Helene could cause utilities to rethink Appalachia’s grid

GRID: The flooding that accompanied Hurricane Helene could push utilities in Appalachia to rethink the region’s power grid, described by one official as a ​“really far-flung set of distribution lines going up into the hills and serving different communities.” (Grist)

ALSO:

• Hurricane Milton killed at least 12 people and knocked out power to 3.4 million customers in Florida, with experts expecting prices for electricity and natural gas to plunge. (New York Times, S&P Global)
• Some areas along Florida’s west coast may have to wait weeks for their power to be restored after back-to-back hits from hurricanes Helene and Milton. (Herald-Tribune)

CLIMATE:

• Pressed by back-to-back hurricanes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has already spent half of its annual budget for disaster relief just eight days into the fiscal year. (Politico)
• The double whammy of Hurricanes Helene and Milton is likely to push insurers to further raise rates in Florida, exposing the state’s already fragile property insurance market and its reliance on emergency charges and funds to cover catastrophic disasters. (E&E News)

SOLAR:

• New Orleans’ city council votes to consider proposals for a distributed power grid, in which rooftop solar and other individual generators of power can be linked to form a grid. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• A company begins operation of a 306 MW solar farm in Texas. (Renewables Now)

CARBON CAPTURE: Exxon Mobil announces it’s secured leases for 271,000 acres in waters off Texas for an offshore carbon capture project. (Reuters)

EFFICIENCY: Louisiana receives $32 million in federal funds to weatherize and improve energy efficiency at senior living complexes. (NOLA.com)

UTILITIES:

• Environmental groups allege in a new lawsuit that the Tennessee Valley Authority didn’t adequately assess the effects of its plans to replace a coal-fired power plant with natural gas. (Bloomberg, subscription; news release)
• The Tennessee Valley Authority refuses to share information on which large customers are part of its demand-response program in Memphis, Tennessee, or how much power they cut when the grid was stressed. (Daily Memphian, subscription)

OIL & GAS: 

• Another gas well without a clear owner blows out in Texas, marking the eighth time this has happened in the past year. (Texas Tribune)
• A natural gas utility opens a workforce training facility in West Virginia. (WV Metro News)

PIPELINES: Federal regulators assert they have the power to extend the deadline for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to build a spur into North Carolina despite the objections of environmentalists. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

POLITICS:

• With just weeks until the presidential election, conspiracy theories about Hurricanes Helene and Milton run wild on social media despite even Republican officials trying to debunk them. (New York Times, Florida Phoenix)
• Vice President Kamala Harris criticizes Donald Trump for attacking the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, suggesting he’s trying to leverage the disasters to his advantage. (Associated Press)

COMMENTARY: As Virginia deals with a surge of data center development, state officials should keep an eye on a utility’s proposal in Ohio that would require data centers to pay for at least 90% of the power they ask for, regardless of whether they end up using all of it, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)