NARUC’s Winter Policy Summit focused on the main issue facing the power industry — how to reliably and affordably interconnect new large load customers.

Climate risk no longer is simply an environmental problem. It’s a governance, planning, and management problem. And it sits squarely on the desks of utility executives, system operators, and policymakers.

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.

Reply comments to the Department of Energy’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to FERC on large loads offered differing paths for the commission to potentially take.

The longstanding links between U.S. and Canadian electricity grid operators won’t be easily fractured by the  tariff-driven political rift between D.C., and Ottawa, industry participants on both sides of the border say.

The U.S. is facing an unprecedented wave of demand growth. Competition between states and FERC is not the answer. Cooperation is, says Nick Myers of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Rising electricity demand is adding to seasonal reliability risks this winter as supply has not kept pace with consumption in many regions, NERC reported in its Winter Reliability Assessment.

State regulators say the push to give FERC jurisdiction over large load interconnections could leave the agency biting off more than it can chew around complex state-run processes, while failing to accomplish the intended goal of speeding approvals of hyperscale data centers.

Not surprisingly, state regulators quickly made their concerns known about DOE's request for a new FERC rulemaking proceeding in order to “ensure efficient, timely and non-discriminatory load interconnections” for large loads, says columnist Peter Kelly-Detwiler.

A new report from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners offers state regulators an extensive set of recommendations intended to address risks stemming from the ever evolving interdependence of the natural gas and electric sectors in the U.S.