N.C. grapples with how to feed energy-hungry data centers

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GRID

• North Carolina utility regulators, industry, and advocates gather to grapple with how to handle the coming onslaught of data centers and how best to commit them to limiting their electricity consumption during times of high power demand. (Canary Media)

• A federal judge rules the Federal Emergency Management Agency should have considered solar power in its analysis of how to distribute federal grants to rebuild Puerto Rico’s storm-battered grid, even as the Trump administration moves away from renewables. (E&E News)

• CenterPoint Energy tells analysts it’s connected more than 500 MW of data centers this year and is seeing demand from refiners and the Port of Houston as it pitches a $65 billion spending plan to accommodate expected peak load growth of nearly 50% over the next six years. (Utility Dive)

CLEAN ENERGY

• A report finds the Trump administration’s dismantling of clean energy and climate initiatives has hit Georgia harder than any other state, costing it three clean energy projects worth a total of $2.9 billion and 1,077 anticipated jobs. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

OVERSIGHT

• At their U.S. Senate confirmation hearing, President Trump’s four nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority board tell federal lawmakers they won’t move to privatize the federal utility, but none will commit to its net-zero-by-2050 target. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

• Democrats and Republicans face off in the race for two GOP-held seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission as two Republican members are questioned for taking donations from businesses with vested interests in the commission’s decisions and a Democratic ex-candidate is arrested and charged with a felony count of stealing trade secrets. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Federal documents reveal the Trump administration plans to open significant swaths of the East and West Coasts to offshore drilling, allowing companies to operate off the East Coast for the first time since the 1980s but retaining a drilling ban off Florida. (Houston Chronicle, Politico)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A dozen workers at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant that makes an electric SUV call for a vote on the automakers’ proposed deal with workers in a long-running contract dispute with the United Auto Workers. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

PIPELINES

• The Mountain Valley Pipeline files an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to grow its capacity and build a new compressor station in Virginia. (Roanoke Times)

• West Virginia regulators have cited the Mountain Valley Pipeline for violations five times since it opened last year, including three this year for issues related to erosion control or water quality. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

SOLAR

• A new Houston pilot program aims to address the city’s lack of community resilience centers, with residents creating ​“hub homes” at private residences that have solar panels and batteries. (Associated Press)

STORAGE

• Dominion Energy discusses battery energy storage generation with a Virginia county board, even though the utility says it doesn’t currently have plans to build such a facility there. (Gazette-Virginian)

• Patterson Enterprises announces plans for two 10 MW lithium iron phosphate battery projects in Virginia that could be part of a wave of new storage as PJM Interconnection reforms its surplus interconnection rules. (Utility Dive)

• Georgia Power begins construction of a 200 MW battery storage system. (news release)

EMISSIONS

• The United Nations says governments and oil and gas companies are ignoring nearly 90% of methane leaks that the International Methane Emissions Observatory has flagged for them. (Reuters)

• National and Gulf Coast-area environmental groups sue the Trump administration over its move to exempt chemical manufacturing plants from stricter EPA rules governing cancer-causing air pollution. (Inside Climate News, E&E News)

UTILITIES

• Appalachian Power cites lower energy prices and the addition of renewables as it moves to lower bills an average of $10 per month in Virginia, even as it asked West Virginia regulators for a rate increase because of that state’s requirement that it burn coal instead. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

• The Virginia Energy Reliability Alliance presents itself as a grassroots advocacy organization that supports Dominion Energy’s proposed gas-fired power plant — while also being funded by the utility. (Inside Climate News)

• Florida-based NextEra Energy and the chair of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources are among the donors to Trump’s project to demolish the East Wing of the White House and replace it with a large ballroom. (E&E News)

POLITICS

• Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears fervently endorses the idea of building a small modular nuclear reactor in southwestern Virginia despite utilities’ lack of interest in such a project there. (Cardinal News)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Trump claims ​‘wind mills’ kill whales but quietly torpedoes the science — Clare Fieseler

• Chart: Solar is driving renewable energy to new heights around the globe — Dan McCarthy

• Why one Ohio couple is suing their city over rooftop solar fees — Kathiann M. Kowalski