Last year, the big news in the international powerplant design and construction sector was the unprecedented boom in coal-fired plant work in China, India and other fast-growing, “emerging” economies. That work continues, albeit at a somewhat more hesitant pace. But the overriding question now is: Will the worldwide financial crisis and the bleak economic outlook lead to a dramatic drop in the development of new generating capacity?
So far, all seems relatively well. While almost every major power-generation and transmission-line company is keeping a close eye on global economic news, most expect to move forward in 2009 with the plants and line projects they have been developing through 2008. Plans for scores of office buildings and other commercial-construction projects have been canceled or delayed in many markets around the world, “but we have not seen that in the power sector so far,” says Keith Hawksworth, CEO of New York City-based Parsons Brinckerhoff.