PJM Monitor Asks FERC to Impose Conditions on NRG, LS Power Deal
In May, NRG Energy announced a deal to acquire LS Power’s portfolio of natural-gas power plants in a deal valued at roughly $12 billion, including debt, that will expand NRG’s footprint in Texas and along the East Coast (see NRG Buys 18 Gas-Fired Power Plants, Including 5 in PA, for $12B). NRG said the acquisition would add 18 more natural-gas-fired facilities in nine states, including five in Pennsylvania and one in Ohio, doubling its generation capacity to approximately 25 gigawatts (GW). In June, NRG asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve the deal (see NRG, LS Power Asks FERC to Approve $18B Deal for 12 Gas-Fired Plants). “Not so fast,” says Monitoring Analytics, LLC, acting in its capacity as the Independent Market Monitor (IMM) for PJM Interconnection. The IMM states that FERC must set certain conditions before approving the deal. Read More “PJM Monitor Asks FERC to Impose Conditions on NRG, LS Power Deal”
No wonder Venture Global continues to love the model of signing up customers to buy its LNG via contract (which reassures investors so they give money to build a plant), then denies those contracted customers their shipments FOR YEARS under the pretense that they are still working the kinks out at the facility (called commissioning) while at the same time selling cargoes of LNG on the open/spot market. VG is receiving 2.6 times more money for spot market cargoes compared to cargoes shipped to contracted customers. The question we can’t answer is, why do any new customers sign up, given the company’s history? 
If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you know that so-called renewable energy, wind and solar, are unreliable and really, really expensive. Most people believe renewables overcome those problems by being good for the environment. No so! Renewables are actually bad for the environment. We will explain… 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: FERC issues notice to proceed with construction at Mississippi Hub; NATIONAL: Chevron preps quick closing of Hess deal and awaits result of Exxon dispute; Executives reveal where they see Henry Hub price landing in future; How rising renewable output complicates natural gas trading; Natural gas is green and hugely beneficial economically; Trump says wind and solar are ‘a blight on our country’; INTERNATIONAL: Oil holds gains despite US crude surge; Oil giant Saudi Aramco in talks with Commonwealth LNG for offtake agreement. 
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. 
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. 
In early April, MDN brought you the exciting news that THE largest gas-fired power plant in the country, along with a MASSIVE data center complex, will be built at a former coal-fired power plant site in Indiana County, PA (see 
