PG&E announces microgrid awards for $43M as Sunrun joins its 2025 VPP

The nine microgrid projects will serve about 9,000 customers in disadvantaged or vulnerable Northern California communities, the utility said.

By Brian Martucci • April 2, 2025

ISO New England issues transmission RFP to access new wind resources

The grid operator wants to upgrade the transmission system between northern Maine, where wind generation is expected to be built, and demand centers in southern New England.

By Robert Walton • April 1, 2025

Explore the Trendline➔

Reliability

Rising peak demand, extreme weather and other factors are raising power outage risks in the U.S., but FERC and other stakeholders are pursuing multiple actions to address reliability concerns.

By Utility Dive staff

We asked 100 utility program leaders for their top challenges and opportunities. Here’s what they said.

Grid modernization, growing demand and artificial intelligence are among the top issues facing electric utility leaders, according to an ICF survey.

By Justin Mackovyak • March 31, 2025

What your grid models aren’t telling you about electric vehicles

Traditional load management ignores the biggest EV grid impacts. Distribution orchestration is key.

March 31, 2025

Utilities should develop data center tariffs to protect consumers, decarbonize: SWEEP

Rising data center electricity demands threaten utility decarbonization efforts, potentially requiring fossil fuel generation and pulling renewables away from other electrification efforts, per a Southwest Energy Efficiency Project report.

By Robert Walton • March 28, 2025

US energy infrastructure gets a D+ from American Society of Civil Engineers

The energy sector’s 2025 Infrastructure Report Card grade dropped from the C-  it received in 2021, with ASCE citing several threats facing the aging grid.

By Diana DiGangi • March 27, 2025

Outsmarting outages: AI predicts disruptions before they happen

As the energy landscape evolves with renewable resources and electric vehicles, the predictive outage model equips utilities with the agility needed to prioritize maintenance based on real-time data.

By Michael Juchno and Zaki Arifulla • March 27, 2025

PJM fast-track interconnection process draws 26.6 GW in proposals

LS Power offered 700 MW and AlphaGen proposed 450 MW in the grid operator’s Reliability Resource Initiative, the companies said.

By Ethan Howland • March 27, 2025

Trump executive order threatens transmission, interconnection initiatives: former FERC commissioners

President Trump’s executive order compromises FERC’s independence, is “unhealthy, unwarranted, and unprecedented,” threatens power system reliability and is “plainly illegal,” the former commissioners say.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 26, 2025

Renew Home to roll out new VPP features this summer

Renew Home will work with energy providers to incorporate up-to-date tariffs and grid or capacity constraints into an aggregated resource that can dispatch within five minutes, the company said.

By Brian Martucci • March 25, 2025

Why rolling blackouts are a thing of the past — and why President Trump is wrong on green energy

California and Texas show how energy storage can bridge the political divide to bolster grid reliability and lower costs.

By Tam Hunt • March 25, 2025

What if demand response wasn’t so… demanding?

By empowering households to save, we can also create a massive, reliable grid resource.

By Jeff Gleeson, Chief Product Officer at Renew Home • March 24, 2025

EPRI launches consortium to develop power sector AI applications

“AI has the great potential to revolutionize the power sector by delivering the capability to enhance grid reliability, optimize asset performance and enable more efficient energy management," EPRI’s Mansoor said.

By Brian Martucci • March 21, 2025

Schneider Electric, NVIDIA, ETAP collaboration set to advance data center efficiency, operations

The digital twins will analyze inputs, like those from mechanical, thermal and electrical systems, to help operators manage data center facilities in real-time, the companies say.

By Joe Burns • March 18, 2025

Southwest Power Pool could need $263B generation investment by 2050: Brattle

The Southwestern grid operator could need up to to 48 GW of new wind generation, 130 GW of solar and 59 GW of battery storage in the next quarter century.

By Robert Walton • March 18, 2025

Microgrids called a low-burden way to ensure backup power

Facilities managers can lower upfront costs and avoid disruptive maintenance checks by subscribing to a resiliency-as-a-service platform, a microgrid executive says.

By Robert Freedman • March 17, 2025

Bad data in, bad data out: Protecting your investment in ADMS

Modernize construction data collection to unlock the full potential of your ADMS and improve grid efficiency.

By Bob Schultz • March 17, 2025

Growing demand for electricity requires new policy solutions

We need forward-thinking policies that allow public power utilities to finance and build critical infrastructure projects faster without raising costs for the communities they serve.

By Tom Falcone • March 12, 2025

21 House Republicans oppose cutting clean energy credits to pay for tax cuts

“Both our constituencies and the energy industry alike remain concerned about disruptive changes to our nation’s energy tax structure,” the letter led by Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., said.

By Lamar Johnson • March 11, 2025

Solutions for Grid Services

Both utilities and grid operators are looking for solutions to help them build the grid of the future.

By Donna Yates, Freelance Writer, Wesco • March 10, 2025

Beyond traditional demand response: How energy storage is revolutionizing grid reliability

Energy storage transforms grid reliability beyond traditional demand response programs.

By Nate Walkingshaw, CEO & Co-Founder of Torus • March 10, 2025

Avista, PG&E, Ameren AI demonstrations show great potential – but are other utilities ready?

New artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can optimize complexities across the power system if utilities and regulators can make data more accessible — and protect it, experts say.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 7, 2025

Data center supply, construction surged in 2024 amid AI boom

The rush to accommodate artificial intelligence is driving unprecedented demand for power-intensive infrastructures, CBRE says in a report.

By Brian Martucci • March 5, 2025

Grid equipment manufacturers anticipate 2% annual US load growth through 2050

Federal policy and incentives will play a key role in meeting the demand, according to National Electrical Manufacturers Association CEO Debra Phillips.

By Robert Walton • Feb. 26, 2025

Fortress backs behind-the-meter gas turbines to support AI hyperscalers

New APR Energy plans to deploy 100 MW of mobile gas turbines in support of an unnamed data center hyperscaler, and more similar deals are on the way, officials said.

By Robert Walton • Feb. 25, 2025