Power prices on the ballot

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.

OVERSIGHT

• Democratic challengers are looking to unseat two members of the Georgia Public Service Commission’s all-Republican board and bring stronger oversight to the commission while pushing for clean energy. (Canary Media)

• A research group finds Georgia PSC incumbent Tim Echols receives funding from utilities and natural gas interests for his energy-focused radio show and alternative-fuel vehicle showcase. (Energy and Policy Institute)

• Two southern environmental advocacy groups will appeal the North Carolina Utilities Commission’s approval of a Duke Energy customer program they say will do little to aid the clean energy transition. (news release)

AFFORDABILITY

• A new report shows how Virginia elected officials can rein in high electricity prices — an important guideline as voters select a new governor. (Canary Media)

• East Kentucky Power Cooperative and Kentucky’s attorney general challenge PJM’s plan to make utilities pay to keep power plants like the gas- and oil-powered Eddystone facility open under federal emergency orders. (Utility Dive)

GRID

• Four governors, including Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin, partner with the Data Center Coalition on a proposal that asks PJM to prioritize interconnection for data center firms that will build their own power generation. (Inside Climate News)

• Nvidia will deploy Emerald AI software at an under-construction Virginia data center in an effort to manage the facility’s power usage during times of grid stress. (Axios)

• Texas’ ERCOT says a ​“rapid explosion” of large power users looking to join the grid is overwhelming its planning system. (Inside Climate News)

• American Electric Power says it’ll increase its capital spending by nearly 30% over the next five years as it prepares for increased power demand from data centers and other large customers. (E&E News)

SOLAR

• Meta signs power purchase agreements with Treaty Oak Clean Energy for a 185-MW and a 200-MW solar project in Louisiana. (Power Technology)

• A North Carolina solar installer says the state has been on a ​“solar coaster” of sales highs and lows over the past few years as it endured the creation and loss of utility, state, and federal incentives. (WFAE)

• Florida led the Southeast and was a top performer nationwide in solar additions last year, and will likely continue to install record capacity through 2030, a new report from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy finds. (WUSF)

• An Austin, Texas, school district hopes newly installed solar panels will help it recoup costs amid a budget shortfall. (KVUE)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A Tennessee economics professor links General Motors’ layoffs in the state and beyond to the end of federal EV tax credits. (WKRN)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Boardwalk Pipelines announces plans to build a 155-mile pipeline to connect Texas gas supplies with Louisiana LNG export hubs. (news release)

• Kinder Morgan continues to collect permission from landowners to survey their properties for a pipeline that will bring gas from Georgia to a new Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy power plant in South Carolina. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Chart: Batteries are set to surge onto the US grid — Dan McCarthy

• Meet the coal miner who just started a geothermal drilling business — Alison F. Takemura

• Massachusetts heat-pump owners are about to get cheaper electricity — Sarah Shemkus