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Holy solar. The Vatican is certainly putting its faith in renewables—it’s planning a $117M agrivoltaic project with a capacity of up to 90 MW. Talk about a higher power. ☀️
— Molly, Carrie, and the Energy Central editorial team
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Out West and down South, free daytime power is gaining steam.
You might’ve heard about a recent proposal from California governor candidate Xavier Becerra—he wants to give millions of households up to two hours of free electricity per day (and save them roughly $1K/year).
Meanwhile, Texas ratepayers already have this option: Direct Energy began offering its Free Days Plan to Lone Star State customers in April.
How it works: Direct Energy customers with smart meters qualify for free power each day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Outside of those times, they pay a base charge and fixed rate. “It is particularly beneficial during the summer when Texas is at its hottest and electricity bills spike,” a Direct Energy representative told us over email.
Two birds, one stone: Free daytime hours can encourage consumption when solar is plentiful and ease grid strain at night.
We got the POV on the plan from Mark Eddings, Direct Energy’s VP of Operations:
(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)
Why did Direct Energy launch the Free Days Plan?
Direct Energy developed it in response to evolving customer lifestyles and energy usage patterns. While free nights and free weekends plans have long been available in Texas, they may not benefit customers who use most of their electricity during the day.
As demand rises in Texas, why is this plan important for customers and the grid?
It provides customers with another option to align their electricity plan with how they use energy. For customers who spend more time at home during the day (including retirees and night-shift and remote workers), the plan can offer meaningful value through free energy during designated daytime hours and predictable pricing during evening and nighttime periods.
From an industry perspective, time-of-use products help expand the range of options available to consumers and better align pricing structures with evolving energy usage patterns.
Let’s zoom out: What makes the Texas market unique right now?
Texas continues to be one of the most innovative competitive electricity markets in the country, and customers increasingly expect products tailored to their individual lifestyles and energy needs. We are seeing growing interest in products that move beyond a traditional fixed-rate value proposition, and instead help customers optimize when they use electricity.
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Who should foot the bill for data centers? Harvard Law’s Ari Peskoe weighs in.
The issue: Socialization of grid costs is essentially “baked into how we set [power] prices,” Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School, told Energy Central. But as data centers with city-sized demand crop up, today’s model isn’t cutting it.
So, who pays? Peskoe’s preferred setup is simple: New data centers are triggering billions in grid investment, so they should cover the costs.
One strategy: More private deals directly between data centers and generation developers. This would enable data centers to “procure the system that they want,” Peskoe told us. “They're increasingly very sophisticated at knowing how to do that, and it would prevent these costs from trickling down to everyone else.”
Pennsylvania officials want PJM to rethink its math behind regional transmission planning.
A recent complaint, filed by the Pennsylvania PUC with FERC, criticizes how PJM evaluates certain high-voltage transmission builds (known as Market Efficiency projects).
No fair: PJM’s current method “unreasonably discriminates against some consumers and overstates the value of certain projects,” the PA PUC claims. Why? It tallies predicted consumer savings in some regions, while leaving out cost increases elsewhere, the commission said.
Their request? FERC should order PJM to gauge projects’ economic impacts across the entire PJM footprint. “Before consumers are asked to finance billions of dollars in new transmission investments, regulators and grid operators should have confidence that every significant cost and every significant benefit has been considered,” PUC Chairman Steve DeFrank said in a statement.
Controversial Northeast gas pipelines are notching court wins.
Six years after Williams abandoned its 125-mile Constitution Pipeline, the project is back in action. A FERC environmental review has now given the PA-NY pipeline the go-ahead.
Plus, a federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit over water quality permits for Williams’s long-disputed Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline (NESE). But the project, which would also route PA gas to NY, still faces other legal battles.
The big picture: Gas advocates often argue that stalled Northeast pipelines have prompted some of the country’s highest power prices. And as the region’s Democrat governors promise to lower bills, they’re now seeing these projects in a new light.
Traverse City Light and Power is hiring a line superintendent.
Navopache Electric Cooperative is hiring an electrical engineer.
Walton EMC is hiring a chief executive officer.
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⏸️ Should states pause the data center rollout? We broke down New York's first-in-the-nation data center moratorium, why more than a dozen states are considering similar policies, and the arguments on both sides of the debate:
Thanks for reading. Bye for now!