United States: Utilities

The North Carolina Department of Revenue has announced the repeal of a significant sales and use tax exemption for electricity purchased by Certified Datacenters, effective August 2026. This change will require datacenter operators to pay combined general sales and use tax rates on electricity purchases and comply with new quarterly reporting requirements, while other datacenter-related exemptions remain intact.

Federal agencies warn that malicious cyber actors are exploiting internet-facing programmable logic controllers at water and wastewater utilities across multiple states, causing operational disruptions including boil water notices and manual operations. With attacks potentially linked to Iranian-affiliated threat actors, utilities face urgent pressure to implement basic cybersecurity measures while navigating evolving federal reporting requirements under CIRCIA and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

California's power curtailments have surged dramatically in early 2026, with 4.5 million MWh of solar and wind energy curtailed in just the first half of the year. Meanwhile, a federal court has upheld FERC's accelerated permitting process for grid connections, and new solar and battery storage projects totaling billions in investment are moving forward across California, Nevada, and Texas.

The electric grid faces unprecedented stress as electricity demand surges while infrastructure buildout lags years behind. Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) have emerged as a practical solution, aggregating distributed energy resources like home batteries, smart thermostats, and EV chargers to function collectively as dispatchable power plants. With regulatory momentum accelerating across multiple states and real-world deployments demonstrating reliability during grid emergencies, VPPs are reshaping how utilities

On July 14, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order (EO or Order) pausing the issuance of discretionary permits and similar forms of approval for the construction or expansion of data centers...

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has issued several recent decisions clarifying how it evaluates municipality requests for exclusive water and wastewater service territories under the Regulated Territories Statutes. These orders reveal the Commission's careful scrutiny of regulatory ordinances and its strong preference for collaborative settlements between municipalities, counties, and other stakeholders when competing service-territory interests are at stake.

New York's legislature has passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act, which would fundamentally transform how large data centers are regulated, financed, and operated in the state. The bill establishes a one-year moratorium on new permits, mandates that data centers bear full infrastructure costs without shifting expenses to ratepayers, and imposes aggressive renewable energy requirements reaching 90% by 2040.

Power availability and grid constraints have emerged as the defining bottleneck for data center development and AI infrastructure growth.

U.S. battery energy storage installations reached record highs in Q1 2026, while California pushes forward with ambitious offshore wind plans and major solar-plus-storage projects secure billions in financing. Despite federal headwinds, state officials and industry leaders remain committed to renewable energy targets, with significant developments spanning from California's Central Valley to New York's community solar initiatives.