The draft 2026 Summer Reliability Assessment seems to offer a “pretty positive story” compared with last year’s. It flags three subregions at elevated risk, where operating reserves could come up short amid above-normal temperatures: MRO-SaskPower, NPCC-New England, and WECC-Northwest. That’s down from six in last year’s assessment. 

Why the improvement? MISO, MRO-SPP, WECC-Mexico, and ERCOT are moving from elevated to normal risk after nearly 59 GW of additional resources became available for summer, including solar, batteries, wind, and refurbished nuclear units.

What we’ll be watching: WECC-Northwest. There, rising demand, resource retirements, and delayed planned resources are expected to cut the region’s reserve margin by roughly 5%.

The global oil crunch keeps getting tighter, so the DOE is moving ahead with a 92.5M-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve exchange. It’s the latest slice of the 172M barrels that the US agreed to in a March IEA agreement. The goal: get crude into the market now, and companies return borrowed barrels later. 

LNG is telling the opposite story. In the Permian Basin, production has outrun pipeline capacity, pushing some prices below zero. That means producers are effectively paying buyers to haul gas away. 

The takeaway: US gas abundance is insulating domestic manufacturers, power generators, and data center developers from the price spikes hitting Europe and Asia. It’s also exposing a familiar infrastructure problem: having the fuel is one thing, but you’ve got to be able to move it. ➡️

Phew. Despite all the hyperscale hype in the region, MISO isn’t staring down capacity shortages for Planning Year 2026/27. Plus, the RTO cleared 9.1 GW of demand resources this summer auction—the biggest clearance of its kind in MISO history.

Meanwhile, Southern Company reported that the data centers it serves used 42% more power in Q1 2026 than Q1 2025. It has 28 large loads (11 GW) under contract, up 1GW from late 2025. Its biggest subsidiary, Georgia Power, recently filed a request with the state PSC for 2 to 6 GW of new capacity amid soaring demand.

The state is working through a $33B transmission expansion (3,400+ miles of new high-voltage lines). The main driver? Permian oil and gas electrification, where power demand has outrun the grid. Plus, data centers are compounding the pressure.

Yes, but: Landowners say the approval process is too speedy. A 2023 law halved the PUC’s review window, leaving ranchers and homeowners with less time to object to proposed routes. Some lawmakers who backed the faster process are now asking regulators to hold their horses.

The broader tension: Texas wants reliability, economic growth, and enough wires for large loads. But residential and small-business customers are expected to carry much of the cost, while rural landowners shoulder the siting fight.

PA Gov. Josh Shapiro warns that “the 20th century utility model is broken,” and he notes that modernization is necessary. His advice: Utilities need to raise cost-effective capital, while clearly defending investments and equity returns.

Meanwhile, PA’s PUC is proposing a model tariff for data centers and other large loads. The goal? To help big customers connect quickly while protecting ratepayers from abandoned projects, unused infrastructure, and grid upgrades primarily for new high-demand users.

Why it matters: PA sits inside PJM, where data center demand is already raising capacity costs and bills. The state wants to benefit from large-load growth—without forcing residential and small-business customers to foot the bill.

For context: Eversource, Avangrid, and other NE transmission owners want their base ROE bumped to 11.39%. Ratepayer advocates and state leaders are already lining up against it. 

In March, FERC retroactively cut the region’s base ROE to 9.57%...a decision following 15 years of litigation. The agency put the region’s utilities on the hook for an estimated $1.5B in customer refunds (due May 2027).

The transmission owners say FERC’s lower figure reflects stale market conditions from 2012-13—not today’s environment that demands sustained transmission investment.

SRP signed a plump PPA with NextEra Energy Resources for 3 GW of solar and 1 GW of battery storage, with projects expected to be built across AZ through 2027. At peak production, the new capacity could serve about 675K homes.

The deal lands in a state already deep into solar. Arizona currently has more than 11.4 GW installed, with solar supplying about 16% of in-state electricity. Another 13.8 GW is projected over the next five years—but some Republicans officials are intent on hobbling the renewable rollout.