In what has become a familiar refrain, electricity prices and utility spending dominated industry headlines in the last week of October.
But that’s not all. The Trump administration is also asserting itself in new ways by partnering with private companies to build nuclear generation and pushing federal regulators to expand their authority over large load interconnections with the stated aim of standardizing and speeding the process.
Here are those and other notable figures:
By the Numbers
6.1%
The increase in the price of electricity for residential customers in August over the same month last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s monthly update on electricity. The reasons behind the rise in prices are complicated and nuanced, and vary depending on region, said Aaron Denman, who heads Bain & Company’s Americas utilities and renewables practice. He said it’s unlikely data centers alone are to blame for the nationwide increase, but they are driving prices up in specific places.
$1.4 trillion with a ‘T’
How much utilities plan to spend between 2025 and 2030, according to Morningstar DBRS. The firm said U.S. electric utilities are entering a five-year capital expenditure “super-cycle” as they build out transmission and generation networks to meet new demand from data centers.
4%
How much solar power purchase agreement prices in North America rose from the second to third quarter of 2025, according to data from the LevelTen Energy PPA marketplace. With the supply of tax credit-qualified projects likely to dwindle toward the middle of next year, “it’s hard to envision a world where prices are going to decrease,” said Rob Collier, LevelTen vice president. Despite the increasing costs, the value of most PPAs relative to wholesale energy prices has improved in recent months, said another analyst.
$80B
The stated value of a partnership to build more nuclear reactors announced by the federal government and Westinghouse Electric, Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management. According to the announcement, the partnership contains “profit sharing mechanisms” that allow all parties, “including the American people,” to participate in the “long-term financial and strategic value that will be created ... by the growth of nuclear energy and advancement of investment into AI capabilities,” but details remain scarce.
1
The number of large load tariffs rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission since Energy Secretary Chris Wright asked the agency to expand its authority over large load interconnection. FERC’s decision to reject the proposed tariff from Tri-State — a wholesale cooperative based in Westminster, Colorado, with 40 utility members in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming — cited jurisdictional issues over retail sales. Regulators “relied on longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent noting that FERC may not regulate retail sales, which are exclusively within the states’ jurisdiction,” said Steven Shparber, a member at the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo.
