Advanced Energy Perspectives

In Nevada, the need to significantly expand power generation, transmission capacity, and regional resource sharing is urgent as the state’s energy grid struggles to keep up with rapid economic and industrial growth. Northern Nevada’s energy grid, for example, could quadruple in size as the data-storage industry continues to grow and expand in the Reno-Sparks area and beyond. Strengthening and expanding transmission lines will be especially critical to ensure that the growing demand for energy can be met as new advanced energy resources come online.

In response to this need, nearly four years ago, Senate Bill 448 created a Regional Transmission Coordination Task Force to help shape Nevada’s energy future. The Task Force is responsible for studying issues and policies related to transmission development and regional electricity markets, both of which are key solutions to deal with load growth.  

The 2025 Virginia legislative session launched on January 8, with a rapid sprint toward crossover on February 4, and concluded on February 22. Over 45 days, lawmakers raced to pass critical legislation. With a high-stakes governor’s race and House elections looming in November, Advanced Energy United’s Virginia policy team advanced key energy policies while navigating a challenging landscape.

Today, Maryland legislators had a critical opportunity to address the state’s affordability crisis head-on. The House Economic Matters Committee discussed the Affordable Grid Act (HB 1225/SB 908), and Advanced Energy United’s Katie Mettle testified as an industry expert to explain how the bill works and highlight why it's a common-sense, proactive solution to rising energy costs and the state’s evolving energy needs.

Just as you wouldn’t set off on a great American road trip using a 50-year-old paper map, Colorado shouldn’t be making decisions about regional electricity markets using 20-year-old assumptions about the western grid. Choosing the wrong market could lead to some very expensive mistakes, burdening ratepayers with higher costs and lower reliability and steering Colorado’s clean energy ambitions into a dead end.

A regional electricity market is among the most powerful tools in the toolbox for lowering electricity costs, improving reliability and resiliency to extreme weather events, and integrating Colorado’s abundant renewable resources into a 100% clean grid. In the next few months, Colorado utilities like Xcel Energy and Tri-State will have the opportunity to join with neighboring states and utilities in a regional market, and the benefits have the potential to be great. Colorado’s participation in a regional market could allow the state to trade electricity across the West, tapping into resources like hydro from the Northwest or geothermal from Nevada. In return, it could sell excess clean energy produced by local wind and solar.

Texas has come a long way since 2021, when Winter Storm Uri left millions of Texans without power for days during a stretch of below-freezing temperatures. The deadly impact, and traumatic effects for millions of Texans, forced intense scrutiny of the Lone Star State’s electricity infrastructure. As part of a series of recent winter storms, along with Winter Storms Elliot and Mara, Uri exposed serious vulnerabilities in the Texas grid.

In the four years since Uri hit, Texas has made enormous improvements toward making the grid more reliable, in part by significantly increasing energy capacity. In his recent State of the State address, Governor Greg Abbott highlighted Texas’ 35% increase in power generation. 

This growth is driven almost entirely by increases in advanced energy. In fact, over 90% of Texas’ new power capacity in the past four years came from solar, wind, and battery storage.