The summer of 2026 tested the U.S. electric grid with record heat and rising demand. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Hourly Electric Grid Monitor (based on Form EIA-930 data), three major regional transmission organizations (RTOs) set new peak hourly load records.Eia PJM (serving roughly 65–67 million people across all or parts of 13 […]
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A short-lived but intense blast of unseasonal heat is colliding with the annual autumn maintenance window, tightening power supplies on grids that serve roughly one-third of the U.S. population and prompting fresh federal emergency measures. On October 13, 2026, Bloomberg reported that temperatures were expected to run more than 25°F above normal in parts of […]
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Hat tip to the Daily Caller and Simon August, Energy Reporter Data centers are powering the AI revolution—but who’s paying the bill? In this episode of Energy News Beat, host Stu Turley digs into a $29.4 billion question that’s about to hit your electricity bill. Federal regulators just rejected most of PJM’s plan to make […]
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If you live in one of the 13 states or D.C. served by PJM, data centers are already on your power bill. The grid’s own market monitor puts their added capacity cost at $29.4 billion over four auctions. On Friday evening, federal regulators threw out most of PJM’s plan to make new data centers bring […]
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ENB Pub note: This article first appeared on the Energy News Beat Substack, and we reached out to Peter Clack about appearing on the Energy Realities or Energy News Beat Podcast. If you want to leave a comment, subscribe to the Energy News Beat Substack. The world is running out of easily accessible high-grade ores, […]
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If the latest Colorado Public Utilities Commission findings surprised anyone, they have not been watching the grid. On September 26, 2026, The Denver Post reported that Xcel Energy’s Colorado customers are losing power more often and for longer periods than they did from 2015 through 2023—and that the pattern continued through the first half of […]
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September 17, 2026 Unseasonable heat is pushing power systems that serve more than 100 million people across the United States and Canada into a tight operating window — just as plants and transmission equipment that were scheduled for fall maintenance are still needed online. Temperatures are running more than 20°F above normal in parts of […]
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American electricity customers are facing sticker shock that goes far beyond ordinary inflation. In the nation’s largest grid region, PJM Interconnection—serving 65 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C.—capacity prices have risen from roughly $29 per MW-day in the 2024/2025 auction to $270, then $329–$333 per MW-day in subsequent auctions. That is an increase […]
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Back-to-back heat waves sweeping the United States are pushing electricity grids to a tipping point, as temperatures topping 100°F (38°C) drive households to max out air conditioners while a surge in around-the-clock demand from AI data centers and factories shrinks power reserves and strains decades-old transmission equipment. This is emerging as the new normal for […]
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The U.S. electric grid faces a critical bottleneck: explosive growth in electricity demand from AI data centers, manufacturing resurgence, and electrification is outpacing the physical expansion of the high-voltage transmission network that moves power across regions. According to energy economists Leonard Hyman and William Tilles in a new OilPrice.com analysis, the country needs roughly 5,000 […]
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