It's Wednesday. The fastest way onto a crowded grid may be agreeing not to use all of it. One California utility now has two years of data on how often that bargain costs the customer anything.
In today's edition:
🔌 Big Story: PG&E readies its first flexible-interconnection data center
⚡ Quick Hits: Enphase goes commercial, a 2.1 GWh flow battery, Saudi Arabia's first storage awards
💰 Capital: Commonwealth Fusion's $1 billion round
📋 Policy Watch: Ontario's export tariff threat, 13 new reactor projects
📊 Chart of the Day: the water bill behind the watts
But first…
Build energy apps with AI without exposing critical data.
Turn your operational data (SCADA, OMS, PI, etc.) into validated, audit-ready apps. Analysts ship in weeks without complicated IT workflows.
100% CIP and cybersecurity safe.
The Big Story
PG&E readies its first flexible-interconnection data center.
Pacific Gas and Electric will bring its first flexible data center site online this fall, a roughly 5 MW facility connecting to the distribution grid in the Bay Area, two years after launching the Flex Connect program that makes it possible. Flex Connect gives a customer a firm floor of capacity and a dynamic ceiling that moves with grid headroom, in exchange for a faster connection. Latitude Media reported the milestone with figures from Alex Collins, the senior manager running the program.
"We bootstrapped this by having a vendor willing to do a lot of custom work." Alex Collins, PG&E, via
Seven Flex Connect projects are online after two years, two of which have since moved to firm interconnections after grid upgrades, according to Latitude Media.
PG&E had hoped for 10 sites by the end of 2025 and finished with five, which Collins attributed to a mix of slowdowns including customer construction changes.
Around 85 sites are now under assessment, and ten applications came from large load customers in 2026 alone, Collins said.
Operating sites have had capacity above their contractual floor 90% of the time, and PG&E is developing a transmission-level version.
Source: Latitude Media
Reach 3,000+ energy professionals. Partner with Grid Innovation Hub.
No filler audience. Every subscriber opted in for the latest in grid innovation.
To talk placements, dates, and pricing, contact Lucas Cheney at [email protected].
Quick Hits
Technology milestones from across the grid
Five stories from across the stack, from an inverter maker's move upmarket to the thermal budget of a new AI chip.
Enphase opened US pre-orders for the IQ Battery C80, an AC-coupled commercial system the company says scales to multi-megawatt-hour sites, its first push beyond residential storage. pv magazine USA
Invinity Energy Systems confirmed an EPC contract award for a 2.1 GWh vanadium flow battery at Laufenberg, Switzerland, putting a non-lithium chemistry on a gigawatt-hour-scale build. Energy-Storage.news
ACWA Power and Engie took the bulk of $1.16 billion in Saudi storage service agreements covering 2 GW and 8 GWh, the first phase of a sovereign-backed battery program. ESS News
Capstone Green Energy reported that commercial and industrial customers are sizing up larger onsite generation as interconnection queues stall, a demand signal for behind-the-meter load. Reuters
OpenAI detailed its first in-house AI accelerator, Jalapeño, at Hot Chips, disclosing a 700 W thermal design power that sets a floor for rack density and cooling. Data Center Dynamics
The Capital Stack
Commonwealth Fusion raises $1 billion to finish SPARC.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems closed a $1 billion round that brings its total raised to $4 billion, funding completion of SPARC, its demonstration reactor. CEO Bob Mumgaard told Utility Dive the machine is "about 80% complete," with net energy gain targeted for 2027. That buys the best-capitalized private fusion developer runway to finish the machine, though the 2027 date remains the company's own projection.
Source: Utility Dive
Also in the capital stack:
Molex invested in liquid cooling vendor CAEPlus to fund its BoundaryCool direct-to-chip system, a connector giant betting thermal density is outrunning what air can carry. Data Center Dynamics
Policy Watch
Ontario is weighing a 25% tariff on, or an outright halt to, electricity exports to the US in retaliation for new US tariffs. ISO-NE told Utility Dive the effect would be mainly financial, higher wholesale prices and higher regional emissions, rather than a reliability event in normal weather. EIA puts annual US-Canada electricity trade at $3.2 billion, 67% of it imports. Utility Dive
The DOE's National Reactor Innovation Center added 13 projects across 12 companies to its Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, extending a DOE-authorization pathway that routes demonstrations around standard NRC licensing timelines and shifts schedule risk for firm capacity aimed at AI load. POWER
Chart of the Day
The water bill behind the watts.
3.4 trillion gallons of freshwater went to generating electricity for data centers across seven states in 2024, roughly 12 times the combined municipal use of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Washington DC. Ceres projects 4 to 8 trillion gallons by 2030, well above the onsite cooling water most siting fights argue about. Image credit: Ceres.
Source: Latitude Media · August 25, 2026
Like our newsletter?
Or forward this link: {{rp_refer_url}}
You currently have {{rp_num_referrals}} referrals. We're building out rewards for our most active subscribers, including merch and exclusive content!
Who We Follow
And you should too!
Loved it? Forward it.
And reply back with some news and stories we should include tomorrow!