What's Happening in Energy highlights the most interesting findings from public utility commission filings.
Hey there, it's Nat.
We’re leading with something different this week. There was a wave of asset-related movements recently, like critical air permits, construction approvals, and large load energy service agreements. So, rather than starting with a wide lens on all U.S. power markets, we are focusing tightly: this asset, that permit, these agreements.
We’re also prioritizing not just recency, but also change of state: something was in planning, now it’s approved; something was in committee, now it’s agreed. When we can, we also attributeassets to their parent companies, a valuable capability Halcyon continues to improve.
Further down, you’ll find a broader look across the US power market.
Happy reading, and as ever, comments welcome.
What's Happening in Energy — June 5
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Data Centers // Meta // Ohio // Gas-fired power
Will-Power Ohio is building a 350-514 megawatt generation complex for the nearby Meta Apollo data center in Wood County. The plant received its Permit-to-Install for 21 gas turbines and six natural gas-fired engines. Permit-to-Install.
Halcyon explanation of generator emissions.
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Data Centers // PowerConnex // Ohio // Gas-fired power
PowerConneX is planning a 430MW data center in New Albany, Ohio. It just informed the Ohio Power Siting Board that it will file its Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need within 90 days of June 2. It expects to begin construction this year and achieve commercial operations by Q4 2027. (pre-application notice)
Set an alert on the docket here.
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Data Centers // Vantage // Ohio // Generators // Fuel
Vantage is planning a data center with 132 2.75MW Caterpillar generators (363MW total) in New Albany, Ohio. The Ohio EPA just issued an administrative modification to Vantage’s Permit-to-Install-and-Operate to allow the use of hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel. (permit)
Emissions limitations, page 36.
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Data Centers // Google // Indiana // Generators
Hatchworks LLC (registered to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California) is planning a data center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The state Department of Environmental Management approved its request to expand from 34 to 174 3MW emergency diesel generators (525MW in total).
Halcyon’s explanation of the revisions.
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Data Centers // Amazon / Prologis / Fleet / Nova // Nevada // Service Agreements NV Energy applied for approval of five new Large Load Energy Service Agreements, all for data centers in Nevada. Each agreement is outlined below.
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Data Centers // PJM // Load Forecasting
PJM has commissioned Charles River Associates to develop an independent data center forecast this summer, and deliver its findings in November 2026. The timeline is below. Presentation
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Data Centers // PJM // Load
Also in PJM: the regional transmission organization released its Data Center Accuracy Report, rating the prior year’s actual versus forecast load. Dominion’s load was almost 600MW higher than forecast in 2025. Presentation
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Power Prices // Texas
ERCOT released its 2025 State of the Market Report, which finds that:
“Price spikes were 40% less frequent in 2025 than in 2024 (emphasis added). It also shows that their effect on the average hourly price of electricity was lower on both an absolute and percentage basis. This trend likely results from continued growth in installed solar and energy storage capacity, which contributes to high online reserves throughout the year.”
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Crusoe and others // Texas // Net Metering
ERCOT published its recommendations on the proposed net-metering arrangement between Crusoe, Goodnight Wind, and Ensign Infrastructure (which replaced Crusoe as the large load customer in March).
Related: same project, different commission, with testimonies from Ensign and Crusoe. Here’s a summary of the preferred approach to demand reductions.
Ensign argues that demand reduction conditions should apply only to generation resources that provided dispatchable capacity to ERCOT prior to a net metering arrangement, rather than extending to intermittent resources like wind or solar.
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FERC // 2026 Summer Energy Market Assessment
FERC’s summer energy market assessment paints a dire picture for summertime hydro availability. High temperatures, worsening drought conditions, and low snowpack levels could cause the Glen Canyon Dam reservoir levels to fall below “minimum power pool”-- below which the hydropower plant could no longer operate.
According to the report, the Bureau of Reclamation has emergency plans in place, but risk remains: “In total, up to 4,500 MW of hydropower capacity on the Colorado River could be impacted by prolonged drought as soon as August 2026, if adverse conditions persist.”
And another chart: the drivers and voltage levels of new lines and line upgrades on the transmission system. Reliability (2,244 line-miles) and asset renewal (2,019) are both bigger line-mile drivers than load growth (1,997).
2026 Summer Energy Market and Electric Reliability Assessment
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Halcyon Team Query of the Week
Public Comment Excerpt(s) of the Week
In West Virginia, the Monongahela Power Company and Potomac Edison (subsidiaries of FirstEnergy) are applying for a CPCN to build a 1,200 MW CCGT to serve increased load growth driven by data centers. Although not technically a public comment, the following excerpt from a testimony submitted on behalf of the state’s Consumer Advocate highlights an important perspective emerging from ratepayer advocates across the country in large load proceedings.
“I recommend that the Commission recognize behind-the-meter generation as the preferred approach for meeting the electricity demands of new large load customers like data centers, and encourage its adoption as an alternative to utility-owned generation that transfers construction and market risks onto existing ratepayers. The Companies' projected load growth is driven almost entirely by a small number of data center customers.”
At the same time, the docket includes a document amusingly titled “Three-hundred twenty-three letters of Protest.” – all of which are the same form letter.
Most clicked item from last week’s WHiE