Opinion
The latest opinion pieces by industry thought leaders
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Reliability risk isn’t just about capacity anymore
Winter Storm Fern showed that the integration of flexible resources paired with improved weatherization and better market structures can materially reduce risk during extreme weather, writes Tapas Peshin of PCI Energy Solutions.
Tapas Peshin • March 6, 2026 -
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AI is outpacing America’s power grid. Nuclear must become a national priority.
Nuclear power can scale with the needs of AI, writes Amentum’s Mark Whitney. Companies and communities relying on renewables will risk outages, higher costs and missed opportunities.
Mark Whitney • March 5, 2026 -
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Local control with reasonable county ordinances can support renewable energy deployment
The right regulations and permitting processes can help facilitate renewable resources facing county-level opposition, writes Claire Burch from the Oklahoma Renewable Energy Council.
Claire Burch • March 4, 2026 -
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The physics of reliability: Why gas peakers alone can’t save the modern grid
Most outages don’t start as a multihour energy shortage; they start as a frequency crisis. If you only have gas, you’re trying to stop a bullet with a shield that takes 10 minutes to lift, writes Arun Muthukrishnan from Arevon Energy.
Arun Muthukrishnan • March 3, 2026 -
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From labor to components, America must bring grid modernization home
If the U.S. does not reshore every layer of the grid, it will never be able to power the AI economy it intends to lead, writes Peak Nano CEO Jim Welsh.
Jim Welsh • March 2, 2026 -
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Efficiency first: A fast track to capacity in the era of hyperscalers
Prioritizing demand-side management before committing billions to new infrastructure mitigates risks for utilities and their customers, according to a pair of efficiency experts.
Paige Knutsen and Erin Kempster • Feb. 27, 2026 -
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Governors are promising lower power bills. Here’s the only credible path to deliver.
If we treat every new megawatt like it must be served with new poles, wires, substations and peakers, we will lock in another decade of rate shock, write Jigar Shah and Arnab Pal from Deploy Action.
Jigar Shah and Arnab Pal • Feb. 26, 2026 -
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The New England grid passed one winter test, but market reforms are still needed
Constructive collaboration across business and government should be celebrated while the region works to fine-tune its market to sustain existing investments and drive new ones, writes NEPGA President Dan Dolan.
Dan Dolan • Feb. 25, 2026 -
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The false promise of cheap and reliable coal
Colorado’s youngest coal-fired generating unit will not produce power, or savings, anytime soon. The problems with Comanche Unit 3 highlight the hazards of relying on coal, write clean energy advocates Anna Adamsson and Leslie Glustrom.
Anna Adamsson and Leslie Glustrom • Feb. 24, 2026 -
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The electricity paradox: Driving affordability means infrastructure investment
Energy abundance, AI competitiveness and consumer affordability are not in conflict, but the power sector needs to show that growth can lower bills, not raise them, write Ray Gifford and Matt Larson from Wilkinson Barker Knauer.
Ray Gifford and Matt Larson • Feb. 23, 2026 -
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The ghosts of nuclear past, present, and future: Can you tell them apart?
There’s a lot of chatter about nuclear energy these days, but we need to sort the category to make sense of what is feasible, writes University of Oregon Professor of Practice Joshua Skov.
Joshua Skov • Feb. 20, 2026 -
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Improve transmission affordability by mending the regulatory gap
A two-pronged approach to planning could target inefficient spending while also spurring investments that promote beneficial transmission, writes Advanced Energy United’s Alex Lawton.
Alex Lawton • Feb. 19, 2026 -
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Powering the AI era: Grid technologies for America’s rising energy demand
The electric sector should optimize existing infrastructure while also exploring emerging transmission technologies, writes the Electric Power Research Institute’s Andrew Phillips.
Andrew Phillips • Feb. 18, 2026 -
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Hidden assets: Why data centers don’t have to be the villain
Conventional wisdom treats data centers as inflexible monsters. That characterization made sense a decade ago, but not now, writes GridX CCO Scott Engstrom.
Scott Engstrom • Feb. 17, 2026 -
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The rate case for grid resilience: Why climate change isn’t just about storms
Utilities that delay resilience investments hoping that global climate mitigation efforts will reduce the need for local hardening are taking a dangerous gamble, writes Kai Karlstrom, director of solutions engineering at Repath.
Kai Karlstrom • Feb. 13, 2026 -
Retrieved from U.S. Department of Energy.
Minnesota’s distributed capacity procurement decision could shape the grid far beyond its borders
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission should approve a framework that supports open, competitive participation, writes Coalition for Community Solar Access CEO Jeff Cramer.
Jeff Cramer • Feb. 12, 2026 -
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Electrification is outpacing investment. A federal trust fund could close the gap.
A federal trust fund for energy infrastructure could facilitate grid expansion and maintenance, writes Zane Kinsky, a Clean Energy Leadership Institute 2025 Fellow.
Zane Kinsky • Feb. 11, 2026 -
The coming age of compact fusion: local power for a data-hungry world
The question now is not whether fusion will matter, but how we build it small, fast and local, writes Itay Gissis, vice president of R&D for nT-Tao: “The goal is not to build a bigger star, but to bring the power of the stars within reach.”
Itay Gissis • Feb. 10, 2026 -
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Congressional ‘grid reliability’ bill is like duct tape on a cracked dam
Propping up expensive, dirty power plants threatens consumers with higher prices while punting systemic solutions further into the future, write colleagues from Energy Innovation.
Mike O’Boyle and Silvio Marcacci • Feb. 9, 2026 -
Courtesy of Corning
Why regional manufacturing will power the next clean economy
If regions align around shared climate goals, fragmented progress can become a unified national movement, write Lara Croushore from SecondMuse and Stacey Weismiller of the American Manufacturing Futures Institute.
Lara Croushore and Stacey Weismiller • Feb. 5, 2026 -
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Why reinforcement learning belongs in residential utility billing
Accurate billing is often treated as a back-office function, but billing errors undermine customer confidence, discourage conservation and expose utilities to risk, writes Metergy Solutions analyst Yueqi Tian.
Yueqi Tian • Feb. 4, 2026 -
Courtesy of Georgia Power
Quick fixes won’t solve high energy bills
As grid spending increases, policymakers should look beyond residential customers to cover costs, writes Arjun Krishnaswami, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists.
Arjun Krishnaswami • Feb. 3, 2026 -
Courtesy of Google
The AI boom needs power. Tariffs can make it fair.
Large load tariffs can be used to deliver community benefits, lock in clean, reliable power and strengthen energy resilience, writes Ava Community Energy’s Olivia Vasquez.
Olivia Vasquez • Feb. 2, 2026 -
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Lessons from launching New Jersey’s largest utility-led EV program
Growing PSE&G’s electric vehicle initiative from a pilot to a full-scale program required flexibility and persistence, writes Dawn Neville, the utility’s senior manager of electric transportation.
Dawn Neville • Jan. 29, 2026 -
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How utilities can prepare for the next wave of data center growth
The U.S. grid is unprepared to handle data center power needs. Utilities want to invest, but permitting hurdles remain a major impediment, writes Nexans North America President Tim King.
Tim King • Jan. 28, 2026
