Illustrated by Perplexity
The defining story of the coming year will be the widening chasm between electricity supply and demand, a dynamic driven by a slow-moving supply side, coupled with the explosive growth of energy-hungry data centers, says columnist Peter Kelly-Detwiler.
FERC revoked the operating license for a troubled dam in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, citing a failure to address safety issues that could cost lives and the owner’s loss of land in bankruptcy proceedings.
DOE has ordered a non-operational 427-MW coal-fired generator in Colorado to be repaired and remain available for 90 days.
Heading into 2026, New England is counting on an increasingly collaborative approach to energy policy as federal opposition to renewable energy development threatens affordability, reliability, and decarbonization objectives in the region.
Columnist Steve Huntoon predicts that the independent federal agencies like FERC will survive the Supreme Court’s revisiting of Humphrey’s Executor v. United States.
Having finally added real-time co-optimization to the market like every other U.S. grid operator with an effort that began in 2019, ERCOT can turn its attention to other pressing issues.
The Extended Day-Ahead Market took center stage at CAISO in 2025 as the ISO tabled other long-term initiatives to ensure the market’s timely launch in May 2026, with PacifiCorp as its first participant.
Reliability concerns in NYISO, including a reliability need in New York City, are likely to dominate discussions in 2026.
MISO has indicated that new generation to serve data centers and other large loads will be mission critical over 2026 and said it will take pains to interconnect units.
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