PJM Proposes Adding 14.9 GW with Bilateral Contracts, Central Procurement
The PJM Interconnection is proposing a one‑time, two‑phase backstop procurement of up to 14.9 GW to address projected capacity shortfalls driven by data‑center growth. Phase one would run bilateral contracts between generators and large loads from September to March, followed by a central auction in March for any remaining need. PJM will act as a confidential matchmaker, not a counter‑party, and will use a contract‑for‑differences payment model. The plan, pending board and FERC approval, aims to align costs with the loads that benefit from the new capacity.
DOE Proposes Slashing Non-Defense Spending on Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy’s FY 2027 budget proposal calls for a 21% boost to defense‑related spending while slashing non‑defense programs by 16%, raising the agency’s total discretionary budget to $53.9 billion. Most of the increase would flow to the National Nuclear...
Terra-Gen to Pay $5.6M to Settle CAISO Market Manipulation Charges
Terra‑Gen has agreed to pay $5.6 million to settle Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allegations that it manipulated the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) day‑ahead market. The settlement includes a $4.95 million civil fine and $681,007 in profit disgorgement for a scheme that...
As EV Load Grows, Utilities Use Managed Charging to Harness Flexibility, Lower Costs
U.S. utilities are scaling active managed‑charging (V1G) programs to spread electric‑vehicle load and defer costly grid upgrades. Automakers such as GM, Ford and Rivian are partnering with aggregators like EnergyHub, WeaveGrid and Chargescape to automate charging based on real‑time system...
Gas Turbine Supply Crunch Set to Raise Prices 195% by 2027: WoodMac
Wood Mackenzie forecasts gas turbine prices to soar to $600 per kilowatt by the end of 2027, a 195% jump from 2019 levels. The surge is driven by specialized labor shortages, hot‑section component bottlenecks, and trade‑related cost pressures, compounded by...
States Are Already Working on Solutions to Large-Load Challenges
The Virginia State Corporation Commission is tackling a surge of large‑load interconnection requests as Dominion Energy reports 70 GW of new demand—nearly triple its historic peak—primarily from data centers. The influx threatens reliability and could shift costs to residential consumers. State...
Entergy, Xcel, Others Seek to Upend Competitive Transmission Bidding in MISO, SPP
Entergy, Xcel Energy and seven other utilities have petitioned FERC to suspend competitive bidding for regional transmission projects in the MISO and SPP markets, arguing the process adds 16‑20 months to completion. The utilities seek a decision by July 16 and...
Virginia Grid Utilization Bill Set to Become Law
Virginia’s pending legislation will compel Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power to submit detailed distribution‑grid utilization metrics to the State Corporation Commission and propose ways to tap existing capacity. The commission will then publish its own analyses and evaluate non‑wires alternatives...
NERC Is ‘Actively Monitoring the Grid’ Following Iran-Linked Cyber Threat
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned that Iranian‑linked hackers are exploiting programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used in U.S. power, water and government facilities. The attacks manipulate software configurations and human‑machine interfaces, causing operational disruptions and potential financial loss....
Recalibrating the Social License for AI Infrastructure in the United States
The rapid deployment of hyperscale AI and cloud infrastructure is outpacing the United States’ energy grid capacity, creating local stress on electricity, water and transmission systems. Lead times for interconnection now stretch four to seven years, and projects demanding 100‑300 MW...
Pennsylvania DEP Seeks Potential Fast-Track Storage, Generation Projects
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a request for information seeking large‑scale generation or storage projects eligible for PJM Interconnection’s proposed Expedited Interconnection Track. The fast‑track would consider up to ten 250 MW‑plus projects a year, with a ten‑month...
Energy Storage Pricing Beginning to ‘Fracture’ by Product Type: Report
Anza Renewables reports a widening price gap between U.S. utility‑scale and distribution‑scale energy storage in Q1 2026, with utility‑scale costs dropping up to 20.9% while distribution‑scale prices remain flat around $203/kWh (AC) and $175/kWh (DC). The United States installed a...
Federal Permitting Is ‘Outsized’ Factor in Clean Energy Delays, Cancellations: Crux
A Crux survey of 50 clean‑energy developers found that every respondent had a project materially affected by federal permitting, totaling roughly 11 GW of capacity. More than 80% said they deliberately site projects to sidestep permitting triggers, while 72% prioritize predictability...
Turning the AC-DC Switch: A Legacy Technology Has Reached Its Limits.
The article argues that the century‑old dominance of alternating current (AC) is reaching its limits as hyperscale data centers, AI workloads, and electrified transportation demand more efficient power delivery. Converting AC to DC multiple times wastes up to 18% of...
Eversource, Avangrid Ask FERC to Stay $1.5B Refund Decision
FERC’s March 18 order cut the base return on equity for New England transmission owners, triggering a $1.5 billion refund obligation dating back to 2011. Eversource, Avangrid and other utilities argue the retroactive payments would damage liquidity, credit ratings and increase...
Greenhouse Gas Protocol Changes Can Bring Trust Back to Climate Accounting
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s current electricity accounting rules let companies claim renewable power generated anywhere, at any time, even when their actual consumption relies on fossil fuels. This mismatch has eroded confidence in corporate climate reporting as firms tout 100%...
Nevada PUC Approves NV Energy Plan to Join Day-Ahead Market
The Nevada Public Utilities Commission approved NV Energy’s plan to join the California Independent System Operator’s Extended Day‑Ahead Market (EDAM) in fall 2028. The move leverages NV Energy’s 6.6 GW of owned capacity and 3.7 GW of renewable power purchase agreements, and...
Low Customer Trust Is Quietly Undermining Utility Digital Payment Programs
Utilities have long offered online bill payment, yet consumer adoption lags due to trust deficits. Surveys show 80% distrust outdated interfaces and over half abandon unclear transactions, pushing customers back to costly manual channels. Unbranded email reminders and hidden security...
FERC Urged to Reject TeraWulf’s Power Plant Purchase Due to Undisclosed Google Ownership Stake
Public Citizen, the NAACP and other groups have asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to block TeraWulf’s purchase of the 216‑MW Morgantown power plant in Maryland, alleging that the seller failed to disclose Google’s 14% ownership stake obtained through...
California Approved a Gas Pipeline Solution. Now Comes the Hard Part.
California's Senate Bill 1221 mandates the creation of decarbonization zones where aging gas pipelines are retired and residents transition to electric appliances, funded by avoided pipeline replacement costs. The CPUC has preliminarily identified 151 pilot zones using a 10% pipeline‑replacement...
Reject Talen-Energy Capital Power Plant Deal, PJM Market Monitor Tells FERC
Federal regulators are being urged to reject Talen Energy’s proposed purchase of about 2.6 GW from Energy Capital Partners because the deal would amplify Talen’s market power in the PJM Interconnection. Monitoring Analytics warns the acquisition could pull capacity out of...
Rebuttal: Coal Plants Are Reliable and Cost-Competitive
America’s Power disputes a Utility Dive op‑ed that coal plants are unreliable and costly to keep. It cites Energy Ventures Analysis showing that replacing retiring coal with wind would add about $5 billion per year to ratepayers, while solar would be...
Solar Installations Fell 22% in 2025: FERC
Solar installations in the United States fell 22% in 2025, dropping to 26.5 GW from 33.8 GW the prior year, according to FERC data. Despite the decline, solar still led all generation sources, representing 12.2% of installed capacity behind natural gas and...
Expect Retail Electricity Prices to Rise Further: LBNL/Brattle
A new analysis by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and The Brattle Group finds that investor‑owned utilities requested $18 billion in rate increases last year, with roughly two‑thirds approved, signaling further retail electricity price hikes. From 2019 to 2025, residential electricity rates...
PECO Seeks $429M Rate Hike, Partly to Reduce Power Outages
PECO Energy, an Exelon subsidiary, has filed a request with the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission for a $429 million rate increase that would lift its revenue by roughly 11%. The utility proposes to spread the cost of vegetation‑management and energy‑efficiency programs,...
Forecast Uncertainty Tempers a Banner 2025 for US Energy Storage: Reports
U.S. energy‑storage installations hit a record 18.9 GW (51 GWh) in 2025, a 52% and 40% increase respectively over 2024, driven largely by a residential surge as tax credits expire. Manufacturing capacity now exceeds domestic demand, with system capacity over 100% and...
ArcLight in Deal to Buy 2.2 GW From InfraBridge, Mainly Gas
ArcLight Capital Partners announced a deal to purchase roughly 2.2 GW of primarily gas‑fired power assets from InfraBridge, including a 1,362‑MW stake in the Lackawanna plant and a 584‑MW Canadian facility. The acquisition would lift ArcLight’s PJM Interconnection portfolio from about...
Oncor, LCRA Propose up to 244 Miles of 765-kV Texas Transmission
On March 26, 2026, Oncor Electric Delivery and LCRA Transmission Services proposed constructing up to 244 miles of 765‑kV transmission line from Schleicher County to Bell County, Texas. The project’s cost is estimated between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion, plus roughly $400 million for...
Large Load Tariffs Proliferate as States Take More Active Role in Data Center Regulation
State regulators are rapidly adopting large‑load tariffs to manage the surge in AI‑driven data center interconnection requests, with 77 tariffs now pending or active in 36 states. In 2025, 29 new tariffs were approved, more than double the total approved...
Generation Declined 0.7% Year over Year in January While Prices Went up 9.5%
U.S. electricity generation slipped 0.7% year‑over‑year in January despite heightened demand from Winter Storm Fern. Residential retail electricity rates jumped 9.5%, while overall retail sales fell 1.7%. Natural gas prices surged 86% YoY, reshaping the generation mix, with the Northeast posting...
Before We Build More Gas Pipelines, We Need Better Data
Researchers at NYU, Washington State University and Penn State argue that the United States must prioritize better data before committing billions of dollars to new gas pipelines. Their integrated gas‑electric modeling shows that missing information on generator locations, operating states,...
Ameren Begins Testing Dynamic Line Rating Technology
Ameren Transmission Co. of Illinois has begun piloting Heimdall Power’s dynamic line rating (DLR) technology on its most congested transmission corridors. Since December, the utility installed 15 sensor units that clamp onto lines and will add another 15 before year‑end....
AMP, Ratepayer Advocates Oppose ROE, Rates Proposed for $1.1B AEP-FirstEnergy Transmission Project
American Municipal Power and ratepayer advocates in Maryland and Ohio have filed protests with FERC against Grid Growth Ohio’s proposed 10.8% return on equity for a $1.1 billion, 60% ratepayer‑funded transmission project serving data centers. The joint venture of Transource Energy and...
Managing Volatile Energy Prices: How DERMS Give C&I Customers More Control
Commercial electricity prices have jumped 19% since 2019, reaching 12.8 cents per kilowatt‑hour, while industrial rates hit 8.1 cents/kWh, driving unprecedented cost volatility for C&I firms. Traditional procurement and efficiency measures no longer shield margins, prompting a shift toward Distributed Energy Resource...
Redefining Data Center Power Strategies in the AI Era
AI‑driven data centers are scaling to gigawatt‑size campuses, straining grid capacity and prompting developers to prioritize power availability over traditional site factors. A 2026 Bloom Energy report shows developers are moving to new regions and increasingly adopting dedicated onsite generation,...
Fleet Electrification Is Running Into the Grid. Planning and Operations Need to Catch Up.
U.S. fleets are accelerating electrification, but grid interconnection and capacity constraints are emerging as the primary bottleneck. Utilities such as SoCal Edison ($436 million for 30,000 ports) and DTE Electric (19,300 chargers) are offering incentive programs, yet distribution upgrades and interconnection...
Better Grid Utilization Could Save Customers $170B: Brattle Report
A new Brattle Group analysis for GridLab and the Utilize Coalition finds that improving grid utilization by 10% could lower customer electricity rates by about 3.4% and generate $110 billion to $170 billion in savings for U.S. utility customers over the next...
5-Year Waits and Rising Costs: How Demand Is Redefining the Gas Turbine Market
Global gas turbine lead times have stretched to five years for large units and up to three years for smaller models, while prices have surged nearly 50% to about $3,000 per kilowatt. Demand is exploding, with 2025 orders projected at...
Securing the Last Mile: Distribution Visibility for a Stable Grid
The electric grid’s rapid electrification and surge of distributed energy resources are exposing blind spots in low‑voltage distribution networks. Utilities are deploying inexpensive, cellular‑ or LoRaWAN‑connected sensors on transformers to capture voltage, loading, harmonics and outage data in real time....
Why Data Centers Will Need a ‘Bring Your Own Power’ Strategy
AI‑driven workloads are set to push U.S. data‑center electricity demand up 22% in 2025 and nearly triple by 2030, straining an already stressed grid. Grid operators such as PJM warn that extreme‑weather events could push generation capacity to its limits,...
FERC Rejects RWE Complaint over PJM Interconnection Practices
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dismissed RWE Clean Energy's complaint that PJM Interconnection violated cost‑allocation rules after the project’s upgrade estimate ballooned from $1.25 million to nearly $72 million, prompting the developer to withdraw a 125‑MW solar‑battery project. At the same...
Winter Storms Underscore Data Center Threats to Grid Reliability, Affordability
Winter storms in January exposed how rapidly expanding data centers are straining the U.S. electric grid, especially in the PJM region where peak demand jumped 4,400 MW. The Union of Concerned Scientists warns that uncontrolled data‑center growth, combined with aging transmission...
Electric Sector Gas Use Fell 3% in 2025, Partly on Solar, Battery Rise: EIA
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that natural‑gas consumption by the electric‑power sector fell 3% in 2025, marking the first decline amid a record‑high overall gas usage year. Rapid additions of solar capacity and utility‑scale batteries displaced gas‑fired generation, especially...
Battery Developers, Local Officials Ask New York to Roll Back Con Edison BESS Methodology
Con Edison’s revised interconnection framework, featuring a new two‑part test, has effectively halted distributed battery energy storage system (BESS) projects across 85% of its service area. Clean‑energy groups NY‑BEST and NYSEIA filed an emergency petition with the New York Department...
To Strengthen Power Reliability in Extreme Weather, Diversify Grid Resources
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime spotlight on utility poles sparked a conversation about America’s aging grid, highlighting how extreme weather is exposing systemic fragility. Recent storms in Texas, from the 2021 freeze to Winter Storm Fern, illustrate that diversified resources—wind,...
Democratic House Bill Aims to Overturn Trump Electricity Policies
Democratic Representatives Sean Casten and Mike Levin introduced the Energy Bills Relief Act, a sweeping clean electricity proposal that seeks to undo key Trump‑era policies such as fast‑track grid access for gas‑fired plants and the removal of renewable tax credits....
Utilities Weigh Regional Resource Adequacy Under New Western Market
Western utilities are evaluating a regional resource adequacy (RA) program as the new Regional Organization for Western Energy (ROWE) prepares to take over the Extended Day‑Ahead Market (EDAM) and the Western Energy Imbalance Market in 2028. PacifiCorp, NV Energy and...
New Jersey Announces 355-MW Storage Procurement, Solicits 645 MW More
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved incentives for three transmission‑connected battery projects totaling 355 MW and simultaneously opened a solicitation for an additional 645 MW of standalone or solar‑plus‑storage capacity. The combined 1 GW procurement meets the BPU’s short‑term target and...
Utilities Have Made $200B+ in Profit Since 2021, New Report Says
Investor‑owned utilities have generated more than $200 billion in net income from 2021 through 2025, according to the Energy and Policy Institute. Their average profit margin rose to 14.6 cents per dollar collected in 2025, up from 12.8 cents in the earlier period....
FERC Approves SPP Merger of Interconnection, Transmission Planning
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Southwest Power Pool’s Consolidated Planning Process, merging generation interconnection with transmission planning. SPP will launch its first CPP window in April and introduce the GRID‑C rate, giving developers upfront cost certainty for network upgrades....
