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Duke Energy announced on its Tuesday earnings call that it will issue $10 billion in common stock between 2027 and 2030 to support its $103 billion capital plan and gas power expansion. The company has signed 7.8 gigawatts of data center load and plans to add 15 gigawatts of new generation capacity. However, rate disputes in North Carolina and Indiana, as well as criticism from advocacy groups, continue.
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is expected to release a revised demand response framework on August 19, in which a "small metering adjustment" could significantly reshape California's battery market landscape. According to Brian Turner, Western Regulatory Affairs Lead at the Advanced Energy Union (AEU), the adjustment could incentivize over 2 GW of behind-the-meter distributed energy resources to participate in CAISO's wholesale market. The proposal treats distributed energy resource aggregators as independent resources, allowing them to export power to CAISO load zones before net load reaches zero, thereby opening a wholesale market value stream for resources such as behind-the-meter batteries.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday overturned a previous panel ruling, blocking the Trump administration from rescinding $20 billion in climate grants. The court found that the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to terminate and recover funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund may violate the Inflation Reduction Act.
PSEG's unregulated generation unit is exploring supplying power to data centers through PJM Interconnection's backup reliability program and has submitted multiple supply proposals during the bilateral contract phase. PJM intends to meet large load demand through a one-time capacity auction and a bilateral contract matching process, with the first batch of bilateral agreements potentially announced in August.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered an audit of all data center projects in the ERCOT interconnection queue, as total interconnection requests reached approximately 474 GW, exceeding the state's historical peak electricity demand by more than five times, with about 90% of new electricity requests coming from data centers. ERCOT subsequently postponed the Batch Zero transmission planning study and plans to request a schedule waiver from the PUCT.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) released a draft virtual power plant (VPP) program on July 15, specifying that customer-side energy storage devices can participate in a two-year technology-neutral project managed by distribution companies, with plans to transition to an open-access VPP tariff mechanism by 2029. The draft responds to Governor Mikie Sherrill's executive order and seeks public comments until August 17.
The U.S. Senate introduced a bill on Wednesday aimed at promoting microgrid adoption, planning to support the development of microgrids and distributed energy resources through a $200 million Department of Energy pilot program and $500 million in state grants. The bill has gained support from the National Association of State Energy Officials, the GridWise Alliance, and electrical equipment manufacturers, and is seen as a significant step toward modernizing the electric grid.
Justin Lopas, co-founder of Base Power, writes that the biggest bottleneck in the U.S. energy transition is the fragmentation of permitting at the municipal level. Two nearly identical home battery installations—one approved the same day for $45, the other taking 12 weeks and costing $992. The article calls for following the precedent of the Telecommunications Act, replacing local fragmentation with national standards, and promoting automated permitting tools like SolarAPP+.
Eversource Energy's second-quarter net income fell 85% year-over-year to $53.7 million, with earnings per share dropping from 96 cents to 14 cents. The company recognized multiple one-time charges, including $111.4 million related to the Aquarion sale, $62 million for transmission ROE refunds, and a $164 million increase in Revolution Wind project liabilities. Management reaffirmed full-year earnings guidance and disclosed several capital expenditure plans and regulatory developments.
Southern Company disclosed on its second-quarter 2026 earnings call that contracted large load capacity in its service area has increased to 17 GW, up 6 GW from the first quarter. CEO Chris Womack stated that the 3.2 GW, 25-year data center contract between Georgia Power and OpenAI will push the company approximately 1 GW beyond its approved capacity and includes, for the first time, a 1 GW flexible demand response provision. The company also revealed that an additional 8 GW of projects are in advanced negotiations, with 3 GW expected to be finalized in the near term.