DOE Orders Philly Gas-Fired Power Plants to Stay Online 3rd Time
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued an emergency order on November 25 directing PJM Interconnection and Constellation Energy to keep Units 3 and 4 at Pennsylvania’s Eddystone Generating Station (near Philadelphia, in Delaware County) operational through the winter. Effective from November 26, 2025, to February 24, 2026, the mandate aims to ensure grid reliability following PJM’s record winter demand in January 2025. This directive follows two previous orders that kept the aging, dual-fuel units online to support energy security during summer heatwaves. The DOE asserts that despite planned retirements, these 380-MW units remain essential for stabilizing the regional power supply. Big Green is unhappy. Read More “DOE Orders Philly Gas-Fired Power Plants to Stay Online 3rd Time”
In June 2023, Dominion Energy announced plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County near Richmond (see 
In July, MDN told you that Talen Energy, a leading energy producer in the U.S., which owns and operates approximately 10.7 gigawatts (GW) of power infrastructure, had announced the acquisition of two gas-fired power plants: one located near Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania, and the other in Guernsey County, in eastern Ohio (see 
Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved a Tentative Order by a 3-2 vote, proposing a statewide model tariff (tax) to manage the growing impact of large-load customers, such as AI data centers, on the electric grid (see 
I see ghosts! Or is that dead people? The U.S. electricity grid faces pressure from surging demand, primarily from data centers, sparking debates over reliability and cost allocation. EPSA (Electric Power Supply Association) CEO Todd Snitchler warns that “ghost projects”—projects announced and planned/funded but never built—are artificially inflating load forecasts. He argues that regulated utilities use these overstated numbers to justify expensive rate-based generation, benefiting shareholders while forcing customers to bear the costs of potential overbuilding. Competitive energy markets are demanding accurate, data-driven planning to maintain affordability and reliability without wasting capital on unnecessary infrastructure. Please, no more ghosts. 
The American Energy + AI Initiative, a collaboration between the Hamm Institute and the American Energy + AI Coalition, held a summit on Monday in Washington, D.C., to address the urgent need for firm power to sustain the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the U.S. Cabinet officials, including DOE Secretary Chris Wright, and industry leaders, discussed concrete steps to modernize federal tools and accelerate power production. During the summit, a new study was released (full copy below) emphasizing that America’s ability to lead in AI depends on quickly building reliable energy and highlighted the immediate need for more natural gas to meet the massive, unexpected demand from data centers. 
In July, MDN told you that Talen Energy, a leading energy producer in the U.S., which owns and operates approximately 10.7 gigawatts (GW) of power infrastructure, had announced the acquisition of two gas-fired power plants: one located near Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania, and the other in Guernsey County, in eastern Ohio (see 
Last week, MDN warned you that the enviro-left that opposes fracking and shale energy in Pennsylvania (because they have an irrational hatred of fossil fuels) has morphed into opposing data centers, because data centers need lots of electricity and the only practical way of providing that power is via natural gas-fired power plants (see 
Net Power, backed by the Rice brothers (of Rice Energy and EQT fame), is on a mission to develop and deploy revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see