T&D POWER Direct

Dr. Remy Notermans, director of Strategic Planning for Atom Computing, a Boulder, Colorado-based group developing large-scale quantum computers, recently provided POWER with information about how quantum computing works. Notermans discussed how quantum computing can benefit electric utilities and the power generation sector.

NextEra’s purchase of Dominion Energy, if approved, would have an impact on many areas of the electricity sector. Some analysts told POWER they’re concerned about how it would affect customers’ power bills. Others wonder whether the $67-billion deal s part of a trend that will lead to more mergers and acquisitions in the power space.

Florida-headquartered NextEra Energy, one of the largest U.S. power utilities, is set to buy Virginia-based Dominion Energy in an all-stock deal valued at about $67 billion.

The requests flooding interconnection queues come from data center developers, private equity funds, land brokers, and shell companies, many of whom lack site control, a construction timeline, or even a signed customer. They secure a queue position, bet that powered land will attract a buyer, and wait. The industry calls them “phantom data centers,” and the grid isn’t prepared to handle them.

Utilities are under increasing pressure to move distributed energy resources (DER) through interconnection queues more quickly. In many regions, review timelines have stretched from months into years as requests for solar, storage, and electric vehicle infrastructure continue to rise.

Florida-headquartered Star Catcher Industries said it has raised $65 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round, as the company continues its effort toward building the first space-based power grid. Star Catcher, based in Jacksonville, said the new investment—led by B Capital and co-led by Shield Capital and Cerberus Ventures, the venture arm of Cerberus […]

Grid capacity and the interconnection queue aren’t the only constraints on U.S. data center growth. Community acceptance is becoming the toughest bottleneck to break through, and a hot political topic with the approach of the midterm elections.

Utilities now operate in a far more dynamic environment shaped by distributed energy resources, an increasing number of distributed generation sites, and the emergence of large, high-demand loads and a growing number of connected devices across the grid.

The utilities best positioned to limit outages, liability, and regulatory scrutiny as they mitigate wildfire risk will manage vegetation as an integrated risk intelligence system, directly connected to their network model, enterprise data strategy, and field execution platforms.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has set a June 2026 deadline to act in a high-stakes rulemaking that could redefine how massive new power users—including AI-driven data centers—connect to the U.S. interstate transmission system. In an April 16 order in its “Interconnection of Large Loads to the Interstate Transmission System” docket (RM26-4-000), the commission […]

With the ever-surging demand to power everything from data centers to growing industries, the need to incorporate new energy sources into our grid has never been more pressing, nor challenging.

The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) said it has successfully expanded its service territory. The SPP’s expanded operations took effect on April 1, and tThe regional transmission organization, or RTO, is now aligned with the Western Interconnection of the U.S. power grid.

Though severe weather can happen at any time, April 1 is often considered the start of severe weather season—and now more than ever, utilities need reliable, accessible weather information to keep their staff safe and operations running smoothly.

Electric utilities and energy consumers have discovered the benefits of electrification as a way to decarbonize operations and take advantage of more intelligent power systems. The push for decarbonization

Electricity demand for data centers worldwide is projected to double by 2030. As a result, developers are looking at small modular reactors (SMRs) to add low‑carbon power generation capacity.

Over the past two decades, utilities have invested billions of dollars building a smarter grid—deploying sensors, automated substations, and advanced analytics platforms capable of monitoring system performance in real time.

Electrification has become key for the global move toward cleaner energy, even as government policies continue to impact the use of renewable resources and in some cases embrace continued and even increased support for fossil fuels. Governments and industries wanting to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases look to electrification not only as an environmental […]

America’s power grid is aging into obsolescence. Much of the infrastructure that keeps the lights on today was constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, long before the digital and electrified demands of the 21st century took shape. The consequences are increasingly visible: mounting reliability issues, rising costs, and a growing need to modernize a system never designed for the challenges of climate volatility or the surge in load from data centers and electric vehicles.

With electricity demand projected to rise 25% by 2030 and 78% by 2050 from 2023 levels, utilities are facing a perfect storm—aging infrastructure, climate-driven disruptions, and escalating expectations for reliability and resilience. Meeting this moment will require more than incremental improvement; it demands entirely new sources of capacity, and a fundamental rethink of how the […]

A Texas-headquartered energy company with installations in more than 20 states has brought a utility-scale battery energy storage project online in Maine. Plus Power on February 11 said the group’s 175-MW/350-MWh Cross Town Energy Storage facility is now the largest of its kind in New England.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has released specifications for 26 artificial intelligence (AI) challenges under its Genesis Mission that could reshape how power plants are designed, licensed, built, and operated. Several directly target nuclear plant deployment timelines, grid interconnection bottlenecks, data center load integration, fusion commercialization, and subsurface energy recovery. Launched via executive order on […]

The challenge of upgrading how power is generated, along with needed improvements in electricity transmission and distribution, is being met in a variety of ways by an array of companies.

For decades, utilities have deployed distributed generation along distribution circuits primarily for single-circuit capacity support and voltage regulation. While these applications remain valuable, a broader opportunity is emerging: siting generators directly at substations to unlock system-level benefits that extend far beyond any single feeder. For rural electric cooperatives, municipal power systems, and even investor-owned utilities […]

Global energy company GE Vernova announced the launch of another offering in the group’s GridBeats portfolio, which features software-defined automation solutions designed to modernize electrical grids by improving resilience, efficiency, and flexibility.

Xylem Inc., a global water solutions company, announced the launch of Sensus Evolve, its new intelligent grid platform designed to help electric utilities gain deeper insight, act faster, and adapt to a rapidly changing energy landscape.

S&C Electric Company and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) have announced a collaboration that pairs S&C Electric’s IntelliRupter PulseCloser Fault Interrupter with the upcoming SEL-651RD Advanced Digital Control, giving utilities a new interoperable option for overhead distribution automation. The announcement, made Feb. 2 at an event in San Diego, California, addresses growing utility demand for modernization […]

The company’s O2rigen product line uses a carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) gas blend to eliminate potent greenhouse gas emissions from power switching equipment. Southern States LLC has launched a new line of power switching products that replace sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)—one of the most potent greenhouse gases known—with a natural-origin blend of CO2 and […]

A group dedicated to supporting private broadband networks for critical infrastructure, including the power generation sector, is marking five years of accelerating private broadband adoption to enable power grid modernization.

Sense, a company focused on grid edge intelligence, has announced a new edge-powered Fault Detection Solution that is embedded directly into next-generation smart meters.

By positioning satellites significantly closer to Earth, LEO networks deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity that makes connection speed at an offshore platform or remote location, just as fast and secure as you will find at corporate headquarters.