Commentary

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being adopted across industries at an unprecedented pace, and the electric utility sector is no exception. Faced with rising energy demand, aging infrastructure, and an increasingly complex grid, utilities are turning to AI to innovate and modernize operations. However, adoption of this technology—as with various digital innovation waves preceding it—fundamentally looks […]

A new federal effort to develop nuclear “lifecycle” campuses has produced something Washington, D.C., has rarely seen: states competing for a role in managing America’s used nuclear fuel.

For decades, most large electricity users in the U.S. relied on the grid for the vast majority of their power needs. As long as the grid could deliver reliable, affordable power, there was little reason to think differently. Now, electricity demand is rising faster than new generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure can often be planned, […]

As artificial intelligence (AI)–driven data center demand strains grid infrastructure across the U.S. and beyond, operators are facing rising scrutiny from utilities, regulators, and the communities where they build. Caspar Herzberg, CEO of industrial software company AVEVA, argues that the industry’s response can’t stop at sustainability commitments—it requires operational transparency and measurable performance data that […]

The conversation around data center development has changed dramatically over the past few years. Earlier, when developers needed to evaluate a new facility, the questions were relatively straightforward. Is the market attractive? Can we secure the land? Can we obtain reliable power? Can we raise the necessary capital? All those questions still matter. But a […]

The Trump administration’s decision to unwind offshore wind leases through negotiated buybacks has predictably reignited the debate over renewable energy. Many welcome the move as a correction to policies that heavily favored offshore wind during the previous administration. That debate is perfectly legitimate. However, the recent agreements involving TotalEnergies, Bluepoint Wind, Golden State Wind, Duke, Invenergy, and […]

More than 3 GW of data center load left the PJM system on July 22, 2026, after a single transmission fault. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) investigated the same failure mode in 2024 and found that utility equipment shed none of it. Customer-side protection did all of it. Those settings are about to […]

When federal emergency powers become routine operating procedure, the system is not holding up. It is operating at its ceiling. And the customers who kept their lights on paid triple for the privilege, which means the event that operations survived is one that affordability did not.

As artificial intelligence (AI) adoption accelerates, the gap between electricity demand and grid capacity is widening rapidly. While this trend is often framed as a power generation and transmission challenge, it is equally a procurement challenge. The materials, equipment, and skilled labor required to build both data centers and grid infrastructure are in increasingly tight […]

For most of the last two decades, the anxiety in power planning was about demand: would consumption grow fast enough to justify new capacity, and how would an aging fleet keep pace? That question has inverted. Demand is no longer the uncertain variable—it is the one thing forecasters are confident about. The uncertainty now sits […]

For power generation operators navigating the complex landscape of North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) compliance, two critical questions frequently arise: when does a generation control facility become a Low Impact BES (Bulk Electric System) Control Center, and when does it escalate to Medium Impact status? Understanding these thresholds is essential for proper planning and […]

Critical infrastructure operators should view recent incidents where artificial intelligence (AI) agents escaped containment from test environments and executed successful cyberattacks on a relatively sophisticated production infrastructure as near-misses. This challenge is urgent precisely because AI moves fast and infrastructure moves slow. All indications suggest these were not malicious uses of AI for targeted attacks. […]

Demand for electricity—particularly for large-load users like data centers—is increasing, raising the question of how best to meet the new demand.

What is the best mix of power generation to build and use in the years ahead? For U.S. integrated electric utilities balancing reliability, affordability, and state and federal policy, resource plans are the answer. But like with any model, these plans are only as robust as the information that is fed into them. Investors are […]

Lithium-ion forklift battery life is measured in cycles, not hours. Here’s why hours-based promises mislead, and a simple formula to calculate real battery lifetime for your operation. The average human life expectancy in the U.S. is about 687,000 hours. That number is accurate, but it is also completely useless for estimating your individual lifetime. Car […]

The pace of change in energy markets has never been faster. Price signals that once evolved over days now shift within settlement windows. Geopolitical shocks that once took weeks to propagate through commodity markets now ripple across interconnected European power grids and global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chains in hours. And amid this acceleration, […]

Why Generative Engine Optimization Is the Next Reputation Management Secret Weapon for Energy Brands Energy has become a kitchen-table issue. Bills are climbing. Data centers are being built at a breakneck pace, and new technologies are being launched faster than ever before, often facing NIMBY concerns. As customers and stakeholders look for answers, they may […]

President Trump’s four nuclear executive orders issued on May 23, 2025, represented a historic liftoff for American nuclear energy. COMMENTARY As electricity demand surges, geopolitical energy competition intensifies, and America’s power infrastructure faces mounting strain, the administration acted decisively. It recognized that American energy dominance—and leadership in the digital age—requires a resurgence of nuclear reactor […]

For years, utility wildfire liability was largely framed around a straightforward question: who caused the fire? That question still matters, but it is no longer the only one that matters.

What was the biggest engineering achievement of the 20th century? The automobile? Space flight? The internet? According to the National Academy of Engineering, it was in fact the electric power grid—the one thing underpinning nearly all of them. Centralized electricity has literally powered the growth of the U.S. economy and quality of life for decades. […]

Why AI Data Centers Can No Longer Be Treated as Passive Customers For decades, even very large electric customers fit inside a familiar planning model. A factory, refinery, industrial campus, hospital complex, hospital system, or manufacturing facility requested service. The utility studied the load, identified required facilities, assigned costs, and folded the demand into its […]

As demand for artificial intelligence (AI), hyperscale cloud and high-density computing accelerates, data centers are being built at an unprecedented pace. Yet this expansion is outstripping the fiber infrastructure required to support it—introducing real risks to capacity, cost and timelines. Industry research indicates that without significant investment, global networks will require up to 200 million […]

AI-driven load growth is putting significant strain on the grid, intensifying pressure on utilities and developers to secure firm capacity and meet increasingly compressed delivery timelines. While tools such as transmission optimization can deliver incremental gains, they do not address the core issue: the pace of AI data center expansion is forcing a shift from […]

Join energy leaders in the Space Solar Power Symposium at Experience POWER 2026 in Washington, D.C. A few weeks ago, while opening a panel on Space Solar Power (SSP) at SF Climate Week 2026 co-hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation and the Young Professionals in Energy, Bay Area, I asked the audience a simple question: […]

For much of the past decade, the climate and energy debate has been fixated on how electricity is generated: which technologies are cheapest on paper, how renewables can scale fastest, which breakthrough is

Artificial intelligence (AI) has overturned the long-stable trajectory of U.S. electricity demand. After decades of flat growth, planners and regulators now face a surge driven by hyperscale data

The unique demands of floating offshore wind turbines require a blend of specialized coating systems engineered to help prevent corrosion and extend asset service life in some of the world’s harshest environments.

The global hunt for clean, always-on power is intensifying. Data centers powering artificial intelligence (AI) are signing long-term energy contracts at extraordinary speed. Against this backdrop, geothermal energy—carbon-free and available around the clock—is attracting serious capital for the first time in a generation.

Utilities have long been accused of slow-walking innovation. Fair or not, the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and the subsequent wariness from those responsible for maintaining our most critical infrastructure, has only intensified that perception. But make no mistake: we’re in the midst of the most-rapid technological evolution of utilities in the power grid’s […]

Hydrogen has long been positioned as a cornerstone of the energy transition. But after an intense hype cycle, the conversation is shifting toward a more practical phase defined by targeted deployment and measurable value. Rather than serving as a universal solution to decarbonization, hydrogen is increasingly being recognized for what it does best: complementing electrification […]