Meris Lutz

CEO Robert Blue said the 2.6-GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm, which began producing some electricity in March, should be fully operational by 2027 and generate approximately $5 billion in fuel savings over 10 years. The utility’s fuel and other energy-related costs jumped 67% in Q1.

The government said Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind have “agreed to voluntarily end their offshore wind leases.” EDP, a Portuguese company with stakes in both projects, said it has “agreed to settle imminent claims.”

Physics, policy and politics are beginning to constrain some of the electric utility industry's highest aspirations for data center-driven growth, Utility Dive learned in first quarter earnings calls.

“In order to support a stay, the movant must substantiate that irreparable injury is ‘likely’ to occur. Bare allegations of what is likely to occur do not suffice,” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in its decision.

The order, which is nonbinding, recommends utilities charge large load customers for upgrades that “would not have been needed ‘but for’ the interconnection” of that customer, “irrespective of whether other customers will benefit” from the infrastructure.

Residential sales fell 0.1% year over year while residential prices soared 10.2% in the same period, to 18.8 cents/kWh, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

Utility Dive talked to registrants before the conference to hear how industry changes are impacting their work.

Google has also worked to make its own data centers flexible, Amanda Peterson Corio, the company’s global head of data center energy, told Utility Dive, but reasons it is often faster and more cost effective to pay other customers to shift their electricity usage.

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Utility Dive caught up with the associate deputy secretary of energy at the Edison Electric Institute conference in Las Vegas, where the dominant theme was balancing demand growth with affordability.