What's Happening in Energy highlights the most interesting findings from public utility commission filings.

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What's Happening in Energy — June 6
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We recently shared word of East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s newly proposed data center tariff. Now, there is a new request to intervene from an important (notably, non-data center!) entity: steelmaker Nucor. Its reasoning is worth quoting in full:

"Nucor’s intervention is likely to present issues or develop facts that will assist the Commission in fully considering the matters at hand. EKPC’s proposed data center tariff is a complicated, precedent setting filing which if not approved could adversely affect the rates paid by all end use customers served by EKPC, including Nucor. Nucor is by far the largest single user on the EKPC system, and is one of the largest users of electricity in the United States. Nucor will be a helpful and active participant should its intervention request be granted.”

Docket profile
Request to intervene

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Florida Power & Light’s proposed $10 billion rate increase is under discussion. Naturally, this is a large complex rate case proceeding involving extensive discovery with 582 interrogatories already served, nine customer service hearings scheduled, and over 300 customer comments received so far (like the one comment below). Check out the other comments, as well as the adjustments FP&L is proposing. 

Docket profile
Proposed base rate adjustments

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It’s summer preparedness season, and in Iowa, utilities including Interstate Power and Light Company, Missouri River Energy Services, Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities, and others submitted their summer 2025 preparedness and grid resilience plans. Specific focus? Peak load and extreme weather events. Iowa’s reporting follows ongoing concerns about electric reliability in the MISO region, particularly in light of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's 2024 assessment that identified the MISO region as high risk for energy shortfalls.
Docket profile

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Bear Valley Electric Service in California has a special place in Halcyon lore (a story for another day). In its recent filing, BVES states its reliability figures, which look …not great, but it also argues that it is unreasonable to assign zero reliability value to its solar energy and battery storage projects.The reasons are due to major events which it did not control: 

“2025 SAIDI numbers are already over double the 2022 total numbers even though we are only in May of 2025. The 2025 numbers are due to major events such as the SCE Public Safety Power Shutoff that occurred earlier in the year (compare the 2022 SAIDI value of 272.40 to the current 2025 SAIDI value of 640.06 in the table below). These types of events are outside of BVES’s direct control.”

Its proposed battery and storage projects, however, will provide energy when it is most needed: during winter, when tourism-driven capacity needs are highest.

Docket profile
Rebuttal testimony

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Get your renewable energy (really) cheap in Wyoming. In its annual update to its Renewable Energy Rider Program, Montana-Dakota Utilities’ requested and received approval to decrease the charge per 100 kilowatt-hour block of renewable energy from $0.22 to $0.01, effective June 1, 2025. So, the intangible attributes of a megawatt-hour of renewable energy are worth…a dime.
Docket profile
Filing

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In Washington State, PacifiCorp says that it will meet its 2025 Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) of 15% with ample room to spare. That’s partly a function of more qualifying resources (almost 200,000 megawatt-hours more) but also lower retail sales (about 80,000 megawatt-hours less).

Docket profile
RPS Report
2025 Renewable Report Workbook

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In Florida, an almost final Flexible Gas Service (FGS) tariff applicable to large industrial Florida City Gas (FCG) customers with alternative fuel or bypass options, would allow negotiated service agreements without requiring individual FPSC approval.
Docket profile

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A wind project in Ohio is shrinking. The Ohio Power Siting Board received the third amendment to Firelands Wind LLC’s Emerson Creek Wind Project. In 2021, the Power Siting Board authorized up to 71 wind turbines with a maximum nameplate capacity of 297.7 megawatts. Thanks to landowner feedback and environmental impact concerns, it’s now down to 49 turbines. Here is a handy table of Emerson Creek’s newly reduced footprint: 

Ohio Power Siting Board Staff Report
Docket profile

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Data centers in Michigan — but not the way you think. Consumers Energy Company is migrating most of its IT data center to cloud-based services, stating increased cloud capabilities offer several advantages, including the ability to scale capacity, pay only for resources that are used, and avoid capital investment and O&M. Accordingly, its  IT hardware investment expectations are down quite a bit. (And yes, the full direct testimony is 1,664 pages.)

Docket profile
Direct testimony

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Last week we brought you SWIFT’s concerns about signal interference from power assets in Virginia. This week, it’s Ohio’s turn: a spectrum conflict between internet service provider New Era Broadband, LLC and AEP Ohio regarding AEP’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) use of frequency-hopping radios in the 902-928 MHz band. New Era suggests that if the AMI is fully built out, the conflict will render their 900 MHz links inoperable.

Docket profile
Request for PUCO engagement