The Midcontinent Independent System Operator on Friday proposed a set of requirements large loads must meet before they can connect to the grid, including ramping and ride-through specifications. The “interconnection reliability requirements” framework aims to improve MISO’s visibility into large load “characteristics and behavior, support reliable planning and operational decision-making, and establish scalable and technically...
Is Power the Next Shale? America Needs to Adopt Strict Capital Discipline Before the Bill Comes Due
Announced megawatts are like leased acres, but energized, used, and profitable megawatts are like productive wells. The boom is genuine, and success will depend on precision, discipline, and pragmatism.
Trump declares emergency, moves to block some foreign-made equipment from grid
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order preparing to block utilities from connecting some foreign-made equipment to the bulk power system, including transformers, batteries, inverters and associated software and digital products. The order also contemplates the replacement of already-installed equipment, allowing the Secretary of Energy to “impose conditions on the continued use, operation,...
Nevada ‘misses an opportunity’ in performance-based DER tariffs: advocate
Nevada utility regulators cleared the way earlier this month for NV Energy to develop two performance-based credit programs for distributed energy resources that provide energy or capacity services during load flexibility events. Under the Energy Grid Services and Capacity Grid Services riders, customer-sited resources would be eligible to receive payments for dispatched energy based on...
California Legislature passes balcony solar bill
Californians could soon put solar panel kits on balconies and in backyards to lower their electric bills — without utility approval. On Wednesday, state lawmakers passed the Plug and Play Solar Act (Senate Bill 868) to legalize balcony solar, a form of DIY clean energy that’s taken off in Germany. The bill, which garnered bipartisan...
NRIC Adds 13 Projects to Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, Expanding Advanced Reactor and Fuel-Cycle Pipeline
The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) has selected 13 new projects across 12 companies for its Nuclear Energy Launch Pad initiative in a significant expansion of the DOE-authorization pathway that channels advanced reactor and fuel-cycle developers toward demonstration on federal and non-federal sites. The selections—spanning microreactor developers, enrichment startups, fuel fabrication...
Microsoft, PowerHouse Hillwood dispute data center service agreements
Microsoft and PowerHouse Hillwood Holding are in disputes over agreements laying out terms and requirements for serving their planned data centers in Wisconsin and Illinois, according to filings at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The disagreements come after FERC in mid-June found that grid operators’ rules for interconnecting large loads may be inadequate. In its...
Trump Extends Jones Act Waiver. Here’s Why Congress Should Make It Permanent
The United States is the world’s largest oil and gas producer, but energy abundance means little if that energy cannot reach the people who need it.
PJM eyes option to jumpstart surplus interconnection pathway
After an earlier reform effort proved ineffective, the PJM Interconnection is taking a second swing at creating a pathway for bringing generation online by using surplus interconnection capacity at existing power facilities. Surplus interconnection service, called SIS, allows a new generator or energy storage system to connect to the grid at a power facility’s existing...
More Current, Less Cost: Why Advanced Conductors are an Overlooked Grid Capacity Tool
To unlock affordable grid capacity, policymakers should require utilities to consider the best-available line technologies by default, while utilities themselves modernize planning to reinforce their affordability commitment to customers.









