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Short dated briefs, by region and newest first. Long-form analysis lives in Research.
United States
ERCOT was tracking 1,874 active generation interconnection requests totalling 453,782 MW at the end of September. Batteries are 162,580 MW, and the battery energy figure implies an average duration of about 2.4 hours.
United States
FERC accepted ISO-NE's Asset Condition Reviewer on 16 October, effective 1 January 2027. New England owners expect about $5 billion of asset condition spending through 2034, and $1.3 billion of it next year alone. The review is advisory, and its thresholds decide how much of that spending is ever looked at.
United States
FERC accepted ISO New England's Asset Condition Reviewer role on 16 October, effective 1 January 2027. The review is advisory and applies to projects of $25 million or more.
United States
EIA's October Short-Term Energy Outlook puts the US average wholesale price at $52/MWh for 2026, with PJM up 41% and Mid-Columbia down 23%. Henry Hub is forecast to fall 9% to $3.16/MMBtu in 2027.
United States
US dry gas output rose 4.61 Bcf/d in January–July 2026 from a year earlier, according to EIA. By TEI's calculation, LNG exports took 69% of the increase and the net export position 91%. Henry Hub averaged 44 cents less from February to July.
United States
NYISO's November monthly auction priced New York City capacity at $2.73/kW-month for November and $9.75 for January and February. A FERC-accepted rule counts the 1,250 MW Champlain Hudson line in shoulder months only, cutting city headroom by about 830 MW on 1 December, by TEI's calculation.
United States
EIA-930 data show ERCOT batteries averaging 8,555 MW at the daily net-load peak in July to September 2026, against 4,818 MW a year earlier. Gas output in the same hour was flat.
United States
Price, not volume, accounts for about nine-tenths of the $13.5 billion increase in what households paid from January to August.
United States
Utility-scale generation rose 70,657 GWh, solar added 42,630 GWh and wind most of the rest, while coal output fell by 43,560 GWh.
United States
A 77 Bcf injection left inventories 35 Bcf above the five-year average overall, but the fast-cycling salt facilities in the South Central region are well short.
United States
Operating guide changes NOGRR226 and NOGRR247 add anti-stall stages and set relief in 5 per cent steps; separate market changes for congestion and firm fuel take effect on 29 October.
United States
PJM will validate the submissions by 14 November and post final parameters for the 2029/30 capacity auction on 19 November, with bidding opening on 9 December.
United States
The Energy Department granted PJM a Section 202(c) emergency order for October 13 to 16 after the grid operator forecast demand near 111,500 MW with 61,591 MW of generation out for autumn maintenance.
Global
NEPRA notified a fuel charges adjustment of Rs1.1086/kWh for August 2026, against Rs1.7267 claimed by CPPA-G. It applies to October bills for XWDISCO and K-Electric consumers.
Global
CPPA-G's base case puts the 2027 power purchase price at Rs27.309/kWh, with capacity charges at 53.9% of the Rs3.552 trillion bill. Its own demand-sensitivity case shows that each kWh of lost sales cuts total cost by only about Rs11.9, leaving the rest to be spread over remaining consumers.
Global
CPPA-G has projected a 2027 base-case power purchase price of Rs27.309/kWh, 7.9% above the 2026 reference. NEPRA hears the filing on 3 November.
Global
Brent eased to about $109 a barrel early on 20 October as traders weighed a US executive order waiving key Russia-related sanctions and tariffs against renewed Houthi claims of attacks on Saudi energy sites, which kept prices above $100.
Global
NEPRA's hearing notices put the ten XWDISCOs' CY2027 prior-year adjustment requests at Rs415.3 billion. By TEI's calculation, Rs77.8 billion of IESCO's Rs157.9 billion is supplemental charges and pension losses NEPRA refused in June 2025.
Global
DOE cargo data through August show Asia-bound US LNG peaking at 41.3% of exports in May after Qatar's force majeure. The EU received 143 Bcf less in April–July than a year earlier, by TEI's calculation, before Europe-bound volumes rose 34% in August.
Global
CPPA-G data filed with NEPRA show diesel, furnace oil and RLNG generating 1,280 GWh of 13,217 GWh in September and Rs57.0 billion of Rs123.6 billion in fuel charges, by TEI's calculation.
Global
The proposed fee of Rs14.47 per kW per month works out at roughly 2.6 paisa per unit on CPPA-G's 2027 sales forecast.
Global
Government sponsors would pay for the schemes and the areas would be carved out of the host distribution company's licence, with comments due within 30 days.
Global
September fuel cost came in at Rs10.0220 per unit against a reference of Rs7.4596, and the uniform-FCA policy would carry the adjustment to K-Electric consumers as well.
Global
Fuel adds Rs2.40 per unit while capacity charges per unit fall, and NEPRA will hear the forecast on 3 November ahead of tariff rebasing on 1 January.
Global
In May 2025 Pakistan's finance ministry announced that the government had allocated 2,000 MW of electricity in the first phase of a national initiative to power bitcoin mining and AI data centres. The pitch was simple.
Global
The 31st UN climate conference, COP31, will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026. Under an arrangement agreed at COP30 in Belém, Türkiye holds the COP presidency, hosts the World Leaders' Summit and leads the action agenda, while Australia serves as President of Negotiations, with authority over the negotiated outcomes.
Europe
The CMA has confirmed Ofgem's rejection of CMP344, which would have moved approved offshore transmission repair costs from generators to consumers. On GEMA's own figures the effect on a CfD strike price was about £0.06/MWh, roughly £0.2 million a year for a 1 GW wind farm by our estimate.
Europe
The CMA confirmed Ofgem's rejection of CMP344, leaving approved offshore transmission repair costs with the connected generator rather than consumers.
Europe
Red Eléctrica put technical-constraint costs at €3.614 billion for January to September 2026, up 45%. By TEI's calculation the component averaged €19.36/MWh, 20.3% of the final price, and the post-blackout reinforced operation was under 7.6% of the bill.
Europe
SMARD data show 463 negative day-ahead hours from January to September 2026, against 525 a year earlier, while solar output rose from 63.0 TWh to 76.2 TWh.
Europe
Interruptible capacity on the Interconnector returned from gas day 23 October, and the consultation on later years closes on 20 November.
Europe
Tender round 14 covers a single transmission link for a wind farm more than 100 km offshore, with revenue indexed to inflation for up to 25 years.
Europe
The decision confirms January's minded-to position on the East Anglia reinforcement, one of 26 projects in the accelerated strategic transmission programme.
Europe
CRE proposes an 82 GW target volume for the long-term capacity auction for winter 2030-31, of which 3 GW may take multi-year contracts, and keeps price caps at 72 and 15 euros per kW.
Europe
BP's 13 October trading statement expects post-tax impairment charges of $3.0 to 4.5 billion, mainly in gas and low carbon energy, and net debt of $13.5 to 14.5 billion at quarter-end.
Europe
NESO called on emergency assistance from France on Monday evening, its largest such request since at least 2024, after a delayed return to service cut available capacity.
Europe
Britain's electricity system operator put the market on notice for a thin evening margin on Tuesday, then stood the warning down once generation and imports closed the gap. The National Energy System Operator issued an Electricity Margin Notice overnight on 5 October for the period from 15:00 to 23:00 on 6 October, citing a system margin shortfall of 1,840 MW.
China
China used 1,033.2 TWh of electricity in August and set a record peak load of 1,560 GW, while internet data services and vehicle charging grew more than 40 per cent over January to August.
China
Trading centres cleared 5,180 TWh in January to August, up 19.2 per cent, but green-power contracts covered only 218.2 TWh, about one-eighth of wind and solar output.
China
Shandong's revised grid-connection and ancillary-service rules took effect on 1 October with discounted charges during transition, while the NEA's draft national regulation is open for comment until about 30 October.
China
For four years China has tried to solve the power problem of computing with geography. Its Eastern Data, Western Compute programme, launched nationwide in 2022, designated eight national computing hubs and ten data centre clusters, steering power-hungry workloads to the western provinces where land and renewable energy are abundant.
India
September consumption rose 11% to 162 BU while hydro output fell 16%. Thermal generation of 118 BU drew plant coal stocks down to 19 Mt, which by our estimate is roughly seven to eight days of burn at September rates.
India
Power plant coal stocks were 19 Mt at the end of September, down from 47 Mt a year earlier, as thermal plants covered a 16% fall in hydro output and an 11% rise in consumption.
India
Tamil Nadu's distribution utility has signed the costliest short-term power deals in its history to get through the rest of October. The Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited finalised purchases from 12 to 31 October that put roughly 2,000 MW into the evening peak at rates up to Rs 37 per unit, including 181 MW of gas-fired supply at that ceiling, The New Indian Express and ET Energyworld reported on 13 October.
India
India's peak electricity demand reached a new all-time high of 270.82 GW on 21 May 2026, the fourth consecutive day of record demand, the Power Ministry said. The peak was met at 15:45 during solar hours.
India
India installed a record 37.9 GW of solar and 6.3 GW of wind in calendar year 2025, according to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy data reported by pv magazine India on 13 January 2026. Solar additions were 54.7 per cent higher than in 2024, and wind additions 85.3 per cent higher.
Middle East
A JV of Elsewedy Electric and Sinohydro has signed the EPC contract for the 2,313.5 MW Rabigh 2 IPP expansion in Saudi Arabia, targeting commercial operation in May 2029. The contract value works out to about $950 per kW.
Middle East
When the presidents of the United Arab Emirates and the United States unveiled a 5 GW AI campus in Abu Dhabi on 15 May 2025, the pitch was simple: abundant power, deep capital and a location within 3,200 km of nearly half the world's population. Sixteen months later, the war that closed the Strait of Hormuz has added a requirement nobody had priced in.
Middle East
Iraq is ending another summer of long power cuts, with the gap between demand and supply wider than in recent years. The main new factor is the collapse of Iranian gas supplies.
Middle East
For three years the Gulf states have pitched themselves as the natural home for the next generation of AI infrastructure. The argument rested on three pillars: abundant and cheap energy, deep sovereign capital, and political alignment with Washington.
Africa
Eskom's year-to-date energy availability factor reached 68.2% by 15 October, up 5.57 points. Unplanned outages in the latest week were 2,939 MW lower than a year earlier, and OCGT output has fallen to about 152 GWh from roughly 1,020 GWh by our back-calculation.
Africa
Eskom's year-to-date energy availability factor reached 68.2% by 15 October. In the latest week unplanned outages averaged 7,707 MW, 2,939 MW below a year earlier.
Africa
PURC's validation reports show ECG declaring GH₵13.03 billion to the Cash Waterfall Mechanism in the January–July 2026 payment months. By TEI's tally, dollar payments to independent power producers rose 64.7%, to US$533.3 million, and Level A took 38% of the extra cash.
Africa
NERC put the federal tariff subsidy at ₦321.26 billion for April to June 2026, down ₦193.09 billion from a year earlier. By TEI's calculation about 63% of the fall came from a lower GenCo invoice per kilowatt-hour and about 29% from lower DisCo offtake.
Africa
ZRA data show 22.40 BCM of usable water in Lake Kariba on 26 October, against about 6.7 BCM a year earlier. Next year's allocation for ZESCO and ZPC is 36% lower than this year's.
Africa
PURC's tariff publication effective 1 October 2026 sets GRIDCo transmission service charge TSC 1 at 15.8925 GHp/kWh and a composite bulk generation charge of 118.0280 GHp/kWh.
Africa
Shell Petroleum B.V. has signed an agreement to transfer Shell Nigeria Gas Group, including about 170 kilometres of pipelines serving more than 130 industrial customers, to Nigerian firm Vaaris Energy.
Africa
NLNG's chief executive told a Lagos energy conference that gas suppliers to power plants are owed about N3.3 trillion, undermining generation despite proven reserves of about 215 trillion cubic feet.
Africa
GW Mozambique Investments and EDM have opened prequalification through 24 November for a 460-kilometre transmission package linking central and northern Mozambique, valued at about USD 450 million.
Other markets
EMRA amended five electricity market regulations in the 19 October Official Gazette. Consumer storage above contracted power must not export, and good payers' collateral is capped at one times the base rate.
Other markets
Malaysia built part of its data centre boom on the promise of affordable, reliable power. The Gulf crisis is testing the affordable part.
Other markets
Japan's electricity planners have two problems that are starting to overlap. The first is forecasting how much power new data centres will need and when.
Africa
Eskom's year-to-date energy availability factor reached 68.2% by 15 October, up 5.57 points. Unplanned outages in the latest week were 2,939 MW lower than a year earlier, and OCGT output has fallen to about 152 GWh from roughly 1,020 GWh by our back-calculation.
Africa
Eskom's year-to-date energy availability factor reached 68.2% by 15 October. In the latest week unplanned outages averaged 7,707 MW, 2,939 MW below a year earlier.
United States
ERCOT was tracking 1,874 active generation interconnection requests totalling 453,782 MW at the end of September. Batteries are 162,580 MW, and the battery energy figure implies an average duration of about 2.4 hours.
Europe
The CMA has confirmed Ofgem's rejection of CMP344, which would have moved approved offshore transmission repair costs from generators to consumers. On GEMA's own figures the effect on a CfD strike price was about £0.06/MWh, roughly £0.2 million a year for a 1 GW wind farm by our estimate.
Europe
The CMA confirmed Ofgem's rejection of CMP344, leaving approved offshore transmission repair costs with the connected generator rather than consumers.
Other markets
EMRA amended five electricity market regulations in the 19 October Official Gazette. Consumer storage above contracted power must not export, and good payers' collateral is capped at one times the base rate.
India
September consumption rose 11% to 162 BU while hydro output fell 16%. Thermal generation of 118 BU drew plant coal stocks down to 19 Mt, which by our estimate is roughly seven to eight days of burn at September rates.
India
Power plant coal stocks were 19 Mt at the end of September, down from 47 Mt a year earlier, as thermal plants covered a 16% fall in hydro output and an 11% rise in consumption.
Middle East
A JV of Elsewedy Electric and Sinohydro has signed the EPC contract for the 2,313.5 MW Rabigh 2 IPP expansion in Saudi Arabia, targeting commercial operation in May 2029. The contract value works out to about $950 per kW.
United States
FERC accepted ISO-NE's Asset Condition Reviewer on 16 October, effective 1 January 2027. New England owners expect about $5 billion of asset condition spending through 2034, and $1.3 billion of it next year alone. The review is advisory, and its thresholds decide how much of that spending is ever looked at.
United States
FERC accepted ISO New England's Asset Condition Reviewer role on 16 October, effective 1 January 2027. The review is advisory and applies to projects of $25 million or more.
Global
NEPRA notified a fuel charges adjustment of Rs1.1086/kWh for August 2026, against Rs1.7267 claimed by CPPA-G. It applies to October bills for XWDISCO and K-Electric consumers.
Global
CPPA-G's base case puts the 2027 power purchase price at Rs27.309/kWh, with capacity charges at 53.9% of the Rs3.552 trillion bill. Its own demand-sensitivity case shows that each kWh of lost sales cuts total cost by only about Rs11.9, leaving the rest to be spread over remaining consumers.
Global
CPPA-G has projected a 2027 base-case power purchase price of Rs27.309/kWh, 7.9% above the 2026 reference. NEPRA hears the filing on 3 November.
United States
EIA's October Short-Term Energy Outlook puts the US average wholesale price at $52/MWh for 2026, with PJM up 41% and Mid-Columbia down 23%. Henry Hub is forecast to fall 9% to $3.16/MMBtu in 2027.
Global
Brent eased to about $109 a barrel early on 20 October as traders weighed a US executive order waiving key Russia-related sanctions and tariffs against renewed Houthi claims of attacks on Saudi energy sites, which kept prices above $100.
Africa
PURC's validation reports show ECG declaring GH₵13.03 billion to the Cash Waterfall Mechanism in the January–July 2026 payment months. By TEI's tally, dollar payments to independent power producers rose 64.7%, to US$533.3 million, and Level A took 38% of the extra cash.
United States
US dry gas output rose 4.61 Bcf/d in January–July 2026 from a year earlier, according to EIA. By TEI's calculation, LNG exports took 69% of the increase and the net export position 91%. Henry Hub averaged 44 cents less from February to July.
Global
NEPRA's hearing notices put the ten XWDISCOs' CY2027 prior-year adjustment requests at Rs415.3 billion. By TEI's calculation, Rs77.8 billion of IESCO's Rs157.9 billion is supplemental charges and pension losses NEPRA refused in June 2025.
Europe
Red Eléctrica put technical-constraint costs at €3.614 billion for January to September 2026, up 45%. By TEI's calculation the component averaged €19.36/MWh, 20.3% of the final price, and the post-blackout reinforced operation was under 7.6% of the bill.
Africa
NERC put the federal tariff subsidy at ₦321.26 billion for April to June 2026, down ₦193.09 billion from a year earlier. By TEI's calculation about 63% of the fall came from a lower GenCo invoice per kilowatt-hour and about 29% from lower DisCo offtake.
United States
NYISO's November monthly auction priced New York City capacity at $2.73/kW-month for November and $9.75 for January and February. A FERC-accepted rule counts the 1,250 MW Champlain Hudson line in shoulder months only, cutting city headroom by about 830 MW on 1 December, by TEI's calculation.
Global
DOE cargo data through August show Asia-bound US LNG peaking at 41.3% of exports in May after Qatar's force majeure. The EU received 143 Bcf less in April–July than a year earlier, by TEI's calculation, before Europe-bound volumes rose 34% in August.
Global
CPPA-G data filed with NEPRA show diesel, furnace oil and RLNG generating 1,280 GWh of 13,217 GWh in September and Rs57.0 billion of Rs123.6 billion in fuel charges, by TEI's calculation.
Africa
ZRA data show 22.40 BCM of usable water in Lake Kariba on 26 October, against about 6.7 BCM a year earlier. Next year's allocation for ZESCO and ZPC is 36% lower than this year's.
Global
The proposed fee of Rs14.47 per kW per month works out at roughly 2.6 paisa per unit on CPPA-G's 2027 sales forecast.
Global
Government sponsors would pay for the schemes and the areas would be carved out of the host distribution company's licence, with comments due within 30 days.
Europe
SMARD data show 463 negative day-ahead hours from January to September 2026, against 525 a year earlier, while solar output rose from 63.0 TWh to 76.2 TWh.
United States
EIA-930 data show ERCOT batteries averaging 8,555 MW at the daily net-load peak in July to September 2026, against 4,818 MW a year earlier. Gas output in the same hour was flat.
United States
Price, not volume, accounts for about nine-tenths of the $13.5 billion increase in what households paid from January to August.
United States
Utility-scale generation rose 70,657 GWh, solar added 42,630 GWh and wind most of the rest, while coal output fell by 43,560 GWh.
United States
A 77 Bcf injection left inventories 35 Bcf above the five-year average overall, but the fast-cycling salt facilities in the South Central region are well short.
Europe
Interruptible capacity on the Interconnector returned from gas day 23 October, and the consultation on later years closes on 20 November.
Global
September fuel cost came in at Rs10.0220 per unit against a reference of Rs7.4596, and the uniform-FCA policy would carry the adjustment to K-Electric consumers as well.
United States
Operating guide changes NOGRR226 and NOGRR247 add anti-stall stages and set relief in 5 per cent steps; separate market changes for congestion and firm fuel take effect on 29 October.
United States
PJM will validate the submissions by 14 November and post final parameters for the 2029/30 capacity auction on 19 November, with bidding opening on 9 December.
Europe
Tender round 14 covers a single transmission link for a wind farm more than 100 km offshore, with revenue indexed to inflation for up to 25 years.
Global
Fuel adds Rs2.40 per unit while capacity charges per unit fall, and NEPRA will hear the forecast on 3 November ahead of tariff rebasing on 1 January.
Europe
The decision confirms January's minded-to position on the East Anglia reinforcement, one of 26 projects in the accelerated strategic transmission programme.
Europe
CRE proposes an 82 GW target volume for the long-term capacity auction for winter 2030-31, of which 3 GW may take multi-year contracts, and keeps price caps at 72 and 15 euros per kW.
Africa
PURC's tariff publication effective 1 October 2026 sets GRIDCo transmission service charge TSC 1 at 15.8925 GHp/kWh and a composite bulk generation charge of 118.0280 GHp/kWh.
Europe
BP's 13 October trading statement expects post-tax impairment charges of $3.0 to 4.5 billion, mainly in gas and low carbon energy, and net debt of $13.5 to 14.5 billion at quarter-end.
China
China used 1,033.2 TWh of electricity in August and set a record peak load of 1,560 GW, while internet data services and vehicle charging grew more than 40 per cent over January to August.
China
Trading centres cleared 5,180 TWh in January to August, up 19.2 per cent, but green-power contracts covered only 218.2 TWh, about one-eighth of wind and solar output.
China
Shandong's revised grid-connection and ancillary-service rules took effect on 1 October with discounted charges during transition, while the NEA's draft national regulation is open for comment until about 30 October.
Africa
Shell Petroleum B.V. has signed an agreement to transfer Shell Nigeria Gas Group, including about 170 kilometres of pipelines serving more than 130 industrial customers, to Nigerian firm Vaaris Energy.
Africa
NLNG's chief executive told a Lagos energy conference that gas suppliers to power plants are owed about N3.3 trillion, undermining generation despite proven reserves of about 215 trillion cubic feet.
Africa
GW Mozambique Investments and EDM have opened prequalification through 24 November for a 460-kilometre transmission package linking central and northern Mozambique, valued at about USD 450 million.
India
Tamil Nadu's distribution utility has signed the costliest short-term power deals in its history to get through the rest of October. The Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited finalised purchases from 12 to 31 October that put roughly 2,000 MW into the evening peak at rates up to Rs 37 per unit, including 181 MW of gas-fired supply at that ceiling, The New Indian Express and ET Energyworld reported on 13 October.
United States
The Energy Department granted PJM a Section 202(c) emergency order for October 13 to 16 after the grid operator forecast demand near 111,500 MW with 61,591 MW of generation out for autumn maintenance.
Europe
NESO called on emergency assistance from France on Monday evening, its largest such request since at least 2024, after a delayed return to service cut available capacity.
Europe
Britain's electricity system operator put the market on notice for a thin evening margin on Tuesday, then stood the warning down once generation and imports closed the gap. The National Energy System Operator issued an Electricity Margin Notice overnight on 5 October for the period from 15:00 to 23:00 on 6 October, citing a system margin shortfall of 1,840 MW.
United States
For most of the past decade, the story of U.S. natural gas demand growth was written on the Gulf Coast. Every new liquefaction train meant another billion cubic feet a day leaving the country, and the 2026 run of final investment decisions extended that pipeline well into the 2030s.
United States
Virginia now has an official count of the machines that keep its data centers running when the grid fails. A report delivered to the General Assembly's money committees on October 1, 2026 by the staff of the State Corporation Commission (SCC), compiled with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), lists 10,290 permitted Tier 2 (or earlier) generator sets at data centers with a combined capacity of 26,718 MW, and 3,477 Tier 4 or Tier 4-equivalent sets with 6,414 MW.
Powering the AI TransitionStrait of Hormuz disruptionPJM capacity and large loads
Global
In May 2025 Pakistan's finance ministry announced that the government had allocated 2,000 MW of electricity in the first phase of a national initiative to power bitcoin mining and AI data centres. The pitch was simple.
Global
The 31st UN climate conference, COP31, will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026. Under an arrangement agreed at COP30 in Belém, Türkiye holds the COP presidency, hosts the World Leaders' Summit and leads the action agenda, while Australia serves as President of Negotiations, with authority over the negotiated outcomes.
United States
PJM Interconnection's Reliability Backstop Procurement was designed to buy about 6.8 GW of new generation to close a capacity shortfall driven by data center demand. It did not open on September 30 as planned.
Other markets
Malaysia built part of its data centre boom on the promise of affordable, reliable power. The Gulf crisis is testing the affordable part.
United States
The war that closed the Strait of Hormuz at the end of February 2026 sent gas prices in Asia and Europe to their highest levels since the 2022 crisis. In the United States, gas got cheaper.
Powering the AI TransitionStrait of Hormuz disruptionUS LNG investment decisions
Global
Monsoon-related incidents in Pakistan killed 199 people and injured 552 between 26 June and 29 September 2026, according to the National Disaster Management Authority's daily situation reports. The NDMA's report number 97, covering 29 to 30 September, is among the last of the season, as monsoon activity retreats from the country in late September and October.
United States
Texas is about to test how much new demand its gas fields can serve at once. On one side are liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants along the Gulf Coast, several of which started up or reached final investment decision in 2026.
Powering the AI TransitionERCOT large-load reviewUS LNG investment decisions
Europe
The European Commission has adopted a delegated regulation establishing a common EU rating scheme for data centres under the Energy Efficiency Directive. The scheme will use data that operators report on energy and water performance, including power usage effectiveness and water usage effectiveness, to generate electronic labels on an A to G scale for energy and for water.
Europe
Amsterdam has long been one of Europe's main data centre hubs. In 2026 it has become the clearest example in Europe of a market closed by two separate limits at once: planning rules that forbid new facilities and a transmission grid with no room left to connect them.
Global
Pakistan still runs two electricity systems that touch at a handful of points. K-Electric generates, buys and distributes power for Karachi, while the National Grid Company and its DISCOs serve almost everyone else.
Europe
Ireland has two records that now interact. Its data centres use a larger share of national electricity than in any other European country.
United States
Two of the biggest stories in American energy this year draw on the same resource. Between March and June, three large LNG export projects reached final investment decision: Phase 2 of Venture Global's CP2 LNG on March 13, Caturus's 9.5 million metric ton per year Commonwealth LNG on May 15, and Delfin Midstream's first floating liquefaction vessel on June 3.
Global
Profit by Pakistan Today reported on 18 September 2026 that a National Assembly committee on privatisation was told the approved structure for the first DISCO sales would divest between 51 and 100 per cent of each company together with management control. The same terms appear in the commission's May invitation for expressions of interest, so the committee briefing confirmed a design rather than changing one.
United States
EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook released on 9 September 2026 states that the United States uses record amounts of electricity in the forecast. Electricity sales are expected to total 4,135 billion kilowatthours in 2026 and 4,211 billion kilowatthours in 2027, driven by data-centre development and increased manufacturing in the commercial and industrial sectors.
Middle East
When the presidents of the United Arab Emirates and the United States unveiled a 5 GW AI campus in Abu Dhabi on 15 May 2025, the pitch was simple: abundant power, deep capital and a location within 3,200 km of nearly half the world's population. Sixteen months later, the war that closed the Strait of Hormuz has added a requirement nobody had priced in.
United States
Winter Storm Fern swept across large parts of the United States in late January 2026, bringing ice, snow and extreme cold from Texas to the Mid-Atlantic. The storm caused more than 1 million customer power outages, mainly from ice accumulation, falling trees and damage to local distribution lines, according to post-event assessments.
Europe
August 2026 was the warmest August on record and tied with July 2023 as the warmest month in the Copernicus Climate Change Service's ERA5 dataset, the service said on 10 September 2026. The global average surface air temperature was 16.96°C, 0.85°C above the 1991 to 2020 average and 1.65°C above the estimated 1850 to 1900 pre-industrial level.
Global
Energy Update reported on 10 September 2026 that ISMO had started collecting project data for IGCEP 2027-37, with returns due from stakeholders by 14 September. NEPRA has not yet approved IGCEP 2025-35.
United States
The site of what was Pennsylvania's largest coal-fired power plant is now one of the busiest construction projects in the country. Homer City Generation said on September 4 that more than 1,800 tradespeople are working on the Homer City Energy Campus, nearly double the 1,000 it reported in March.
Global
On 6 September 2026 ProPakistani reported that the federal government had cleared 11,695 pending net-metering applications on the instructions of Power Minister Awais Leghari, out of 16,654 cases caught in the move to net billing. PITC began contacting cleared applicants by text and WhatsApp and warned them not to pay intermediaries.
United States
Oregon set out in 2025 to make data centers pay for the grid they need. A year later, regulators have the first numbers.
United States
Texas has built a process to decide which data centers get connected to the power grid. It has nothing equivalent for water.
Europe
Norway sells itself to AI developers on cheap, clean hydropower and a cold climate. The constraint is no longer the power.
Global
Arab News reported in late August 2026 that the Power Division had told distribution companies and PITC to clear rooftop solar connections that were already in motion before the net-billing cutoff. The directive covers applicants who, before 9 February 2026, had paid demand notices, received licences, had meters changed and executed connection orders.
Other markets
Japan's electricity planners have two problems that are starting to overlap. The first is forecasting how much power new data centres will need and when.
Middle East
Iraq is ending another summer of long power cuts, with the gap between demand and supply wider than in recent years. The main new factor is the collapse of Iranian gas supplies.
United States
EIA's 16 April 2026 Today in Energy analysis, drawing on the Short-Term Energy Outlook, forecasts that United States net natural gas exports will grow 18 percent to 18.7 billion cubic feet per day in 2026 and another 10 percent to 20.5 billion cubic feet per day in 2027. Current United States peak export capacity is given as 18.3 billion cubic feet per day.
Global
Global insured losses from natural catastrophes totalled an estimated $42 billion in the first half of 2026, the lowest first-half figure since 2020 and 16% below the 2016 to 2025 average, Swiss Re Institute said on 11 August 2026. Severe convective storms, which bring hail, tornadoes and damaging winds, remained the largest driver, with insured losses of about $28 billion, though that was below the long-term trend.
Europe
A drought stretching from the Rhine delta to the lower Danube cut hydropower output across seven European countries by about one fifth between April and July 2026, according to an analysis of river flow, generation and price data published by pv magazine on 10 August. Nuclear plants on the Danube also reduced output as river flows fell to their lowest levels in seven years, while wholesale power prices rose steadily through the summer.
Global
The IGU's World LNG Report 2026, released 7 July 2026, prints a record: global LNG trade at 437 million tonnes in 2025, up 6.3%, the strongest growth since 2022. Detailed graphics put the figure at 436.98 million tonnes from 24 exporting markets to 50 importing markets, with re-exports stable near 4.91 million tonnes.
United States
The first test of how Texas will treat data centers that sit behind an existing power plant has ended with a firm answer: in a grid emergency, the load goes, regardless of how much the paired generator produces. On July 24 the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved a net metering arrangement between the Goodnight wind farm in Armstrong County and a proposed AI data center, and agreed with ERCOT that the two data centers behind the wind farm's single interconnection must together be able to curtail 525.5 MW within 30 minutes.
United States
The Eaton fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed or damaged more than 9,000 homes and businesses in the Altadena area in January 2025, was caused by electrical arcing on an out-of-service Southern California Edison transmission tower, according to investigative reports released by the Los Angeles County Fire Department on August 4, 2026. The investigation was conducted jointly with CAL FIRE over 18 months, with retained electrical and metallurgical experts.
China
For four years China has tried to solve the power problem of computing with geography. Its Eastern Data, Western Compute programme, launched nationwide in 2022, designated eight national computing hubs and ten data centre clusters, steering power-hungry workloads to the western provinces where land and renewable energy are abundant.
United States
Amazon's total carbon emissions rose 16% in 2025, to 80.85 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent from 69.55 million metric tons in 2024, according to the company's 2025 Sustainability Report, published in July 2026. Carbon intensity, measured as emissions per dollar of revenue, rose 3% to 112.8 grams of CO2 equivalent per dollar.
United States
ERCOT's update to the Texas Senate on July 29 contained a number that will be quoted for months: approximately 474 GW of large loads seeking interconnection to the grid, about 90% of them data centers, as of June 2026. For context, ERCOT's all-time peak demand record is 85,508 MW, set on August 10, 2023.
United States
The new wave of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects and the rush to power AI data centers are usually discussed as separate stories. At Baker Hughes, they arrive in the same order book.
Global
On 28 July 2026 the Privatisation Commission Board recommended that the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation approve restructuring plans and schemes of arrangement for FESCO, GEPCO and IESCO, the first batch of distribution companies up for sale. The plans are built on the three companies' audited accounts for the period ended 31 March 2026.
United States
PJM Interconnection's capacity market has cleared at its price cap for the third auction running, and for the second time in a row it has failed to buy enough. The base residual auction for the 2028/2029 delivery year, whose results PJM announced on July 14, 2026, cleared at the cap of $325/MW-day across the whole footprint and procured less capacity than PJM's reliability standard requires.
United States
Microsoft's total greenhouse gas emissions rose 25% in its 2025 fiscal year, to 20.29 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent from 16.21 million metric tons the year before, according to the company's 2026 Environmental Sustainability Report, released on Friday, July 10. The company said the increase was primarily driven by the expansion of its data center infrastructure and by its decision to stop using non-additional, unbundled renewable energy certificates.
Global
By July 2026 the Cape of Good Hope has been a primary Asia-Europe energy diversion route for well over two years. What began in November 2023 as an emergency response hardened into an operating assumption for many owners.
United States
In July 2026 the United States Department of Energy released a draft National Transmission Needs Study for consultation and public comment under section 216(a)(1) of the Federal Power Act. The study identifies present or expected transmission capacity constraints or congestion that harm or may harm consumers and that transmission solutions could alleviate.
Global
The Fund for responding to Loss and Damage, created at the COP27 climate conference in 2022, has deferred its first project funding approvals to December 2026, Climate Home News reported on 10 July. The fund's board, meeting for the ninth time in July, did not approve any proposals under its initial funding window, known as the Barbados Implementation Modalities, and instead set its tenth meeting in December as the target for a first package.
United States
PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for 13 states and the District of Columbia, set a preliminary all-time peak load of about 168,158 megawatts between 5 and 6 p.m. on July 2, 2026, according to a PJM update published on July 10. The previous record, 165,563 MW, was set on August 2, 2006.
United States
Google's electricity demand rose 37% in 2025, the largest load growth in the company's history, according to its 2026 Environmental Report released on June 30, 2026. Despite that growth, Google said its operational emissions, covering Scope 1 and market-based Scope 2, fell 2% year on year.
United States
The Ohio Power Siting Board on June 26 approved construction of a 250 MW natural gas plant in Licking County that will serve a single customer: a data center owned by Sidecat LLC, an affiliate of Meta Platforms. The Socrates the Younger Power Generation Facility will operate behind the meter and will not be physically connected to the electric grid, the board said.
Europe
EDF has temporarily shut down nuclear reactors at the Nogent-sur-Seine plant on the Seine and the Bugey plant on the Rhône as river temperatures rose during a record heatwave, Euronews reported on 25 June 2026. A reactor at the Golfech plant on the Garonne in south-western France had been taken offline earlier in the week, and output was reduced at several other sites across EDF's 57-reactor fleet.
Europe
Germany wrote some of the world's toughest efficiency rules for data centres into law in 2023. On 24 June 2026, a week before the strictest of them was due to apply, the federal cabinet approved an amendment that loosens them.
United States
Southwest Power Pool has quietly built the most complete set of large load rules of any US grid operator. In January the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted SPP's High Impact Large Load study process, known as HILL, and the companion High Impact Large Load Generation Assessment, or HILLGA.
United States
Lake Mead, the largest reservoir on the Colorado River, is expected to fall below an elevation of 1,035 feet above sea level within the next 12 months, possibly as early as late August, according to reporting by Circle of Blue published by Inside Climate News on June 12, 2026. At that level, generating capacity at Hoover Dam would be cut by 70%, because 12 of the dam's 17 turbines are not designed to operate in such low-water conditions.
Europe
After four years of de facto restriction, Ireland now has a formal route for new data centres to connect to the grid. On 12 December 2025 the Commission for Regulation of Utilities published its decision on a new electricity connection policy for data centres.
India
India's peak electricity demand reached a new all-time high of 270.82 GW on 21 May 2026, the fourth consecutive day of record demand, the Power Ministry said. The peak was met at 15:45 during solar hours.
United States
Every major U.S. grid operator now has to forecast demand from data centers and other very large customers. ISO New England has done so for the first time, and its answer stands out: almost nothing is coming.
Global
Middle East LNG sits at the hinge of two 2025-26 facts. First, global LNG trade set records: IGU reported 436.98 million tonnes in 2025, up to a rounded 437 million tonnes, +6.3%, the strongest growth since 2022, with Middle East exports up 3.8 million tonnes and North America up 25.3 million tonnes.
Global
The International Monetary Fund has published its staff report on Pakistan's third review under the Extended Fund Facility and second review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, IMF Country Report No. 26/101, dated 23 April 2026 and released on 14 May. The RSF is the IMF's climate-focused lending window, which provides longer-term financing tied to reforms that build resilience to climate shocks.
United States
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin unanimously approved We Energies' tariff for data center-scale customers on April 24, but only after rewriting the parts that would have shifted costs onto everyone else. The commission removed an option under which data centers would have paid 75% of the cost of new generation, lengthened the minimum contract to 15 years and cut the size threshold for the tariff from 500 MW to 100 MW.
Global
Pakistan's Power Minister Awais Leghari has confirmed that the country is experiencing six to seven hours of load management a day, nearly three times the duration the government had previously announced, Dawn reported on 17 April 2026. He cited a sudden surge in demand, the unavailability of imported liquefied natural gas because of the Middle East crisis, and lower water discharges from dams.
Europe
Emissions covered by the EU Emissions Trading System fell by 1.3% in 2025 compared with 2024, the European Commission said on 10 April 2026. The figures are based on verified emissions data reported by member states by the 31 March deadline and cover stationary installations, aviation and maritime transport.
Middle East
For three years the Gulf states have pitched themselves as the natural home for the next generation of AI infrastructure. The argument rested on three pillars: abundant and cheap energy, deep sovereign capital, and political alignment with Washington.
Global
The WMO, the UN agency for weather and climate, published its State of the Global Climate 2025 report in March 2026. The report finds that 2025 was 1.43°C, plus or minus 0.13°C, above the 1850 to 1900 average, making it the second or third warmest year on record depending on the dataset.
Europe
The European Union's 2040 climate target has become law. Regulation (EU) 2026/667, which amends the European Climate Law to add an intermediate target for 2040, was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 11 March 2026 and published in the Official Journal on 18 March.
United States
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation's annual 10-year outlook, released in January, has a simple headline: demand is rising faster than the resources planned to meet it, and data centers are the main reason. The 2025 Long-Term Reliability Assessment forecasts that summer peak demand across its assessment areas will rise by more than 224 GW over the next decade, 69% higher than last year's 10-year growth projection of 132 GW.
India
India installed a record 37.9 GW of solar and 6.3 GW of wind in calendar year 2025, according to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy data reported by pv magazine India on 13 January 2026. Solar additions were 54.7 per cent higher than in 2024, and wind additions 85.3 per cent higher.
United States
PJM's Board of Managers has decided how the grid will handle the data centers it cannot yet supply. In a decisional letter dated January 16, closing the Critical Issue Fast Path process on large load additions, the Board set out a package that keeps new large loads inside the capacity market, encourages them to bring their own new generation, and makes those that do not subject to curtailment before pre-emergency demand response when the system is short.
United States
The politics of data center power in the mid-Atlantic changed on January 15, 2026. The National Energy Dominance Council, chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum with Energy Secretary Chris Wright as vice chair, signed a Statement of Principles Regarding PJM with the governors of the states in the PJM Interconnection region.
Europe
The Copernicus Climate Change Service, operated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission, has ranked 2025 as the third warmest year in its records. In its Global Climate Highlights 2025 report, published in January 2026, Copernicus said the global average surface air temperature for the year was 14.97°C, which is 1.47°C above the 1850 to 1900 pre-industrial level.
United States
Few questions in US power regulation have been argued as hard over the past two years as this one: when a data center is built next to a power plant and takes electricity directly from it, what does it owe the grid? On December 18, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave PJM Interconnection its answer.
United States
Meta announced agreements on January 9 with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo that it says will support up to 6.6 GW of new and existing nuclear capacity by 2035. Together with its 2025 contract with Constellation Energy for the Clinton plant in Illinois, the company said the deals make it "one of the most significant corporate purchasers of nuclear energy in American history." The package spans every stage of the nuclear pipeline: operating reactors, upgrades to squeeze more output from them, and two advanced reactor designs that have yet to produce commercial power.
United States
Georgia has approved one of the largest single utility build-outs tied to data centers in the country, with a condition aimed squarely at the fear that the data centers might not show up. On December 19 the Georgia Public Service Commission voted 5-0 to approve a stipulated agreement allowing Georgia Power to add 9,885 MW of new resources.
United States
PJM Interconnection's capacity market has now produced the result its critics and its defenders both feared. The 2027/2028 Base Residual Auction, published on December 17, cleared 134,479 MW of unforced capacity at the cap of $333.44 per megawatt-day across the whole footprint.
Global
December 2025 is contracting season with an unusually wide European demand cone. ACER warned that EU LNG demand outlook faces up to 90 bcm of uncertainty between Fit for 55 and REPowerEU scenarios, and that without stronger decarbonisation beyond Fit for 55 the EU could need up to 30 bcm more LNG by 2030 than in 2024.
United States
EIA's 25 February 2025 inventory showed generators planning 12.3 gigawatts of 2025 retirements, a 65 percent increase compared with 2024, after only 7.5 gigawatts retired in 2024, the least since 2011. Coal accounted for 66 percent of planned exits, or 8.1 gigawatts, equal to 4.7 percent of the coal fleet at the end of 2024.
Europe
Negotiators for the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement in early December 2025 on the first omnibus simplification package, known as Omnibus I. The deal substantially narrows the scope of two flagship sustainability laws: the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, or CSRD, and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, or CSDDD. Under the agreement, as summarised by law firms including Linklaters and A&O Shearman, the CSRD will apply to companies with more than 1,000 employees and net annual turnover above €450 million.
Global
The IMF Executive Board completed the second review of Pakistan's Extended Fund Facility on 8 December 2025. The staff report behind that decision, completed on 20 November, contains the clearest official picture yet of what a year of energy reform has done to circular debt, and it is better on power than most domestic commentary allows and worse on gas.
Global
The 30th UN climate conference in Belém, Brazil, closed with the adoption of a consensus package that the Brazilian presidency called the Belém Package. Its central text, the Global Mutirão decision, takes its name from an Indigenous Brazilian word for collective work.
United States
New York's grid operator found no actionable reliability needs in its latest ten-year plan. It also said that result "should not be mistaken for long-term system adequacy." The New York Independent System Operator's 2025-2034 Comprehensive Reliability Plan describes a system where the margin for error is extremely narrow and most plausible futures point to significant shortfalls within a decade.
United States
Federal energy messaging in 2025 returned emphatically to domestic production, exports and reliability. DOE's 20 January 2025 announcement ending the LNG export pause and restoring regular-order review of non-FTA applications is the clearest administrative marker.
Global
China's 2024-25 energy import pattern is a lesson in fuel competition inside one industrial system. Coal imports hit a record 548 million tonnes in 2024 before the IEA expected a 2025 retreat toward 489 million tonnes on high stocks and soft demand.
Global
The UN Environment Programme published its Emissions Gap Report 2025, titled Off Target, on 4 November, days before COP30 opens in Belém. The annual report assesses whether national pledges and policies put the world on course to meet the Paris Agreement's temperature goals.
Global
Reuters reported on 4 November 2025 that Pakistan LNG Limited had agreed to cancel 21 cargoes under its long-term contract with Eni. The 2017 contract commits Eni to one cargo a month until 2032.
United States
The federal government has agreed to become a partner in the largest U.S. nuclear construction program in decades. On October 28 Brookfield Asset Management and Cameco, which jointly own Westinghouse Electric, said they had signed a binding term sheet with the Department of Commerce.
