What's Happening in Energy highlights the most interesting findings from public utility commission filings.
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What's Happening in Energy — Oct 16
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Request for Expedited Treatment // Oracle // Project Jupiter // New Mexico // FERC
Oracle submitted a comment asking FERC to act“as soon as possible” to grant Transwestern Pipeline Co. authorization to construct the pipeline lateral needed to supply gas to Project Jupiter in Doña Ana County. Oracle notes that no further procedural steps remain now that the comment period on the Environmental Assessment has closed. Read Oracle’s comment.
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New CC Facilities with Onsite LNG // Pre-CPCN // Duke Energy Carolinas
Duke Energy Carolinas notified the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) that it intends to apply for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) to construct two 1,365 MW combined-cycle plants, CC4 and CC5, in Davie County for a total of 2,730 MW. The Davie-Davidson Energy Complex would be located near a proposed “Enhanced Liquified Natural Gas Service” (ELNG) facility that would provide fuel security for the plants. Duke proposes to contract for firm intrastate and interstate pipeline capacity with Piedmont and Transco, respectively. Duke expects to file the full CPCN application with the Commission in February 2027. Check out this map of the proposed ELNG facilities.
Proximity to pipeline infrastructure is also a key advantage of the Davie County site:
“The Davie County site’s proximity to existing natural gas transportation infrastructure may help reduce the execution risk and costs associated with construction of incremental intrastate natural gas transportation infrastructure necessary to support two CCs.”
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Lessons from a DC Fast Charging Pilot // Duke Energy // South Carolina
Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress submitted a final report on the results of installing public chargers throughout their service territories under the joint DC Fast Charging (DCFC) program. Although total costs ($8.1 million) far exceed the revenue the chargers brought in ($657k), the utilities gained valuable insights into how to site chargers, collected valuable data on charging patterns, and successfully sold their “Park & Plug” sites to EV Site Solutions in April 2026. Charging tended to coincide with system peaks in the summer but less so in the winter. The report attributes the summer overlap to heavier public charge use during travel season, when waiting for off-peak times is less convenient. Here’s a chart of the daily load shapes from the chargers.
Gas Plant Capacity Doubled // TeraWulf // Kentucky Power
Staff at the Kentucky Public Service Commission filed a memorandum indicating that Kentucky Power will file a CPCN application in a new case to build a 760-megawatt combustion turbine. Why? “...Kentucky Power indicated that due to a finalized agreement with TeraWulf, Inc., the amount of generation initially anticipated has doubled.”
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Net-Metering Arrangement // Amazon // Comanche Peak // ERCOT // PUCT
Amazon signed a Power Purchase Agreement with Comanche Peak (CP), the 2,400 megawatt nuclear plant southwest of Dallas, to power its proposed 1,200 megawatt data center. Now it just needs the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to approve its net-metering arrangement. ERCOT, after reviewing Oncor’s studies, agreed that the arrangement would not cause any violations and recommended that the PUCT approve it subject to conditions consistent with those approved in the other large load net-metering arrangements. Within 30 minutes of ERCOT’s notice to CP’s Qualified Scheduling Entity (QSE), Amazon must curtail its full load and CP must provide its full generation capacity to the grid. Additionally, both CP and Amazon would be subject to any future ERCOT protocols that apply to PUCT-approved net-metering arrangements.
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Columbia Wind // Final EIS // Alliant // Wisconsin
Columbia Wind LLC received the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for its proposed 277 MW Columbia Wind project in Columbia County, composed of 47 Nordex N163 5.9 MW turbines. The developer, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Finance, expects a decision from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission on its CPCN application in Q4 2026 (i.e. very soon!). Check out this map of the project, outlined with a dashed red border, to get a sense of the scale. Dark circles mark proposed turbine locations, white circles mark alternative locations.
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Deficiency Letter // MISO // ZGIA // FERC
FERC issued a deficiency letter on MISO’s Zero-Injection Generator Interconnection Agreement (XGIA), requesting additional information on the following topics:
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The Aftermath of IRAS // ISO-NE // FERC
RTOs are processing the regulatory implications of FERC’s rejection of PJM’s Interim Resource Adequacy Service (IRAS) proposal. NEPOOL released a memo outlining key lessons learned for their own large load curtailment and Bring Your Own New Capacity (BYONC) constructs. Here are a few of those takeaways:
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Data Center Pipeline Filtering // FirstEnergy // PJM
We always like to highlight materials that shed light on how utilities filter their data center pipelines to inform their official load forecasts. FirstEnergy (FE) presented its methodology to PJM, including 16 questions it uses to screen requests. The three with the highest scores if answered in the affirmative are:
Check out the questions here.
The presentation also includes information on how FE models load ramp when a customer doesn’t provide one: the ramp starts at 100 MW and increases evenly every month over 36 months from the initial in-service date. Contracted and pipeline loads together total 22.8 GW, with most of the growth in PJM’s ATSI and APS zones across northern Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. Here’s a chart of FE’s current view of incremental large load demand across its zones over the next twenty years. FE’s total demand is the dark blue line; the orange and dark green lines are the APS and ATSI zones, respectively.
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Motion to Intervene Out of Time // Data Center Coalition // Virginia
The Data Center Coalition (DCC) moved to intervene out of time in the NextEra-Dominion merger proceeding before the Virginia State Corporation Commission. DCC did not initially file a Notice of Participation. However, now that the joint petitioners have proposed reallocating bill credits from the large load rate class to extend the residential rate credit from two years to three, DCC argues that it has an immediate interest in the proceeding.
“Given DCC’s substantial interest in the Petitioners’ alternative proposal to withdraw all previously-proposed bill credits from the GS-5 class customers, DCC would be significantly prejudiced if not afforded the opportunity to participate and be heard.”
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New Docket of the Week
Establishing a “Standard Large Load Interconnection Agreement” // PUCT
Staff at the Public Utility Commission of Texas requested the Commission to “restyle” Docket 59999 as “Rulemaking to Adopt a Standard Large Load Interconnection Agreement.” The pro forma agreement will set the standard for large loads that make it through Batch Zero. Set an alert by clicking “Create alert” on the docket profile here.
Excerpt(s) of the Week
Most clicked from last week’s WHiE