas plants in over a decade. Maintaining reliability amid a changing generation mix is also an important theme. If I had to sum it all up, I would say, ‘How do we work together to achieve our goals through a multitude of challenges and market conditions? The only constant is change, so how is the industry adapting?’”

Turbomachinery International is covering many of the technical sessions in addition to our exclusive video coverage and on-the-show-floor interviews.

Keynote Addresses

Speakers Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass Datacenters, Marc Spieler, Sr. Managing Director - Energy at NVIDIA, Eliecer Viamontes, CEO of Entergy Texas, and Richard Voorberg, President, North America at Siemens Energy, kick off Tuesday morning with the opening keynote address from 8:30 – 10 a.m.

Several other keynote addresses are scattered throughout Tuesday and Wednesday’s schedule. They explore topics shaping the future of energy, including:

• AI’s Power Play: Meeting the Growing Energy Demands of Data Centers
• The Role of Gas Turbines in the Clean Energy Transition

"Another keynote panel features utilities, digital infrastructure, and other stakeholders discussing how market participants can work to address data center load growth," Clark said. "There is increased interest in nuclear power, not just to meet the electricity needs of AI but as a ‘clean-firm’ solution. The gas turbine is the workhorse of power generation and remains a huge part of our show, with educational sessions on retrofits, flexibility, and emissions reduction. Our Optimizing Plant Performance Track has a lot of great utility-led case studies and technical content."

Technical Sessions

Our coverage of this year’s technical sessions focuses on gas turbine and combustion systems advancements, hydrogen, long-duration energy storage, carbon capture, nuclear and hydropower energy, and more.

Jeff Wirt, Director of Catalyst Systems at EnergyLink International, and Paul DiMascio, Chief Engineer of ProEnergy Services, are presenting on Significant Findings from a Breakthrough in Gas Turbine NOx and CO Removal. Complying with NOx emissions regulations is necessary for gas-fired turbines, but conventional selective catalyst reduction systems are complex and often expensive. EnergyLink International developed a direct ammonia injection system that simplifies NOx and CO removal by removing components such as vaporization systems and injection grids.

Megan Reusser, Technology Manager at Burns & McDonnell, provides a market update on commercially available long-duration energy storage technologies and their development status, highlighting attributes of technologies like thermal storage, pumped hydro, mechanical energy storage, gravity storage, and more.

On the hydrogen front, Kurt Lyell from HDR will present a case study on a 400-MW natural gas peaking plant paired with a green hydrogen facility in West Texas that utilizes solar and wind power to generate hydrogen. His presentation, Hydrogen-Blending Solution in Texas, will explore the project’s economics and highlight key challenges and opportunities for large-scale green hydrogen adoption.

Other presentations will show how natural gas-fired plants are being designed for future conversion to hydrogen and explore the technical modifications needed to support this transition.

Many sessions are focused on the energy transition and decarbonization, including keynote, The Role of Gas Turbines in the Clean Energy Transition. The keynote panel—Aad den Elzen of Solar Turbines, Ben Thomas of Mitsubishi Power Americas, Jason Jermark of Siemens Energy, Fabien Codron of GE Vernova, and Jeffrey Benoit of PSM - a Hanwha Company—will highlight the rapid development of low-carbon fuel retrofits for gas turbines, focusing on hydrogen, ammonia, and carbon capture and sequestration. Gas turbine OEMs will focus on R&D, blending demonstrations, and policy considerations.

The Wednesday afternoon session, Lessons Learned from Carbon Capture Pilot Projects, led by Bob Slettehaugh of Kiewit and Kevin Lauzze of Sargent & Lundy, will highlight lessons learned from multiple CO₂ capture pilot projects.

Stay tuned to our social and website for session coverage, show-floor video interviews, exclusive Q&As and more.

"It's always exciting to see people learning from each other and networking with industry colleagues they haven't seen all year," Clark said. "I'm looking forward to seeing the response to our keynote lineup and a busier show floor!"