Colorado Data Center News

Jun 24, 2026

FERC show-cause orders aim to speed large-load integration

FERC has issued tailored show-cause orders to six regional RTOs/ISOs requiring them to justify or reform large-load interconnection rules and to provide generation-availability details.

Main action: FERC issued tailored show cause orders to ISO-NE, NYISO, PJM, MISO, SPP and CAISO giving them 60 days to “justify or reform” interconnection rules for data centers, manufacturing facilities, and other large energy users,” and requiring grid operators and their transmission owners to provide details on how they make adequate generation available within 30 days**.
Background & specifics: FERC identified five reform categories to address (1) transmission application and study processes including alternative technologies, (2) preventing cost shifting and increasing cost transparency, (3) accommodating co-location agreements and behind-the-meter generation, (4) new transmission services for flexible large loads, and (5) studying generation proximate to large loads. Grid Forward solicited commentary from Bruce Grabow (Sheppard Mullin) and Ray Gifford (Wilkinson Barker Knauer) who emphasized that the order aims to “facilitate speed to power,” noted jurisdictional limits, and compared the action to historic FERC oversight efforts.

Jun 24, 2026

WideOpenWest Expands Broadband Network in Central Florida

WideOpenWest (WOW!) announced expansion of its all-fiber network to 20,000 additional homes and businesses in Seminole and Orange counties, Florida, to be completed by fall 2026.

Expansion: WOW! will add 20,000 additional homes and businesses in Seminole and Orange counties, Florida to its all-fiber internet network, with availability expected by fall 2026; with this addition the network will reach nearly 75,000 homes and businesses in Central Florida.
Investment & background: WOW! has invested over $140 million in Central Florida since 2022; the announcement was published via a company release (PR Newswire) and quoted Chief Experience Officer Heather McCallion.

Jun 22, 2026

NAIRR Science Program Reshapes Scientific Research, Powered by NVIDIA AI Infrastructure

NVIDIA announced its contribution to the NAIRR pilot, providing dedicated NVIDIA DGX access and technical support to researchers.

Main announcement: NVIDIA provided researchers in the NAIRR pilot with a cloud-based resource guaranteeing a minimum of four NVIDIA DGX nodes for at least a month plus technical onboarding and support; the NAIRR pilot has supported over 700 projects across the past two years. The University of Michigan team used a 40-GPU NVIDIA DGX cluster (from a NAIRR allocation) and an additional 200,000 NVIDIA GPU hours on ALCF’s Polaris for MIST model development.
Background and project details: NAIRR-enabled projects highlighted include Polymathic AI’s Walrus foundation model (dataset, code and pretrained weights made public) for fluidlike simulations, University of Michigan’s MIST molecular models for energy storage fused with LLMs, and Boston University’s BEACON LLM pipeline for infectious disease detection (processing HealthMap, news, social media and other signals). The announcement summarizes implementation over the past two years and documents concrete compute allocations and public releases.

Jun 16, 2026

Climate Change Solutions - June 16, 2026

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) released new fact sheets on lithium and cobalt and announced its 29th annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO (EXPO 2026).

New EESI publications: EESI published fact sheets on Lithium and Cobalt, noting the U.S. relies on imports for >50% of lithium consumed and 76% of cobalt consumed; the newsletter links to a 2025 Critical Minerals Issue Brief for deeper analysis.
Event and policy updates: EXPO 2026 is scheduled for Wednesday, June 24, 2026, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (reception 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.) at the Rayburn House Office Building Gold Room (Room 2168) and online; the newsletter also reports House action on the Agriculture Appropriations Act (H.R.8646) providing $22.5 billion to USDA through September 2027, and updates on geothermal permitting bills and the DOMINANCE Act to secure critical mineral supply chains.

Jun 9, 2026

From Tail Risk to Design Baseline: How the Grid Is Adapting to Extreme Heat

POWER (Sonal Patel) reports that system planners and grid operators are now treating extreme heat as an assumed operating condition rather than a tail risk.

Main announcement/action: POWER summarizes that system planners and reliability entities (notably NERC and FERC) and operators are treating extreme heat as a design baseline, citing metrics such as EIA projection of ~1,610 CDDs for 2026 (4% above 2025), NERC’s 2026 Summer Reliability Assessment (net internal demand up 1.3% to 790 GW, and >58 GW of new on-peak capacity including 16.4 GW solar, 14.7 GW batteries, 6.7 GW natural gas, 1.6 GW wind), and FERC’s forecast of $46.81/MWh average wholesale price for summer 2026. The piece catalogues operational changes (hourly ambient-adjusted transmission ratings, dynamic line ratings pilots, ADMS/DERMS deployments) and emergency interventions (DOE Section 202(c) orders covering roughly 4,400 MW of extended capacity service).
Background and details: The article documents drought risks (FERC: 62% of continental U.S. impacted; Lake Powell inflow forecast at 13% of average), potential loss of up to 4,500 MW of Colorado River hydropower as soon as August 2026, rapid data center load growth (from 44 GW in 2025 to 55 GW in 2026, ~25%), and operational timelines (PJM implemented AAR on March 4, 2026; SPP expects AAR by Sept. 1, 2026; MISO full compliance by Q2 2028).

Jun 3, 2026

Arkansas County’s Data Center Moratorium Failed Over Vote Miscount

Pulaski County Quorum Court’s proposed yearlong moratorium on data center development will not take effect after officials determined the vote had been miscounted.

County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth said the measure received 8 votes, short of the 10 needed for passage (the original count showed 10 votes). The ordinance was originally sponsored by Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood, who plans to reintroduce it as soon as she can. The failed ordinance included an exemption for AVAIO Digital Leo.
AVAIO Digital Leo is a planned data center near Wrightsville; project manager Thomas Nesel said the center’s daily water demand would be about 200,000 gallons during warmer months and it would initially require 150 megawatts, with demand estimated to reach 1 gigawatt as the facility grows. Republican Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers supported the exemption, saying the company had “spent a heck of a lot of money to invest in this community.” The article also notes similar local actions: Denver passed a yearlong moratorium and Minneapolis passed a six-month moratorium on new data centers.

Jun 3, 2026

Data Center Jobs: Engineering, Construction, Commissioning, Sales, Field Service and Facility Tech Jobs Available in Major Data Center Hotspots

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Pkaza, posts the latest data center career opportunities on its jobs board.

Main announcement: Data Center Frontier and Pkaza have published a roundup of active data center job openings covering roles such as Mechanical Applications Engineer, Electrical Commissioning Engineer, Project Coordinator, Architect Design Manager, Electrical Project Manager, Commissioning Project Manager, Controls PM, Facility Operations Director, Project Executive (Owner’s Rep), and other critical-facilities positions across multiple U.S. locations (examples include Pittsburgh, PA; New Albany, OH; Ashburn, VA; Charlotte, NC; Denver, CO; Naperville, IL). Many roles note remote, traveling, or multiple-city availability and relocation options where specified.
Background / details: This is a recurring/monthly jobs-posting series powered by Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting and the Data Center Frontier jobs board; listings emphasise employer needs for MEP/critical facilities design, commissioning, mission-critical power and cooling expertise, energy efficiency and LEED experience, and include travel/remote work options and multiple-site listings for several roles. No monetary values, contract amounts, or deal announcements are included.

Jun 2, 2026

Daily briefing: Bad supervisors bump early-career researchers out of academia

A drug trial report shows that the experimental drug daraxonrasib nearly doubled median survival in people with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Main announcement: daraxonrasib targets all three RAS proteins and in a trial of 500 people with advanced pancreatic cancer patients who received the drug lived 13.2 months versus 6.7 months for chemotherapy; results reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2605555).
Background and other details: The Nature Briefing compiles other verifiable items in the issue, including a federal judge blocking the Trump administration’s move to transfer NCAR’s supercomputing centre in Wyoming (ruling calls the action “capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law”), concerns about AI in social sciences, warnings on Ebola preparedness by Kevin Ariën, and conservation work at Kew/Millennium Seed Bank (29 seeds collected, 8 germinated).

Jun 1, 2026 · Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Targeted Pressure: How Chinese Manufacturing Competition Impacts US States

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has published a report finding Chinese industrial policy is reshaping global manufacturing and harming industries across every U.S. state.

Main finding & method: The ITIF report (June 1, 2026) analyzes one “national power industry” per state using County Business Patterns employment data, HS/SITC export proxies, and global market-share series to conclude that state-backed Chinese subsidies, export pushes, and overcapacity are driving down prices and pressuring U.S. producers in sectors such as semiconductors, batteries, aircraft, and fabricated metals.
Key facts, numbers, and timelines:China plans ~$150 billion in semiconductor investment through 2030 vs. $52 billion under the U.S. CHIPS funding; the report cites $63.3 billion Chinese semiconductor spending in H1 2025, TSMC’s $165 billion U.S. investment announcement, GE Appliances’ $490 million Appliance Park investment (2025), and state/national export shares and HS-code trade series used throughout the analyses.

May 27, 2026

US energy storage installations hit Q1 record, up 32% year over year: SEIA

SEIA reported record 9.7 GWh of battery energy storage installed in Q1 2026.

Main announcement: SEIA said the U.S. installed 9.7 GWh of battery energy storage in Q1 2026 (a 32% YoY increase), with commercial & industrial 648 MWh, utility-scale 1.5 GW / 7.8 GWh, and residential 515 MWh; Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (for SEIA) forecasts 613 GWh of U.S. storage deployment by 2030.
Background and details: SEIA and Benchmark highlighted data centers as a major driver (example: Meta + Enbridge will build 365 MW solar colocated with 200 MW / 1.6 GWh of Tesla batteries to support a Cheyenne, WY data center with 8-hour discharge capability); SEIA also flagged 101 GW of clean projects under political threat and said 36% of projects due by 2030 could be affected; 13 states have storage targets and cumulative deployment leaders include California 60.6 GWh, Texas 29.2 GWh, Arizona 20.2 GWh.

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