Good morning. Texas has frozen grid connections for new data centers, PJM is preparing a multibillion-dollar reliability auction, and Washington is moving to lock Chinese hardware out of AI infrastructure. Projects bringing their own power remain outside the freeze, strengthening the case for skipping the grid queue entirely.
Top Stories
TEXAS FREEZES DATA-CENTER APPROVALS FOR A POWER-AND-WATER AUDIT
WFAA
Gov. Greg Abbott ordered regulators to verify ownership, power and water demand, tax incentives and community protections before projects can connect, and ERCOT has already postponed its Batch Zero planning study in response.
PJM PROPOSES A $20 BILLION BACKSTOP FOR ITS POWER SHORTFALL
Utility Dive
The one-time auction would seek 6.8 GW, matching the gap left when July's capacity auction cleared at the price cap and still fell short of PJM's reliability target.
WASHINGTON MOVES TO LOCK CHINESE HARDWARE OUT OF U.S. DATA CENTERS
Reuters
The FCC is drafting restrictions on future imports of Chinese-made network components, including optical transceivers that link AI chips at high speed.
AI'S BUILDOUT REMAKES THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
The Wall Street Journal
AI investment supplied nearly 30% of U.S. economic growth in 2025 and remained a major driver in the first half of 2026 as capital and labor shift toward physical infrastructure.
DOMINION'S OFFSHORE-WIND TAB CLIMBS TO $11.7 BILLION
Utility Dive
PJM upgrade charges, new tariffs and turbine-installation revisions added $288 million as the project's completion moved to the end of 2027.
Power & Grid
BASE POWER RAISES $1 BILLION FOR A 39.2-KWH HOME BATTERY
Reuters
The Texas-made Base Core can back up a home for up to 36 hours while joining a virtual power plant that helps balance the grid.
GOOGLE SIGNS A 15-YEAR DEAL FOR OKLAHOMA SOLAR
PV Tech
RWE's 155 MW Crooked Creek project is slated to enter service in 2028 and support Google's operations in the Southwest Power Pool.
BLM REVIVES A FROZEN NEVADA SOLAR PROJECT
Nevada Current
Federal land managers advanced the Nye County development, reopening a utility-scale project that had been stalled in the permitting pipeline.
NEW YORK'S POWER PRODUCERS FIGHT A RETURN TO UTILITY-OWNED PLANTS
Spectrum News 1
Independent generators launched a six-figure campaign against proposals to reverse the state's nearly 30-year separation of utilities and large power plants.
TEMECULA MOBILIZES AGAINST A $2.3 BILLION POWER LINE
Riverside Record
Residents are preparing for a CPUC fight over SDG&E's proposed 145-mile Golden Pacific Powerlink and its route through a high-fire-risk corridor.
Data Centers
WISCONSIN'S GOVERNOR RACE TURNS INTO A DATA-CENTER REFERENDUM
Canary Media
More than three-quarters of voters now say the costs outweigh the benefits as candidates split over moratoriums, coal plants and clean-power mandates.
THE FINE PRINT THAT DECIDES WHO PAYS FOR AI'S GRID
Forbes
Ohio and Virginia are using minimum bills, long contracts and collateral to keep speculative megawatts and abandoned projects off household power bills.
META OPENS ITS FIRST AI-OPTIMIZED DATA CENTER
Austin American-Statesman
The $1.2 billion, 760,000-square-foot Temple campus uses closed-loop liquid cooling and joins at least 76 data centers planned or operating along Central Texas' I-35 corridor.
DATA CENTERS BECOME THE DEFINING ISSUE IN VIRGINIA HOUSE RACES
E&E News
Candidates are campaigning on moratoriums, cost protections and tax-break reform as voter support for the industry's special treatment erodes.
OHIO GOVERNOR CANDIDATE DEMANDS AN 'IMMEDIATE' DATA-CENTER MORATORIUM
cleveland.com
The call for a statewide pause pushes electricity, water and infrastructure concerns deeper into another major 2026 campaign.
Stat of the Day
474 GW
New power requests waiting on ERCOT
Roughly 90% are tied to data centers, spread across more than 1,800 projects and totaling over five times the state's record peak demand.
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