THE DAILY MINE ⛏️

Good morning. Alabama put a price on hosting AI, Washington ordered another coal unit to stay ready despite losing in court, and utilities face questions over storms and stolen customer data. The week starts with the bill for keeping power available.

Top Stories

ALABAMA DATA CENTER PROMISES $270 MILLION TO ITS HOSTS
Birmingham Free Press
Tuscaloosa County approved incentives for Applied Digital's $3.2 billion Delta Forge 2 campus near Brookwood. The company will pay $270 million to local institutions over 20 years and says its 210-MW customer will cover the full cost of electric service.

AI COMPANIES AND UNIONS JOIN THE DATA-CENTER FIGHT
Axios
AI companies, private-equity firms and labor unions formed a multimillion-dollar coalition to defend data-center growth in seven states. The alliance gives developers a coordinated political answer as ratepayer anger and local restrictions spread.

INDIANA INVESTIGATES NIPSCO'S DERECHO RESPONSE
WNDU
Regulators opened a formal case after the August 11 storm left nearly 375,000 customers without power. The consumer advocate questioned the response after about $200 million in vegetation spending; an attorneys' conference today will set the hearing schedule.

CENTERPOINT CONFIRMS CUSTOMER DATA WAS STOLEN
BleepingComputer
A hacker claims to have taken 7.49 million records, including account numbers, billing amounts and partial Social Security numbers. CenterPoint confirmed a breach but not the count, and says its electric and gas operations were not affected.

DOE ORDERS CRAIG COAL UNIT READY FOR A FOURTH TIME
Craig Daily Press
The latest emergency order keeps Colorado's roughly 427-MW Unit 1 available through December 25, two weeks after the D.C. Circuit ruled DOE exceeded its emergency authority by keeping Michigan's Campbell plant open. Owners Tri-State and Platte River have filed three petitions challenging the Craig orders.

Power & Grid

NINE STATES SUE OVER OFFSHORE-WIND BUYBACKS
Utility Dive
Attorneys general filed three complaints over the Invenergy and Bluepoint settlements, calling them collusive and challenging payment from the Judgment Fund. Federal buybacks now total about $4 billion across roughly a dozen leases.

DTE PLANS 2.1 GW OF GAS AND A 2032 COAL EXIT
FOX 2 Detroit
The utility's proposed resource plan adds two gas plants, 4.5 GW of storage and 15 GW of renewable generation while upgrading Fermi 2 nuclear. It would close the Monroe coal plant in 2028 and now goes to Michigan regulators.

CON ED TEST SENDS BATTERY UPGRADE COSTS UP FOURTEENFOLD
Canary Media
Developers say a new interconnection test froze about $1.5 billion across 34 New York City battery projects and added an average of $21 million per project. Con Edison says simultaneous charging could overload local circuits.

FERC REJECTS OKLO'S COMPLAINT AGAINST PJM
Utility Dive
FERC denied Oklo's bid to restore its 750-MW Virginia campus to PJM's study cycle, and the company now expects a delay of at least 18 months. The project pairs 150 MW of nuclear with fuel cells and gas at two Dominion substations.

NEVADA KEEPS ADDING SOLAR AS FEDERAL POLICY TURNS
The Wall Street Journal
NV Energy's resource plan calls for roughly 4.37 GW of new solar and 5.4 GW of batteries as data-center demand climbs. The buildout includes the 700-MW Libra project and the 400-MW Winston project.

Data Centers

PRINCE WILLIAM ENDS MOST BY-RIGHT DATA CENTERS
InsideNoVa
Supervisors voted 8-0 to shrink the county's data-center overlay from about 9,700 acres to 3,641. Projects outside the revised zone now need a special-use permit and public hearing, after a 90-day grace period.

INDIANA CHURCHES ASK MICROSOFT FOR A FAIR SHARE
Ars Technica
A coalition of about 25 groups wants a binding community agreement for Microsoft's $1 billion Granger campus. It says a 1% contribution could produce $30 million to $40 million a year, compared with up to $1 million in one-time grants discussed so far.

SATELLITES CAPTURE THE DATA-CENTER LAND RUSH
The Washington Post
Nearly 100 U.S. hyperscale facilities are operating, 120 are under construction and 460 more are planned. About 60% of the operating sites replaced farmland, shrubland or forest as campuses pushed into cheaper rural areas.

PJM OPENS ITS 6.8-GW BACKSTOP AUCTION WEDNESDAY
MGrid
The one-time procurement offers contracts of up to 15 years. PJM is trying to cover a shortfall left as data centers push demand beyond what its regular capacity auction secured.

WOODWAY PLANS A 22-MILE PIPELINE FOR ON-SITE POWER
Data Center Dynamics
The gas line would feed behind-the-meter generation for an unnamed hyperscale customer. The company has not identified the site or customer.

Stat of the Day

$555/MW-day

Price cap for PJM's backstop capacity auction
That is 71% above the $325 cap in its regular auction.
MGrid ↗