Today's issue is built around the politics of keeping up with load growth. Utilities want regulators to approve AI and grid-enhancing tools before they default to more concrete and copper. NextEra and Dominion show how scale is becoming part of the answer. DOE is already in court over emergency coal-plant orders. A Washington Examiner op-ed makes the permitting-reform case in the background. And the data-center fight is widening from Pennsylvania cost allocation to modular builds, underwater facilities, campus backlash, and partisan trust in AI itself.
Top Stories
AI GRID TOOLS RUN INTO THE RATE-CASE WALL
E&E News
Utilities say AI, sensors, and grid-enhancing software could stretch existing infrastructure, but regulators are still skeptical of passing the costs through to customers while bills are already rising.
NEXTERA-DOMINION DEAL PUTS SCALE AT CENTER OF AI POWER BOOM
Axios
Analysts read the mega-deal as a signal that AI-era load growth, higher bills, and regional power constraints reward utilities large enough to finance decades of grid and generation buildout.
IRAN WAR SHOCK REDRAWS THE ENERGY MAP
Fortune
The Hormuz crisis is a global energy-supply shock that could accelerate a shift toward North and South American oil and gas production, LNG exports, and new winners in the energy trade.
STATES CHALLENGE DOE COAL-RETIREMENT DELAY
Utility Dive
A coalition of states told an appeals court that DOE exceeded its authority by ordering Consumers Energy to keep a coal-fired plant online, a case that could shape future challenges to emergency fossil-plant orders.
MISO PICKS AMEREN GROUP FOR ILLINOIS 765-KV BACKBONE
PR Newswire
MISO selected Ameren, GridLiance, Dairyland, and IMEA for two Illinois transmission projects totaling roughly 237 miles of 765-kV lines, with estimated costs of $940 million and $718 million and expected 2034 service dates.
Power & Grid
TERRAPOWER TAPS KOREAN SODIUM-REACTOR SAFETY TECH
KED Global
Bill Gates-backed TerraPower acquired Korean reactor safety testing know-how from KAERI as it moves toward its first U.S. sodium-cooled small modular reactor project in Wyoming.
NEW ENGLAND SEES MODEST LOAD GROWTH THROUGH 2036
Associated Press
ISO New England now expects about 9% electricity-demand growth over the next decade, down from last year's 11% forecast, with heat pumps, electric vehicles, batteries, and at least one large Massachusetts load added to the model.
UTAH TOWNS POOL DEMAND FOR CLEAN POWER
NPR / KUOW
A coalition of Utah cities and towns is trying to procure renewable power through a community program that plans to announce its first project this summer and begin generation by 2030.
DOE RECASTS TITLE 17 LOANS AROUND ENERGY DOMINANCE
The National Law Review
Updated guidance for the federal Title 17 program keeps more than $250 billion in loan authority in play while emphasizing advanced nuclear, critical minerals, long-duration storage, HVDC transmission, and other administration priorities.
SENATE BILL WOULD MAKE AI LOADS PAY FOR GRID UPGRADES
ConsumerAffairs
Sen. Adam Schiff introduced legislation that would require facilities above 50 MW, including hyperscale data centers, to pay the full cost of grid upgrades needed to serve them instead of spreading those costs to other ratepayers.
Data Centers
PENNSYLVANIA WRITES THE DATA-CENTER COST RULEBOOK
Utility Dive
State regulators released a model large-load tariff that would push upgrade costs onto the customers triggering them, including data centers, instead of letting those costs spill across existing ratepayers.
AI BACKLASH SPREADS FROM DATA CENTERS TO CAMPUSES
The Wall Street Journal
Public resistance to AI is widening, from blocked data-center projects to booed commencement speakers and weaker polling for the industry.
CHINA PUTS WIND-POWERED UNDERWATER DATA CENTER INTO OPERATION
Tom's Hardware
A 24-MW subsea AI data center off Shanghai is now in full operation, using offshore wind and seawater cooling to cut cooling load, land use, and freshwater demand.
ARMADA RAISES $230 MILLION FOR MODULAR DATA CENTERS
CNBC
The modular data-center builder raised $230 million at a reported $2 billion valuation, with BlackRock joining the investor roster as demand grows for faster, more flexible AI infrastructure deployment.
AI TRUST SPLITS ALONG PARTY LINES
Axios
Democrats have grown more skeptical of AI companies while Republicans are significantly more likely to trust many of them, turning AI infrastructure into a more visibly partisan political fight.
Stat of the Day
50 MW
Individual-load threshold in Pennsylvania's model large-load tariff
The nonbinding framework would guide utilities on data centers and other big customers, with cost-allocation rules aimed at keeping existing ratepayers from absorbing upgrades triggered by new demand.
Utility Dive report ↗