Good morning. Washington is moving on who pays for data-center power, the Pentagon may finance the hardware behind AI infrastructure and Texas is confronting the land beneath its next 800 miles of transmission. The buildout is becoming a question of money, steel and property rights.
Top Stories
HOUSE PLANS VOTE ON DATA-CENTER POWER COSTS
Reuters
Leadership will bring the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act to the floor next week under suspension, requiring a two-thirds majority. It would direct state regulators to consider rules making data centers cover the cost of new generation, a softer mandate than the name suggests.
PENTAGON WEIGHS $5 BILLION AI-INFRASTRUCTURE LOAN
The Wall Street Journal
The Office of Strategic Capital is in talks with cloud startup Fluidstack about financing U.S. manufacturing for power equipment, cooling gear and other components needed to deploy AI computing infrastructure.
TEXAS WEIGHS 800 MILES OF NEW POWER LINES
The Texas Tribune
Regulators are considering three 765-kV projects across at least 40 counties. The chairman wants two cases sent back because the record lacks complete reliability findings and estimates of consumer savings.
LANDOWNERS FIGHT POWER LINES FOR META'S $50 BILLION CAMPUS
NOLA.com
Rural property owners are asking courts to block Entergy's expropriation efforts for transmission serving Meta's Hyperion data center. Entergy has sued other owners after saying purchase negotiations failed.
BATTERIES CARRY CALIFORNIA THROUGH ITS HOTTEST AUGUST
Los Angeles Times
The state got through its hottest August on record without a Flex Alert or a single rotating outage. Storage discharging into the evening ramp is the main reason the grid held.
Power & Grid
MASSACHUSETTS UTILITIES AND HYDRO-QUÉBEC TRADE LAWSUITS
Canary Media
Three utilities want $40 million after the new NECEC line missed 12 days of promised winter deliveries. Hydro-Québec counters that the utilities withheld $50 million for power it did supply.
U.S. SOLAR INSTALLATIONS JUMP 45%
PV Tech
Developers added 11.4 GW in the second quarter, a 45% jump, as utility-scale projects rushed to secure expiring tax-credit eligibility. Solar accounted for nearly half of all new U.S. generating capacity in the first half.
EIA SEES POWER USE RISING 2% FOR TWO STRAIGHT YEARS
Utility Dive
Data centers and manufacturing drive the forecast for 2026 and 2027. Commercial customers account for most of this year's increase, while PJM supplies nearly 45% of projected national generation growth.
CALIFORNIA REOPENS ITS UTILITY RATE-CASE RULEBOOK
Utility Dive
The CPUC opened its first comprehensive review of the process since 2007. Regulators will consider tracking actual returns, disclosing long-term capital spending and tying compensation to utility performance.
TRUMP STATES CLAIM 70% OF NEW SOLAR CONSTRUCTION
Grist
Most U.S. solar capacity now under construction is concentrated in states that voted Republican in 2024. The geography puts renewable manufacturing and development inside the states most exposed to federal policy changes.
Data Centers
OPENAI PITCHES UTILITIES ON $1 BILLION GRID DEFENSE
POLITICO
Sam Altman's Daybreak initiative would help utilities defend against AI-enabled cyberattacks. OpenAI hosted security officers from about a dozen utilities and has discussed deployments with Dominion and Southern California Edison.
LOUISIANA DEVELOPER UNVEILS 5 GW POWER PLAN
Interesting Engineering
ONE Nuclear proposed three early-stage projects combining 4.08 GW of gas generation, 300 MW of batteries and up to 1 GW of small modular reactors for data centers and industry.
BILL RELIEF COULD FLIP DATA-CENTER OPPOSITION
Wyoming Public Media
A Yale and Rewiring America survey found 74% of respondents would be more supportive if developers helped lower household energy bills through efficiency, solar, batteries or smart controls.
IOWA GROUP SEEKS PUBLIC REVIEW OF DATA-CENTER POWER DEALS
Iowa Capital Dispatch
A clean-energy group wants more disclosure and public scrutiny of the utility arrangements behind Iowa's expanding data-center load. The push centers on whether other customers are protected from the resulting power costs.
BRESNAHAN PUSHES DATA-CENTER LIMITS WHILE HOLDING INDUSTRY STOCKS
CBS News
The Pennsylvania Republican is advertising a local-control bill while reporting $19,005 to $110,000 in four directly connected operators and suppliers. The measure has not advanced since June.
Stat of the Day
17,000 MW
Battery capacity now available to California's grid operator
Up from less than 100 MW during the rolling outages of 2020.
Los Angeles Times ↗