The forecast: NOAA is predicting fewer storms thanks to El Niño…but that still includes a possibility of up to six hurricanes (and as many as three major ones). 

In Louisiana, Entergy has upgraded over 3K miles of power lines and nearly 62K structures to reduce outages and improve restoration times. 

In Florida, Duke is expanding a “self-healing” technology that can automatically reroute power to homes if it detects an outage. And Florida Power & Light is reinforcing wooden poles and burying 2K miles of power lines. 

Plus, Georgia Power has invested $1.3B in system upgrades over the past three years, including undergrounding and smart-grid tech.

The calls to shrink PJM keep mounting. Weeks after FERC Chair Laura Swett cautioned that PJM may have “grown too big to function,” an anonymous White House official told Bloomberg that “a breakup should be considered if necessary.”

Plus, Pennsylvania appears to be experiencing relationship anxiety. The PA House has unanimously adopted a resolution ordering the state to “study the financial costs and benefits of remaining part of” PJM. 

Meanwhile in PJM, Voltus claims that utilities are hindering third-party demand-response programs by sitting on smart meter data.

Trump is invoking the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to bolster 13 coal plants across the country—and build new ones in Alaska and West Virginia. 

This influx adds to the hundreds of millions the Trump administration has spent attempting to resuscitate the coal industry—with mixed success. Case in point? Both units at an Indiana coal plant kept online by the DOE remain inoperable. 

Zoom out: The announcement arrives as US oil inventories reach their lowest level in two decades, and the Iran war continues to drain stockpiles. 

A data center ban: Monterey Park, California has become the first US city to vote to permanently prohibit data centers (a measure that won 86% of votes). After an investment company proposed a (now-cancelled) 250K sq. ft. project, the community raised concerns over environmental impacts and rising utility prices.

A demand charge demonstration: Protestors interrupted NV Energy President Brandon Barkhuff’s speech at the EEI conference in Las Vegas. They called for the utility to 1) cancel a daily demand charge that’s scheduled to take effect next year 2) address soaring electricity costs and 3) prioritize clean energy.

A law aiming to protect ratepayers: New Tennessee legislation bars municipalities and electric utilities from paying for electrical infrastructure for data centers. The state has seen a flood of new facilities in recent years, including five xAI locations in the Memphis area alone.

The background: That translates to a 9.8% rate hike for residential users, the biggest such request from Consumers Energy in over two decades. The utility said the fresh funds will enable “fewer and shorter power outages for Michiganders,” and pointed to a 28% drop in restoration times since 2021 (thanks to increased grid spending). 

The pushback: MI Attorney General Dana Nessel, who often intervenes in utility rate hike cases, plans to step in. She’s not the only Michigan official putting rate increases under the microscope. In September, state lawmakers floated a ratepayer bill of rights package, which includes performance-based rate making.

The utility has eclipsed 1M California customers with solar systems linked to its grid. (Over 70K of those connections came in the past two years.) Now, PG&E wants to harness all that capacity with VPPs. 

The competition: As the growing balcony solar trend threatens to take more of these watts off-grid, VPPs offer one path for utilities to keep ratepayers in-network.