Energy Update | Week 3 – Oct 2025: NY Grid Strains, U.S. Fusion Plan & Amazon’s Nuclear Move
1.) New York is joining other ISOs in facing new grid reliability challenges. Its just-released draft Reliability Plan comments that “New York’s electric system faces an era of profound reliability challenges as resource retirements accelerate, economic development drives demand growth, and project delays undermine confidence in future supply. “ The Plan also noted that one-quarter of New York’s generating capacity is fossil-fuel-based and over 50 years old. At greatest risk is the New York City area, which is awaiting completion of the 1,250 MW Champlain Hudson transmission line, as well as the 816 MW Empire Wind offshore project, which was temporarily derailed by the Trump Administration’s stop work order this past summer.
2.) The U.S. Department of Energy unveiled its Fusion Science & Technology (FS&T) Roadmap meant to help accelerate the U.S. fusion industry toward maturity. The goal is to leveraging investments from both the public and private sectors and address critical science, materials and technology gaps, such as the breeding and handling of fusion fuels. The Roadmap identifies actions and timelines through the mid-2030s, specifying goals for the near-term (next 2-3 years), mid-term (3-5 years) and long-term (5-10 years). The report also notes that to date, the U.S. private sector has invested over $9B.
3.) The feds have been busy. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) closed a $1.6 bn loan guarantee with a subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP) to reconductor and rebuild around 5,000 miles of transmission lines across Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The goal is to strengthen grid reliability across the midwestern U.S. This is the first loan guarantee to be closed under the Trump administration’s Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) Program created by the OBBA.
4.) Perhaps more noteworthy than the loan itself is the fact that it will support reconductoring, which is the process of stringing new and more efficient lines across the same tower infrastructure and right of way. AEP is a leader in this space, with multiple applications over the past decade, predominantly bringing more capacity into existing load pockets where rights of way are limited. The Electric Power Research Institute notes that in previous projects, AEP’s new configuration provided a 75% increase in line capacity.
5.) Small modular nuclear reactors – also known as SMRs - are beginning to look a little more real, with Amazon announcing that it’s working with Energy Northwest and nuclear start-up X-energy to develop an advanced nuclear plant in Washington state called the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility. The plan is to develop the project in phases, with construction of an initial four 80 MW Xe-100 plants starting be the end of the decade, eventually expanding to 12 units totaling 960 MW. Commissioning of the first generators is anticipated “in the 2030s,” which leaves a bit of wiggle room.
6.) Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Nio has set a new national – and thus global - record for EV battery swaps with over 145,000 swaps in a single day on October 1st. During the past month, Nio has averaged 95,450 daily swaps with the total cumulative number at just under 88 million. Nio currently operates 3,520 swap stations in China and 61 in Europe. This year, Nio has opened 525 new stations.
7.) Bloomberg reports that solar thermal energy start-up Rondo Energy has started up the largest solar industrial heat battery to date. Rondo is using a 20 MW solar PV array to supply electricity to a 100 MWh thermal battery that heats up clay bricks to store energy. That heat is then used to boil water and create steam. In a somewhat ironic carbon twist, the first customer is Homes Western Oil Corporation which is using the tech’s steam for its enhanced oil recovery operation in Kern County, California. But Rondo sees the bigger picture, which is the industrial sector’s need for high heat in numerous thermal applications such as cement manufacturing. Rondo’s also joining forces with Portugal’s EDP for 2,000 MW of heat batteries in Europe.