Good morning. The reality-check phase of the buildout is showing up everywhere today: Texas is sorting real data-center load from speculative interconnection requests, Mississippi is clearing a private-power path for AI, and New England's pipeline politics are bending under the weight of power bills. Let's dig in.
Top Stories
ERCOT PUTS DATA CENTERS THROUGH FEASIBILITY TEST
Houston Public Media
Texas grid operators are weighing a new Batch Zero process to decide which data-center projects can realistically connect, turning speculative load into a planning problem.
PENNSYLVANIA LAWMAKERS HEAR STORAGE CASE
Pennsylvania Capital-Star
Battery advocates told a legislative panel that storage could ease PJM-region stress and help blunt rate pressure as Pennsylvania customers absorb higher bills.
NEW ENGLAND DEMOCRATS WARM TO PIPELINES
E&E News / Climatewire
High energy costs, winter reliability, data-center demand and offshore wind setbacks are pushing some blue-state leaders back toward natural gas capacity.
BIG LOADS COULD MODERNIZE THE GRID OR SHIFT COSTS
Utility Dive
Concentric says large-load growth can help fund grid upgrades, but the contract details will decide whether data centers become anchors or ratepayer liabilities.
VIRGINIA TRANSMISSION ROUTE SHRINKS THE MAP, NOT THE FIGHT
Cardinal News
Valley Link revised routes for its 115-mile, 765-kilovolt line after public feedback, but landowners and local opponents say the project still has a fight ahead.
Power & Grid
NEW HAMPSHIRE NET METERING STAYS MURKY
New Hampshire Bulletin
State lawmakers are ending the session with solar compensation still unsettled, keeping another small but telling rate-design fight alive in New England.
SAFER NUCLEAR FUEL RUNS INTO COST WALL
Canary Media
TRISO fuel is gaining regulatory and startup momentum for advanced reactors, but expensive production and an immature supply chain remain the hard part.
FPL SAYS BURIED LINES ARE BEATING HURRICANES
CBS Miami
Florida Power & Light says underground lines performed five to 14 times better than overhead lines during recent hurricanes, sharpening the resilience case before storm season.
ENERGY FORECASTERS KEEP MISSING THE TURN
Heatmap
A look at bad energy forecasting argues the transition keeps confounding cost and adoption assumptions, a useful warning as the grid plans around new demand.
NAVY TESTS A FLOATING NUCLEAR BACKUP PLAN
SlashGear
The USS Gerald R. Ford is slated for a summer test powering Naval Station Norfolk, a military resilience experiment with obvious grid-backup implications.
Data Centers
MISSISSIPPI CLEARS PRIVATE POWER PATH FOR AI LOAD
Clarion Ledger
A state ruling lets Prado move ahead with private power plants for AI data centers without being regulated as a utility, a precedent worth watching across the Southeast.
SPACEX PUTS WATER RISK IN THE IPO FILE
TechCrunch
SpaceX is flagging water availability as a business risk tied to data-center cooling, pushing infrastructure constraints into investor disclosure language.
UTAH LEADER BACKPEDALS ON O'LEARY DATA-CENTER PLAN
The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams is calling for a scaled-back Box Elder data-center plan after public pushback and political pressure.
AMAZON BUILDS THE LOCAL JOBS COUNTERPOINT
South Bend Tribune
Amazon is pointing to local workforce graduates around its Indiana data-center campus, the community-benefits side of a buildout more often framed by power and water fights.
AI CAPEX GAP STARTS TO RATTLE MARKETS
Forbes
AI infrastructure spending is racing ahead of visible revenue conversion, adding market pressure to the power, water and land fights around the buildout.
Stat of the Day
5–14×
How much better FPL's underground lines performed than overhead during recent hurricanes
The gap sharpens the resilience case for undergrounding — even as cost keeps the debate open.
CBS Miami report ↗