The Delegates-elect don't take utility money, 🎉 (nor top of ticket) BUT nobody gets more $ from our regulated monopoly utility than valeg House leader 🤔. Watch as critical committee assignments (happening today) empower those in alignment with Dominion Energy desires. 🙄 Vpap.org to follow the $

What we're reading now. Modular nuclear will not save the nuclear industry. Public dollars should not take on their risk. (This already happened to an extent in Virginia, with ratepayers paying for nuclear development costs through utility shenanigans). www.utilitydive.com/news/nuclear...

Astonishing

There were so many exciting Virginia wins last night, including that we flipped the state blue! Here are some we are EXTRA stoked about. ⬇️

Batteries Save Illinois Consumers $12 billion! The Illinois Legislature passes a big energy bill that will deploy 3 GW of battery storage by 2030 and more solar. Battery storage will save consumers $12 billion by cutting capacity costs! pv-magazine-usa.com/2025/11/05/i... #energysky

Tonight, voters made history in the Commonwealth. For the first time, every statewide office will be held by leaders who refuse money from Virginia's monopoly utilities, marking a turning point for millions of Virginians who have long paid the price for political corruption and monopoly control.

Virginia needs these solutions - flexibility from data centers that can (they bring batteries for their needs and shift their loads), and other data centers buy us batteries, so we can be flexible with our aggregated loads. (And grid upgrades they all pay for.)

Portland General Electric has made a small but significant breakthrough in data center load management, thanks to software from startup Gridcare.

"Appalachian Power... is proposing more than a 20% reduction in electricity costs... The reason... is a combination of lower fuel costs and greater adoption of renewable energy". Clean energy = cheap energy, because if you don't burn fuel, you don't pay for fuel. cardinalnews.org/2025/11/03/l...

Virginia voters will hit the polls tomorrow with electricity bills, data centers and renewable energy front of mind. One potential outcome? A Democratic triefcta control with questions over a commitment to the state's decarbonization law. insideclimatenews.org/news/0311202...

Community solar pilot in Ohio. Small farmer: "if we can empower individuals to create their own electricity, to be able to sell a little bit back to the the companies, reduce their bills?” “Who would, in their right mind, go against that? That seems like, I mean, it’s just a no brainer.”

Vote for Jay Jones for AG. MAGA-Koch attacks nuclear safety oversight - says it belongs to the States. "a major goal of the lawsuit was to shift oversight of small nuclear reactors from the NRC to the states, they recruited state attorneys general as lead plaintiffs." Safe nuclear, yes. Not 👇

Don't be a NIPSCO.

Take a look at state climate progress in Illinois!

SCC report recommends utility fuel-cost sharing, RAC review, and all-source competitive procurement. No more business as usual, utilities, - we can't afford it. Profits should be tied to performance.

🥳🎉🍾

Dirty, dirty coal causing health dangers at every point - extraction, transportation, burning, and ash disposal.

Dominion says rising gas prices mean it must raise residential electricity bills by about $130 per year! Dominion, a monopoly utility, has NO fuel cost risk. It makes captive customers pay. Competitive generation companies absorb fuel cost risks. virginiamercury.com/2025/09/03/d... #energysky

A lot of Virginians will have seen the WaPo article and need this fix from energy wonk, Congressman Casten. Also keep in mind our regulated electric monopoly has a rate case before our State Corporation Commission asking for an increased profit margin. 🧐

" Appalachian Power cited the addition of renewable power in its request to lower rates." Evidence in Virginia that clean energy is cheaper. Don't let Dominion Energy build a single damn peaker plant on our watch, let alone six.

The economics are clear: The push to build fossil fuels to power data centers is going to hurt people and one way to address that harm is by demanding these centers be built with clean, cheap, fast-to-build energy sources like wind and solar. From @profgalloway.com

Hey Loudoun & Fauquier! Vote for Democrat @johnmcauliff.bsky.social for #HD30 & beat Trump!

ICYMI "they could reduce [electricity] rates by 20% by 2030" with Batteries & Flexibility From the corporations with all the $$$ and influence to make it happen, with supporting upgrades. Meanwhile our utilities continue to push the lie that the answer is more (profitable) gas peaker plants.

Batteries: cleaner, cheaper, faster, BETTER "the battery will sit on the utility side of the meter. That means the utility can leverage the tech for other grid uses, like frequency management & capacity, when it’s not maintaining the flow of power to the data center during otherwise scarce hours."

In the UK: surplus clean energy means customers of @octopus.energy who are signed on to shift their electrical demand, get some freebies. Octopus Energy have figured out how to make it fun and engaging, as well as financially beneficial to participate. Our state utilities could learn a LOT.

💰⚡️I don’t know about you, but my power bill’s been higher than ever lately — and it’s not just the warmer weather. Data centers are sucking up huge amounts of energy, and we’re all paying the price. 🧵

Big picture: Load growth isn’t the enemy — slow reform, grid congestion, and outdated market rules are. If data centers used power when there was excess capacity (95% of the time) and had to co-locate batteries or participate in demand flexibility they could reduce rates 20% by 2030.

Great news that @climatecentral.org has resurrected @noaa.gov’s Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database after the Trump administration axed it!

Data centers are desperate to get online faster — and they're ready to pay for it. Demand response aggregator @voltusinc wants to enlist utility customers in virtual power plants to crowdsource the grid capacity data centers need to make it happen: www.canarymedia.com/articles/vir... #energysky

Our Maryland neighbors have legislation helping households and contractors implement energy efficient heating+cooling upgrades. Clean heat and clean air are just two of the many benefits.

Big tech companies that want to build giant air-conditioned warehouses full of computers should BYONCE - Bring Your Own New Clean Energy - and pay for their own grid connections rather than today's norm of having utilities and regulators force the costs onto ratepayers. The companies can afford it.

[Gift article] 'Voters turn ire towards politicians' and voters must also remind them that renewable energy, solar plus batteries #1, is cheaper, faster, and better. In Virginia, our law to get us to 100% clean electricity must be strengthened.

V2G demonstration in Baltimore! "Educating customers that their electric vehicles have the potential to save—and even earn—them money all while parked at home is a game-changer,”

The electricity system is the largest commodity supply chain in the world that doesn’t feature storage. Every technology benefits from storage (esp Solar/Nuclear). Top 1% of peak hours are 8% of your bill. Top 10% of hours are 40% of your bill Batteries provide more tools to flatten out peaks.

[gift article] As you take in their physical presence in this visual tour of NoVa data centers, try also to comprehend the externalities of these data refineries — what you can't see is almost inconceivably large consumption of energy and water. (Actual data scarce due to secretive contracts).

Data centers want grid power faster—and utilities could supply it without burdening customers with extreme costs. But that won’t happen unless data centers and utilities start planning NOW for the data center flexibility to make this win-win possible: www.canarymedia.com/articles/uti... #energysky

Attn all Virginia state elected officials and candidates - we can rein in Dominion Energy’s out of control political spending - $86 million to date - if we exert the political will. @marcussimon.com @salimvasenate.bsky.social @abigailspanberger.com @donscott757.bsky.social @ssurovell.bsky.social

Today on Volts: the folks at @rewiringamerica.bsky.social have an idea. Hyperscalers desperately need to free up grid capacity for data centers, right? Why not let them buy that capacity by paying for residential heat pumps & solar/storage systems? I discuss it w/ the head of RW & a rep from PG&E.

Costume optional.

"PJM gives gas a measly 60% reliability score"

It's like they're trying to cover up a homicide. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

📈 Transmission is used 50% of the time; distribution lines less than 30% of the time. The cheaper, smarter alternative is to use data and demand response to lower/shift peak demand — while building some more plants and wires.

These coal plants lose money. Analysts calculated that Appalachian Power customers have overpaid more than $328 million since 2018. When you love your out-of-state (high scandal Ohio) coal-plant owners' profits, more than you care about customer costs, that's what you do.

Thank you! Here's the source for what I said on #WITHpod: "There are six states in the United States where data centres already consume over 10% of the electricity supply, with Virginia leading at 25%." www.iea.org/reports/ener... Listen to the podcast here: open.spotify.com/episode/32ps...

I got to talk about this very issue on #WITHpod with @chrislhayes.bsky.social. An electricity cost crisis is coming. We need efficiency, smart technologies and policies, resilient infrastructure, and lots of clean energy. open.spotify.com/episode/32ps...

Will Virginia step up for its rooftop solar industry? Candidates are looking for your vote - a great time to talk to them about their support for solar.

Commentary: Virginia’s rooftop solar future is on the line. Fewer than 3% of homes have panels, yet rooftops could power 20% of the state. Lawmakers must decide whether to step up, writes Ivy Main virginiamercury.com/2025/09/25/w...

Thank you, Senator @salimvasenate.bsky.social for providing testimony to the VA State Corp Commission Tuesday, requesting that they deny the certificate that Dominion Energy seeks to build a fracked-gas peaker plant in Chester. We appreciate your voice in opposition to Dominion's scheme. 👏

NEW TOOL: a one-stop, searchable home for 250+ state energy and climate policies, targets, and incentives. Perfect for planners, policy-makers, and analysts. apps.epri.com/energy-polic...