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October 2026 • Volume 19 • No 7 • Published monthly • ISSN 1757-7365

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES is published by Man in Black Media • www.mibmedia.com • Editor-in-Chief: Junior Isles • For all enquiries email: enquiries@teitimes.com

Delivering grids at speed Energy Transition Investment

Series

Building grids quickly and at scale was at the

heart of discussions at this year’s CIGRE

conference in Paris. Page 13

France has all it needs for a successful

energy transition but will it be enough going

forward? Page 14

News In Brief

Decision to scrap US power

plant emissions limits faces

legal challenges

The decision to scrap carbon stan-

dards for power plants in the US

looks set to face a long legal battle.

Page 2

Brazil anticipates solar PV

boom

Brazil’s solar energy market is set

to grow to $13.19 billion by 2034,

according to a new research report

from Inmarc, up ve-fold from

2025.

Page 4

Philippines to auction nearly

4 GW of natural gas projects

The Department of Energy is pre-

paring to auction 3800 MW of gas

red mid-merit generating capaci-

ty, considered a critical component

of the Philippines’ shift to clean

energy.

Page 5

Europe’s wind installers

want fair competition with

China

Danish wind farm developer Ørsted

has called for the EU to take action

against Chinese wind turbine mak-

ers that benet from “unfair” state

support.

Page 7

Electricity generation cost

‘constantly above $100/MWh’

The complexity of increasingly di-

versied electricity systems is push-

ing up the cost of new generation

beyond $100/MWh in most coun-

tries, a new report has found.

Page 8

Companies prepare to

exploit SMR market

opportunity

Equipment and technology provid-

ers are forming alliances, making

strategic investments as interest in

small modular reactors grows.

Page 9

Technology Perspective

Modern data centres can shed large

load within milliseconds during

transmission faults, driven by auto-

mated protection schemes never

designed with grid stability in mind.

Ireland’s response to this stability

challenge is MPID345, EirGrid’s

Grid Code modication. Page 15

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The European Commission has re-iterated that it must electrify its economy, but has been

warned it must re-energise its plan for energy independence from Russia. Junior Isles

Renewables rising but fossil fuels here for the

foreseeable future, says S&P Global report

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY

TIMES

Final Word

Some people are just old fossils,

stuck in time, says Junior Isles.

Page 16

The European Court of Auditors

(ECA) has said REPowerEU, the

EU’s plan for energy independence

from Russia, is faltering just as Eu-

rope’s energy security is facing re-

newed threats from the turmoil in the

Middle East.

Designed to phase out Russian fos-

sil fuel imports and accelerate the

shift towards clean energy, the ECA

stressed that the plan struggles to de-

liver overall. It said it has had little

resonance so far across national pol-

icies, as the 27 EU member states

have committed not even a fth of

the €300 billion in additional invest-

ments needed to meet its objectives.

Consequently, the auditors warn

that, without a major boost, the RE-

PowerEU plan will be unable to reach

its ambitious goals.

The agship REPowerEU plan was

presented in May 2022. Its main goal

is to phase out Russian fossil fuel im-

ports through a set of actions and ob-

jectives, such as diversifying fossil

fuel supplies, increasing the produc-

tion capacity of renewables, and

strengthening cross-border energy

interconnectivity.

The European Commission esti-

mated that some €300 billion in addi-

tional investments would be required

by 2030, and made this amount avail-

able from the COVID recovery cash

pot (RRF). Member states could add

dedicated REPowerEU chapters to

their recovery plans for delivering

REPowerEU’s objectives. However,

the governance framework lacks ef-

fective tools to steer the implementa-

tion of the plan and reliably track re-

sults, say the auditors.

“Four years after its launch, RE-

PowerEU has stalled, even though

several hundred billion euros have

been made available”, said Mihails

Kozlovs, the ECA Member in charge

of the report.

“We must learn the right lessons

now, as the new geopolitical tensions

and their impact on energy markets

underscore the need to accelerate di-

versication and prevent future

over-reliance on a single supplier.

That is why we are calling for coordi-

nated efforts to re-energise the plan.”

The auditors note that REPowerEU

was barely taken up by EU countries.

Their national energy and climate

plans were meant to steer REPowerEU

on the ground. In reality, most did not

include any specic actions or targets

to bolster the plan’s objectives. In ad-

dition, EU countries committed only

€54.3 billion out of the €300 billion

made available under the RRF for RE-

PowerEU. For the auditors, such a

huge gap indicates either that invest-

ment needs were wrongly estimated

Continued on Page 2

Although renewables are rising fossil

fuels are not going away any time

soon, according to a report by S&P

Global Energy.

While electrication and low-car-

bon energy sources are likely to ex-

pand, fossil fuels could still provide

more than half of global energy by

2060, it said. Coal, oil and natural gas

are expected to continue underpin-

ning power systems, industrial pro-

duction and energy security alongside

renewables.

In one of three scenarios, its “current

realities pathway” predicts the world

will need nearly $14 trillion of capital

investment in upstream oil and gas

supply through 2060. But more than

$11 trillion would still be needed in

the “emissions reduction pathway”, a

higher number than the researchers

expected.

Nick Lowes, Vice President, con-

sulting, S&P Global Energy said the

size of the gap was a “little bit of a

surprise.” He added: “It gave us a

good indication of what’s being spent

to maintain or replace declines in ex-

isting oil and gas elds.”

The report says electrication is es-

sential for emissions reductions, but

comes at a cost. Renewables such as

solar and wind, alongside electrica-

tion, drive emissions reductions. If the

world is to aggressively pursue decar-

bonisation, solar and wind capacity

must rise eight times globally and 18

times in emerging markets and devel-

oped economies (EMDEs) by 2060.

But full-speed electrication is

likely not possible, it claims. Once

renewables generation rises above 50

to 60 per cent, the power system – in-

cluding transmission and storage –

would require $50 trillion in invest-

ments by 2060, the report nds.

Alternative technologies such as car-

bon capture and hydrogen will be ad-

opted but are not silver bullets.

Meredith Bennett, Senior Director

of energy transition consulting at S&P,

noted, however, that the picture could

change if long-duration batteries were

to become more commercial and

mainstream. “A fair bit of that addi-

tional cost is to make sure there’s suf-

cient adequacy beyond your typical

shorter-duration battery,” he noted.

Worryingly, the report says that

even if the aggressive decarbonisation

pathway is taken, global emissions

will settle at 35 per cent of current lev-

els. Some advanced economies may

be net zero by 2060, but most EMDEs

cannot get there until the end of the

century.

The ndings come as the Interna-

tional Energy Agency’s latest update

on the coal sector sees higher natural

gas prices spurring a shift towards

coal in some regions in 2026, with the

Strait of Hormuz situation key for the

2027 outlook.

In the IEA’s Mid-Year Update, en-

ergy market disruptions caused by

the conict in the Middle East are

pushing global coal demand higher

this year as sharp rises in natural gas

prices prompt countries to turn to al-

ternative sources.

EU plan for energy independence from

Russia faltering, says European Court

of Auditors

Photo by Pixabay

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - OCTOBER 2026

Pressure from the US government is

expected to force multilateral lenders

to follow the World Bank’s lead in

ditching targets for green nancing,

threatening a UN agreement to provide

$1.3 trillion in climate nance.

At least two multilateral develop-

ment banks (MDBs) – the Inter-Amer-

ican Development Bank and the Asian

Development Bank – were in discus-

sions about scrapping climate nance

targets, the Financial Times reported

citing people familiar with talks. In

June the World Bank said it would “re-

tire” a target for 45 per cent of its -

nancing to go to projects that offered

climate “co-benets”.

A senior development nance expert

told the FT: “MDBs are kowtowing to

US pressures… It will have enormous

consequences.” Two people familiar

with talks told the newspaper that the

IDB, the main source of multilateral

nancing in Latin America and the

Caribbean, had come under “real pres-

sure” to dump its target for climate to

account for 45 per cent of nancing.

In 2025, IDB increased climate -

nance by 46 per cent on the previous

year to $9.95 billion.

The removal of climate nance tar-

gets would make it harder for devel-

oped nations to meet their obligations

to provide international climate -

nance. Countries previously agreed to

mobilise at least $300 billion annually

for developing nations by 2035 and

work towards reaching $1.3 trillion

over the same period.

Joe Thwaites, international climate

nance director at the NRDC advoca-

cy group, argued, however, that the US

is not “the only shareholder that mat-

ters”, adding, “nor are these institutions

the only ones in town”. He noted: “It

is quite smart for donors to make clear

they can and will move their money.”

Last month 48 Green Banks, all mem-

bers of the US Green Bank 50 (GB 50),

said they had supported nearly $30

billion in total project investment na-

tionwide since their inception.

According to GB 50’s inaugural

2026 impact report, ‘Growing the

Clean Economy: How U.S. Green

Banks Mobilize Capital, Reduce En-

ergy Costs, and Benet American

Communities’ its members have de-

ployed $5.16 billion of their own cap-

ital across over 180 000 projects in

dozens of states.That direct invest-

ment attracted more than $24.5 billion

in private capital, demonstrating that

Green Banks act as high-leverage,

low-cost engines for communi-

ty-driven clean energy deployment

and economic development.

“This report proves that Green Banks

are established, high-leverage engines

for national economic development,”

said Dan Adler, Executive Director of

the GB 50. “By leveraging small

amounts of their own capital to attract

substantial private investment, our

members have demonstrated how

green banking turns community clean

energy goals into bankable projects.

Clean energy is ready for commercial

deployment across the country, where

it can lower a family’s power bill or

keep a clinic running through a storm.

For many communities, the barrier to

clean energy deployment is nancial,

not technological.”

and largely overblown, or that there

is an inability to translate objectives

into concrete action. The fact is that

the REPowerEU plan is falling short

of some its main targets, the auditors

warn.

The auditors found that although

REPowerEU certainly helped to

speed up some important projects

in member states, it has done little

to accelerate the clean energy tran-

sition by increasing renewable pro-

duction capacity.

Based on the targets included in

the dedicated RRF chapters, the

auditors found that the additional

renewables production capacity

that was created is negligible, and

very far from the 103 GW objective.

The same observation applies to

grid interconnectivity. The EU au-

ditors identied only three RE-

PowerEU measures across two

member states for this target, and

one was eventually dropped. The

auditors view this as further evi-

dence that REPowerEU has yet to

deliver the scale of change that was

originally promised.

In her State of the Union speech

last month, Commission President

Ursula von der Leyen said the EU

must double down on affordable,

homegrown, clean energy.

“We must speed up investment,

grid connections and storage. And

we must electrify our economy,”

she said.

Since the start of the conict in the

Gulf, the Commission said import-

ed fossil fuels have cost the bloc an

additional €90 billion, “without a

single molecule of energy added”.

In contrast, doubling the share of

electricity by 2040 could cut the

EU’s fossil-fuel import bill by €260

billion a year, said von der Leyen.

She reiterated that Europe must

accelerate electrication, noting:

“As the EU works to deliver on this

ambition, ensuring electricity net-

works can support growing demand

will be essential.”

Reacting to the speech, Eurelec-

tric Secretary General Kristian

Ruby said: “There is no doubt left

that Europe must electrify, and it’s

positive to see von der Leyen reit-

erating it so rmly in her speech.

“Reality speaks for itself: despite

these extremely complex times

we’re living, the power sector is

delivering a way out of fossil fuels

dependence. The proof of our deter-

mination will be in the quality and

speed of our actions to deliver.”

A key part of this effort is rein-

forcing and modernising Europe’s

electricity networks. To this end,

Eurelectric believes well-designed

network tariffs can help support

efcient grid use, maintain cost-

competitive electricity prices, en-

courage exibility and enable in-

vestment where it is needed most.

The organisation published a new

paper arguing that tariff design

should avoid creating barriers to the

internal electricity market and pre-

vent distortions in wholesale elec-

tricity markets.

In its response to von der Leyen’s

speech, ENTSO-E (the European

Network of Transmission System

Operators for Electricity) also

stressed that electrication is cen-

tral to Europe’s security, competi-

tiveness and decarbonisation.

it said in a statement: “Electri-

cation is no longer only about cli-

mate protection. It is a critical se-

curity and competitiveness lever.

As Europe faces growing geopo-

litical tensions and rising electric-

ity demand, grids are our strategic

assets.”

Continued from Page 1

The decision to scrap carbon standards

for power plants in the US looks set to

face a long legal battle.

Last month the Environmental Pro-

tection Agency (EPA) nalised repeal

of Biden’s 2024 carbon standards for

power plants and proposed eliminat-

ing all remaining greenhouse gas rules

for the sector.

Announcing the decision, EPA Ad-

ministrator Lee Zeldin said: “The days

of Biden and Obama working to de-

stroy natural gas and coal are over.”

The 2024 Carbon Pollution Stan-

dards targeted existing coal plants and

new gas red plants, stipulating steep

carbon emissions cuts.

Many plants would have needed car-

bon capture and storage (CCS) sys-

tems to achieve 90 per cent removal.

EPA ofcials have said CCS technol-

ogies have not been adequately

demonstrated and say the rules have

forced retirements rather than offering

workable paths to compliance. It

therefore struck-off most of those pro-

visions, saying it would lead to cheap-

er, more reliable electricity. The move,

said Zeldin, would deliver $310 bil-

lion in savings.

It is, however, likely to meet staunch

opposition. Environmental groups say

the move to repeal power plant rules

will increase pollutants that harm hu-

man health.

Environmental and public health

groups have already sued to stop the

EPA’s repeal.

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense

Council), American Lung Associa-

tion, American Public Health Associ-

ation, Clean Air Council, and Clean

Wisconsin (represented by Clean Air

Task Force), and the Environmental

Defense Fund led the action at the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.

Circuit following the decision.

“Repealing these standards without

a replacement is an abdication of

EPA’s legal responsibility to protect

public health and the environment,”

said Meredith Hankins, federal cli-

mate legal director at NRDC. “The

Clean Air Act and Supreme Court

precedent demand that the EPA ad-

dress climate pollution from the larg-

est industrial source in the nation. The

EPA’s legal reasoning is fatally awed,

so we are going to court.”

Gudrun Thompson, senior attorney

at the Southern Environmental Law

Center, commented: “These rules are

really important, not just for our

climate, but also to protect public

health from the dangers of local air

pollution.”

President Trump has rejected the

basic tenets of climate science and has

called climate change a “con job”.

This is his latest effort to reverse for-

mer President Biden’s climate agenda

and make it more difcult for future

administrations to limit the hu-

man-caused greenhouse gas pollution

heating the planet.

The EPA’s decision to repeal emis-

sion regulations on power plants

comes at a time when the world needs

to be limiting planet-heating green-

house gas emissions, not allowing

more emissions, said Michael Ger-

rard, law professor at Columbia Uni-

versity and director of the Sabin Cen-

ter for Climate Change Law.

Clean energy deployment continued to

advance rapidly in 2025, but not as a

simple replacement for fossil fuels at

the global level, according to a new

report by McKinsey & Company.

The report, ‘Investing in the energy

transition: Time to look at whole-sys-

tem value’, examines the state of the

global energy transition system

through demand, investment, and de-

ployment rather than low-carbon in-

stallations alone. Taken together, it

says these trends point to an energy

system in which different sources are

still expanding in parallel rather than

being replaced consistently across the

globe.

McKinsey’s analysis nds that this

picture varies signicantly by geog-

raphy and challenges assumptions

that renewables are already displacing

fossil fuels across the board.

This simultaneous growth has im-

plications for how the transition is

measured and nanced. Roughly $3.3

trillion was invested across the global

energy system in 2025. Of that total,

approximately $1.8 trillion was di-

rected to fossil fuels, power genera-

tion, and low-carbon technologies.

Upstream oil was the largest fossil-fu-

el capital-expenditure category, at

roughly $540 billion, while solar was

the largest clean-energy category, at

roughly $440 billion.

The report argues that investment

volume is not the same as system val-

ue. Different technologies contribute

differently to output, exibility, af-

fordability, resilience, and emissions

performance. As demand and gener-

ation expand, the infrastructure need-

ed to connect, balance, and secure

supply – including grids, transmis-

sion, storage, dispatchable backup,

exibility, and fuel security – must

expand with it.

To ensure leaders are making ener-

gy-system investment decisions that

consider meeting energy demand, as

well as investment costs, leaders must

consider factors such as: current invest-

ment patterns strengthening resilience;

assets and technologies that contribute

the most system value; systems being

built in the most economically efcient

way and the level of investment in

clean-energy deployment to bend the

global emissions curve down as quick-

ly as possible.

For policymakers, investors, utili-

ties, and industrial players, the report

suggests developing portfolios that

combine low-carbon power with ex-

ibility, dispatchability, and diversied

supply chains, while reducing permit-

ting bottlenecks and accelerating

transmission build-out.

Headline News

Energy transition requires system-wide assessment rather than generation focus

Climate action under

increasing pressure

Financing to tackle climate change is under threat, as the US puts pressure on banks to ditch

climate nance targets. Junior Isles

Decision to scrap US power plant emission limits

faces legal challenges

Photo by www.pexels.com

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - OCTOBER 2026

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Nadia Weekes

The complexity of increasingly diver-

sied electricity systems is pushing up

the cost of new generation beyond

$100/MWh in most countries, a new

report has found.

According to ‘The Costs of Gener-

ating Electricity 2025’, which analy-

ses data on the levelised cost of gen-

erating electricity (LCOE) across 21

Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) mem-

ber countries and 23 technologies,

only existing nuclear power plants,

hydroelectricity, onshore wind and

PV solar can generate electricity be-

low this cost level.

Report authors from the NEA and

the Electric Power Research Institute

(EPRI) highlight the importance of

analysing technologies within the

broader context of electricity systems,

where reliability, exibility, network

requirements and integration costs all

shape outcomes.

“There is no single technology that

can meet every country’s energy

needs in every circumstance,” said

NEA Director General William D.

Magwood IV, as countries attempt to

balance affordability, energy security,

reliability and environmental goals.

One of the report’s key ndings is

that there is a contrast between near-

term projects and more mature de-

ployments. While rst projects face

higher costs linked to supply chain

rebuilding, workforce shortages and

limited recent construction experi-

ence, costs decline signicantly as

designs are standardised and projects

are repeated.

Among renewable technologies, on-

shore wind and solar PV continue to

offer attractive plant-level costs in

many countries, while offshore wind

remains relatively expensive. Geo-

thermal energy shows promising re-

sults where suitable resources are

available.

Assessing electricity technologies

solely on their plant-level, LCOE at a

given capacity factor does not capture

their interaction within a broader

electricity system or their contribu-

tion to reliability, exibility, security

of supply and decarbonisation objec-

tives, the report argues.

Many countries will benet from a

diversity of complementary technol-

ogies, with the optimal mix remaining

specic to each country and electric-

ity system.

A separate report by technology cor-

poration ABB analyses the impact of

electrical systems evolving from con-

nected to orchestrated infrastructure.

Growing energy demand, grid con-

straints and the cost of downtime are

forcing a rethink on the role of elec-

trical infrastructure, ‘The Future of

Electrication Service 2026-2035’

report suggests.

Energy currently makes up around

a quarter of industrial operating costs,

while 59 per cent of organisations

identify rising energy costs as a major

threat. At the same time, unplanned

downtime costs the world’s largest

companies around $1.4 trillion annu-

ally, with 69 per cent of industrial

plants experiencing outages at least

monthly.

ABB predicts that, as power systems

become increasingly intelligent, dis-

tributed and interconnected, organisa-

tions will move beyond simply con-

suming electricity to actively

managing, storing, optimising and

orchestrating it.

Saudi utility developer Acwa and

South Korea’s Kowepo have signed an

agreement to explore renewable ener-

gy, energy storage and related infra-

structure projects in Uzbekistan.

The memorandum of understanding

establishes a framework for the com-

panies to identify opportunities and

assess potential cooperation on a proj-

ect-by-project basis. It does not name

specic projects, investment values or

generation capacity.

Abid Malik, President of Acwa Cen-

tral Asia, said: “This collaboration

reects growing international con-

dence in Uzbekistan’s energy sector

and creates a platform to explore po-

tential opportunities in renewable

energy and related infrastructure.”

Acwa said the partnership could also

facilitate engagement with Korean

nancial institutions.

Kowepo CEO, Lee Jung-bok, said:

“We look forward to evaluating op-

portunities for cooperation and lever-

aging our respective strengths and

experience.” Kowepo has been ex-

panding its cooperation with the Uzbek

government and local companies.

Acwa has an established pipeline in

Uzbekistan, including 2.5 GW of re-

newable generation and 968 MW of

battery storage projects being devel-

oped jointly with Japan’s Sumitomo.

Earlier this year, Acwa signed $226

million in nancing agreements for

the 300 MW Bash II wind farm in

Uzbekistan’s Bukhara region, with

funding from the Asian Development

Bank, Asian Infrastructure Invest-

ment Bank and Standard Chartered

Bank.

Nadia Weekes

Türkiye’s electricity demand grew by

an annual average of about 5 per cent

from 2005 to 2024, recording the fast-

est growth among International Energy

Agency (IEA) member countries, ac-

cording to a new report.

The IEA’s ‘Türkiye Energy Policy

Review Report’ shows that, on the

back of strong economic and popula-

tion growth, Türkiye’s electricity de-

mand is expected to continue rising.

The National Energy Plan projects

demand to reach 510 TWh in 2035.

The rapid increase in electricity de-

mand, together with growth in renew-

able energy capacity, will test Türki-

ye’s grid infrastructure, storage,

exibility and demand management.

Renewables met 43 per cent of Tür-

kiye’s total electricity generation in

2025. That share is targeted to rise to

55 per cent in 2035, with installed

solar power capacity projected to rise

from 20 GW in 2024 to 77 GW in 2035

and wind capacity from 13 GW to 43.1

GW over the same period.

As the ability to reliably transfer

electricity into the system and make

it available during periods of high

demand becomes increasingly im-

portant, Türkiye’s smart grid road

map foresees the creation of 35 GW

of exible resources by 2035.

Of that, 10 GW will come from roof-

top solar energy and storage, 10 GW

from large-scale energy storage, 5

GW from grid management and 10

GW from demand-side management.

Türkiye plans to signicantly in-

crease its electricity interconnection

capacity with neighbouring countries

by 2035 by tripling export capacity to

6.75 GW and increasing import

capacity ve-fold to 6.6 GW. The plan

also includes the construction of 14

700 km of high-voltage direct current

lines.

The country’s latest energy sector

report identies battery storage and

EV charging infrastructure as emerg-

ing investment areas alongside tradi-

tional energy generation.

Presidential Investment and Finance

Ofce President Ahmet Burak Da-

glioglu said Türkiye aims to become

one of the leading countries in the

global energy transition, pointing to

its industrial infrastructure, strategic

geographic position and central role

in regional energy networks.

He added that Türkiye’s roadmap

toward its 2053 net zero emissions

target aims to bring international cap-

ital, advanced technologies, and stra-

tegic partnerships more deeply into

the country’s energy transition.

Red Sea Global and Acwa Power have

announced the start of commercial op-

erations at a giant off-grid renewable

energy system serving the Red Sea

destination.

The fully integrated system, which

operates without a connection to Sau-

di Arabia’s electricity grid, supplies

the Red Sea International Airport,

hotels, a logistics hub, a eet of elec-

tric vehicles, a staff village and other

community and operational facilities.

Developed through a long-term

partnership between Red Sea Global

and the Acwa Power-led consortium,

the project combines ve core ser-

vices in a single system: renewable

energy, drinking water, wastewater

treatment, district cooling and waste

management.

Electricity is generated by a 340 MW

alternating-current solar PV plant in-

tegrated with a 1227 MWh battery

energy storage system (BESS), which

is said to be the world’s largest off-grid

battery facility.

The system can generate up to 760

000 MWh of electricity annually,

helping avoid an estimated 600 000

tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

It can be expanded as future phases

come online.

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company

(Masdar) and Finland’s Taaleri Energia

have inaugurated the 154 MW Čibuk

2 project, creating the largest wind

power hub in Serbia and the Western

Balkans.

Čibuk 2 sits alongside the 158 MW

Čibuk 1 wind farm in Serbia’s South

Banat region, around 40 km from Bel-

grade. Together, the two projects have

a capacity of 312 MW, representing

more than €500 million of foreign

direct investment and providing

enough clean electricity to power

around 178 800 households.

Beyond the operational Čibuk

complex, Masdar has a Serbian devel-

opment pipeline of more than 200

MW spanning solar, wind and battery

storage projects.

Serbia plans to bring around 3.5 GW

of new wind and solar capacity online

by 2030 and to achieve 45 per cent of

electricity generation from renew-

ables by the same date.

Serbia’s Mining and Energy Minis-

ter, Dubravka Đedović Handanović,

said the completion of Čibuk 2 would

make “a signicant contribution to

Serbia’s efforts to decarbonise its en-

ergy system while increasing its en-

ergy independence”.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian

has inaugurated the country’s largest

solar power plant, located in Shamsa-

bad Industrial Town, southeast of the

capital, Tehran.

The 95 MW project was constructed

in nine months. “We can break records

in this eld and meet our needs with

the existing resources,” Pezeshkian

said. “Through the development of

renewable energy, we must move to-

ward a point where industrial power

outages are no longer an issue,” he

added.

Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi

said the government’s strategy was to

“develop renewable energy and move

toward household-scale power

plants”, helping achieve the goal of

making the water and electricity sec-

tors “self-sufcient and independent

of the rest of the world”.

Saudi Red Sea multi-billion-dollar

destination begins operations

Largest wind power hub in

Serbia completed

Iran inaugurates 95 MW solar

power plant

Saudi-Korea deal signed

to explore renewables in

Uzbekistan

Fast-growing demand will test

Türkiye’s energy system

Electricity generation cost

‘constantly above $100/MWh’

n Optimal technology mix dependent on electricity system

n Electrical systems evolving to orchestrated infrastructure

n Annual 5 per cent demand growth is IEA’s fastest

n Share of renewables to rise to 55 per cent by 2035

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - OCTOBER 2026

International News

Photo by Mario Amé

he world is entering “a new

age of electricity, and the race

is on to build the grids that

will power it. The challenge is no

longer to imagine the grid of the fu-

ture. It is to build it quickly, at scale

and through coordinated action

across the entire electricity value

chain.” That was the core message at

this year’s CIGRE (International

Council on Large Electric Systems)

conference in Paris, France.

Electrication of transport, indus-

try and buildings, the integration of

renewables and the surge in data

centre demand are pushing power

systems to their limits. To keep pace,

the International Energy Agency

(IEA) estimates that annual electrici-

ty grid investment must increase by

around 50 per cent, from about $400

billion today to roughly $600 billion

per year by 2030.

Yet d eliv ery ti mes r ema in a ma jor

bottleneck. According to the IEA, in

China an extra-high-voltage line can

be permitted and built in about 1.5

years; in India, around three years.

In Europe and the US, similar proj-

ects often take eight to ten years or

more. Obviously, the roll-out of in-

frastructure projects in China benet

from the absence of western-style

democracy. India, meanwhile, may

enjoy faster permitting. But an ex-

tended bureaucratic process prior to

permitting means that, overall, trans-

mission grid projects can still take

just as long to build from start to n-

ish as in Europe or the US.

Cigre noted that the energy transi-

tion will succeed only if the grid of

tomorrow is developed, operated,

and governed as one integrated sys-

tem. This ‘One Grid’ approach re-

quires all stakeholders to work to-

gether from the earliest stages of

infrastructure planning and delivery:

n Transmission and distribution

system operators must coordinate

network development and system

operation;

n Utilities, manufacturers and

technology providers must scale up

equipment, innovation and industrial

capacity;

n Regulators and public authorities

must create stable frameworks that

enable investment, while ensuring

affordability and public acceptance.

Certainly, there has been a concert-

ed effort by western governments, to

speed up the entire process of build-

ing transmission grid infrastructure.

Matthias Foehr, Vice President

Product Management for Grid Tech-

nologies at Siemens Energy com-

mented on the role industry is play-

ing, and how equipment suppliers

like Siemens Energy are adapting.

“With trends like electrication,

and growth in renewables and data

centres, over the last 3-4 years we

have witnessed a new rush for grid

capacity. This has seen the industry

invest in bringing new [manufactur-

ing] capacity online to serve the

market,” said Foehr. “There has also

been more of a partnering approach

where suppliers work with custom-

ers to make projects happen together,

and happen fast.”

He also stressed the importance of

technology innovation and more im-

portantly its deployment in keeping

pace.

“We showcased some innovations

at Cigre but it’s not only about being

the most innovative; it’s even more

about bringing innovations to life –

having, for example, enough trans-

formers and switchgear on the grid.

The underlying challenge is clearly

the build-out.”

Foehr outlined several grid tech-

nologies that will be important for a

successful energy transition, noting

that many of the products and inno-

vations on show at Cigre were relat-

ed to DC (direct current) grids.

The ultimate goal is to transition

from today’s AC grids connected, of-

ten connected by long low-loss

point-to-point HVDC links, to full

multi-terminal DC or meshed grids.

Such grids would drastically reduce

the number of converter systems

needed and are important for greater

renewables integration.

Notable projects include the Caith-

ness-Moray (CM) HVDC Project in

Scotland, which uses Hitachi Energy

technology, and the HeideHub proj-

ect in Germany being undertaken by

Siemens Energy; this is expected to

be Europe’s rst HVDC power hub.

The rst phase of the CM project

links Spittal (in Caithness and

Blackhillock in Moray) with ±320

kV, 113 km submarine HVDC ca-

bles. However, the scheme is de-

signed as a three, four or ve

multi-terminal scheme allowing for

future extension to connect the

Shetland isles and other renewable

generation.

HeideHub, meanwhile, will con-

nect multiple transmission links at a

single hub, enabling renewable elec-

tricity to be routed exibly to differ-

ent regions. Scheduled to go into op-

eration in 2032, it will be at the heart

of a four-terminal HVDC grid.

This hub will connect two offshore

grid connections to the NordOstLink

DC link and to the AC grid. Heide-

Hub is the connection point for the

two offshore grid connections Lan-

Win2 and LanWin3, which bring up

to 4 GW of wind power from the

North Sea to shore. It is also the

starting point of the NordOstLink.

Up to 2 GW of wind power will be

transmitted via the NordOstLink to

the SuedOstLink+ and thus trans-

ported to the energy-intensive south-

ern part of Germany.

Commenting on the importance of

DC grid and how it will meet the

need for more grid capacity, Foehr

said: “Today we have point-to-point

connections for HVDC but no grids.

Multi-terminal DC grids will mean

approximately 30 per cent less sta-

tions and cables, which in turn

speeds up permitting, etc. This is

why we saw innovations for this at

Cigre.”

He noted that the development and

commercialisation of a DC circuit

breaker is a key enabler to shift from

point-to-point connections to

multi-terminal applications. “Circuit

breakers are the protective element

in the grid. We have them for AC but

it is much harder to do for DC,” he

said.

To this end, Siemens Energy and

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

signed an agreement just over two

years ago to co-develop DC switch-

ing stations and DC circuit breaker

requirement specications. Under

this agreement, the two companies

aim to accelerate the deployment of

DC circuit breaker technology and

thereby contribute to global decar-

bonisation. It was the rst concrete

initiative by the two companies, and

followed a previous Joint Develop-

ment Agreement for DC switching

stations signed in January 2024.

The agreements bring together Sie-

mens Energy’s DC circuit breaker

technology with Mitsubishi Elec-

tric’s expertise in power electronics.

It is hoped that this multi-vendor

approach could also accelerate the

development of common standards

for future DC grids, where no

equivalent of today’s AC grid code

yet exists.

“We are partnering with Mitsubi-

shi to deliver a combined solution.

So far, it is working really well. We

have been working with customers,

and looking at how to integrate our

technologies together,” said Foehr.

The need for grid technology that

can handle volatile loads is not limit-

ed to renewable integration. Surging

data centre demand is now another

major driver. And while moving

electricity is one challenge, keeping

the system stable is another.

Foehr says this where technolo-

gies like supercapacitors can help.

At the end of 2025, Siemens Energy

and TenneT Germany completed

the world’s rst supercapaci-

tor-powered STATCOM (Static

Synchronous Compensator), called

E-STATCOM, in Mehrum, Germa-

ny. Based on voltage-sourced con-

verter technology, a STATCOM is a

fast-acting power electronic device

that helps stabilise the grid by rap-

idly providing active and reactive

power and regulating voltage.

“Currently it’s not a massive prob-

lem for small data centres… but

with gigawatt-scale centres and new

technology, performance require-

ments can only be met using addi-

tional technologies like E-STAT-

COMs,” said Foehr. “The super-

capacitors are like super-fast batter-

ies that can handle load uctuations

in the millisecond range.”

Bringing in new technologies that

increase grid capacity, while equip-

ping it to handle changing exibili-

ty requirements, is a massive under-

taking that is seeing Siemens

Energy and other major players in-

vest in building and upgrading fac-

tory capacity globally says Foehr.

He concluded: “There is a lot to

do on sustainability – making the

grid greener through products like

Blue GIS (gas insulated switch-

gear). It also has to be made smarter

by adding a layer of digitalisation to

make better use of existing grid ca-

pacity. All of this, combined with

the whole build-out at speed and

scale requirement, is a muti-dimen-

sional challenge.”

Building grids

quickly and at scale

was at the heart

of discussions at

this year’s CIGRE

conference in Paris.

Following the event,

Junior Isles

caught up with

Siemens Energy’s

Matthias Foehr

to hear what

technologies and

innovations will be

key to delivering what

is needed.

Delivering grids at speed

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - OCTOBER 2026

Energy Outlook

Foehr: Grid build-out at

scale and speed is a muti-

dimensional challenge

unlikely to increase much with the

exception of a potential substantial

increase in data centres. The Agency

for Ecological Transition (Agence de

la Transition Écologique) has pro-

jected that data centre power demand

could quadruple by 2035. Following

the Choose France 2025 summit, the

French government had identiﬁ ed

over 60 sites suitable for new digital

infrastructure.

Investment environment

France is one of the world’s leading

investment destinations. It is a large

(world’s seventh by nominal GDP in

2025) and open economy, with many

attributes for foreign investors includ-

ing deep and liquid capital markets,

commercial banks active in transition

lending, the world’s largest sovereign

green bond programme, and a strong

innovation and cleantech pipeline.

Importantly, government has rec-

ognised bureaucracy-led delays to

new projects’ permitting. It issued a

decree in April 2026 speciﬁ cally tar-

geting the speeding up of the handling

of appeals against strategic environ-

mental projects.

Financing available for transition

projects in France is strong with €3.4

directed to renewable energy and €17

to green and sustainable loans for

every €1 to fossil fuels in 2025 ac-

cording to the French Banking Feder-

ation (Fédération Bancaire Française).

Yet the re a re l oud c onc erns dom esti -

cally and from abroad about the eco-

nomic repercussions of its ballooning

rance has the commitments, the

low carbon electricity and the

investor incentives to lead Eu-

rope’s energy transition. Whether it

can deliver against a worsening ﬁ scal

backdrop is the central question for

investors.

Decarbonisation commitments

France’s decarbonisation and transi-

tion commitments are in line or sur-

pass EU ambitions. Carbon neutrality

by 2050 was made into domestic law

in 2019, targeting a 50 per cent cut in

greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 2030

under its National Low Carbon Strat-

egy. It is also bound by the EU’s Na-

tionally Determined Contribution,

including a 55 per cent cut by 2030,

66.25-72.5 per cent by 2035, and 90

per cent by 2040, all versus 1990 lev-

els. Setting it apart from other mem-

bers, France adopted timelines for the

phasing out of fossil fuels. Speciﬁ cal-

ly, coal by 2030, oil by 2045 and nat-

ural gas by 2050. It also has plans to

increase nuclear power generation by

building six new reactors and extend-

ing the life of the existing ﬂ eet.

There are several issues working

against the nation’s ambitions, in-

cluding the transport sector, building

renovation and agriculture. The

transport sector is the largest emitter,

and the government has struggled to

reduce its emissions. Improving

building energy efﬁ ciency has also

proven to be a struggle and the pace

too slow. The country’s renewable

energy build-out has lacked ambition.

It actually scaled back targets for so-

lar, onshore wind, and offshore wind

new build for example. Agricultural

emissions have largely remained ﬂ at

over the past few years with govern-

ment ﬁ nding it challenging to rein in

the intensive livestock farming.

Energy mix

Primary energy supply was chieﬂ y

from nuclear, accounting for 47 per

cent of the total in 2025 based on the

Energy Institute’s ‘Statistical Review

of World Energy’. Fossil fuels repre-

sented a little over 43 per cent, includ-

ing oil at 31 per cent and natural gas

at 12 per cent while coal was margin-

al. Renewables and hydro together

made up 8 per cent. For electric pow-

er, low carbon generation was the main

source. Nuclear was 68 per cent of

output, renewables 16 per cent and

hydro at 10 per cent. Both total energy

supply and power generation were

largely ﬂ at between 2015 and 2025.

Energy supply shrank at a compound

annual growth rate of negative 1.4 per

cent and power generation was nega-

tive 0.01 per cent.

Over the next few years low carbon

generation should increase substan-

tially. The share of low carbon energy

in overall ﬁ nal consumption should

reach 60 per cent by 2030 and 70 per

cent by 2035, according to the na-

tion’s Multi-annual Energy Pro-

gramme (Programmation Pluriannu-

elle de l’Énergie) or PPE3, adopted

in February 2026. Commercial, in-

dustrial and residential demand is

national debt. Public debt rose to

115.5 per cent of GDP in 2025 from

60 per cent in 2000, while the interest

burden on servicing the debt rose to

2.1 per cent in 2025 from 1.3 per cent

of GDP in 2020, partly also due to a

rise in interest rates said an OECD

country review in June 2026. The

burden also lowers the capacity for

government to use public ﬁ nance for

targeted support for decarbonisation

and transition projects.

Policies and incentives

Investors can ﬁ nd a variety of incen-

tives in the French transition projects

market. One example is the govern-

ment extending the C3IV green indus-

try investments tax credits (Crédit

d’Impôt Investissements Industries

Vertes) for three years in August 2026.

It covers the full value chain of batter-

ies, heat pumps, solar panels, and wind

turbines with tax credit ranges of 20

to 60 per cent covering about €8 billion

($9.1 billion) in investments. Another

example is the launch of the second

green loan facility from the European

Investment Bank (EIB) to Bpifrance,

a state-backed business ﬁ nance insti-

tution, worth €900 million ($1.02 bil-

lion) for small to medium-sized re-

newables projects.

The French government is also ac-

tively promoting tenders for offshore

wind and auctions for solar projects.

For wind, a tender process was

launched in June 2026 – albeit de-

layed from 2024 – for the develop-

ment of 10 GW of offshore wind ca-

pacity, with most projects to be

located along the western coastline.

For solar, auctions for 288 MW of

small-scale solar and for 925 MW of

ground-mounted solar projects were

launched in July 2026.

Many of these mechanisms are de-

signed to attract private capital rather

than rely on direct public spending.

The EIB loan, for example, mobilises

€1.2 billion ($1.36 billion) in total

investment from €900 million ($1.02

billion) in public funding. The off-

shore wind contracts guarantee a

ﬁ xed price for developers but also can

return revenue to the government.

The C3IV tax credit has a potential

ﬁ s c a l c o s t o f € 1 . 1 b i l l i o n ( $ 1 . 2 5 b i l -

lion) through 2030, but part will be

offset by new jobs and larger tax base.

Investor backdrop

France has managed to attract its fair

share of investments from domestic

and international companies and ﬁ -

nancial investors. At the Ninth Choose

France investment summit led by Pres-

ident Macron, there were several de-

carbonisation related investment com-

mitments. Portugal’s EDP committed

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - OCTOBER 2026

Energy Transition Investment Series

France: Transition ambitions

meet ﬁ scal reality

€1.3 billion ($1.48 billion) in wind,

solar, battery storage and grid infra-

structure. Germany’s Enertrag

pledged €1.1 billion ($1.25 billion) by

2030 for renewable generation and

battery storage, Italy’s Marcegaglia

committed an additional €600 million

($682 million) in its decarbonised pri-

mary steel production project, and

Ireland’s Smurﬁ t Westrock commit-

ted about €600 million to modernise

and decarbonise its packaging French

sites.

Separately, TagEnergy commis-

sioned a 240 MW Tesla Megapack

installation in June 2026 – the coun-

try’s largest operational battery ener-

gy storage system (BESS). Another

BESS project of 193 MW by China’s

Envision Energy and France’s Kallis-

ta Energy is due to be commissioned

in 2028. French battery maker Verkor

had started production in December

2025 thanks to more than €3 billion

($3.41 billion) in ﬁ nancing from a

consortium including the EIB and the

French government. An example of a

smaller project is France’s Watt &

Co, which secured €60 million in ﬁ -

nancing from Arkéa and CIC infra-

structure debt funds to build 100

MWp of solar plant and 50 MWh of

energy storage, announced in June

2026.

France has an ambition to be one of

the transition leaders in Europe, but

its ﬁ scal position has severely cur-

tailed such an ambition. Yet its poli-

cies and incentives have proven suf-

ﬁ c i e n t i n a t t r a c t i n g d o m e s t i c a n d

international investors. The precari-

ous ﬁ scal position and the related

political pressures should not prevent

the country from continuing to attract

investments in its decarbonisation.

Prepared for The Energy Industry

Times by Joseph Jacobelli of actE, a

climate business and ﬁ nance insights

platform (asiacleantechenergy.com).

Energy supply and electric power generation mix

Primary energy supply was chieﬂ y from nuclear, accounting for 47 per cent of the total in 2025.

For electric power, low carbon generation was the main source

France has all it needs for a successful energy transition but with its precarious ﬁ scal position, will it be enough going

forward? TEI Times analyses the country’s climate pledges, power mix and investment environment.

Photo by Artūras Kokorevas

farms, HVDC interconnectors, and

battery storage systems. Demand

customers faced less stringent stan-

dards, reecting their inherent be-

havioural diversity and comparative-

ly modest individual scale.

With MPID345 approved, that

distinction is narrowing. By extend-

ing fault ride-through, active power

recovery and rate-of-change-of-fre-

quency requirements to transmis-

sion-connected demand facilities,

EirGrid establishes a fundamental

shift in how data centres must inter-

act with the grid: their response to

disturbances must support the stabil-

ity of the wider power system.

What happens in Ireland through

MPID345 establishes a precedent

that other grid operators managing

similar transitions elsewhere are

likely to follow.

The underlying logic is clear-cut. A

300 MW data centre that trips during

a voltage dip removes as much de-

mand from the system as losing a

mid-size generating unit, doing so

precisely when the system is most

stressed.

Meeting fault ride-through and ac-

tive power recovery requirements

isn’t simply a matter of conguring

individual equipment. The relevant

engineering boundary is the com-

plete facility as seen at the regulated

grid connection point.

IT load, UPS systems, cooling and

variable-speed drives, generators,

storage, reactive compensation,

transformers, and protection systems

can all contribute positively or nega-

tively to the active and reactive

power trajectory the network sees.

What matters is how these assets in-

teract during the disturbance, trans-

fer, and recovery sequence.

A data centre might remain online

throughout a fault. Yet, if the facility

draws only minimal power from the

grid after fault recovery, it has effec-

tively tripped ofine from the grid’s

perspective.

Conventional architectures face a

sub-second challenge. Most existing

data centre electrical systems were

rid operators across Europe

are fundamentally redening

their expectations of major

electricity consumers such as data

centres. What was once a passive re-

lationship must become an active

partnership, where large consumers

are increasingly expected to help

maintain grid stability.

The catalyst is rapid renewable

energy deployment, which is signi-

cantly altering power system dynam-

ics. Ireland, where this transition is

well advanced, currently offers a

preview of how the expectations of

grid operators across Europe, and

globally, are likely to change.

Traditional grids relied heavily on

large, centralised synchronous gen-

erators that inherently provided iner-

tia and damping. These physical

properties gave the grid natural sta-

bility, automatically resisting distur-

bances through stored kinetic energy

in spinning masses.

Inverter-based renewable genera-

tion operates differently. Solar panels

and wind turbines connected through

power electronics are highly ef-

cient, but they are asynchronous, so

provide no inherent inertia. The re-

sult is a system that responds faster

but is more sensitive. Disturbances

propagate more quickly, and system

stability increasingly depends on

fast-acting control rather than pas-

sive physical properties.

Data centres are among the fast-

est-growing electricity loads and can

respond rapidly to grid disturbances.

Their protection systems are designed

to safeguard sensitive IT equipment,

often reducing grid consumption and

switching to backup power during

voltage or frequency events. This is a

response optimised for facility conti-

nuity, not grid stability.

This combination of low system

inertia and large, fast-reacting loads

creates a new class of system risk.

Modern data centres can shed sub-

stantial load within milliseconds

during transmission faults, driven by

automated protection schemes never

designed with grid stability in mind.

Ireland illustrates this challenge

most clearly. Data centres and new

technology loads comprised approx-

imately 24 per cent of Ireland’s total

electrical energy requirements in

2024, rising to an expected 30 per

cent by 2032.

During faults, state-owned opera-

tor EirGrid has observed demand

reduction growing sharply, with fa-

cilities automatically reducing grid

consumption and switching to back-

up sources. The aggregate level of

demand reduction during actual fault

events has grown sharply: from 74

MW (16 per cent of total data centre

demand) in January 2022 to 387 MW

(52 per cent) in May 2025.

This behaviour directly threatens

system stability. When large loads

shed simultaneously, the resulting

power imbalance can drive frequen-

cy excursions across the grid.

Ireland’s response to this stability

challenge is MPID345, EirGrid’s

Grid Code modication approved by

the Commission for Regulation of

Utilities on 22 September 2026 and

effective from 27 October 2026. It

establishes new expectations for ex-

isting and future transmission-con-

nected demand facilities, including

data centres: protecting their internal

operations must be compatible with

maintaining power system stability

during and after grid disturbances.

The approved modication establish-

es three core technical requirements:

n Fault Ride-Through (FRT) – re-

quires facilities to remain electrically

connected to the transmission system

during voltage disturbances.

n Active Power Recovery (APR) –

requires restoration of at least 90 per

cent of pre-fault demand within 500

milliseconds of voltage recovery to

0.9 per unit.

n Rate of Change of Frequency (Ro-

CoF) robustness – demands facilities

to withstand frequency changes of up

to ±1 Hz/s without disconnecting.

Historically, expectations for trans-

mission-connected demand facilities

applied almost exclusively to gener-

ators such as wind farms, solar

not designed for the response speeds

MPID345 demands. The technical

gaps are just too big:

n Response times are too slow. APR

requires restoration of 90 per cent

demand within 500 milliseconds after

voltage restoration, whereas diesel

generators, for example, have start-

up times of 10-20 seconds.

n Control-loop latency prevents

fault ride-through. FRT requires the

facility to remain connected and re-

spond appropriately during voltage

disturbances that may last only 150

milliseconds. Conventional protec-

tion and transfer systems cannot

distinguish between a transient grid

fault and a sustained outage within

this window.

n Reactive power injection capabil-

ity doesn’t exist. Supporting the grid

during voltage sags requires rapid

reactive power injection, but most

data centre architectures lack this

capability.

n Modern equipment cannot tolerate

RoCoF. IT equipment and vari-

able-speed drives connected through

power electronics provide no rota-

tional inertia. At frequency rates of

change of ±1 Hz/s, conventional con-

verters lose synchronism and trip.

n Certication requires assets that do

not exist. MPID345 requires a tech-

nical dossier with certied electro-

magnetic transient models demon-

strating compliance. Large demand

facilities do not have these models,

and creating them takes months and

requires specialised know-how.

n Simultaneous compliance is the

real barrier. FRT, APR and RoCoF

must be met simultaneously during

the same disturbance. No large de-

mand facility control system current-

ly manages all three requirements in

real-time.

MPID345 compliance isn’t an en-

ergy problem; it’s a sub-second

power-orchestration problem. Re-

quirements must be met simultane-

ously, requiring coordinated control

of voltage, frequency, and power

within milliseconds.

This cannot be achieved through

Modern data centres can shed large load within milliseconds during transmission faults, driven by automated

protection schemes never designed with grid stability in mind. Ireland’s response to this stability challenge is MPID345,

EirGrid’s Grid Code modication. ABB’s Carlos Nieto explains why others are likely to follow Ireland’s approach.

Data centres must become active

grid partners as Europe’s

power system changes

isolated component upgrades, but

requires whole-facility, system-level

coordination. The most effective

solution is therefore not necessarily

the largest energy system, but the

one that can deliver the fastest, coor-

dinated power response.

ABB’s proposed architecture is a

modular medium-voltage platform

that combines fast active-power in-

jection, reactive voltage support,

synthetic inertia, and coordinated

digital control for facility-level

power orchestration. From the grid’s

perspective, ultracapacitor energy

storage (UCAPS ESS) acts as an

actively controlled dynamic support

asset, capable of shaping the facili-

ty’s grid-visible demand during net-

work disturbances.

This enables coordinated support

for FRT, APR, and RoCoF robust-

ness while avoiding major redesign

of the existing data centre electrical

infrastructure.

Ireland’s MPID345 is an early sig-

nal of a wider global regulatory shift.

While Europe is at the forefront of

introducing new rules for large

electricity users, grid operators

worldwide are facing the same chal-

lenge: integrating growing volumes

of inverter-based renewable genera-

tion while maintaining system stabil-

ity. As a result, other low-inertia

power systems across North Ameri-

ca, Asia-Pacic and beyond are

likely to follow Ireland’s approach,

requiring large demand facilities to

play a more active role in supporting

the grid during disturbances.

Data centres can no longer be

treated solely as passive consumers

of electricity. Their scale and pow-

er-electronic nature can materially

affect system stability. The answer is

not adding more backup capacity,

but faster and more intelligent con-

trol of power delivered with the right

coordination at the right time across

the whole facility.

Carlos Nieto is Global Product Man-

ager, Energy Storage & Microgrids,

ABB Electrication Service.

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - OCTOBER 2026

Technology Perspective

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - OCTOBER 2026

Final Word

nder President Trump, this

administration will continue

reversing course on out-of-

touch Obama and Biden-era poli-

cies…” This was just one of the many

statements that came out of the US

government, following its announce-

ment to repeal the majority of the

previous Biden administration’s

greenhouse gas requirements for US

power plants. But with the global

trend being towards clean, mostly

renewable energy, there seems to be

a bit of an oxymoron somewhere in

that statement.

Last month, the US Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) Adminis-

trator Lee Zeldin used the G20 Ener-

gy Abundance Ministerial in Houston,

Texas, to say that it was essentially

gutting the 2024 Carbon Pollution

Standard (CPS). The CPS – a set of

rules enacted under the Biden admin-

istration – would have required fossil

fuel power plants to either signicant-

ly reduce or capture their emissions

in the coming years, or shut down.

The reasoning offered by the EPA

for its move, is that it “will restore

reliable and affordable baseload

power for the communities that de-

pend on them”. It also said “the trump

EPA” is taking these actions in accor-

dance with the law and “based on the

best reading of the Clean Air Act

(CAA)”. It claimed “EPA’s nal rule

is expected to unleash the full poten-

tial of America’s vast energy resourc-

es, including coal and natural gas.

Coal production for power sector use

is expected to increase by more than

10 times”.

Only the President and his admin-

istration truly know whether the de-

cision is politically driven. Its reason

– that the move is to best serve its

citizens by providing affordable, re-

liable electricity – is admirable. And

certainly, that is perhaps the prime

responsibility of any government.

But many would argue that either the

EPA’s reasoning for repealing the

CPS is awed, or the reasons given

are not the true driving force behind

the decision.

With reference to reliable baseload

power and altering emission restric-

tions on gas red plant, the argument

does hold some water.

As the power sector integrates more

renewables, gas is seen by many as a

transition fuel, until network system

operators deploy enough storage and

electronics to mitigate the impacts of

more volatile energy sources being

fed into the grid.

So although environmentalist could

quite rightly argue that building more

gas red plant as a bridging fuel runs

counter to the overriding need to halt

climate change, the push for more gas

is not entirely unreasonable. It may

be up for debate, but is understand-

able nonetheless.

The inclusion of coal power plants,

however, makes little sense on any

level. Indeed, the EPA press release

seems to be littered with statements

that run contrary to logic and actual

reality. The country has already re-

tired a large portion of its coal red

eet and replaced it with gas and re-

newables. Why? Because it makes

economic sense.

A quote attributed to Jarrod Agen,

Executive Director National Energy

Dominance Council (NEDC) notes:

“President Trump and Administrator

Zeldin have yet again taken real ac-

tion to save the American people

money on their electricity costs…”

But does it really?

According to the EPA, repealing the

2024 rules saves about $310 billion

in economy-wide social cost savings

based on its SAGE economic model.

The EPA also predicts an additional

$370 million in direct compliance

costs, in addition to the billions more

American families and businesses

can expect to see saved across the

economy. SAGE is an EPA computer

model that estimates how changes in

one sector can affect prices, spending,

production, and households across

the wider US economy.

But $310 billion does not mean

households will receive that amount

through lower electricity bills.

Compared with keeping the 2024

standards, average national retail

electricity prices are projected to be

0.7 per cent higher in 2030, then 5.8

per cent lower in 2035, 1.1 per cent

lower in 2040, and 2.6 per cent lower

in 2045.

These are national averages from a

computer model, not predictions for

individual households. Local bills

depend on regional power sources,

fuel prices, new construction, and

future electricity demand. The model

also makes assumptions about how

quickly plants can be built and how

companies plan investments. The

numbers therefore compare possible

futures rather than telling families

exactly what they will pay.

Notably, the EPA says SAGE does

not calculate how changes in environ-

mental quality affect the economy;

therefore the $310 billion gure does

not cover every consequence of the

repeal.

Environmental groups warn of

added deaths, higher health costs and

accelerated warming. The original

Biden rules were projected to prevent

thousands of premature deaths each

year by reducing not only carbon but

associated pollutants. The EPA now

says such links are too uncertain and

remote to tie specically to power

plants.

Some industry groups, however,

largely welcomed the news. The

Edison Electric Institute supported

repeal of the carbon capture require-

ments, saying it gives utilities exi-

bility. Operators can keep older coal

units running longer if market condi-

tions favour it. In states like Kentucky,

where coal remains economically

vital, the decision came as a boost.

Environmentalist would argue that

the only boost worth mentioning is

the boost to greenhouse gas emis-

sions. Bloomberg reported that

combined Trump rollbacks could set

US emissions cuts back by roughly a

decade. Additional carbon dioxide

could total a gigaton or more by 2040.

The exact trajectory depends on

technology costs, state policies and

global markets.

Yet for some, carbon emissions re-

main off the radar. Certainly, the EPA

proposal does nothing for global ef-

forts to tackle climate change, and

came just after the UN conrmed the

world was on course to shoot past the

Paris climate agreement threshold

“likely within the next couple years”.

Anne Rasmussen, lead climate nego-

tiator for the Alliance of Small Island

States (Aosis), whose members are

vulnerable to climate change, said it

was vital the world makes the shift

from fossil fuels and “deploy every

available solution to cut emissions

rapidly”.

But this will be of little concern to

President Trump, who has repeatedly

called climate change a “scam” and

a “hoax”.

Earlier this year the EPA repealed

the 2009 endangerment nding. That

nding had declared greenhouse

gases a threat to public health and

welfare. Its removal cleared the way

for broad rollbacks. The administra-

tion has already repealed vehicle

greenhouse gas standards. Power

plants represent the latest and perhaps

most important target. If America’s

power sector were a country, it would

rank among the world’s top emitters.

Despite the EPA’s denial of climate

change and fossil fuels’ contribution

to it, it will not change the ultimate

future of the power sector. The ad-

ministration may deect to China’s

continuing coal plant build, without

citing the country’s massive invest-

ment in renewables, but it will do

little to change the facts. The US’

move away from coal will continue

because it makes economic sense.

Many utilities already invest in re-

newables and gas because they are

cheaper on new builds.

A recent analysis by Lazard shows

unsubsidised renewable energy re-

mains the most cost-competitive

form of new-build generation on a

levelised cost of energy (LCOE) ba-

sis. It also says wind, solar and storage

are expected to continue to account

for the majority of near-term US ca-

pacity additions given their relatively

short deployment timeline.

So, with or without power plant

emissions regulations, clean energy

will continue to displace fossil fuels,

especially coal.

Some leaders are forward-thinking

– willing to embrace the clean energy

future and the societal and economic

benets it brings. Others are just not

– old fossils, hell-bent on hanging on

to the past even when it ies in the

face of economics, common sense

and a new reality that continues to

unfold around them, regardless of

their actions.

That old fossil…

Junior Isles

Cartoon by Jem Soar

“