Batteries boost rural Virginia electric providers

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Southeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

STORAGE

• The Blue Ridge Power Agency prepares to launch five 5 MW batteries in Virginia at two rural electric co-ops and a city’s municipal utility that will help them save an estimated $100 million over their 20-year lifespan. (Canary Media)

• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announces the state has reached an agreement with Ford to give it more time to deliver promised jobs after the automaker announced it would convert an EV battery factory to make grid batteries instead. (Kentucky Lantern)

NUCLEAR

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission breaks its record for its fastest-ever license renewal for Duke Energy’s application to run its Robinson nuclear plan in South Carolina for 80 years as the agency rewrites its rules to overhaul licensing and address microreactors and other nontraditional designs. (Canary Media)

• Kentucky utility Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities announces it’s partnering with Maryland company X-energy to explore using its small modular nuclear reactors. (Kentucky Lantern)

SOLAR

• Virginia regulators deny Dominion Energy’s request to cut the rates it pays out to rooftop solar customers who sell back excess energy to the grid. (Augusta Free Press)

• Renewable investment platform Energea announces it’s financing construction of a 140 MW solar farm in Texas. (Renewables Now)

GRID

• Texas ranchers and homeowners bristle over a reduced time frame to voice their concerns about plans to spend $33 billion to build more than 3,400 miles of extra-high-voltage power lines across the state. (E&E News)

• A report by Natural Resources Defense Council finds 103 mostly clean-energy projects in Virginia have been canceled or significantly delayed since 2018 by bottlenecks in upgrading transmission infrastructure to get their projects on the grid. (WHRO)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia rules that gas producer Equinor USA Onshore Properties Inc. is entitled to millions of dollars in refunds after a years-long battle with the state over how it calculates severance taxes. (WV News)

POLITICS

• Republican U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia has established a close, bipartisan relationship with Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island to try to advance energy permitting reform. (E&E News)

UTILITIES

• A new report finds Texas led the country with more than 3 million utility disconnections for nonpayment in 2024, accounting for 9% of customers but 22.5% of shutoffs. (Texas Public Radio)

• The Southern Company reports growing profits for the first part of 2026, due largely to a surge of data center construction in its territories. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Utility Dive)

DATA CENTERS

• Google and utility Entergy shield details of their energy contract for a $4 billion Google data center planned for Memphis, Tennessee. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

• The U.S. Army proposes a 3 GW data center at a Texas fort that could consume more electricity than all 460,000 customers of El Paso’s municipal utility. (Texas Tribune)

• Dominion Energy reports the projected power demand for Virginia data centers is equivalent to that of 12.75 million homes. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

COMMENTARY

• The Trump administration and coal companies continually talk about bringing back the coal industry, but are hurting miners by throttling implementation of a 2024 rule to monitor and restrict silica dust that’s a contributing factor to black lung disease, writes a longtime Kentucky coal miner who is living with the disease. (Kentucky Lantern)

• Investors begin to question Fermi America and its plans to power data centers with nuclear energy, potentially dragging down Texas billionaire Toby Neugebauer’s second business enterprise in a row, writes an energy columnist. (Houston Chronicle)