AI driven electric demand is forcing utilities to rethink their approach to connecting new data center customers to the grid. Until quite recently, many utilities had generating capacity to sell and competed for new...more
We have the pleasure of presenting insights from Belton Zeigler, co-leader of the Womble energy sector, and Steve Snyder, an expert in federal regulatory issues involving power....more
3/18/2025
/ Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Data Centers ,
Energy Sector ,
FERC ,
Infrastructure ,
Nuclear Power ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Renewable Energy ,
Sustainability ,
Transmission Grid ,
Utilities Sector
Modern data centers are the foundation of our information society and now use artificial intelligence to generate new forms of machine intelligence and learning – though at the cost of considerable energy consumption. Their...more
2/27/2025
/ Clean Energy ,
Data Centers ,
Electricity ,
Energy Projects ,
Energy Sector ,
FERC ,
Infrastructure ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Renewable Energy ,
Transmission Grid
Small modular reactors (SMRs) can be collocated with high demand customers such as data centers and large manufacturing and chemical facilities to provide electric energy and capacity to them directly. Behind-the-meter...more
2/14/2025
/ Clean Energy ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Electricity ,
Energy Projects ,
Energy Sector ,
FERC ,
Interconnections ,
ISO/RTO ,
NERC ,
Nuclear Power ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Transmission Grid
Join us for a Womble Bond Dickinson webinar tailored for private equity and data center professionals. Discover the latest legal insights and strategies to navigate the complex landscape. We will explore the critical legal...more
12/10/2024
/ Construction Contracts ,
Data Centers ,
Debt Financing ,
Economic Development ,
Equity Financing ,
Impact Assessments ,
Infrastructure ,
Land Grants ,
Land Use Restrictions ,
Loan Agreements ,
Power Purchase Agreements ,
Private Equity ,
Private Equity Firms ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Tax Benefits ,
Water Projects ,
Webinars ,
Zoning Laws
As a follow-up to our previous client alert, President Biden has signed the ADVANCE (Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy) Act into law. The ADVANCE Act is aimed at speeding up the...more
The U.S. Senate has passed a groundbreaking bill aimed at accelerating the deployment of nuclear energy capacity. The ADVANCE (Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy) Act seeks to expedite...more
Transitioning the global economy out of its current reliance on fossil fuels is a massive, complex and nuanced undertaking. Fossil fuels represent 80% of current global energy consumption. The market for them is more than $6...more
Congress and the Biden Administration recognize hydrogen’s potential to address the clean energy imperative. This past year, The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act appropriated $8B of spending to build out clean hydrogen...more
5/20/2022
/ Automotive Industry ,
Biden Administration ,
Clean Energy ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Electricity ,
Energy Projects ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
FERC ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Hydrogen Power ,
Infrastructure ,
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) ,
Natural Gas ,
PHMSA ,
UK
The utility planning and investment cycle begins with planning to comply with Federal reliability standards, proceeds through Integrated Resource Planning reviews at the Commission level, then results in Siting Act...more
On September 17, 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) made it possible through aggregation for small solar, bio-mass, wind, storage, demand response and other distributed energy resources to bid competitively...more
Few industries have the growth potential to match that of the offshore wind industry. A March 2020 report by the American Wind Energy Association found that by 2030, the US offshore wind industry is expected to account...more
7/24/2020
/ BOEM ,
Clean Air Act ,
Clean Energy ,
Economic Growth ,
Energy Projects ,
Energy Sector ,
NEPA ,
Offshore Wind ,
Popular ,
Public Utility ,
Renewable Energy ,
Wind Power
The August 9, 2019 decision to require a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Vineyard Wind Project sent shock waves through the nascent US offshore wind industry. The initial EIS had been scoped years...more
On May 1, 2020, the White House ratcheted up cybersecurity protection for the nation’s power grid by empowering the Secretary of Energy to prohibit the sale of certain foreign-made equipment for use in the US bulk power...more
In a decision which seems likely to inject yet more uncertainty into whether the introduction of pollutants to surface waters via groundwater triggers the permitting requirements of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), a majority of...more
4/28/2020
/ Appeals ,
Clean Water Act ,
Direct Discharge ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Functional Equivalent ,
Groundwater ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Navigable Waters ,
Permits ,
Point Sources ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Waters of the United States
Earlier this year, Secretary Brouillette of the U.S. Department of Energy launched the Trump Administration’s Energy Storage Grand Challenge Program. The initiative is designed to be a comprehensive effort to accelerate the...more
3/5/2020
/ Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Sector ,
Energy Storage ,
Export Controls ,
Financial Institutions ,
Infrastructure ,
Power Purchase Agreements ,
Public Private Partnerships (P3s) ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Research and Development ,
Supply Chain ,
Trump Administration
On December 19, 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gobsmacked the renewables industry by issuing an order that makes it nearly impossible for most new renewable energy projects in the PJM system to sell...more
2/24/2020
/ Electric Generation Suppliers ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Projects ,
FERC ,
New Rules ,
Offshore Wind ,
Public Utility ,
Renewable Energy ,
State and Local Government ,
Transmission Grid ,
Wind Power
A recent ruling in the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) bankruptcy proceeding highlights the risk to certain renewable energy projects from utility bankruptcy. In a June 7, 2019 ruling, the PG&E bankruptcy court denied...more
7/5/2019
/ Adversary Proceedings ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Energy Projects ,
Exclusive Jurisdiction ,
FERC ,
PG&E ,
Power Purchase Agreements ,
Public Interest ,
Renewable Energy ,
Section 365 ,
Unsecured Debt
As recently as 2008, experts predicted a dire U.S. energy crisis by this time. In my last column, I surveyed the present positive energy landscape and described the energy crisis that never happened. Here are four factors...more
The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) had opened up its Offshore Wind Business and Workforce Development Grant Programs for the 2019 fiscal year.
The two offshore wind programs are intended to work in tandem. The...more
For the 2018 fiscal year, the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) is running its new Community Solar LMI PPA Incentive Grant Program in an effort to provide low and moderate-income (LMI) communities with the benefits of...more
Your heart raced when the caller on the phone identified himself as an FBI agent. But the conversation was matter-of-fact.
About 2,500 sets of credit card information from your clients had been posted for sale on a...more
4/30/2018
/ Commercial General Liability Policies ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cyber Insurance ,
Cyber Threats ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Hackers ,
Risk Assessment ,
Small Business ,
State Data Breach Notification Statutes ,
Third-Party Liability ,
Vendors
Originally published in the Upstate Business Journal on February 15, 2018.
Meet Peter — a longtime employee and the backbone of your business’s day-to-day finance and accounting operations. Today he got an email from the...more
3/5/2018
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cyber Insurance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Email ,
Hackers ,
Popular ,
Risk Management ,
Small Business ,
Websites
In summer 2015, the spies of a foreign country gained access to a private company’s domain name – pick any company you like, or several, since we don’t know which ones or how many. And within those domains, they created false...more
2/16/2018
/ Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Democratic National Committee ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
FBI ,
Foreign Governments ,
Foreign Relations ,
Hackers ,
National Security ,
Ransomware ,
Spyware
Driverless cars and driver-assist systems are poised to change transportation as profoundly and as quickly as the internet has changed shopping and communications. Examples of the first wave of this technology that is on the...more
2/16/2018
/ Automotive Industry ,
Connected Cars ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Driverless Cars ,
Hackers ,
Motor Vehicles ,
Popular ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Technology Sector