What's Happening in Energy highlights the most interesting findings from public utility commission filings.
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What's Happening in Energy — Sept 18
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Residential Rate Credits // NextEra-Dominion Merger // Virginia
Dominion Energy Virginia President Ed Baine submitted testimony detailing NextEra and Dominion’s proposal to expand rate credits for residential customers upon approval of its proposed merger. The original commitments would have credited Dominion's 484,000 residential customers $575 million over two years, equating to a bill credit of $10/month for a typical customer using 1000 kWh.
In the new proposal, credits initially allocated to large load customers under Dominion’s GS-5 rate schedule would be reallocated to residential customers, and NextEra would then bridge the gap to extend the rate credit to four years, bringing the total residential rate credits to $1.15 billion.
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Conditional Batch Zero Classification // ERCOT
ERCOT published its conditional classification of large loads eligible for Batch Zero. Although final eligibility classifications will be released in December, the conditional classifications illuminate the split between base load (not subject to further electricity capacity allocation) and studied loads (electricity allocation to be determined as part of the study).
Here’s the breakdown of the load and generation that will be studied for the WLPUN projects.
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New All-Time Peak Demand Records // ERCOT CEO Update
ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas presented an update to the Board of Directors with an eye-opening topline stat: 2026 saw 21 new all-time peak demand records, including “all-time, monthly, and weekend summer peak records.” The all-time peak demand record was set on July 22, 2026 at 91,134 MW, surpassing the previous record of 85,508 MW set in August 2023. Here’s a table of other previous monthly peak records from 2026. The asterisks indicate that the numbers are “unofficial until final settlements occur.”
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New Large Load Tariff // Schedule TS-LL // Liberty // Missouri
In Missouri, Empire District Electric Company (d.b.a. Liberty) filed for approval of its Transmission Service Large Load (Schedule TS-LL) rate. The tariff includes key provisions expected in a large load tariff: credit requirements, minimum demand charges (80%), exit fees, and a 15-year required Electric Service Agreement (ESA) term. Schedule TS-LL also includes incremental facility charges to recover costs specifically incurred to serve the large load. All charges except the incremental capacity charge would be defined in the ESA.
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Preliminary Report // Large Load Tariff Working Group // New Mexico
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission’s Large Load Tariff Working Group recommended “principle-based” standards rather than statewide minimum numerical thresholds for large load tariffs.
“The middle-ground portfolio based on the Working Group … would suggest that: the Commission allow utility-specific tariff development and adjudication to proceed; issue principle-based policy guidance and/or establish minimum requirements … but without uniform numerical thresholds at this stage; reassess further standardization after further New Mexico implementation experience and relevant, legislative, federal or regional developments; and utilize this established Working Group for further actions.”
The working group, established last month, outlined its recommendations in its preliminary report.
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Expedited Project Review for a 1.8 GW Load // NextEra GridLiance // MISO
NextEra subsidiary GridLiance Heartland submitted an Expedited Project Review request to MISO to conduct two phases of network upgrades near Paducah, Kentucky, to meet a service request for 1,825 megawatts of data center load. The upgrades will cost $436 million and include new circuits, circuit taps and loop-ins , and new 161 kV and 345 kV stations. Phase 1 and 2 upgrades are scheduled to be in service on June 1, 2028, and June 1 2031, respectively.
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No jurisdiction over private BTM power // Valara Holdings // South Carolina
Valara Holdings is constructing a behind-the-meter 450 MW gas plant to serve a data center in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The South Carolina Public Service Commission granted Valara Holdings’ Motion to Dismiss, freeing the company from obtaining a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Convenience and Necessity. The Concerned Citizens of Spartanburg County and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy had petitioned to subject Valara to that requirement, but the Commission found it lacked jurisdiction because the facility was not intended for public use.
“...the Commission lacks subject matter jurisdiction as applied to Valara’s Power Plant, as the facility will not directly furnish or sell electricity generated by the Power Plant to the grid, or otherwise furnish or sell the electricity generated to any third-party for use by retail customers. Valara’s proposed Power Plant is designed as a private, behind-the-meter facility that will self-generate electricity. Moreover, the facility will not export or otherwise sell or furnish electricity to the grid or to a third-party entity for eventual use by electric retail customers.”
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Pricey Turbines = New Cost of New Entry Procedures // MISO
MISO filed its Net Cost of New Entry (Net CONE) values for its 2027/2028 Planning Reserve Auction. To account for the rapidly rising costs of its reference technology — an H-frame advanced class combustion turbines to align with the EIA — the system operator added a new step to its calculation methodology. The new step applies a scaling factor based on the difference in capital costs between two EIA sources, the annual Assumptions to the Annual Energy Outlook and the quadrennial Capital Cost and Performance Characteristics for Utility-Scale Electric Power Generating Technologies report. Previously, MISO relied solely on the Quadrennial Report, but those values have rapidly become out of date. Here’s a chart showing how those values have diverged.
Halcyon’s Gas Power Plant Tracker estimates simple-cycle turbine values at approximately $1,400/kW in 2027 — considerably higher than the EIA Quadrennial report values for MISO East but much closer to the more recent Annual Report values.
Net CONE values for Planning Year 2027/2028 range from $89,770/MW-year in Local Resource Zones 1 to $105,162/MW-year in Zone 8. (“Net” removes revenues in the energy and operating reserve markets.)
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Revised Regulatory Commitments // PNM Acquisition // New Mexico
PNM, TXNM Energy (the parent company of PNM), and Troy ParentCo (Blackstone subsidiary and proposed parent company of TXNM) initially had their merger and acquisition application rejected due to a $400 million stock transaction that had occurred without Commission approval. After reversing the stock transaction by issuing a $400 million term loan to Wells Fargo, they refiled their application. The revised application includes the following “Revised Regulatory Commitments”:
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The Uncertain Future of Coal // Integrated Resource Planning // Minnesota Power
Minnesota Power (MP) is urging the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to provide certainty regarding the future of Boswell Energy Center Unit 4 (685 MW gross capability). Commission Chair Sieben recommended postponing the decision on transitioning this unit to meet the 2035 coal shutdown deadline until Minnesota Power’s next IRP filing in late 2027. The utility stressed that this uncertainty prevents it from procuring replacement dispatchable capacity in time — specifically, their preferred option for a combined cycle gas plant. They included the following two timelines for comparison.
First up, Chair Sieben’s timeline. In 2035, the utility projects that they will need to “Run Coal/Market Purchase?” for two years until the replacement resource comes online.
Minnesota Power’s preferred timeline would require the Commission to approve an immediate issue an RFP for replacement gas capacity.
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New Docket of the Week
A Fresh Start // Oracle // American Transmission Company // Wisconsin
After having its application to build the Ozaukee Distribution Interconnection Project deemed incomplete (read below — “Excerpt of the Week” for detail), the American Transmission Company (ATC) resubmitted a new application and a fresh docket containing 200+ documents. The project is intended to build new substations and 345 kV transmission lines for Vantage/Oracle’s 1,300 megawatt data center in Port Washington. One exhibit notes that Oracle must pay ATC for the costs of installing a 5-second, 600 megawatt E-STATCOM device to mitigate load variability, with estimated costs of $1.1 billion.
Track the new docket here by clicking “Create alert” in the top right of the docket profile.
Excerpt(s) of the Week