Good morning, and TGIF. Data centers want to cook with gas…but for many, it’s time to hit the brakes. The waitlist for GE Vernova’s gas turbines has grown to a whopping 116 GW (up from 100 GW in Q1). Meanwhile, the company saw a 40% year-over-year drop in wind equipment orders. We wonder why? 🤔
P.S. It’s time to stop sacrificing smart meter battery life. Hear how eSIM is enabling resilient connectivity without draining batteries: Tune into our Aug. 4 webinar with Semtech.
— Molly, Carrie, and the Energy Central editorial team
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PJM has had quite the week…and we’re not just talking about the Technical Conference.
ICYMI…on Wednesday, a transmission line fault in Northern VA’s “Data Center Alley” triggered over 3 GW of load to suddenly disconnect from the grid. This massive drop occurred as data centers automatically shifted to backup power.
It could’ve been worse: It took around 10 minutes for Dominion to stabilize the grid, far longer than the typical millisecond-scale response time. But residents reported only minor problems. This means automatic systems (plus grid operator responses) likely kept things in check.
“The system, as far as we know, and as far as we've seen, responded incredibly well,” Kyle Thomas, VP of engineering and compliance services at Elevate Energy, told Energy Central. “That’s the really good side of this.”
Yes, but: The industry lacks good models and data to grasp when and where these events could occur next, Thomas said. These could inform more tools and practices to mitigate them.
To get ahead of future data center disconnections, NERC is developing a large-loads action plan and new reliability standards. Plus, CAISO and ERCOT are getting proactive with ride-through rules that require data centers to stay online in outages.
The takeaway? New rules aren’t enough—data center operators must collaborate with grid pros to adapt (or upgrade) their equipment to “meet the requirements of the grid,” Thomas told us.
BTW: Rising PJM capacity prices could hurt utilities’ credit ratings as ratepayer concerns compound, according to rating agency Moody’s.
Record-low water levels in major Western reservoirs could curtail the power supply for nearly 1M homes.
What happened: Colorado River reservoir Lake Powell is 23% full (a record low for July), while Lake Mead is 27% full (and less than a foot from its all-time record low, which was set in July 2022).
The stakes: The Colorado River generates enough hydro to power roughly 700K homes. It’s getting increasingly difficult to source this electricity as 95% of the basin faces drought—conditions worsened by one of the driest winters ever documented.
The outlook: The two major reservoirs could continue to reach new record lows every day until next spring, when the snowpack melts again. But at that point, Lake Powell may not have enough water to generate any electricity.
The rush to build new transmission is reviving a decades-old debate.
Down to the wire: The data center buildout has revealed a major power sector blindspot: “These last few decades, we've really been focused on connecting new infrastructure to the grid—not expanding the grid itself,” Brandon Goodwin of Burns & McDonnell told Energy Central. Now, power pros are eyeing long-distance, extra-high-voltage transmission lines to send all those new gigawatts across the grid.
Hence, the age-old question: Will these new lines benefit most from traditional lattice towers or steel poles? Our partners at Burns & McDonnell ran the numbers, and found that the former tends to be more cost-effective.
Yes, but: Material costs alone don't decide the outcome for a given project…so do factors like terrain, construction logistics, and supply chains. So, which option should utilities choose? “Do your homework,” said Zach Brinker of Burns & McDonnell. ✏️
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The US-Saudi Arabia nuclear deal could bolster the industry’s domestic revival.
The deal: The US has agreed to help Saudi Arabia develop a civilian nuclear program (and possibly allow the kingdom to enrich uranium domestically). This 30-year, multibillion-dollar collaboration will give “American companies a central role” in building Saudi nuclear infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal wrote.
The downstream: The Trump administration claims the deal will inject billions into the US nuclear industry, The New York Times reported. Among the possible beneficiaries? Westinghouse, which is already partnering with the DOE on a fleet of up to 10 AP1000 units.
TVA is betting on gas—and thousands of Tennesseans aren’t happy.
The context: The utility’s preliminary 2026 Integrated Resource Plan is sparking ratepayer pushback. Why? Compared with the utility’s 2025 plan, this year’s version tilts away from renewables and toward gas—TVA is eyeing 7-26 GW of new gas by 2040. The org is also delaying coal retirements back to 2039 (instead of President Joe Biden’s 2035 goal.)
The conflict: Some Tennessee residents oppose these plans. This week, Sierra Club announced it had submitted over 3.6K critical comments on behalf of its TN supporters. “TVA is propping up outdated coal plants and doubling down on an expensive and unreliable gas buildout while ignoring the overwhelming support for solar,” said Bonnie Swinford, Sierra Club’s Campaign Organizing Strategist, in a statement.
Brookfield is buying BESS developer Aypa Power for $7B.
Big battery buy: The massive investment firm is acquiring Aypa Power—North America’s biggest standalone battery storage developer, according to current owner Blackstone. Aypa has a 6.5-GW storage portfolio across the US and Canada (and over 20 GW in the pipeline).
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Thanks for reading. See you Monday!