Duke wants to expand virtual power plant in North Carolina

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STORAGE

• Duke Energy aims to expand its ​“virtual power plant” program in North Carolina that allows it to pull power from residents’ home storage systems when demand is high to include nonresidential customers such as businesses, nonprofits, and local governments. (Canary Media)

SOLAR

• Arkansas’ largest not-for-profit health care organization invests in a 13 MW solar farm, which it expects will provide about half of its energy needs. (Arkansas Business)

• A Virginia county government approves Dominion Energy’s plan to build a 2 MW solar farm on a decommissioned landfill. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

• A Virginia county board considers approving a siting agreement for CEP Solar’s planned 5 MW solar farm to be built on depleted farmland at a cattle ranch. (Cardinal News)

• Origis Energy secures a tax equity commitment from an investment firm to support a 96 MW solar farm in Florida and 209 MW solar farms in Alabama. (Renewables Now)

PIPELINES

• Two Democratic Virginia Congress members demand federal regulators perform a more thorough review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Williams Company’s dueling proposals to expand pipelines on similar paths into North Carolina. (Virginia Mercury)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Louisiana residents and environmental groups are upset after state officials green-light construction of a liquified natural gas export facility even after a judge suspended its permit. (Louisiana Illuminator)

• Republican Texas Congress members defend the state’s oil and gas industry despite concerns that increasing exports of liquified natural gas prices will raise prices domestically. (Houston Chronicle)

• Florida’s U.S. senators and all 28 of its U.S. House members sign a letter urging the Trump administration not to allow oil drilling off the state’s coast, saying it would disrupt tourism and military operations. (WUSF, WTVJ)

• West Virginia regulators conclude their hearing of environmental and advocacy groups’ appeal of their decision to grant a permit for a data center developer to build a natural gas-fired power plant, which an expert testified will likely exceed its permitted emission limits. (West Virginia Watch, Mountain State Spotlight)

UTILITIES

• The U.S. solicitor general urges the U.S. Supreme Court to deny Duke Energy’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that found the utility’s actions against NTE Carolinas II in a dispute over a North Carolina gas plant to be illegal, anticompetitive behavior. (Utility Dive)

• A new report calls on energy regulators to restrict utilities from billing ratepayers before projects are completed, pointing to Georgia Power’s way-over-budget expansion of nuclear Plant Vogtle as an example of how projects can run amuck. (Utility Dive)

• Kentucky community and environmental groups say residents’ incomes have grown at a lower rate than rates for Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, leading them to struggle to pay their power bills. (WEKU)

• As winter sets in, Kentucky offers fewer protections for residents against gas and electric cutoffs than neighboring states because lawmakers consistently failed to pass additional protections for ratepayers. (Lexington Herald-Leader)

DATA CENTERS

• A new report warns that power demand from Texas’ growing data center industry could threaten the state grid’s reliability during extreme cold scenarios such as the 2021 winter storm that nearly caused it to collapse. (KHOU)

• Southern West Virginia residents file a federal lawsuit against New York-based TransGas to block its plans to build an ammonia plant, two gas-fired power plants, and a data center complex. (West Virginia Watch)

• Bitcoin and crypto data mining company Blockchain Power Corp. builds five data centers on abandoned coal mines in West Virginia. (WBOY)

• Virginia’s lieutenant governor-elect calls for legislation and policy changes to force data centers to ​“pay their fair share” by using their own power and supplying more clean energy to the grid. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A network of North Carolina charter schools celebrates the launch of a fleet of electric school buses. (WTVD)

NEW FROM CANARY

• A major networked geothermal project gets underway in Connecticut — Sarah Shemkus

• Trump admin invests $800M in latest move to bolster US nuclear industry — Alexander C. Kaufman

• Delayed heating assistance kicks off a winter of energy challenges — Kathryn Krawczyk