From backup to backbone: Why utility-led DERs must drive MISO’s resource adequacy plans

Midcontinent Independent System Operator states can use distributed energy resources to meet key goals: cost stabilization, faster time to power, community development and a reliable, resilient grid.

By Jigar Shah • June 20, 2025

Groups appeal DOE ‘emergency’ order keeping Michigan plant online

“There is no energy emergency in our country … and it is illegal to invoke a made-up emergency to overturn a long-planned plant retirement,” the Sierra Club’s Greg Wannier said.

By Ethan Howland • Updated June 20, 2025

Explore the Trendline➔

The Energy Transition to Renewables

Rising demand for power is continuing to drive demand for renewables, but policy uncertainty and mixed signals from the Trump administration add to existing challenges.

By Utility Dive staff

NRC speeds timeline for Dow/X-energy reactor permit review

The 18-month timeline halves NRC’s “generic schedule” for a construction permit application. But Dow is unlikely to greenlight the Texas project before 2028, a spokesperson said.

By Brian Martucci • June 18, 2025

AI is coming for grid-decision making. Here’s why governance can’t be an afterthought.

In the 20th century, infrastructure decisions — where to put highways, site power plants or make upgrades — often reinforced inequities. AI threatens to replicate that pattern — at scale and at speed.

By Brandon N. Owens • June 18, 2025

Senate: Don’t fumble the energy future

Ending clean energy tax deductions would limit power supply and raise electricity prices. It would be like sending a great football team to compete in the Super Bowl without cleats.

By Dean Granoff • June 17, 2025

NRG, LS Power ask FERC to approve $12B gas-fired power plant, demand-response deal

NRG’s capacity in the PJM Interconnection would jump to 9.5 GW from 2.1 GW under the deal, which doesn’t pose market power risks, the companies said.

By Ethan Howland • June 17, 2025

States, ratepayer advocates urge FERC to reject MISO petition to limit market monitor oversight

The dispute grew out of Potomac Economics’ criticism of assumptions the Midcontinent Independent System Operator used to justify a roughly $22 billion transmission expansion plan.

By Ethan Howland • June 16, 2025

Will ERCOT’s streamlined connect-and-manage approach work for other markets?

ERCOT’s single-state, energy-only interconnection process doesn’t include other markets’ deliverability requirements and generator cost certainty needs.

By Herman K. Trabish • June 16, 2025

Michigan regulators order reliability improvements for Consumers Energy, DTE

The Public Service Commission ordered the utilities to tackle 75 recommendations identified in an audit completed last year, focused on reliability and storm restoration times.

By Robert Walton • June 16, 2025

Meeting the challenge of FERC Order 881: Why open source matters for AAR implementation

With ambient-adjusted ratings compliance deadlines set for mid-July, TROLIE offers an open, vendor-neutral standard for the secure, efficient exchange of transmission line rating data.

By Tory McKeag • June 13, 2025

State regulators, utilities support SPP fast-track interconnection plan

But NextEra Energy Resources, clean energy trade groups and others contend it would give utilities a pathway to exclude independent power producers from the process.

By Ethan Howland • June 13, 2025

EPA proposes slashing power plant carbon, mercury emission limits

However, the Environmental Protection Agency’s rationale behind the move may be legally flawed, according to environmental and other groups.

By Ethan Howland • June 12, 2025

GOP lawmakers reiterate asks for clean energy credit tweaks in reconciliation bill

Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Virginia Republican, said “there remains significant room for improvement in preserving the clean energy tax credits” in the Senate’s version of the budget bill.

By Lamar Johnson • June 12, 2025

Prioritize ‘impactful’ power sources for interconnection: DOE’s Wright

“We need to look at that [interconnection queue] process and prioritize projects that are impactful and make it move faster and more efficiently,” DOE Secretary Chris Wright said.

By Ethan Howland • June 11, 2025

A collaborative approach for meeting data center power needs and protecting ratepayers

By working together, sharing risk and embracing innovative solutions, we can foster long-term growth, strengthen the grid and ensure a more equitable distribution of costs and benefits.

By Chris Crosby • June 10, 2025

MISO submits revised fast-track interconnection process for FERC approval

NextEra, Sierra Club and other groups say, however, that the Midcontinent Independent System Operator failed to work with stakeholders on the proposal as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed.

By Ethan Howland • June 10, 2025

Baseload blind spot? Senate should unleash 24/7 clean-energy workhorses

As the U.S. Senate drafts a budget bill, it should value geothermal and hydropower appropriately to secure a stronger, more resilient and more dominant energy future.

By Malcolm Woolf and Bryant Jones • June 9, 2025

MISO resource outlook improves; surplus expected next summer

The potential surplus for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator ranges from 1.4 GW to 6.4 GW next summer, but uncertainty clouds the longer-term outlook, according to the OMS-MISO survey.

By Ethan Howland • June 9, 2025

NERC overstates MISO reliability risks: market monitor

Also, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator has vastly overestimated the power supplies it will need in coming years to meet demand for electricity, market monitor David Patton said.

By Ethan Howland • June 6, 2025

Large load tariffs have a problem. Clean transition tariffs are the solution.

These tariffs were designed to offer large loads access to renewable energy, but they could be expanded to baseload generation to remove at-risk generation from the utility’s books.

By Ben Hertz-Shargel • June 5, 2025

Data center growth and the imperative of economic discipline

Grid access must be treated as a scarce, priced product. That means building markets for interconnection capacity, avoiding socialized costs and ensuring that those who impose system costs bear them.

By Terry Harvill and August Ankum • June 5, 2025

Does PJM have a data center problem?

“Data centers could overwhelm the grids if they chose to,” Joseph Bowring, Market Analytics president, said. He called for requiring data centers to run their facilities on new power sources.

By Ethan Howland • June 5, 2025

Diverse market regions highlight resource adequacy challenge at FERC conference

FERC Chairman Mark Christie posed a hypothetical question: Should the commission require grid operators to establish mandatory reserve margins for all load-serving entities?

By Robert Walton • June 5, 2025

Think small: Why America should bet on small modular reactors

To reach their potential, SMRs will require effective support across the entire development cycle — and a sustained commitment based on bipartisan, long-term political backing.

By Robin Gaster • June 4, 2025

Electricity consumer groups urge FERC to improve load forecasts

Load forecasts, which are surging, can affect wholesale electricity prices and resources adequacy, but they are rife with uncertainty and lack transparency, the groups said.

By Ethan Howland • June 4, 2025