It's Tuesday. Punctuality is usually a virtue. On the power grid, millions of batteries checking in at exactly the same second turns out to be a measurable problem.
In today's edition:
⚡ Big Story: Researchers trace a worldwide 60-second grid wobble to batteries
🔋 Quick Hits: Anthropic's gas engines, 600,000 Australian home batteries, salt-stored steam, the IEA's 3.6 TW
💰 Capital: $769M for solar on a working coal mine, Fervo's new Google contract
📋 Policy Watch: the Senate clears BAAJA cloture 73-25, Puerto Rico's emergency orders, a Snowy 2.0 delay
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The Big Story
Researchers trace a worldwide 60-second grid wobble to batteries
Researchers at Germany's Forschungszentrum Jülich, led by Dirk Witthaut, have traced a small frequency dip that hits power grids every 60 seconds, from Europe and Australia to the US and Malaysia, to stationary batteries that check their state of charge on the minute, TechCrunch reported. The devices, from data-center UPS units to grid-scale batteries, are internet-connected, so their clocks run in near-perfect sync and their load spikes stack up. TenneT Germany brought the team the puzzle.
Witthaut's team recommends that UPS and grid-scale battery makers add some randomization to the check schedule, a fix TechCrunch describes as a simple software patch.
In Ireland, where data centers were 18% of grid load by 2022, the minute-by-minute dip quadrupled from 3 mHz in 2016 to 12 mHz in 2021, and some recent drops have exceeded 20 mHz.
Ireland's 50 Hz grid is built to withstand swings of plus or minus 200 mHz, and the operator would rather keep them within 100 mHz.
Power quality meters on the Jülich campus caught a battery system serving as UPS peaking every minute.
The fix is a recommendation so far. TechCrunch notes many connected devices go unpatched and says regulators may have to step in.
Source: TechCrunch
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Quick Hits
Technology milestones from across the grid
Gas for AI, a battery milestone Down Under, salt-stored steam and a six-year solar forecast.
Anthropic agreed a $3.4 billion deal for 1.7 GW of gas-fired engines for its data centers through OnePWR Solutions, taking over an order previously pledged to Caterpillar, the Financial Times reported, per Heatmap. Heatmap
Australia's Cheaper Home Batteries program passed 600,000 installations, climate and energy minister Chris Bowen said, as he warned that plug-in balcony solar cannot be rushed. RenewEconomy
Bayer is testing salt-based thermal storage to make renewable steam at its La Felguera plant in Spain, backed by a 15 MW PPA and 2.5 MW of onsite solar in an investment of more than €18 million. pv magazine
The IEA expects 3.6 TW of new solar PV worldwide from 2026 to 2031, about 2 TW utility-scale and 1.5 TW distributed, with US additions peaking above 50 GW in 2027 before falling to 40 GW in 2031. PV Tech
The Capital Stack
Panamint Capital closes $769M to build solar on a working coal mine
Panamint Capital closed the first $769 million phase of a $1.8 billion loan from Lloyds, MUFG and SMBC for Big Rooter Power, a 1.2 GWdc solar project at its Twin Oaks power station and the still-active Calvert Mine in Robertson County, Texas, PV Tech reported. Phase one funds the 491 MW Big Rooter West, targeted for commercial operation in August 2028. It reuses the Twin Oaks interconnection, where the 310 MW lignite plant is expected to keep running. CEO Apolka Totth has said the complex will add more than 20 miles of new 345 kV transmission and 1.6 GWh of battery storage. Financing for the 658 MW Big Rooter East is expected to close in Q1 2027.
Source: PV Tech
Also in the capital stack:
Fervo Energy reported 1,054 MW of binding PPAs worth about $11.9 billion in its third-quarter results, including a new 396 MW, 15-year take-or-pay contract with Google, with 36 MW now operating. Fervo Energy
Policy Watch
The Senate voted 73-25 on Monday to end debate on the BAAJA permitting bill, clearing the 60-vote bar. More amendments are possible before a final vote expected in the coming days, and the bill then goes to the House, so its transmission planning and siting provisions are one floor vote from leaving the Senate. Source New Mexico
DOE renewed two Section 202(c) emergency orders for Puerto Rico through Feb. 5, 2027, covering PREPA generation dispatch and vegetation management for 3.2 million residents. Federal authority keeps steering the island's dispatch through winter. T&D World
AEMO confirmed it will update its reliability outlook after the latest delay to the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project. A later start for Australia's largest storage build puts more weight on batteries and other firming to cover the gap. RenewEconomy
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