Explore the wide-ranging landscape of power sector competitiveness across the Southeast United States with the Southeast Power Sector Competitiveness Dashboard. During this webinar on Dec. 11, the Nicholas Institute experts who developed the dashboard discussed its purpose, compared regional competitiveness metrics across states in the region, introduced the resource’s interactive features and information through a live demonstration, and answered audience questions.

What role can data center flexibility play in next-generation electric power systems? In this webinar held Dec. 9, hear about new modeling research from the GRACE Lab at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and get expert insights from the energy and tech sectors.

Virginia ranks first, and Alabama last, in a Southeast power sector “competitiveness” dashboard launched this week by Duke University researchers, reports Utility Dive. Twelve states were scored according to indicators such as participation in wholesale power markets, net metering policies, presence of a consumer advocate, interconnection standards, procurement requirements and third-party power purchase agreements.

Developed by Nicholas Institute experts, the Southeast Power Sector Competitiveness Dashboard assembles key metrics on an array of policies and market characteristics that influence how utilities, regulators, producers and consumers interact. The dashboard covers 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

New Jersey Gov.-Elect Mikie Sherrill announced Nicholas Institute Executive in Residence Tim Profeta as one of the 17 experts who will serve on her "Making Energy More Affordable and Reliable" transition action team.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to standardize large load interconnections, but the advance notice of proposed rulemaking leaves open many critical questions. Former FERC Commissioner Allison Clements and Tyler Norris, lead author of a seminal Duke paper on load flexibility, talked with Latitude Media about some of those considerations.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can make large load flexibility a reality through implementation of proposed rulemaking on large load interconnections, according to a policy brief published by the Nicholas Institute. “There are huge benefits potentially from these kinds of flexibility commitments,” co-author and Roselle LLP partner Sam Walsh told RTO Insider.

Enabling load flexibility is critical to achieving speed-to-power for data centers and other large energy customers while keeping the grid reliable and affordable for everyone else, write former FERC Commissioner Allison Clements and Roselle LLP partners Miles Farmer and Sam Walsh in an op-ed for Utility Dive. The three were co-authors of a policy brief that offers rules that could comprise a workable framework to achieve large load flexibility success.

Last Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to consider rulemaking to fast-track interconnection for large loads—as long as they agree to be curtailable or colocate with dispatchable generation. Former FERC Commissioner Allison Clements and Duke Ph.D. student Tyler Norris joined the Catalyst podcast to discuss what the proposal actually means for interconnection.

Significant electricity load growth can be accommodated without a stampede to new gas generation while propelling the clean energy transition, writes John Quigley of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. One promising approach that Quigley cites is a new study from Duke scholars that finds planned load flexibility at data centers can minimize—or even eliminate—any near-term need to build new gas plants to meet load growth.

In this virtual briefing, three Duke University experts—Tyler Norris and Dalia Patiño-Echeverri (Nicholas School of the Environment) and Tim Profeta (Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability)—discussed their new national-scale analysis of how the existing U.S. power system can accommodate data centers and other large new loads without requiring major generation and transmission expansion.

Researchers from Duke University have said that integrating more flexibility into U.S. power grids could help provide the energy needed to power future load growth, particularly the electricity needed to support artificial intelligence and data centers, reports POWER. The group discussed the findings of their recent study in a Feb. 19 webinar.

In an op-ed for Utility Dive, energy policy experts Peter Freed and Allison Clements write that rational standardization of large load-side interconnection could help regulators across the country address the challenges and opportunities that new electricity demand poses for customer protection, grid reliability and economic development. Freed and Clements note that new rules may be needed to design opportunities for flexible interconnection subject to curtailment as described in a recent study by Duke scholars.

A new Nicholas Institute report has determined that data center operators could unlock up to 76 GW of new capacity in the United States by curtailing their energy use during periods of grid stress, writes Data Center Dynamics.

At a time of increasing power demand concerns in the United States, a new study from Duke University has found significant potential for load integration onto the power grid should flexibility measures be taken, reports Smart Energy International.