Xcel Energy tests the virtual power plant waters

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.

GRID

• Xcel Energy’s virtual power plant proposed, which involves the utility building and managing distributed energy resources like batteries, is an expensive alternative to typical customer-owned systems, critics say. (Canary Media)

• DTE Energy increases its five-year spending plan from $30 to $36.5 billion, citing a need to meet forecast demand growth from data centers. (Utility Dive)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Japan plans to invest in a $33 billion, 9.2 gigawatt gas plant in Ohio that would be the largest of its kind in the U.S. (E&E News)

BRIBERY TRIAL

• A former top FirstEnergy attorney testifies that executives ignored her concerns about a $4.3 million payment to a consultant later identified as a bribe. (Signal Ohio)

DATA CENTERS

• Wisconsin lawmakers consider legislation to ban nondisclosure agreements between data centers companies and municipalities where they seek to build projects. (Wisconsin Examiner)

• DTE Energy executives say the utility is close to finalizing a power supply contract with another large data center as construction begins on a hyperscale project in southeastern Michigan. (MLive)

RENEWABLES

• Economic development leaders say renewable energy can serve as an economic driver in rural western Kansas as populations shrink and energy demand rises. (KCUR)

COAL

• Indiana environmental advocates say a new Trump administration rule giving coal plant owners more time to clean up coal ash storage sites will further harm the state’s groundwater. (Indianapolis Star)

WIND

• South Dakota regulators approve plans for a $750 million, 333 MW wind project that will be the largest in the state. (South Dakota Searchlight)

• Iowa House lawmakers advance legislation to require wind turbines to be equipped with sensor-based aircraft detection lights to address landowner complaints about blinking red lights. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

UTILITIES

• Indiana Senate lawmakers overwhelmingly vote t for bills to enact utility assistance programs and more predictable billing plans to avoid sudden fluctuations in electric bill increases. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

SOLAR

• Michigan officials are weighing plans for a 900-acre, $100 million solar farm near Lansing. (Lansing State Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Sioux City, Iowa, begins rolling out electric school buses that will make up about a quarter of the school district’s fleet and were funded by federal grants that are now under review by the Trump administration. (Iowa Public Radio)

NEW FROM CANARY

• New England’s biggest grid battery is up and running in Maine — Julian Spector

• Heron Power raises $140M to modernize electrical transformers — Jeff St. John

• Fear of farmland loss slows solar and wind development — Clare Carlson

• States push climate superfund bills despite Trump’s opposition — Sarah Shemkus

• Heat pump sales dipped in 2025. They still beat gas furnaces. — Alison F. Takemura

• Residents along Louisiana’s Cancer Alley have a new worry: blue ammonia — Ames Alexander

• The EPA’s biggest emissions-fighting tool is dead — at least for now — Dan McCarthy & Kathryn Krawczyk