Good morning. More than 3 GW vanished from PJM in an instant, Texas is staring at a $33 billion transmission fight, and Washington is testing how far nuclear power can go offshore.
Top Stories
3 GW VANISHES FROM PJM IN A SINGLE GRID JOLT
Reuters
A northern Virginia transmission event appears to have pushed data centers onto backup power at once, dropping roughly 3% of system demand and taking the country's largest grid about 10 minutes to stabilize.
TEXAS' $33 BILLION GRID BUILD IGNITES A BIDDING WAR
E&E News
Competition advocates say bidding can cut transmission costs 20% to 30%, while Texas incumbents and nine MISO-SPP utilities argue monopoly construction gets urgently needed lines built faster.
HOUSE GOP ROLLS 20 ENERGY BILLS INTO ONE POWER ACT
Fox News
The 96-page discussion draft would speed pipelines, transmission and power plants, favor dispatchable generation in grid queues and expand federal reliability review of major regulations.
WASHINGTON EXPLORES NUCLEAR POWER IN U.S. WATERS
Reuters
Two federal agencies will coordinate oversight of possible offshore reactors, even as the administration blocks offshore wind and pursues a fourfold increase in nuclear capacity by 2050.
STATES FIND A PATH THROUGH THE CLEAN-ENERGY PERMITTING WAR
Canary Media
Illinois, Oregon, Virginia and Washington led a bipartisan wave of siting reforms, including Virginia's compromise banning blanket solar prohibitions while preserving case-by-case local review.
Power & Grid
WIND POWER CONTRACT PRICES JUMP 17.5%
LevelTen Energy
Wind PPA offer prices rose 5.5% in the quarter and 17.5% year over year as federal permitting delays shrink viable supply, while solar offers fell 4.8%, with most of that decline concentrated in California.
FERC OPENS ITS PJM GOVERNANCE REVIEW TODAY
Utility Dive
Commissioners will hear from states, consumer advocates and market participants on whether the 13-state operator's decision-making structure can keep pace with load growth after a capacity auction that cleared at the cap and still fell short.
NEW JERSEY'S $1 BILLION "ZOMBIE PIPELINE" HEADS BACK TO COURT
New Jersey Monitor
Environmentalists say the state exceeded its authority by licensing Williams' Northeast Supply Enhancement line beneath Raritan Bay after earlier permit denials in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
TEXAS RENEWABLE RULES SPLIT CONSERVATION FROM CONSERVATISM
Inside Climate News
A new advocacy report calls for science-based siting reviews while warning that renewable-only permits and setbacks would raise pollution, strain water supplies and undercut landowner rights.
$2.26 BILLION OF GAS PLANTS TEST WISCONSIN'S RULEBOOK
Utility Dive
Invenergy wants approval for 1,510 MW tied to Microsoft and OpenAI-Oracle load, while critics say construction can advance before regulators fully test need, costs or cleaner alternatives.
Data Centers
DATA-CENTER RATEPAYER BILL CLEARS HOUSE PANEL
The Hill
The bipartisan measure would make states consider rules assigning generation and grid-upgrade costs to large computing loads, but regulators would remain free to reject them.
23 GOVERNORS SIGN TRUMP'S DATA-CENTER COST PLEDGE
USA Today
The Republican governors join nearly 200 utilities, developers and public-power entities in a voluntary pledge whose signatories now cover 80% of electricity delivered nationwide.
DATA CENTERS BECOME A WEAPON IN THE TEXAS GOVERNOR'S RACE
Associated Press
Democrat Gina Hinojosa is courting rural opposition over water, land and power costs as Greg Abbott retreats from subsidies and proposes restrictions in rural neighborhoods.
FERC PUTS AFFORDABILITY AT THE CENTER OF THE LOAD BOOM
POLITICO
Chair Laura Swett is pairing large-load interconnection reform with faster infrastructure approvals as peak electricity demand heads for a 14% increase by 2030.
INSIDE THE SERVER HALLS POWERING THE AI BOOM
Axios
A visit to a test hall in Ashburn shows the physical machinery behind artificial intelligence as America's largest data-center market becomes the center of a national political backlash.
Stat of the Day
52-0
House panel vote advancing the data-center ratepayer bill
A unanimous bipartisan margin on cost allocation, even as the bill leaves states free to reject the rules it asks them to weigh.
The Hill ↗