Utilities are rushing to add supply for an unprecedented wave of new large loads. Many now let large customers bring their own capacity, so new load connects sooner and existing customers are protected from rate impacts. Bring-your-own-capacity (BYOC) rules have rapidly gone from novelty to norm and are now the fastest path to reliable grid power.
Firma Power is the Bring Your Own Capacity company. We're the first company purpose-built to the deliver portfolios of clean, quiet, load-enabling power over the wires to meet utility BYOC requirements and get data centers connected faster, simpler and cheaper than alternatives like behind-the-meter gas.
And this week, we're featured in @FastCompany , in an excellent profile written by @adele_peters:
"The U.S. is on track to add a record 86 gigawatts of new wind, solar, and battery storage capacity this year—roughly the size of the U.K.’s entire grid. And there’s far more clean energy in the pipeline, with low-cost proposed projects that could help meet the surging demand from data centers. So why are data centers increasingly turning to polluting gas plants instead of clean energy?
A startup called Firma Power says that the issue isn’t cost, speed, or reliability, but the difficulty of assembling enough clean energy from a patchwork of projects—a problem that it is trying to solve.
Securing enough reliable, clean electricity for a massive new data center is complex. But Firma’s software calculates what a proposed data center needs, and then automatically searches through proposed clean energy projects to suggest a portfolio that could support it. An analysis that might otherwise take a team months can now take minutes. Firma then does the hard work of pulling all of the clean energy projects together, and data center developers can sign a single contract.
The company says that the process can get data centers power faster than building new gas-fired power plants—and it can compete on cost. And at a time when Americans really don’t like data centers, using clean power could make it more feasible for some projects to be greenlit by communities."
ENERGY
Nuclear PPAs, data-centre megawatts, grid constraints, utility deals
DATA • CONVERSATIONS • SIGNALS • HUMANS • MACHINES
Interlinked
Data
The rows behind this figure: the US household price of electricity, by month
The table is read from the same data file as the chart when this section is opened.
All Interlinked: Energy
Conversations
The biggest conversational points among Energy’s tracked accounts and searches since 2026-10-17: 59 posts read, 10 kept, 36 dropped as not about AI, 5 dropped as a promotion, 7 dropped as only a link, 1 dropped as a reply to a reply. The posts are their authors’ own words; the rule under each pick says why it stands here.
1. power
2 accounts · 4 posts · engagement 338 · the point they share: a lane term several carry
Why this post
the most engaged post of @JesseJenkins in this conversation (77 likes, 16 reposts, 3 quotes, 24 replies as read); the point: a lane term several carry (power); from the lane
Efficiency gains are cutting the power needed per AI task at a record pace.
But usage is surging, & more energy-intensive applications like AI agents are on the rise – with some tasks using hundreds or thousands of times more energy than simple queries → iea.li/3Qf9zxV pic.x.com/Bbzq99aj5s
Why this post
the most engaged post of @IEA in this conversation (16 likes, 10 reposts, 1 quotes, 8 replies as read); the point: a lane term several carry (power); from the lane
The posts our Energy pieces quoted
Not a feed. Each with the piece that used it.
Falling costs are driving rapid growth in battery markets – with average prices dropping 8% in 2025.
But regional price disparities are widening: battery packs in China were 30% cheaper than in the US & 35% cheaper than in Europe last year.
Read more 👉 https://t.co/fRDiu5lrpx https://t.co/sWuURw6hHB
Quoted in The Cell
AI is getting cheaper more quickly than any other transformative tech in history. At a given level of performance, cost has fallen ~47%/quarter since 2023.
That’s 4× faster than DNA sequencing, 6× faster than compute, 18× faster than lithium batteries, and (up to 1973) 54× faster than electricity.
Quoted in The Cell
Signals
The filings, reports and news stories behind the Energy pieces, as each piece cites them. A document two pieces cite shows twice.
- Our World in Data, Price of lithium-ion battery cells, 9 October 2026 data collectioncited in The Cell
- Our World in Data, the chart's metadata and the processing code for "Historical battery costs and production", read 9 October 2026cited in The Cell
- BloombergNEF, press release, "Lithium-ion Battery Pack Prices Rise for First Time to an Average of $151/kWh", 6 December 2022cited in The Cell
- BloombergNEF, press release, "Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Prices Hit Record Low of $139/kWh", 27 November 2023cited in The Cell
- BloombergNEF, press release, "Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Prices See Largest Drop Since 2017, Falling to $115 per Kilowatt-Hour", 10 December 2024cited in The Cell
- BloombergNEF, press release, "Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Prices Fall to $108 Per Kilowatt-Hour, Despite Rising Metal Prices", 9 December 2025cited in The Cell
- International Energy Agency, Global EV Outlook 2023, "Trends in batteries"cited in The Cell
- International Energy Agency, commentary, "Global battery markets are growing strongly – and so are the supply risks", Teo Lombardo, Leonardo Paoli, Araceli Fernandez Pales and Timur Gül, 13 February 2026cited in The Cell
- Canary Media, "Chart: Lithium-ion battery prices fall yet again", Dan McCarthy, 13 December 2024cited in The Cell
- X posts: International Energy Agency, 30 September 2026; Epoch AI, 22 September 2026cited in The Cell
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, average retail price of electricity by sector and by state, monthly; Token Runner's collection of 9 October 2026, July 2026 the latest monthcited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Epoch AI, the data centres file, as Token Runner collected it on 9 October 2026 (and on 2 October 2026, the collection the film was made with)cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Our World in Data, carbon intensity of electricity generation; Token Runner's collection of 9 October 2026cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- PJM Interconnection, 'PJM Capacity Auction Procures 138,318 MW of Generation Resources as Work Continues To Address Growing Electricity Demand', PJM Inside Lines, 14 July 2026, read 2 October and 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Cathy Kunkel, 'Projected data center growth spurs PJM capacity prices by factor of 10', Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, 30 July 2025, read 2 October and 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Wiser and others (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) with Hledik and others (The Brattle Group), 'Factors Influencing Recent Trends in Retail Electricity Prices in the United States', October 2025, read 2 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Electric Power Research Institute (Watten, Bistline, Blanford), 'Have Data Centers Raised Your Electric Bill?', a brief of the 2026 white paper of the same name, read 2 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Watten, Bistline and Blanford (Electric Power Research Institute), 'Have Data Centers Raised Your Electric Bill? Causal Evidence from the United States', arXiv:2606.19777 v1, submitted 18 June 2026 (a preprint), read 2 October and 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Kiran Garimella, 'Do Data Centers Raise Residential Electricity Prices? Evidence from 24 U.S. States', a preliminary draft on the author's own site, June 2026, the abstract read 2 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Golden and others, 'Certificates without Electrons? Theory and Evidence on Impacts from AI-Driven Power Demand', arXiv:2606.00811 v2, 2 August 2026 (a preprint), the abstract read 2 October and 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, 119th Congress: as introduced, 18 June 2026: ; as passed by the House, 16 September 2026, read 10 October 2026: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hr9340eh/html/BILLS-119hr9340eh.htm the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- House Report 119-814, the committee's report on H.R. 9340, 10 September 2026, read 2 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, Roll Call 312, 16 September 2026, read 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- American Public Power Association, 'Ratepayer Protection Act is Blocked in Senate', read 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- American Public Power Association, 'FERC Accepts PJM Proposed Reliability Backstop Procurement, But Suspends It for Five Months', read 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Edison Electric Institute, 'America's Electric Companies Protect Customers by Ensuring Data Centers Pay Their Fair Share', 15 September 2026, read 2 October and 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
- Office of the Governor of North Carolina, 'Governor Stein's Energy Policy Task Force Releases Interim Report', 16 February 2026, read 2 October and 10 October 2026 the source ↗cited in Who Pays for the Power?
Humans
The people of the 2026 Replicants list who sit in Energy: 1, by rank. A card opens the person on the Replicants page.