The week in 5 numbers: Power outages stretch, data center load overstated

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The average length of the longest power outage across all U.S. regions in 2025 so far, according to J.D. Power. The average duration has increased since 2022, when it was 8.1 hours. Mark Spalinger, director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power, said disasters like storms and fires “are becoming so much more extreme that it creates these longer outage events that utilities are now having to deal with.”

The portion of utility load forecasts that is “likely overstated,” according to a report by Grid Strategies. The same report found the five-year forecast of U.S. utility peak load growth has increased sixfold, from 24 GW to 166 GW, over the past three years. Despite projected load growth, many utility third-quarter earnings reports have shown relatively flat deliveries of electricity. “We’re still talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 GW of growth over the next five years,” said John Wilson, a vice president at Grid Strategies and one of the report’s authors. “So I wouldn’t call this an overestimate that changes the story.”

Capacity secured by the Texas Energy Fund so far for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market. The fund, which voters authorized in 2023 to give low-interest loans to energy projects, was a response to the devastating impacts of 2021’s winter storm blackouts. It finalized its sixth loan this week, which went to NRG Energy to develop a 455-MW gas plant near Houston. The new generation will be built at NRG’s existing Greens Bayou Generating Station in Harris County, and it is expected to come online in 2028. The fund has faced challenges, however, as a number of projects have withdrawn from the pipeline as the economics of gas plants, in particular, have shifted.

The increase in aggregate winter peak demand expected across the footprint overseen by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. That’s 2.5% higher than last winter. Nearly all of NERC’s assessment areas reported year-on-year demand growth, with some forecasting increases near 10%, the reliability watchdog said. NERC warned that winter peak demand is rising faster than new resources are being added to the grid.

The amount three FirstEnergy utilities were ordered to pay in restitution, refunds and fines over their role in a bribery scheme. The scheme involved the passage of legislation in Ohio known as HB 6 that, in part, aimed to prop up financially struggling nuclear power plants. Larry Householder, the former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, who was the beneficiary of the bribes, is serving a 20-year term in federal prison.