Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Maryland's Office of People's Counsel (OPC) has asked federal regulators to reject a PJM Interconnection plan to buy additional power for projected demand growth, according to Inside Climate News.

The grid operator filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on July 31, seeking permission to purchase 6,831 megawatts of generating capacity for the delivery year that begins in June 2028, Inside Climate News reported. That volume represents the shortfall left by PJM's last auction.

Maryland's two utility zones have been assigned 135.4 MW of that total on an initial basis, split between 116.5 MW for Potomac Edison and 18.9 MW for Baltimore Gas and Electric.

The ratepayer advocate puts a price on the exposure. OPC estimates Maryland consumers could face as much as USD 562 million in added costs over 15 years if PJM secured the entire capacity target at the maximum proposed price, according to Inside Climate News.

OPC's objection turns on how firm the underlying demand is. In a state filing, the office said none of the seven Maryland data center projects included in the relevant forecast have a formal agreement with a utility.

PJM spokesperson Jeffrey Shields said the procurement is needed to address a capacity shortfall for the 2028-2029 delivery year.

The outcome reaches well beyond Maryland. PJM runs the electricity grid for 67 million people across portions of 13 states and Washington, D.C.. A FERC ruling on the July 31 request would set the terms under which the operator can buy capacity against load forecasts driven by data center interconnection requests that have not yet been contracted.

Five battery manufacturing projects run by three Western Australian companies have secured AUD 1.7 million between them under a state government funding round, RenewEconomy reported. Perth-based home battery entrant Magellan Power is on the recipient list.

The cash is drawn from the Local Battery Manufacturing Program, run by WA Labor. Alongside Magellan Power, the winners are Adarsh Investments and ProtoLab Manufacturing, and the awards cover prototype development and testing, equipment purchases and expanded production capacity, according to RenewEconomy.

One planned use is a new product line: Magellan Power wants to build modular community batteries locally, sized from 100 kW up to 1 MW.

The scheme will make available as much as AUD 30 million in grants, plus AUD 20 million lent at low interest. Eligible output spans residential, commercial and industrial batteries as well as battery components, RenewEconomy reported.

Applicants enter through one of two streams. Businesses at the pre-production stage can claim up to AUD 100,000 in matched funding across three categories of activity. Manufacturers already producing can claim up to AUD 5 million on the same matched basis.

Amber-Jade Sanderson, state minister for energy and decarbonisation, described the program as an effort at "building local manufacturing capability and keeping more value in our state".

PowerBank Corporation, based in Toronto and known primarily for its solar operations, has signed a fee-for-service development agreement aimed at the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) Second Long-term (LT2) procurement framework, according to ESS News.

The agreement targets the LT2(c-2) capacity-stream window specifically, ESS News reported. PowerBank's counterparty is a numbered company, 1001634281 Ontario Inc, which the outlet says is connected to the Electric Vehicle & Green Energy Advancement Association Canada.

Under the arrangement, PowerBank holds the right of first refusal to step in as the engineering, procurement, and construction provider should a contract be awarded, per ESS News. That structure keeps the developer's fee income separate from any construction mandate, with the build role contingent on procurement success.

ESS News also reported that PowerBank is helping its new partner examine an 18 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) installation in Hamilton, Ontario. The site work sits alongside the capacity-stream bid rather than replacing it.

The agreement places PowerBank on the development side of a battery storage procurement rather than as an asset owner, a role distinct from the solar work the company is better known for.

LEAG Clean Power has begun work on GigaBattery Boxberg 400, a 400 MW/1.6 GWh battery energy storage system in Saxony, Germany, with HyperStrong acting as turnkey contractor, according to ESS News.

The German subsidiary of HyperStrong put its name to the engineering, procurement and construction contract with LEAG in November 2025, ESS News reported.

HyperStrong is supplying its liquid-cooled HyperBlock III equipment at Boxberg, set up to discharge over four hours. Grid access runs through a new 380 kV substation into the 50Hertz transmission network, ESS News reported.

LEAG's announced GigaBattery projects come to 1.4 GW/5.6 GWh, a tally that folds in GigaBattery Jänschwalde at 1,000 MW/4,000 MWh, according to ESS News.

Sunotec has started building a 100 MW/441 MWh standalone battery storage system at Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt, ESS News reported.

Commissioning at Stendal is targeted for the first quarter of 2027. WT Energiesysteme is building a new 110 kV substation on site to deliver the grid connection, according to ESS News.

Blackstone bought a stake in Sunotec for EUR 250 million in April, to fund the developer's European expansion, ESS News reported.

The two sites plug into different voltage levels. Boxberg links to the 50Hertz transmission system at 380 kV, while the Stendal battery ties in at 110 kV.

The Red Sea utility complex has entered full commercial operation, EPC contractor SEPCOIII said on Aug. 21, according to pv magazine. The PowerChina subsidiary took on the build after signing its contract with ACWA Power in February 2021.

Storage is the largest single element on ACWA Power's asset list: 1,225.4 MWh of battery capacity, backed by 358 MWac of solar PV and 112.5 MW of internal-combustion units held in reserve, pv magazine reported.

Guinness World Records certified 1,125.18 MWh of the installation in May 2025 as the world's highest-capacity off-grid battery-based energy storage facility, per pv magazine.

Work on site began in October 2021, with the storage unit entering service in September 2023.

Red Sea Global does not finance or own the utility assets. It buys electricity, water and other services from the project consortium under a 25-year utility concession, pv magazine reported.

Three reverse-osmosis desalination plants sit within that concession, with a combined 32,500 cubic meters per day of output, plus wastewater treatment capacity of 16,000 cubic meters per day and 32,500 refrigeration tons of district cooling, according to ACWA Power's listing cited by pv magazine.

With the combustion units designated as backup, solar generation and the battery fleet carry primary supply at a site that has no grid connection.

California will not put new money into the Demand Side Grid Support program, described by Canary Media as one of the biggest virtual power plants in the country, after state budget language finalized last week omitted additional funding for it.

Canary Media reported that Governor Gavin Newsom's administration blocked an effort to keep the state's most successful virtual power plant program funded through next year.

The Demand Side Grid Support program aggregates customer-side resources that can be called on when the grid is tight, the model that puts it among the largest such programs nationally, according to Canary Media.