Largest US power grid PJM escalates emergency actions to avoid blackouts

The largest U.S. regional transmission organization, PJM Interconnection, escalated emergency measures on July 3, 2026, issuing a federal alert to cut electricity consumption across its vast territory amid generator outages, overloaded high-voltage transmission lines, and surging air-conditioning demand from a prolonged heatwave. PJM, which manages the electric grid for approximately 67 million people, activated demand-response […]

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An Economic Assessment of the 765-kV Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan Brent Bennett, Ph.D. talks about An Alternative Approach to Enable Cost-Effective Growth

Texas is facing explosive electricity demand growth from the Permian Basin’s oil and gas operations, data centers, manufacturing, and electrification. In response, ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) have fast-tracked the 765-kV Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan (STEP)—including the Permian Basin Reliability Plan (PBRP)—a massive build-out of high-voltage transmission lines designed to import […]

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Ørsted Explores $1 Billion+ Sale of US Onshore Renewables Assets Amid Strategic Pivot and US Policy Uncertainty

Danish renewable energy giant Ørsted is reportedly exploring the sale of its US onshore renewable assets in a deal that could exceed $1 billion, according to Bloomberg reporting on May 22, 2026. The move comes as the company continues its global farm-down strategy, sharpens focus on core offshore wind in Europe and Asia, and navigates […]

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Net Zero, Wind and Solar: A More Expensive Combination for European and U.S. Grids

Lars Schernikau, Author and prior guest on the Energy News Beat nails it. Europe’s electricity grid may be the most complex machine humanity has ever built. Yet energy debates too often reduce the conversation to installed capacity, solar additions, or wind megawatts. This narrow focus misses the real engineering and economic reality. Europe’s electricity grid […]

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Since 2007, Shale Gas Has Saved U.S. Consumers Approximately $200 Billion Annually — A Quiet Revolution in Affordability

A new analysis from the Energy Institute at Haas at UC Berkeley quantifies what many in the energy sector have long known: the shale gas revolution, powered by hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, has delivered extraordinary savings to American consumers. According to Lucas Davis’s May 2026 working paper and accompanying blog post, shale gas has […]

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