Western utilities grapple with data center-driven power demand

GRID: Arizona Public Service expects data center-driven demand to increase the utility’s peak load by 40% over the next six years, possibly driving up residential customers’ costs and reducing reliability. (Utility Dive)

ALSO: Public Service Company of New Mexico plans to join the California grid operator’s day-ahead power market, saying it will deliver more economic and environmental benefits than a competing proposal. (news release)

NUCLEAR: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox calls for more nuclear power in Western states to meet the data center-driven ​“seismic shift” in energy demand. (KSL)

CLIMATE: Some New Mexico residents push back on a county’s proposed climate action plan, saying it is a ​“joke” to try to reduce carbon emissions without addressing heavy daily commuter traffic. (Boomtown)

UTILITIES: Advocates worry Republican sweeps of utility regulation board elections in Arizona and Montana will perpetuate fossil fuel generation and slow clean energy development. (Grist)

HYDROGEN:

• Washington state advocates and officials say developers of a proposed Northwest hydrogen hub have been transparent, even as claims of environmental injustice plague similar efforts in other regions. (EHN)
• A developer proposes a green hydrogen fuel production facility in southern California designed to help decarbonize trucking at Los Angeles-area shipping ports. (Energy Tech)

OIL & GAS: 

• Colorado advocates challenge the oil and gas industry’s claims that flaring devices slash methane emissions by 95% and say current monitoring efforts are inadequate. (Denver Post)
• A Colorado town and county join an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a judge’s decision to overturn a proposed Utah oil-hauling railway’s federal approval. (Vail Daily)
• California firms look to re-develop a 650-acre Bay Area petroleum refinery slated to close late next year. (Los Angeles Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Toyota official claims attempting to comply with California’s zero-emissions vehicle sales mandate would distort the industry. (CNBC)

CLEAN ENERGY: The U.S. Energy Department allocates nearly $150 million for efficiency upgrades and clean energy installations at federal facilities, including expanding a California agency’s solar and storage capacity. (Utility Dive)

COAL: Colorado officials launch an effort to extinguish an underground coal fire that has burned for decades in abandoned mines. (KDVR)

COMMENTARY: A Western journalist grapples with the need to sacrifice wild places to clean energy development in order to save the same landscapes from climate change’s effects. (Sierra)