A retrospective analysis of the power technology development in the industrial period covering virtually the entire 20th century is conducted. Technology advances that are clearly achieved are noted. However, the paper mainly focuses on identifying the reasons of failures occurred when introducing numerous new energy technologies and relevant technology forecasts. It is shown that the root causes of these failures are as follows: underestimated complexity of technical problem solution, untenable technological forecasts as regards technologies compared and incorrect evaluation of their competitiveness, inadequate consideration of certain institutional constraints. The most important technical problems include creating new materials and providing a required level of safety. The results obtained in this study should facilitate improving technological forecast methods used in the power industry and developing higher-quality technological forecasts for the future.

Key words: power industry, power technologies, technological advances, research and technology development, fuel and energy resources, power supply centralization, resource integration, production concentration, fossil fuel, nuclear power, renewable energy industry.