Chesapeake Utilities | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines
Aspire Energy Building New Pipeline in Ohio to Feed Power Plant
Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, not to be confused with the former Chesapeake Energy Corporation (which is now Expand Energy), announced that its Ohio subsidiary, Aspire Energy Express, LLC, has entered into an agreement with American Electric Power (AEP) to construct and operate an intrastate natural gas pipeline in central Ohio to feed Marcellus/Utica gas to a new fuel-cell facility, which will provide on-site electric power to a data center. The pipeline is expected to cost approximately $10 million to construct. Read More “Aspire Energy Building New Pipeline in Ohio to Feed Power Plant”
Gas-fired power plants, both brand new and existing plants, are hot properties these days. We’ve covered several recent sales of existing gas-fired power plants in the Marcellus/Utica region (and beyond). Here’s another one: investment firm Strategic Value Partners, LLC (SVP) announced yesterday that it’s acquiring Red Oak Power, an 831-megawatt natural gas-fired combined-cycle generation facility located in Sayreville, New Jersey. 
A month ago, MDN published a post predicting that Marcellus/Utica natural gas production is set to grow thanks to new pipeline projects and demand from data centers and LNG exporters (see 
In what appears to be an innocuous, brief press release, DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, which owns significant assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions, including the Haynesville, delivered what we consider big news. DTM has achieved an investment-grade rating with all three major credit rating agencies: Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Ratings, and S&P Global Ratings. While this announcement may seem minor, we can assure you, it’s a big deal. 
Anyone with half a brain in the energy space has seen and predicted (for years) a coming imbalance between electricity generation and electricity demand here in the U.S. When you don’t have enough production (generation) for increasing demand, there is a temporary cushion in the way of “peaker” plants that come online to bridge the gap. However, when huge new demand suddenly emerges, such as for AI data centers, and that demand is ongoing, peakers can’t meet the demand. The result is a power outage. The policies of Lord Obama and President Autopen, in promoting wind and solar while throttling natural gas, have set us up for a disaster, with an inability to meet sudden new demand for electricity. Unreliable renewables are NOT up to the task. That is the conclusion of a new report issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) called “Report on Evaluating U.S. Grid Reliability and Security” (full copy below). 
On Monday, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) to end market-distorting subsidies for unreliable wind and solar. The EO directs the Secretary of the Treasury (Scott Bessent) to terminate the clean electricity production and investment tax credits for wind and solar facilities and implement the enhanced Foreign Entity of Concern restrictions as identified in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The EO also directs the Secretary of the Interior (Doug Burgum) to revise regulations and policies to eliminate preferential treatment for wind and solar facilities compared to reliable, dispatchable energy sources. 
NATIONAL: Exxon sees $1.5B earnings hit from lower oil, gas prices; Can oil and gas solve the AI power dilemma?; U.S. LNG feedgas demand rose last week; Celebrate American independence by advancing energy dominance; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises again on Middle East tensions; Who is the world’s top natural gas consumer?