Jonathan Geldof

Highlights from AEPs earnings call this morning --
😨 24GW additional contracted load since last quarter, backed by signed LOAs. 18GW data centers (lotta crypto in addition to AI)
🔋 Believe all of $10B in current renewable projects will be credit eligible post OB3
♻️ Disappointing on reconductoring

Fifth graf thing is basically right. There's also an element of stakeholder management: board members, grantors and donors are on the email list and will want to see a statement.

Still true! @jael.bsky.social

PJM leadership openings are an opportunity to chart a new course Rather than addressing the root causes of its problems, the organization blames states for supply and infrastructure shortages, often defending the very policies that are driving up customer costs.

PJM's attitude towards ratepayers and elected officials within its territory has been off-putting to say the least. I'm impressed with this op-ed by David Lapp at the Office of People's Counsel in MD, which I think makes the argument very persuasively:

www.utilitydive.com/news/pjm-ceo...

Really interesting report surveying the folks actually building new data centers. Unsurprisingly, power is the main constraint. I was particularly interested in the below chart that demonstrates how wide the gap is between solar+BESS and second choices:

alphastruxure.com/wp-content/u...

delete this i'm begging you

America's Nuclear Renaissance: How the TVA Can Lead Our Energy Future Senators Blackburn and Hagerty call for leadership reform at TVA to spearhead America's nuclear revival and compete with China through small modular reactor technology.

Sens. Blackburn and Hagerty are correct that TVA's board is unequipped to provide meaningful oversight to the agency. We need a firm hand at the helm, both at the board and in the CEO's office.

www.powermag.com/americas-nuc...

BLM approves Sapphire gen-tie transmission line and facilities | Bureau of Land Management oday the Bureau of Land Management helped Unleash American Energy by approving the Sapphire gen-tie transmission line and facilities project on approximately 40 acres of public lands in eastern Rivers...

‼️ the trump admin today approved a transmission line for a solar project in california and said it would help meet energy security goals

only in trump’s america is this absolutely massive news — but it is that level of surprising

www.blm.gov/press-releas...

Beating China on AI requires all available grid solutions We will need all available transmission tools — including grid-enhancing technologies and high-performance conductors — to meet the growing demand for power from data centers.

Good stuff from former FERC Chair Chatterjee -- www.utilitydive.com/news/ai-data...

The cheapest way to supercharge America’s power grid Advanced transmission technologies could sidestep permitting challenges and clear the bottleneck holding up hundreds of gigawatts’ worth of renewable-energy projects.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1...

E&E News: Utility operators go to bat for IRA tax credits The power industry defended green energy tax credits at a House hearing. Lawmakers also focused on grid reliability amid rising demand from data centers.

Regulated utilities--the companies who determine what you pay for electricity--told Congress under oath this week what multiple independent studies have already confirmed: repealing tax credits will "immediately harm rate payers."

subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

This is how officials celebrated the Baltic states' synchronization with continental Europe's power grid.

⚡️⚡️

Pretty awesome:

#GoBirds

Congress urged to reform TVA to improve transparency, decision making • Kentucky Lantern Congress should reform the Tennessee Valley Authority’s governance and planning, a renewable energy group says in a new report.

As power demand rises, TVA board needs information from independent experts, says renewable energy group.
Federally-owned utility serves 9 million people across seven states, including Kentucky.
@liamniemeyer.bsky.social kentuckylantern.com/2025/01/30/c...

This feels like the inevitable outcome of massive sports betting+huge disparities between NIL money between schools and even between players on the same teams. Of course some kids are going to look to cash in.

#EnergySky

Happening today! TVA is one of the largest power providers in the country, but we don't talk about it much. Join us for a discussion of what better transmission and interconnection in the region can look like.

www.eventbrite.com/e/tvas-trans...

Join us on 1/30 at 1:00PM for a discussion of TVA's transmission and generation planning (or lack thereof).

#EnergySky

www.eventbrite.com/e/tvas-trans...

Microsoft & OpenAI consider $100bn, 5GW 'Stargate' AI data center - report Enormous supercomputer could launch in 2028

The emergence of 5GW data centers is on the horizon - before most planned 1GW data centers are even built.

#EnergySky

www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/micr...

Would You Put a Wind Turbine on Your Farm? - Ambrook Research More than 90 percent of land-based wind turbines operate on private farmland. But when a wind company comes calling, the response from farmers and their neighbors can be hard to predict.

A good (and timely!) piece on the dynamics facing landowners interested in hosting wind turbines (which often pay ~$10k annually) amid community opposition.

#EnergySky

If the new Energy Secretary is serious about an abundance agenda and energy dominance, he should wholeheartedly embrace his role at DOE to finalize these loans and secure financing for even more utilities to reduce rates and improve reliability.

Infrastructure Investment: The Key to Energy Dominance & Economic Prosperity A common thread among these seemingly disparate challenges is a lack of adequate transmission lines connecting America’s balkanized power grids.

-AI race is straining the grid
-Inflation has left many Americans struggling to pay bills
-Extreme weather has left millions w/o power

"A common thread among these seemingly disparate challenges is a lack of adequate transmission lines." -
@krorourke.bsky.social
www.tdworld.com/utility-busi...

Building the Backbone of the Global Energy Transition: COP29’s Transmission Pledge COP29 highlights the urgent need for HVDC investment to drive the global energy transition.

Good piece on the crucial role of #HVDC in the global energy transition. Across three major cable manufacturers - Hitachi, Prysmian, and NKT - the order backlog is roughly $50 billion.

The backlog is so bad that megaprojects like Xlinks (MOR-UK) and Suncable (AUS-SIN) are investing in their own 🏭.

Grain Belt express should be high on the list, given both how important the project is and how intense some of the opposition has been.

Import AI 395: AI and energy demand; distributed training via DeMo; and Phi-4 Welcome to Import AI, a newsletter about AI research. Import AI runs on lattes, ramen, and feedback from readers. If you’d like to support this, please subscribe. Subscribe now AI is driving a mass…

Couldn't agree more with @jackclarksf.bsky.social - winning AI means building more power and more wires.

"the future of AI competition will be about ‘power dominance’ – do you have access to enough electricity to power the datacenters used for increasingly large-scale training run"

#EnergySky

Well if there's one thing we know about PJM, it's that they would never ditch open access to favor some resources over others.

Top @rhodiumgroup.bsky.social analysis on IRA repeal.

Among many important points for the new admin to consider - rollback being inflationary to reducing US O&G exports - the most salient is the scale of investment at risk, *$435 billion*

#EnergySky

rhg.com/research/tru...

Happening now: Virginia's SCC is holding a technical conference on data centers, including consideration of new tariff structures for large customers.

Virginia is the epicenter of data center development, with ~14GW proj. growth by 2030

#EnergySky

www.vpm.org/1scc

"I just don’t want to have to play, you know, ‘Mother May I’ to the Southwest Power Pool which is a group of 17 states before I add energy to my own grid."

Simply plug in a gas turbine like it's a toaster, what could go wrong?

Gas does face many of the same issues. But because of cost advantages, their smaller scale, and policy there are vastly more renewable resources than gas in interconnection queues. Of 2.6TW in queues nationally, 79MW is gas.