Ohio court asked to punt on high-stakes solar case

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

SOLAR

• Ohio regulators now want the state Supreme Court to dismiss a high-profile case over a rejected solar project because of an expired interconnection agreement, though advocates say the case must proceed to decide key questions of public interest. (Canary Media)

• Indianapolis International Airport is installing solar panel-covered parking lot canopies to power terminal operations in the next phase of the airport’s growing solar capacity. (WTHR)

• A northern Chicago suburb unveils a $2 million solar project that will reduce grid power use from the city’s water reclamation facility by 25%. (Chicago Tribune)

DATA CENTERS

• Wisconsin regulators have no plans to revisit new credit rating thresholds for data center developers at the request of We Energies, setting up a court fight with Oracle, which has said the rules would cost the company $100 million a year. (Wisconsin Watch)

• Some data center owners say they’re being transparent and careful of their water use in Nebraska as some parts of the state experience extreme drought and lawmakers look to force companies to disclose water use. (Flatwater Free Press)

UTILITIES

• An Ohio Democratic state senator accuses GOP lawmakers of pay-to-play politics after hastily passing a submetering bill, which was later vetoed by Gov. Mike DeWine (R), shortly after several Republicans received campaign donations from the companies the bill was supposed to regulate. (Cleveland.com)

• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signs bills that will expand eligibility for federal energy assistance funds and require more transparency in detailing various charges on utility bills. (Capitol News Illinois)

• Indiana officials narrow down the pool of candidates for a vacancy on the state Utility Regulatory Commission as Gov. Mike Braun (R) presses for limits on rate increases. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

• More than 10,000 FirstEnergy customers lost power during this month’s heat wave, just one week after state regulators denied the company’s request to relax its grid reliability standards. (Signal Ohio)

• Lakewood, Ohio, just outside Cleveland, asks state regulators to reopen a compliance investigation into FirstEnergy after experiencing regular outages. (Cleveland.com)

GRID

• Illinois regulators approve ComEd’s virtual power plant program that will deploy customer-owned batteries during periods of high demand. (Utility Dive)

RENEWABLES

• Evanston, Indiana officials announce plans to power 15 to 17 municipal facilities with renewable power over the next four years as a way to meet climate goals and control energy costs. (WFIE)

NUCLEAR

• Missouri is among states considering expanding or building new nuclear power capacity to meet rising demand from data centers, manufacturing and electric vehicles. (Missouri Independent)a