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Grid Capacity

Every GridPermit post tagged “Grid Capacity.” Back to the full blog.

October 23, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Google Just Turned a 100-Megawatt Bet Into a Full Gigawatt of Grid Capacity. It Didn't Build a Single Power Plant to Do It.

Google just scaled a bet on grid flexibility tenfold to a full gigawatt in PJM, paying homes and businesses to use less power at the right moment instead of building a new plant.

Power & UtilityGrid CapacityFinancing & Investment
October 22, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Blackstone Just Raised $8.7 Billion for Data Center Power Infrastructure. The Bottleneck It's Betting Against Isn't Land Anymore -- It's a Four-Year Line at the Grid.

Blackstone's fifth energy-transition fund closed oversubscribed at its hard cap on October 19th, 55% bigger than its last one. The bet: the real holdup for data centers now is a years-long wait for a grid connection, not a permit.

Financing & InvestmentPower & UtilityGrid Capacity
October 15, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Washington Has Let PJM Switch Data Centers to Backup Generators Four Times This Year. Nobody's Had to Flip the Switch Yet.

DOE authorized PJM to force data centers onto backup generators this week, the fourth time in 2026. The alert got recalled by Wednesday noon, and PJM still hasn't pulled the trigger once.

Power & UtilityGrid CapacityPolicy
October 14, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

PJM Wanted the Power to Decide Which Data Centers Get Cut Off First. FERC Just Said That's Not PJM's Call.

FERC approved a registry tracking every 50-megawatt-plus data center in 13 states, then rejected PJM's plan to curtail them ahead of ordinary demand response. The $29.4 billion question of who pays is still open.

Power & UtilityPolicyGrid Capacity
October 12, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Oracle Will Absorb $300 Million in Nuclear Costs to Spare Wisconsin Ratepayers. The Transmission Line Carrying That Power Just Got $1 Billion More Expensive.

Oracle agreed to absorb roughly $300 million in nuclear fuel costs for its Wisconsin AI campus. The transmission line built to reach it just jumped past $2.7 billion, and who covers the rest is still unresolved.

Power & UtilityGrid CapacityFinancing & Investment
October 8, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Nuclear Reactor Died at This Tennessee Site in 1983. On September 29th, a Different One Became the First of Its Kind the NRC Has Ever Approved.

The NRC's permit for TVA's Clinch River reactor came four months ahead of schedule — rare for nuclear construction. Data centers already make up a fifth of TVA's industrial power demand, and TVA expects that to double by 2030.

Power & UtilityGrid CapacityFinancing & Investment
October 7, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Nuclear Plant Running Since 1986 Is About to Get 348 Megawatts Bigger. Google Is Paying the $4.3 Billion Bill, Not Ratepayers.

Google is financing $4.3 billion in nuclear plant upgrades, including the largest at Limerick, to add 890 megawatts of capacity in PJM, without asking Pennsylvania or New Jersey ratepayers to cover a dollar of it.

Power & UtilityGrid CapacityFinancing & Investment
October 4, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

FERC Just Froze PJM's $20 Billion Fix for Its Power Shortfall. Amazon's Own Fix Closed the Next Morning.

PJM's emergency backstop auction for a 6,831-megawatt capacity gap was supposed to open September 30th. FERC accepted it, then suspended it for five months over who pays. The next morning, Amazon signed its own 20-year, 690-megawatt nuclear deal in the same state — a deal the frozen auction had nothing to do with.

Power & UtilityGrid CapacityFinancing & Investment
October 1, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

The Energy Department Put $250 Million Into a Transmission Line Through Lamar, Colorado. It's One of 31 Bets on Finding Gigawatts in Wires We Already Own.

DOE's September 24th SPARK awards put $1.9 billion behind 31 projects to reconductor and upgrade existing transmission lines instead of waiting years for new ones. In eastern Colorado, that means tripling the Lamar Tie's capacity to 700 megawatts — on a line most people have never heard of, and subject to approvals it doesn't have yet.

Power & UtilityGrid CapacityFinancing & Investment
September 29, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

PJM's Capacity Auction Came Up 6.8 Gigawatts Short. Its Fix Could Cost Maryland Alone $562 Million.

On September 30th, PJM runs an emergency capacity auction it has never had to run before — up to $20 billion at a price cap 70% above normal. Five state ratepayer advocates already asked FERC to block it.

Power & UtilityGrid CapacityCommercial Readiness