Week of October 12, 2026

WASHINGTON, Oct 16 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced its intent to provide up to $50 million in Defense Production Act (DPA) funding to a Virginia Energy project to expand transmission capacity on existing power lines in Virginia and West Virginia.

DOE said the proposed project will use advanced reconductoring and Dynamic Line Rating technologies along existing transmission corridors. It would add an estimated 290 megawatts of transmission capacity across Appalachian Power's Virginia system, one to four years faster than conventional transmission upgrades, according to the department. Virginia Energy will lead the proposed 48-month project in coordination with Appalachian Power, Potomac Edison and regional partners.

According to DOE, the Working Families Tax Cut appropriated $1 billion in federal funding for energy-related projects deemed critical to national security. The department said Presidential Determination No. 2026-10 identifies transmission lines and conductors, substations, and power-control and protection equipment as essential to national defense.

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Public Service Commission authorized National Grid's petition to change its demand response programs, which reduce energy loads at peak times when natural gas is used, cutting the amount of testing each year and lowering enrollment thresholds.

The commission said the approval also recommends moving multifamily customers from National Grid's thermostat program to the Excelsior Power Program. That program will develop a centralized statewide platform for enrolling all applicable devices within residential electric and gas Direct Load Control programs. It will also give new participating smart thermostat customers a $25 monthly utility bill credit for the first year. The Fiscal Year 2026 – 2027 State Budget includes $33 million for the program.

"Streamlining utility demand response programs to a unified platform will help manage energy demand and allow the State’s energy systems to adapt in real time," Commission Chair Rory M. Christian said. The Excelsior Power Program Phase 1 implementation plan is open for public comment.

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) revoked the eligibility of 14 energy companies to operate in the state, including Sunnova Energy Corporation, saying they failed to comply with its orders and consumer protection rules.

The commission revoked API Energy, LLC's eligibility to operate as an energy services company (ESCO). It also revoked Prime Time's and PTM Marketing & Consulting's eligibility to serve as energy brokers or consultants, and the eligibility of 11 distributed energy resource (DER) suppliers. The commission said the violations include failure to submit annual required compliance filings, using unregistered subcontractors for customer enrollments, and improper customer enrollments or attempted enrollments not authorized by the customer.

"If companies fail to comply, we will take swift action," Commission Chair Rory M. Christian said. The commission said customers of an ESCO that can no longer do business in New York go back to their local utility or can choose another provider. Four DER suppliers, AMS Construction Corp, IC Energy Consulting, Sunnova and PosiGen Developer LLC, must show how they intend to honor obligations to existing customers.

LANSING, Mich., Oct 15 — The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) on Thursday approved a natural gas rate increase of $139,176,000 for Consumers Energy Co. in Case No. U-21981, a more than 42% reduction from the $240 million the company initially requested.

A typical residential customer using 75 ccf (hundred cubic feet) of natural gas per month will see an increase of $3.92, or 4.33%, in their monthly bill, the commission said. The new rates take effect Nov. 1. The commission set a return on common equity of 9.8% and a capital structure of 50% equity and 50% debt.

Consumers sought $234.2 million for its Enhanced Infrastructure Replacement Program, which replaces the gas mains most at risk of leaks. The commission approved $207 million, saying it removed unsupported funds to protect customer affordability. It also approved $66.3 million for a leak detection and repair program. The commission disallowed more than $7.9 million that Consumers sought for transmission pipeline integrity work, citing what it found was a pattern of over-projecting costs and under-spending on the program.

HOUGHTON, Mich., Oct 15 — The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) on Thursday approved a settlement agreement that grants SEMCO Energy Gas Co. a $33 million rate increase to keep updating aging pipelines and to fund other infrastructure investments, the commission said.

The approved amount is more than 46% below the $61,251,191 that SEMCO first sought, according to the commission. The utility serves about 300,000 customers in the Upper Peninsula and the southern Lower Peninsula. The commission said the rates will fund SEMCO's gas main replacement program from 2027 through 2031, which aims to replace 37 miles per year of at-risk vintage plastic and steel pipe.

The commission said a typical residential customer using 10 dekatherms of natural gas per month will see a monthly bill increase of $2.80, or 3.16%, from Jan 1, 2027, plus 19 cents from an infrastructure reliability surcharge. The settlement sets a 9.85% return on common equity, against the 10.75% the utility sought. All parties to the case signed it, including the Michigan Department of the Attorney General and MPSC staff.

WASHINGTON — NERC's proposed Computational Loads Reliability Standards and their implementation plans have passed final ballot, NERC said, advancing an effort to address emerging reliability risks tied to the rapid growth of large electrical loads, including data centers.

The proposed standards will now go to the NERC Board of Trustees, which NERC will ask to adopt them. Once the board adopts them, NERC will file the Reliability Standards for Project 2026-02 Computational Loads with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for final regulatory approval in the United States, NERC said. It will also work with the relevant government authorities in Canada on next steps.

According to NERC, the proposed standards set requirements to support the reliable integration of large computational loads into the bulk power system. NERC said they build on its Level 3 Essential Action Alert issued in May 2026, incident reviews and the work of the Large Loads Working Group. NERC staff, Regional Entity staff, the electric industry, data center and cryptocurrency industry participants, and technical experts helped develop the standards, NERC said.

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York's Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES) has denied Hecate Energy Columbia County 1, LLC a permit for the proposed 42 megawatt Shepherd's Run Solar Project in the Town of Copake, Columbia County, the state Department of Public Service said.

The department said ORES based the denial on its determination that the applicant had not demonstrated compliance with applicable environmental considerations, including flood protection requirements. The record included evidence from an adjudicatory hearing on wetland and flood protection issues held in Copake on Sept 14, 2026. The applicant awarded the town and other community intervenors $42,000 under ORES requirements, and the town used the money to hire experts.

"This project application did not meet New York's rigorous standards," Department of Public Service CEO Rory Christian said. The department said this is the third time a large scale renewable energy project proposed in the state has been denied through a state permitting process. ORES denied an earlier application for a 60-megawatt Shepherd's Run facility in February 2024.

BRUSSELS, Oct 14 — The European Commission has published a draft implementing regulation that would revise the rules on how cross-border gas transmission capacity is allocated, and has opened a four-week call for feedback on the text.

The draft seeks to revise Regulation (EU) 2017/459, known as the “CAM network code”. The code sets out how adjacent transmission system operators cooperate to facilitate capacity sales, for both existing and incremental capacity. The Commission said the code was last amended in 2017 and needs to be updated to address technical, physical and legislative issues that have changed in recent years. The changes include aligning the code with the 2024 Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Market Package, and the Commission also cited significant changes to gas supplies since 2022.

Stakeholders, citizens and organisations can submit feedback on the draft until Nov 10, 2026. The Commission said it will take this input into account before the text is put to a vote in the relevant comitology committee, with formal adoption coming next year.

ALBANY, N.Y., Oct 14 — The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced a framework for deploying $200 million through the state's Sustainable Future Program. The authority said the funding is expected to support more than 565 megawatts (MW) of new solar.

NYSERDA said approximately $116 million will support roughly 450 MW of commercial and community solar projects larger than one megawatt. Approximately $31 million will support roughly 75 MW of midsize commercial, governmental and multifamily projects. Approximately $20 million will support roughly 40 megawatts of onsite solar for low- and moderate-income homeowners. A further approximately $33 million will be allotted to the sectors where demand is strongest and support is needed most, the authority said.

NYSERDA will administer the funding through its NY-Sun Program. Funding will begin to be deployed in the coming weeks, and incentives will be paid when projects are completed, the authority said. The program also includes incentives for siting on rooftops, parking canopies and other developed sites.

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to support the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in funding 84 transmission and distribution projects across eight states, which the department said are expected to add approximately 2.5 gigawatts of grid capacity.

The TVA award comes under the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) project. DOE said it totals approximately $581 million: $250 million in federal funding and about $331 million in applicant cost-share funding. According to the department, the investments will help ensure that 2.58 million families and businesses have access to power, and the project is estimated to support about 800 jobs.

"America's electric grid cannot become a roadblock to economic growth," Office of Electricity Assistant Secretary Katie Jereza said. DOE said the final federal funding, project scope, schedules and other award conditions still depend on executed DOE agreements and on environmental, permitting, regulatory and Tribal reviews.

PEOSTA, Iowa — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin proposed two options to revise the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) "Set 2" rule, both of which would reallocate 100% of the difference between projected and actual exempted volumes for 2025 small refinery exemptions (SREs).

EPA said its decisions on small refineries' hardship exemptions for their 2025 obligations exceeded its expectations, and an additional 770 million renewable identification numbers (RINs) worth of renewable fuels were exempted from RFS obligations. Under the first proposed approach, EPA would divide the additional 2025 SRE volume equally between the 2026 and 2027 compliance years. Under the second, it would reallocate all of that volume to the 2027 compliance year.

EPA will take public comments on the proposal until Dec 4, 2026. The agency said the proposed revision to the 2026 standards may extend the existing 2026 compliance reporting deadline of March 31, 2027.

LONDON — Britain's government said it will accept the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) recommendation to strengthen regulation of the heating oil sector, under plans to regulate the market for the first time and give households clearer routes to compensation.

The CMA found that 1,700 households were owed compensation after suppliers cancelled their orders when prices rose earlier this year, forcing them to re-order heating oil at higher prices, the government said. It had provided $70.2 million (53 million pounds sterling) in immediate support to vulnerable heating oil customers.

The government said it will work with industry to develop a regulatory regime for the heating oil market. In the short term, it will strengthen consumer protections in industry Codes of Conduct and review practices that set minimum order volumes at 500 litres for some consumers. "Energy is an essential good and people should not have to think twice about whether they're protected in the market," Minister for Energy Consumers Polly Billington said.

PJM has extended a Capacity Advisory for Monday and Tuesday to include Wednesday, Oct. 14, and issued a Maintenance Outage Recall ahead of expected tight system conditions it attributed to relatively warm fall weather and equipment outages.

The grid operator said generation outages are expected to be approximately 60,000 MW Monday, in addition to key transmission outages for maintenance and major transmission construction projects. An Oct. 11 recall covers all active generation maintenance outage tickets in the region PJM serves until noon on Oct. 14. PJM forecast load of 103,329 MW Monday, 112,200 MW Tuesday and 112,473 MW Wednesday, and said the numbers are subject to change.

PJM also requested a combined 202c emergency order from the U.S. Department of Energy, to be effective Oct. 13-16. According to PJM, the order would provide temporary relief from environmental permit restrictions for generating units. It would also authorize PJM to direct data centers and other Large Load customers to switch to backup generation resources, if necessary. PJM said additional emergency procedures may be necessary, depending on system conditions.

NEW DELHI, Oct 16 — The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) has extended its requirement for Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras to all categories of industries covered under Statutory Direction No. 98 in the National Capital Region, with a deadline of Nov 30, 2026.

The order covers the 17 categories of highly polluting industries identified by CPCB, Red Category (Medium and Large) air-polluting industries, food and food processing and textile units with boilers or thermic fluid heaters, and metal industries with furnaces, the commission said. Units must install cameras at fuel-feeding points of boilers, thermic fluid heaters, furnaces and kilns, as applicable, at stacks and OCEMS sampling locations, at gas meters in units using gaseous fuels, and at fume extraction areas wherever applicable. Units must stream live video to CPCB and state pollution control board servers and keep backup power for the cameras.

The order replaces an earlier commission order dated Oct 5, 2026. The commission said its Flying Squads had found units using unapproved fuels during inspections across NCR.

BEIJING, Oct 15 — China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) is seeking public comment until Oct 23 on six draft methodologies for voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction projects, including biomass-to-methanol and battery energy storage plants.

Two drafts cover methanol made by gasifying agricultural and forestry biomass, one of them with the process combined with green hydrogen. Two cover biodiesel made from waste oils and fats and used as fuel, one hydrocarbon-based and one ester-based. The other two cover sodium-ion battery and all-vanadium flow battery energy storage power stations, according to a letter from the ministry's General Office dated Oct 15.

The ministry said it drew up the methodologies under the Measures for the Administration of Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading (Trial) to improve the methodology system and encourage more industries and companies to take action to cut emissions. It said the drafts would also standardise how projects are designed, carried out and validated, and how their emission reductions are calculated and verified. Government bodies, organisations, companies and individuals can send written comments to the ministry.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) unveiled a draft policy statement that proposes to stop requesting air dispersion modeling from applicants for Natural Gas Act projects, as part of a proposed overhaul of its air quality reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The commission proposed instead to use other information submitted by applicants and identified by its staff to analyze the air quality effects of proposed projects. It cited the protections and mitigation requirements in Clean Air Act regulations, which it said reflect the expertise of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state agencies. FERC said it would continue to address air quality effects in its NEPA documents, "but in a more streamlined way." It said the draft also proposes to end unnecessary overlap with the permitting duties that the Clean Air Act gives to air regulators.

"Today’s landmark draft policy statement is a defining step in our mission to cut unnecessary delays and deliver regulatory certainty," Chairman Laura V. Swett said. Interested parties may comment on the draft, in Docket No. PL26-3-000, by Nov 16, 2026.

CAMBRIDGE, England — A district judge at Cambridge magistrates' court on Oct 14 fined Anglian Water $2.13 million (1.6 million pounds sterling) over repeated sewage pollution of the River Brain in 2022, the Environment Agency said.

The agency charged the company with causing a discharge of untreated sewage outside its environmental permit for its Braintree water recycling centre between April 13 and June 2, 2022, and, as a separate offence, with failing to comply with the permit. District judge Timothy King heard that the company ignored alarms telling it that poorly treated sewage was being discharged into the river because of a faulty valve; an Environment Agency investigation found the valve led to a semi-solid sludge causing high levels of ammonia to be released into the river. The agency said the pollution stretched for nearly 14km between Braintree and Witham.

"These pollution incidents were the result of organisational failure by Anglian Water to recognise risk and act on the warning signs," said Marcus Sibley, water industry regulatory manager for the Environment Agency in East Anglia. The judge also ordered Anglian Water to pay costs of $36,500 (27,334 pounds sterling) and a $253 (190 pounds sterling) surcharge.

MATHER — California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties after Tropical Storm Rachel, making state assistance available under the California Disaster Assistance Act, the governor's office said.

The proclamation directs the California Department of Transportation to formally request federal assistance through the Federal Highway Administration for eligible repairs to storm-damaged highways and related infrastructure. Starting Oct. 11, the storm brought strong, gusty winds, heavy rainfall, hazardous surf, erosion, flood concerns and widespread roadway disruptions, according to the governor's office.

Newsom also proclaimed a state of emergency in Tuolumne County, allowing state agencies to expedite hazardous debris removal after the Dove Fire, which burned 226 acres and destroyed 12 structures. A separate executive order authorizes state environmental and natural resources officials to speed cleanup after the Gann Fire in Calaveras County, which burned 10,339 acres. The governor also activated the State Operations Center and convened top emergency officials in response to high winds and elevated fire-weather conditions, the office said.