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Good morning. Fall is officially here, but swaths of the country are still mired in a heat dome. As the grid strains to keep up, batteries are offering some relief: In California, Sunrun and Tesla home batteries delivered 580 MW to the state’s grid, marking the “largest residential distributed power plant event ever recorded in the US.”
— Molly, Carrie, and the Energy Central editorial team
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The EPA’s power plant emissions rollback meets the reality of utility planning.
Last week, the EPA said it’s scrapping Biden-era emission rules for coal and gas plants—and wants to wipe out its own power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from generators. Plenty of details remain up in the air…but utilities don’t have the luxury to twiddle their thumbs.
As the ink dries on the EPA’s announcement, orgs are already trying to figure out what actually changes (and what doesn’t) for their existing and future fleets as demand continues to climb.
The big question: Could the EPA’s rollback affect utilities’ integrated resource plans? We asked the energy pros in our newsletter audience, and their answers were all over the map: 45% said yes, 23% said no, and 32% said it’s too soon to say.
It would be “impossible” for the change not to impact utility planning, one respondent said. “Emission controls not only add significant capital cost to a project, but they also consume substantial auxiliary power.”
Meanwhile, another reader saw the wait-and-see approach as necessary: “Power plant regulations at the EPA are a legal minefield,” they said. “It may be years before this all plays out—and who can guess who's running the country by then?”
The utilities weigh in: EC also went directly to utility reps to get their initial reading of the tea leaves. The consensus? The impacts will hinge not only on the language of the rule itself, but also on decisions already embedded in utility planning and state regulations.
“GHG rules are only a single variable that goes into long-term planning scenarios,” an Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) representative told Energy Central. The EPA’s recent decision doesn’t change the existing state environmental regulations that OPPD must meet, and the utility is still committed to reducing emissions.
We heard a similar sentiment from United Power CEO Mark Gabriel. It isn’t clear whether “there will be any immediate impact in the short to mid-term,” he told us. And the Colorado-based electric cooperative is sticking to its coal retirement plans.
The takeaway: “Planning for the winds of political change is never a good idea,” Gabriel said. That’s why utilities are trying to play the long game, weighing potential federal requirements against how to best serve their customers over the long haul.
While states weigh data center regulations, the Trump admin is reviewing at least a dozen proposals for data center projects on federal lands.
New numbers: As part of President Trump’s strategy to accelerate data center permitting, he’s turning to federal lands in the West. The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing “far more” data center-related proposals “than previously known,” the Washington Sun reported. So far, one of those projects has been approved, but it’s being held up in court.
Meanwhile, Texas eases data center fees: Back in March, the TX PUC proposed charging large loads a non-refundable interconnection fee of $50K per MW of “contracted peak demand.” But the commission voted on Friday to remove that requirement. Large load customers will have to pay a flat $100K interconnection study fee—down from the original $100K-$300K fee (based on load size).
And in New Jersey: Gov. Mikie Sherill indicated she won’t follow her Big Apple neighbor in passing a statewide data center moratorium. “That's something the towns can determine,” she told Politico.
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The Ohio PUC approved the sale of AES to BlackRock—under these provisions:
AES Ohio will remain a regulated utility and “may not include any costs related to executing the merger transaction in customer rates.” Members of the Board of Directors with financial interests in the data center industry must “recuse themselves” from participating in relevant decisions.
The context: BlackRock has been working on buying AES for several months. The $33B deal went through despite consumer groups claiming it was against the public’s interest.
Energy affordability is forcing a makeover in the politics of clean energy, according to Republican energy policy whisperer Heather Reams.
The pitch has changed: Instead of urging lawmakers to embrace a particular climate message, there’s a far more effective tactic to influence policy and engage voters, Reams said: framing clean energy in terms of jobs, investment, and resources.
The bigger picture: To address rising electricity demand—and energy bills—Reams highlights nuclear, geothermal, and battery technologies as key solutions. But: This moment is less about choosing one energy source, she argues, and more about adding enough power while keeping electricity affordable and reducing pollution.
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Thanks for reading. Catch ya tomorrow!