FERC rejects MISO petition to limit market monitor’s transmission planning oversight

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FERC rejects MISO petition to limit market monitor’s transmission planning oversight

Federal regulators on Friday rejected calls by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and its transmission owners that the grid operator’s independent market monitor be effectively barred from transmission planning oversight. MISO’s tariff “unambiguously” authorizes MISO’s market monitor to review and analyze actions that affect the competitiveness, economic efficiency and operation of the grid operator’s markets […]

MISO’s tariff “unambiguously” authorizes MISO’s market monitor to review and analyze actions that affect the competitiveness, economic efficiency and operation of the grid operator’s markets and services — and transmission planning is one of those actions, FERC said in a decision released Friday.

“The [MISO] tariff authorizes the IMM to review and analyze MISO’s transmission planning activities and emphasizes that the IMM should consider the competitive or other market impacts of any MISO action governing or affecting any of the markets and services,” FERC said.

MISO filed a petition for declaratory order on May 7 asking FERC to find that the grid operator’s tariff limits the market monitor’s involvement in transmission planning. The petition grew out of Potomac Economic’s criticism of MISO’s needs and cost-benefit analysis that underpinned its roughly $22 billion Tranche 2.1 transmission portfolio that was approved in December, according to filings at FERC. The market monitor argued that MISO overstated its transmission needs and the benefits from its proposed project portfolio.

MISO transmission owners such as Ameren, Duke Energy and Entergy supported limiting Potomac Economics’ role in transmission planning. The petition was opposed by the Organization of MISO States, which represents state utility commissions, and consumer advocates.

The dispute arose as electric utility bills have surged in the last four years, with millions of people struggling to pay their bills, FERC Chairman Mark Christie said in a concurring statement.

“Despite the understandable concern and publicity over capacity market auction results in MISO and [the PJM Interconnection] over the past year, transmission costs are the single biggest driver of skyrocketing monthly power bills and have been for years,” Christie said.

Also, once financing costs and “FERC candy” — extra financial benefits for transmission — have been added to MISO’s Tranche 2.1 transmission portfolio, it will cost significantly more than its estimated $21.8 billion in capital costs, according to Christie.

“So to his credit, MISO’s IMM has stepped up and provided a critique of the assumptions and calculations used by MISO to develop and attempt to justify this latest costly tranche of transmission projects,” Christie said. “The role of an IMM requires courage and a willingness to put his job on the line by bringing to light uncomfortable (for some) facts and drawing conclusions about those facts that he is prepared to defend forthrightly. The MISO IMM has done so here and he should be recognized and applauded.”

In another concurrence, FERC Commissioner David Rosner said the market monitor’s oversight should remain limited to assessing the results of MISO’s transmission planning. “My vote to deny this petition is not a basis to create new duties for the market monitor that are akin to those of an independent transmission monitor,” Rosner said. He noted the agency was unable to reach a consensus on requiring independent transmission monitors in its Order 1920 rulemaking on long-term regional transmission planning that was finalized in November.

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Blackstone to acquire majority stake in NetBrain Technologies

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Rethinking and realigning IT for the AI era

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IT leaders rethink talent strategies to cope with AI skills crunch

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Woodside Q2 Revenue Up YoY on Higher Gas Prices

Woodside Energy Group Ltd. on Wednesday posted $3.28 billion in revenue for the second quarter, up eight percent from the same three-month period last year as stronger natural gas prices offset lower gas volumes. The Australian company produced 1.83 billion standard cubic feet a day (Bscfd) and sold 2.05 Bscfd of gas in the April-June quarter, both down three percent year-on-year. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales from projects at home totaled 20.37 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), down from 22.28 MMboe in Q2 2024. The bulk of the Australian LNG sales came from Pluto LNG (11.97 MMboe), which posted a 94.9 percent reliability. Woodside said it had completed the PLA-08 subsea well and secured secondary environmental approval for the development of the XNA-03 well. Woodside sold 7.45 MMboe of pipeline gas to the domestic market, up from 6.94 MMboe. Most of these came from the Bass Strait (3.62 MMboe). In Trinidad and Tobago, piped gas sales totaled 2.23 MMboe, up from 1.61 MMboe in Q2 2024. In the U.S., Woodside sold 324,000 boe of piped gas, down from 336,000 boe in Q2 2024. Total liquids production increased 46 percent year-over-year to 230,000 barrels per day (bpd). Liquids sales climbed 50 percent to 238,000 bpd. Australian crude oil and condensate output totaled 4.92 MMboe, up from 4.65 MMboe. Australian natural gas liquids (NGL) production totaled 1.01 MMboe, down from 1.28 MMboe. International crude and condensate production grew from 8.01 MMboe to 14.58 MMboe, thanks to Senegal’s offshore Sangomar field, which contributed 7.4 million barrels. International NGL production increased from 355,000 boe to 401,000 boe, with the U.S. accounting for 398,000 barrels. To account for the divestment of its Greater Angostura assets in Trinidad and Tobago to Perenco Group, Woodside adjusted its projected full-year production from 186-196 MMboe to 188-195 MMboe.

Macquarie Strategists Forecast USA Crude Inventory Drop

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie Group late Monday, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they are forecasting that U.S. crude inventories will be down by 5.6 million barrels for the week ending July 18. “This follows a 3.9 million barrel draw in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing significantly tighter than our expectations,” the strategists said in the report. “For this week’s crude balance, from refineries, we model a minimal reduction in crude runs. Among net imports, we model a large reduction, with exports up (+0.4 million barrels per day) and imports down (-0.7 million barrels per day) on a nominal basis,” they added. The strategists warned in the report that the timing of cargoes remains a source of potential volatility in this week’s crude balance. “From implied domestic supply (prod.+adj.+transfers), we look for a bounce-back (+0.9 million barrels per day) on a nominal basis this week,” they analysts noted in the report. “Rounding out the picture, we anticipate another small draw in SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] stocks (-0.2 million barrels) this week,” they added. “Among products, look for draws in gasoline (-1.8 million barrels) and distillate (-0.8 million barrels), with a build in jet (+0.9 million barrels). We model implied demand for these three products at ~15.0 million barrels per day for the week ending July 18,” the Macquarie strategists went on to state. In its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on July 16 and included data for the week ending July 11, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, decreased by 3.9 million barrels from the week ending July 4 to the week ending July 11. That report showed that crude oil stocks, not

Equinor Q2 Profit Down YoY on Lower Liquids Prices

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Petrobras Says Executive Board Now Majority Female

State-owned Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) has named engineer Angelica Garcia Cobas Laureano as Executive Director of Energy Transition and Sustainability. The company said in a media release that with Laureano’s appointment, Petrobras’ executive board is composed of five women, including one serving as president, out of a total of nine members. Laureano has already spent 21 years with Petrobras in her 45-year career. This marks the first time in the company’s history that senior management has more women than men, according to Petrobras. Petrobras said the new composition of the executive board demonstrates the company’s dedication to diversity and gender equality. Petrobras noted that the study “Women in Action,” published by B3 in September 2024, showed that only 6 percent of the 359 companies listed on the Brazilian stock exchange had at least three women on their statutory executive boards. In 59 percent of these companies, there was no female representation on the executive board. “We are committed to increasing female participation in all sectors of Petrobras because we believe that a diverse team creates a healthier and more productive work environment. I hope we can inspire other women to aspire to leadership positions, especially in the oil and gas sector, which remains predominantly male,” Petrobras President Magda Chambriard said. Petrobras created its Executive Office of Energy Transition and Sustainability in April 2023. According to Petrobras, this department includes gas and energy processes, climate change, decarbonization, and renewable energy, and collaborates with other divisions within the company on the research and development of transition-related projects. “We will continue to invest heavily in decarbonization projects, the production of more sustainable fuels, and the diversification of renewable energy sources. As leaders in the energy transition, we reaffirm our commitment to achieving net-zero operational emissions by 2050”, Laureano said. To contact the author,

Oil Slips for Third Straight Session

Oil fell for a third session as talks between the US and its trading partners gain urgency ahead of next week’s deadline. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.5% to settle near $66 a barrel as risk-on sentiment faded, and oil traders rolled over positions ahead of the August contract’s expiration on Tuesday, adding to volatility. Investors also honed in on discussions between European Union and US negotiators as they seek to clinch a trade deal by Aug. 1, when President Donald Trump has threatened to hit most of the bloc’s exports with 30% tariffs. “The risks to the downside are the longer-term oversupply that we expect in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of 2026, with the tariff deadline on Aug. 1 as another potential catalyst to the downside,” said Joe DeLaura, global energy strategist at Rabobank. Crude has been drifting sideways since the end of the conflict between Iran and Israel toward the end of last month, dragging gauges of market volatility to the lowest since early April. While WTI and Brent prices have flatlined, many of the largest moves in the oil market have been in diesel prices, which are soaring because of tight supplies and refinery closures. Looking ahead, traders will be focused on US economic data on jobless claims and home sales due to be released later this week. Oil Prices WTI for August delivery, which expired Tuesday, declined 1.5% to settle at $66.21 a barrel. The more active September contract slipped 1% to $65.31 a barrel. Brent for September settlement shed 0.9% to $68.59 a barrel. What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the Rigzone Energy Network. The Rigzone Energy Network is a new social experience created for you and all energy professionals to Speak Up about

Spanish Outages Likely Cost Top Power User Repsol $200MM

Spain’s power outages probably cost oil producer Repsol SA about €170 million ($200 million) in losses at refineries and chemical plants last quarter, people familiar with the matter said. A nationwide blackout in April led to an estimated loss of roughly €100 million at five refineries, and €40 million at three chemical plants, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public. Smaller power failures probably cost about €30 million, they added. Repsol declined to comment. The unprecedented collapse of Spain’s power grid left more than 50 million people without electricity for several hours across the Iberian peninsula and small parts of France on April 28. The overall financial impact remains unknown, with most industrial, corporate and retail customers waiting for the energy market regulator’s review of the debacle before making insurance and damage claims. Repsol’s oil refinery and the Escombreras industrial complex in Cartagena, Spain, on Jan. 16, 2025. The nationwide losses tally could reach between €2 billion and €4 billion, according to power industry executives with knowledge of the estimates, who also asked not to be named discussing non-public information. The regulator, known as CNMC, hasn’t said when it will present its review. A government report last month laid blame at the grid operator and some unnamed power plants, without fully explaining why the network became so unstable in the first place. Repsol had additional electricity-related losses in the first quarter from a smaller outage that halted its Cartagena refinery six days earlier, as well as a technical problem at a substation operated by a local power company, which led to the Puertollano refinery halting on June 16, the people said. The smaller April 22 outage was related to power network oscillations — the same type of problem that occurred on April 28. In

Technology is coming so fast data centers are obsolete by the time they launch

Tariffs aside, Enderle feels that AI technology and ancillary technology around it like battery backup is still in the early stages of development and there will be significant changes coming in the next few years. GPUs from AMD and Nvidia are the primary processors for AI, and they are derived from video game accelerators. They were never meant for use in AI processing, but they are being fine-tuned for the task. It’s better to wait to get a more mature product than something that is still in a relatively early state. But Alan Howard, senior analyst for data center infrastructure at Omdia, disagrees and says not to wait. One reason is the rate at which people that are building data centers is all about seizing market opportunity.” You must have a certain amount of capacity to make sure that you can execute on strategies meant to capture more market share.” The same sentiment exists on the colocation side, where there is a considerable shortage of capacity as demand outstrips supply. “To say, well, let’s wait and see if maybe we’ll be able to build a better, more efficient data center by not building anything for a couple of years. That’s just straight up not going to happen,” said Howard. “By waiting, you’re going to miss market opportunities. And these companies are all in it to make money. And so, the almighty dollar rules,” he added. Howard acknowledges that by the time you design and build the data center, it’s obsolete. The question is, does that mean it can’t do anything? “I mean, if you start today on a data center that’s going to be full of [Nvidia] Blackwells, and let’s say you deploy in two years when they’ve already retired Blackwell, and they’re making something completely new. Is that data

‘Significant’ outage at Alaska Airlines not a security incident, but a hardware breakdown

The airline told Network World that when the critical piece of what it described as “third-party multi-redundant hardware” failed unexpectedly, “it impacted several of our key systems that enable us to run various operations.” The company is currently working with its vendor to replace the faulty equipment at the data center. The airline has cancelled more than 150 flights since Sunday evening, including 64 on Monday. The company said additional flight disruptions are likely as it repositions aircraft and crews throughout its network. Alaska Airlines emphasized that the safety of its flights was never compromised, and that “the IT outage is not related to any other current events, and it’s not connected to the recent cybersecurity incident at Hawaiian Airlines.” The airline did not provide additional information to Network World about the specifics of the outage. “There are many redundant components that can fail,” said Roberts, noting that it could have been something as simple as a RAID array (which combines multiple physical data storage components into one or more logical units). Or, on the network side, it could have been the failure of a pair of load balancers. “It’s interesting that redundancy didn’t save them,” said Roberts. “Perhaps multiple pieces of hardware were impacted by the same issue, like a firmware update. Or, maybe they’re just really unlucky.”

Cisco upgrades 400G optical receiver to boost AI infrastructure throughput

“In the data center, what’s really changed in the last year or so is that with AI buildouts, there’s much, much more optics that are part of 400G and 800G. It’s not so much using 10G and 25G optics, which we still sell a ton of, for campus applications. But for AI infrastructure, the 400G and 800G optics are really the dominant optics for that application,” Gartner said. Most of the AI infrastructure builds have been for training models, especially in hyperscaler environments, Gartner said. “I expect, towards the tail end of this year, we’ll start to see more enterprises deploying AI infrastructure for inference. And once they do that, because it has an Nvidia GPU attached to it, it’s going to be a 400G or 800G optic.” Core enterprise applications – such as real-time trading, high-frequency transactions, multi-cloud communications, cybersecurity analytics, network forensics, and industrial IoT – can also utilize the higher network throughput, Gartner said.

Supermicro bets big on 4-socket X14 servers to regain enterprise trust

In April, Dell announced its PowerEdge R470, R570, R670, and R770 servers with Intel Xeon 6 Processors with P-cores, but with single and double-socket servers. Similarly, Lenovo’s ThinkSystem V4 servers are also based on the Intel Xeon 6 processor but are limited to dual socket configurations. The launch of 4-socket servers by Supermicro reflects a growing enterprise need for localized compute that can support memory-bound AI and reduce the complexity of distributed architectures. “The modern 4-socket servers solve multiple pain points that have intensified with GenAI and memory-intensive analytics. Enterprises are increasingly challenged by latency, interconnect complexity, and power budgets in distributed environments. High-capacity, scale-up servers provide an architecture that is more aligned with low-latency, large-model processing, especially where data residency or compliance constraints limit cloud elasticity,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research. “Launching a 4-socket Xeon 6 platform and packaging it within their modular ‘building block’ strategy shows Supermicro is focusing on staying ahead in enterprise and AI data center compute,” said Devroop Dhar, co-founder and MD at Primus Partner. A critical launch after major setbacks Experts peg this to be Supermicro’s most significant product launch since it became mired in governance and regulatory controversies. In 2024, the company lost Ernst & Young, its second auditor in two years, following allegations by Hindenburg Research involving accounting irregularities and the alleged export of sensitive chips to sanctioned entities. Compounding its troubles, Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI redirected its AI server orders to Dell, a move that reportedly cost Supermicro billions in potential revenue and damaged its standing in the hyperscaler ecosystem. Earlier this year, HPE signed a $1 billion contract to provide AI servers for X, a deal Supermicro was also bidding for. “The X14 launch marks a strategic reinforcement for Supermicro, showcasing its commitment

Moving AI workloads off the cloud? A hefty data center retrofit awaits

“If you have a very specific use case, and you want to fold AI into some of your processes, and you need a GPU or two and a server to do that, then, that’s perfectly acceptable,” he says. “What we’re seeing, kind of universally, is that most of the enterprises want to migrate to these autonomous agents and agentic AI, where you do need a lot of compute capacity.” Racks of brand-new GPUs, even without new power and cooling infrastructure, can be costly, and Schneider Electric often advises cost-conscious clients to look at previous-generation GPUs to save money. GPU and other AI-related technology is advancing so rapidly, however, that it’s hard to know when to put down stakes. “We’re kind of in a situation where five years ago, we were talking about a data center lasting 30 years and going through three refreshes, maybe four,” Carlini says. “Now, because it is changing so much and requiring more and more power and cooling you can’t overbuild and then grow into it like you used to.”

My take on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for LAN infrastructure? Highly inaccurate

Fortinet being in the leader quadrant may surprise some given they are best known as a security vendor, but the company has quietly built a broad and deep networking portfolio. I have no issue with them being considered a leader and believe for security conscious companies, Fortinet is a great option. Challenger Cisco is the only company listed as a challenger, and its movement out of the leader quadrant highlights just how inaccurate this document is. There is no vendor that sells more networking equipment in more places than Cisco, and it has led enterprise networking for decades. Several years ago, when it was a leader, I could argue the division of engineering between Meraki and Catalyst could have pushed them out, but it didn’t. So why now? At its June Cisco Live event, the company launched a salvo of innovation including AI Canvas, Cisco AI Assistant, and much more. It’s also continually improved the interoperability between Meraki and Catalyst and announced several new products. AI Canvas is a completely new take, was well received by customers at Cisco Live, and reinvents the concept of AIOps. As I stated above, because of the December cutoff time for information gathering, none of this was included, but that makes Cisco’s representation false. Also, I find this MQ very vague in its “Cautions” segment. As an example, it states: “Cisco’s product strategy isn’t well-aligned with key enterprise needs.” Some details here would be helpful. In my conversations with Cisco, which includes with Chief Product Officer and President Jeetu Patel, the company has reiterated that its strategy is to help customers be AI-ready with products that are easier to deploy and manage, more automated, and with a lower cost to run. That seems well-aligned with customer needs. If Gartner is hearing customers want networks

Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs). In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for enterprise AI. The past year has seen rapid innovation, and this year will see the same. This has made it more critical than ever to revisit your AI strategy to stay competitive and create value for your customers. From scaling AI agents to optimizing costs, here are the five critical areas enterprises should prioritize for their AI strategy this year. 1. Agents: the next generation of automation AI agents are no longer theoretical. In 2025, they’re indispensable tools for enterprises looking to streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. Unlike traditional software, agents powered by large language models (LLMs) can make nuanced decisions, navigate complex multi-step tasks, and integrate seamlessly with tools and APIs. At the start of 2024, agents were not ready for prime time, making frustrating mistakes like hallucinating URLs. They started getting better as frontier large language models themselves improved. “Let me put it this way,” said Sam Witteveen, cofounder of Red Dragon, a company that develops agents for companies, and that recently reviewed the 48 agents it built last year. “Interestingly, the ones that we built at the start of the year, a lot of those worked way better at the end of the year just because the models got better.” Witteveen shared this in the video podcast we filmed to discuss these five big trends in detail. Models are getting better and hallucinating less, and they’re also being trained to do agentic tasks. Another feature that the model providers are researching is a way to use the LLM as a judge, and as models get cheaper (something we’ll cover below), companies can use three or more models to

OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has taken a more aggressive approach to red teaming than its AI competitors, demonstrating its security teams’ advanced capabilities in two areas: multi-step reinforcement and external red teaming. OpenAI recently released two papers that set a new competitive standard for improving the quality, reliability and safety of AI models in these two techniques and more. The first paper, “OpenAI’s Approach to External Red Teaming for AI Models and Systems,” reports that specialized teams outside the company have proven effective in uncovering vulnerabilities that might otherwise have made it into a released model because in-house testing techniques may have missed them. In the second paper, “Diverse and Effective Red Teaming with Auto-Generated Rewards and Multi-Step Reinforcement Learning,” OpenAI introduces an automated framework that relies on iterative reinforcement learning to generate a broad spectrum of novel, wide-ranging attacks. Going all-in on red teaming pays practical, competitive dividends It’s encouraging to see competitive intensity in red teaming growing among AI companies. When Anthropic released its AI red team guidelines in June of last year, it joined AI providers including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and even the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which all had released red teaming frameworks. Investing heavily in red teaming yields tangible benefits for security leaders in any organization. OpenAI’s paper on external red teaming provides a detailed analysis of how the company strives to create specialized external teams that include cybersecurity and subject matter experts. The goal is to see if knowledgeable external teams can defeat models’ security perimeters and find gaps in their security, biases and controls that prompt-based testing couldn’t find. What makes OpenAI’s recent papers noteworthy is how well they define using human-in-the-middle

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