The Latest

  • Photo of New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill campaigning in 2025.
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    Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images via Getty Images
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    New Jersey lawmakers send data center tariff bill to governor

    The bill applies to new and existing data centers of at least 50 MW and aims to shield other ratepayers from costs associated with the AI boom.

  • Smoke and steam pouring from smokestacks with orange sky in background.
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    Jon Cherry via Getty Images
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    EPA’s tougher soot standard upheld in court

    The D.C. Circuit rejected a challenge from states and industry groups, leaving the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for fine particulate matter, including from power plants, in place as litigation over implementation continues.

  • A nuclear power plant sits near the shore.
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    Sen. King urges FERC to reject $67B NextEra-Dominion merger

    NextEra Energy’s efforts to kill the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission project is a sign of how the combined utility could stifle competition and harm consumers, the Maine senator said.

  • Interior Secretary Doug Burgum listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a proclamation signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
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    Alex Wong via Getty Images
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    Duke gives up offshore wind lease for ‘partial’ reimbursement under Interior deal

    A Duke Energy subsidiary paid $155 million for the lease in 2022, saying it could support up to 1.6 GW of capacity. The utility now says it will “refocus” nearly $129 million to projects that may include new nuclear, natural gas and grid enhancements.

  • Eos zinc battery storage factory
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    Permission granted by Eos
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    Can zinc-based batteries scale into US storage buildout?

    Support from the U.S. Department of Energy will be critical to the industry’s near-term success as customers look to lithium alternatives, International Zinc Association officials told Utility Dive.

  • Fire damaged power lines are viewed at dawn during the Bridge Fire in Wrightwood, California.
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    Mario Tama via Getty Images
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    Opinion

    From wildfire risk to resilience: How asset investment tools can mitigate the growing challenge

    A shift in asset investment planning can help utilities quantify risk and defend wildfire mitigation plans to regulators, stakeholders and the public, writes Jeff Pauska at IFS Copperleaf.

  • The Capitol's second-floor Rotunda is a geometric mosaic of earth-toned shapes, creating a "marquetry" effect similar to the inlaid woodwork in Renaissance Revival furniture.
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    Alamy
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    California delays emissions reporting deadline by 3 months

    The California Air Resources Board said it will delay the compliance deadline for California’s SB 253 — the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act — and propose “limited changes.”

  • A partly built gas-fired power plant with yellow cranes.
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    Getty Images
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    PJM opposes waiver for $2B gas-fired plant in fast-track interconnection review

    Gas turbine backlogs prompted Advanced Power Services to seek changes to its project in PJM’s fast-track Reliability Resource Initiative interconnection review, but the grid operator said granting such a waiver would be unfair to other developers.

    Updated June 30, 2026
  • Flex, modular data center design and construction
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    Mario Tama / Staff via Getty Images
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    Deep Dive

    Data centers are ready to negotiate flexibility for speed

    Hyperscalers want their data centers online and utilities want to provide interconnections, but experts say both are still looking for common operating guidelines.

  • A sheep grazes among solar panels at a solar farm.
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    Sean Gallup via Getty Images
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    Virginia defines agrivoltaics, expanding opportunities for solar

    Agrivoltaic projects must “ensure flexibility for farmers to adapt to market conditions and support operational needs,” according to the law.

  • Aerial view of a modern houses in a new housing development.
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    Getty Images
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    Utilities are not spending enough on low-income household efficiency: ACEEE

    Energy efficiency becomes more important as prices rise because it is “one of the only direct levers” a household has to reduce its bills, said Anna Johnson, senior policy manager at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

  • An aerial view of solar panels in a field with transmission lines and a crane installing large containers of battery storage in a dirt lot.
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    Courtesy of Intersect Power
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    445 GW — mainly solar, storage — to come online by 2030 as demand growth surges: ICF

    PJM and ERCOT have no spare capacity for demand growth beyond 2027, the consulting firm said. Demand response and GETs can help meet an expected 39% jump in U.S. electric use by 2035, it suggests.

  • Smoke billows from the stacks of a power plant.
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    The image by Chris Light is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
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    Deep Dive

    DOE emergency orders are incurring additional costs. What are the benefits?

    Some of the generating units have operated during tight grid conditions and may have contributed to reliability. Keeping them running costs about $550 million a year, the Sierra Club says.

  • An aerial view of an electric transmission line.
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    Getty Images
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    Texas landowners seek pause in $2B, 765-kV transmission line case over notice concerns

    The Permian Basin power line request says property owners were not properly notified after route changes. The build-out is tied to growing ERCOT grid needs.

  • Trappe Rock Substation, a Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative substation in Ashburn, Va.
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    Diana DiGangi/Utility Dive
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    Opinion

    The grid operates in seconds, but financial settlement still moves in months

    Big Tech is allocating hundreds of billions of dollars for data center expansions; creating reporting frameworks for energy flexibility is the next step, writes Andrii Garanin at Silicon Foundation.

  • FirstEnergy's 1,100-MW coal-fired Fort Martin power plant in Maidsville, West Virginia, along the Monongahela River.
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    Deployable reserves shrinking as coal, gas forced outage rates rise: NERC

    Coal and gas generation saw a respective 39.8 TWh and 19.1 TWh increase in unavailable energy in 2025, said the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

  • About a dozen white wind turbines stand in the ocean as waves crash around their bases.
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    Christopher Furlong via Getty Images
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    California to sue Trump administration over offshore wind buybacks

    The lease cancellations “are causing ongoing harm” to California, which has “invested more than $100 million to support the development of wind energy,” the state’s attorney general said.

  • Two large hyperboloid cooling towers rise above a green tree-covered landscape. One tower emits a thick plume of white steam into a clear blue sky, while the other stands still. The towers are cylindrical at the base and narrow in the middle with a wider top.
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    Alamy
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    DOE offers $17.5B in loans to help build 10 large nuclear reactors

    Dominion Energy, DTE Energy, WEC Energy Group, Public Service Enterprise Group and Entergy Corp. are among the utilities positioned to benefit, according to Capstone.

  • Electric power lines cross a desert.
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    Opinion

    A month into EDAM, the data already shows two very different grids

    The new Western day-ahead market is starting to show where resource mixes, operating constraints and carbon policies create fundamentally different economic outcomes.

  • Man standing at podium in front of blue backdrop on stage
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    Sean Gallup via Getty Images
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    UN secretary general urges AI giants to disclose environmental impact

    António Guterres called on artificial intelligence companies to commit to powering every data center with renewable energy by 2030.

  • A worker installs a solar panel on a flat, white rooftop with a palm tree in the background.
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    Courtesy of Sunrun
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    3 home energy providers offer 16.8 GW of distributed capacity to utilities, hyperscalers

    An executive for Sunrun said active “distributed power plant” programs like one in Puerto Rico underscore the resource’s potential.

  • Google’s SBP1 Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia.
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    Diana DiGangi/Utility Dive
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    GETs, demand response can ease near-term data center electricity price pressure: report

    Data centers could use up to 15% of all U.S. electricity by 2030, up from 5% in 2024, Berkeley Lab researchers said in a separate analysis.

  • Aerial close up of wind turbine in Ohio with a wind farm and substation in the background.
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    Getty Images
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    Grid operators making ‘significant progress’ on generator interconnection reform: AEU

    However, there isn’t yet evidence that interconnection requests are being processed more quickly, according to Advanced Energy United.

  • Electric transmission lines crossing Colorado's Eagles Nest Wilderness.
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    Getty Images
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    Platte River, EnergyHub partner to deploy 39-MW Colorado VPP

    Platte River Power Authority plans to achieve 19 MW from customer-owned distributed resources by 2030, with the first virtual power plant programs launching this summer.

  • A power plant in a grassy field.
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    The image by arbyreed is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
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    Deep Dive

    Power plants under DOE emergency orders are producing way less energy than before

    The Department of Energy ordered six power plants to delay their retirements last year. Two of them produced zero electricity in the first quarter in 2026, and another one is now offline for repairs.