SSE and Equinor have secured planning consent for the Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder project in the Humber region. Located within an existing gas storage site in East Yorkshire, SSE said the Aldbrough development is the first consented hydrogen-to-power project in the UK. The UK government recently shortlisted the Aldbrough project as part of its second hydrogen allocation round (HAR2) process. Under the plans, SSE and Equinor will produce hydrogen using low carbon electricity and a 35 MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser. The hydrogen will then be stored in a converted underground salt cavern for later use in a 100% hydrogen-fired 50 MW open cycle gas turbine. This will enable SSE to export flexible low carbon power back to the grid at times of system need, the company said. © Supplied by SSE ThermalThe Aldbrough Gas Storage site Aldbrough Hydogen Pathfinder Project senior project manager Sally O’Brien said securing planning consent is a “big step towards the UK’s low carbon future”. “By integrating hydrogen production, storage, and power generation in the Humber, we hope to create new opportunities for investment in the region, while advancing national clean power and decarbonisation goals,” O’Brien said. SSE Thermal said a wider hydrogen storage and pipeline project at the site will also benefit regional industrial and transport offtakers in the future. The company said combining hydrogen storage, production and power in one location will “provide an evidence base for wider deployment of essential flexible hydrogen power in the UK”. SSE and Equinor hydrogen plans The Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder project is among several SSE Thermal and Equinor are developing within the UK hydrogen sector. The two firms have partnered with Centrica to form the Humber Hydrogen Hub, which incorporates the Aldbrough project alongside the H2H Easington proposal. SSE is also partnering with EET to develop the

Louise Stewart has joined Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) as its director of external relations and commercial affairs. Based in London, Stewart will help OEUK and its members shape the future of the North Sea and the UK’s energy future, convening the relationships, commercial investments and policies to safeguard and drive security and innovation across the nation’s diverse offshore energy mix. Steward is a former political editor with the BBC before she moved on to become a senior leader with the Federation of Small Business, and most recently as vice-president of global communications and engagement with Meta’s Oversight Board. OEUK CEO David Whitehouse said that Stewart “brings an excellent vision – plus the leadership skills to execute it – at this key time for the UK’s energy future. “I’m looking forward to working with her as OEUK accelerates work to inform and educate policymakers and the public about the vital importance of this industry and its brilliant people.” © Supplied by Great British Energy(L-R) Helen Seagrave, Rob Gilbert and Alison Presly will join publicly-owned GB Energy’s executive committee. Image: Great British Energy/DCT Media Rob Gilbert, Alison Presly and Helen Seagrave have joined GB Energy’s executive committee. Gilbert joins as the group’s interim director of supply chain on a secondment from Baringa. He will be responsible for establishing GB Energy’s supply chain directorate, implementing the funding framework and industry ecosystem needed to drive investment in the UK supply chain. Presly joins as the group’s interim general counsel and has previously held legal roles across government. She will advise Great British Energy’s board members and oversee all legal advice to GBE. And Seagrave joins as director of local energy. She has previously held roles at Electricity North West and was a director and chair of Community Energy England. She will develop and deliver

Southwest Power Pool’s board of directors on Tuesday approved a proposed Expedited Resource Adequacy Study, or ERAS, which aims to “significantly accelerate the addition of new generating resources to the grid,” according to the regional grid operator. SPP plans to file amendments to its governing documents with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission later this month in order to implement the ERAS proposal, it said in a Thursday announcement. “ERAS offers utilities who are responsible for keeping the lights on a clearly defined and impactful opportunity to address real and immediate needs,” SPP President and CEO Lanny Nickell said. “It’s not a replacement for broader interconnection reforms, but this complementary effort will ensure reliability isn’t compromised during a transitional period while we work to implement more permanent solutions.” SPP expects its excess capacity will fall to 5% in 2029, down from 24% in 2020, Nickell said in April at a trade group meeting focused on transmission issues. “Excess generating capacity is dwindling, and it’s dwindling to a point where it’s becoming dangerous,” he said.   If ERAS is approved by federal regulators, staff of the regional transmission organization will work with qualified load responsible entities, or LREs, to submit projects for inclusion in the process as early as August, SPP said. Interconnection rights could be granted as soon as April 2026. Eligibility for the ERAS process is limited to new generation nominated by LREs, and projects must be capable of reaching commercial operation within five years of executing a generation interconnection agreement, the grid operator said. ERAS will be a “one-time process [that] will run separately” from SPP’s standard generation interconnection queue, it said. Projects submitted in SPP’s most recent batch of interconnection study requests will be given the option to transfer their submissions to the ERAS queue, the operator said. While SPP

Dive Brief: Sempra plans to sell Ecogas Mexico, a three-utility conglomerate that provides natural gas service in the Mexicali, Chihuahua and La Laguna-Durango regions in Mexico, and a minority stake in its development arm Sempra Infrastructure in order to finance expansion plans in Texas, company leaders said during a Thursday earnings call. The company plans to spend $13 billion on energy infrastructure this year alone, with $10 billion of that investment destined for the United States, Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Martin said. Analysts at Morningstar welcomed news of the sale and the company’s desire to refocus on its regulated utilities. Sempra disappointed analysts and investors in February when it cut its earnings projections amid rising costs and will “need to continue strong execution,” according to Morningstar strategist Andrew Bischof. Dive Insight: Sempra’s Texas subsidiaries continue to draw what analysts described as “huge numbers” from would-be customers hoping to connect to the utility’s electric system. And to bring those customers online, Sempra plans to invest heavily in new transmission projects. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas anticipates a need for $32 billion to $35 billion in new transmission to serve a projected 150 GW peak load by 2030, and Texas-based electric distributor Oncor is “well-positioned to construct a significant portion of the required transmission infrastructure,” according to Karen Sedgwick, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Sempra. Sempra owns 80% of Oncor. The company is already involved in the $15 billion to $17 billion Permian transmission project, which is set to become ERCOT’s first extra-high-voltage transmission project following a decision by the Public Utility Commission of Texas in April. Sempra originally anticipated that the construction of the Permian project would stretch beyond 2030, but recent regulatory decisions have shortened the timeline, prompting a need for greater near-term funding, Martin said.

Dive Brief: Sunrun is “actively working through scenario planning and corresponding actions if there are material changes” to U.S. clean energy tax credits in the federal budget reconciliation bill expected later this year, CEO Mary Powell said Wednesday. The country’s top residential solar company by market share “[has] a playbook” from past periods of regulatory change to reduce customer acquisition costs and raise prices if Congress eliminates or steps down the technology-neutral 48E clean electricity tax credit, Powell said during Sunrun’s first-quarter 2025 earnings call. U.S. import tariffs could also increase Sunrun’s hardware costs later this year due to its suppliers’ upstream exposure to China, but “any adverse changes to tax and tariff policy, of course, will also impact utilities and create additional pricing headroom” for its solar and energy storage systems, Powell said. Dive Insight: Sunrun subscriber additions grew 7% year over year as its storage attachment rate reached 69%, up from 50% in the first quarter of 2024, the company said in its Q1 2025 investor presentation. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Sunrun accounted for about 19% of new U.S. solar installations and 45% of new U.S. energy storage installations, according to the presentation. Sunrun’s contracted subscriber value jumped 14% in Q1 2025 to $48,727 thanks to the rising share of higher-value energy storage customers, it said. Sunrun defines contracted subscriber value as the discounted cumulative value of estimated, contracted cash flows from an individual customer. “Subscribers with storage have higher upfront margins … also unlock additional recurring revenue streams as they represent valuable energy resources for the grid,” Powell said. “While still a nascent business and small source of revenue today, this will grow significantly in the years ahead.” Sunrun owes its recent market share boost in part to Sunrun Flex, a new solar and storage

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) lowered its West Texas Intermediate (WTI) spot average price forecasts for 2025 and 2026 in its latest short term energy outlook (STEO), which was released on May 6. According to that STEO, the EIA now sees the WTI spot price averaging $61.81 per barrel this year and $55.24 per barrel next year. In its previous STEO, which was released in April, the EIA projected that the WTI spot price would average $63.88 per barrel in 2025 and $57.48 per barrel in 2026. Both STEOs highlighted that the WTI spot price came in at $76.60 per barrel in 2024. The EIA’s latest STEO forecast that the WTI spot price will average $60.85 per barrel in the second quarter of 2025, $58 per barrel in the third quarter, $57 per barrel in the fourth quarter, $56 per barrel across the first and second quarters of next year, $55 per barrel in the third quarter, and $54 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2026. This STEO pointed out that the WTI spot price averaged $71.85 per barrel in the first quarter of 2025. In its April STEO, the EIA projected that the WTI spot price would come in at $62.33 per barrel in the second quarter of 2025, $61.67 per barrel in the third quarter, $60 per barrel in the fourth quarter, $59 per barrel in the first quarter of 2026, $58 per barrel in the second quarter, $57 per barrel in the third quarter, and $56 per barrel in the fourth quarter. This STEO also highlighted that the WTI spot price averaged $71.85 per barrel in the first quarter of 2025. Back in its March STEO, the EIA forecast that the WTI spot price average would come in at $70.68 per barrel in 2025 and