Good morning. DOE is issuing emergency power orders in the Carolinas before summer officially starts, the Pentagon has $47 billion in wind projects frozen, and the AI power curve keeps steepening. The grid is getting its first real stress test of the year.
Top Stories
POWER EMERGENCY HITS THE SOUTHEAST
Bloomberg
An Energy Department emergency order lets Duke Energy run plants at maximum output and exceed some pollution limits as heat strains North and South Carolina.
PENTAGON WIND REVIEWS FREEZE $47B IN PROJECTS
Associated Press
Renewable groups say military siting reviews have stalled 106 wind projects across 21 states, putting nearly 30 GW of power and 120,000 jobs at risk.
PJM CLEARS PATH FOR FULL-POWER NUCLEAR RESTART
Utility Dive
Constellation can transfer capacity interconnection rights to its restarting nuclear unit, letting the plant deliver its full output when it returns, possibly before the end of 2027.
TRUMP COAL REVIVAL RIDES ON UNPROVEN AI POWER PLAN
E&E News
A proposed West Virginia coal and carbon-capture project backed by DOE money could pair with data-center load, but analysts are flagging the developer's thin energy record.
DATA-CENTER POWER USE JUMPS 26%
Gartner
Gartner's new forecast shows AI-optimized servers driving this year's surge in global data-center electricity demand, putting the sector's growth curve well ahead of last year's.
Power & Grid
ERCOT BRACES FOR RECORD SUMMER DEMAND
Axios
Texas grid officials expect peak demand near 92,200 MW this summer as heat, data centers, crypto operations and other large loads keep pushing the system higher.
TEXAS FUND BUILDS PART-TIME GAS PLANTS
E&E News
Two new NRG units at Houston's TH Wharton station are now feeding ERCOT after a taxpayer-backed loan helped finance 456 MW of peak-time gas capacity.
SUMMER SOLAR GENERATION UP 19% FROM LAST YEAR
Utility Dive
EIA expects utility-scale solar generation to rise 19 percent this summer, helping cover hotter weather even as coal generation keeps sliding.
NEW YORK EYES 4 GW OF NEW NUCLEAR
E&E News
State regulators opened a formal process to support Gov. Kathy Hochul's push for new nuclear capacity as New York tries to square reliability with clean-power goals.
INL TESTS NEXT-GEN POWER LINES FOR FIRE AND ICE
Idaho Business Review
Idaho National Laboratory published more than 50 advanced-conductor evaluations, testing materials against wildfire heat, deep cold, ice loading and mechanical fatigue.
Data Centers
AMAZON DEFENDS DATA-CENTER WATER USE
Axios
Amazon says it is 75 percent of the way toward its water-positive goal, but the bigger test is whether efficiency gains can outrun AI infrastructure growth.
O'LEARY PRESSES UTAH MEGA DATA CENTER
Business Insider
Kevin O'Leary says he will keep pushing the Stratos project despite lawsuits and state pressure, starting with a 1.4 GW phase after a much larger 9 GW vision drew backlash.
META DATA CENTER SENDS TEACHER BONUSES SOARING
The Wall Street Journal
Richland Parish teachers are getting unusually large bonuses from sales-tax revenue tied to Meta's $10 billion Hyperion buildout, a reminder of why towns still chase these projects.
XAI ADDS MORE GAS TURBINES, NAACP SAYS
E&E News
The NAACP and allied environmental groups say xAI has installed 11 additional gas turbines since mid-May, bringing the Memphis-area site to at least 57 turbines in a permit fight.
OPENAI SAYS CHINA STOKED DATA-CENTER BACKLASH
Axios
OpenAI says China-linked accounts used ChatGPT to draft posts and cartoons about U.S. data centers and power bills, though the campaign appears to have gained little traction.
Stat of the Day
565 TWh
Projected global data-center electricity use in 2026
Gartner says AI-optimized servers will account for 31 percent of data-center power consumption this year.
Gartner forecast ↗