A new industry coalition calling itself Utilize has begun a campaign to make electricity less expensive and quicker to connect by unlocking underused grid capacity.

InfraPartners and Emerald AI's new partnership aims to embed flexibility from the start in data centers, which can make the facilities work much more smoothly with the power grid.

PJM has updated its thinking on the design of its reliability backstop procurement to meet rising data center load, gravitating toward a model in which the RTO would determine the amount of capacity to be purchased and act as the administrator and counterparty to the resulting agreements.

NYISO exceeded its winter baseline peak load forecast on Feb. 7, its COO told the Management Committee.

The challenges of meeting accelerating load growth dominated discussions at EMPOWER 26, Yes Energy’s annual summit.

“Powering Intelligence 2026” estimates data centers could consume as much as 17% of U.S. electricity by 2030.

ERCOT staff have promised more clarity on the link between the initial batch study process for large loads and the subsequent studies and existing planning structure during an upcoming workshop.

ERCOT says the critical path for a successful Batch Zero NPRR relies on a series of approval votes in May before the changes go to the board in June.

MISO said lackluster generating unit performance led to an emergency declaration during the late January winter storm.

Demand flexibility among data centers could reduce the need for new gas-fired generation needed to supply their energy consumption while driving development of additional renewables and cutting electricity prices, according to a Duke University report.