NexPhase Advisory

The Morning Read

Friday, July 24, 2026
01  The Bottom Line
Capital is not the constraint anymore. Forty billion dollars just changed hands for GIP, Brookfield is buying Aypa, and a $12B, 2 GW Rubix campus is on the table, all in one week. The real scarcity is interconnection rights, local political clearance like Charlotte's moratorium, and contracted power at the site level. Everything else is noise.
02  Signal of the Day
National & Policy
Rubix Data Centers · 2026-07-22
Two gigawatts and twelve billion dollars at a former AK Steel brownfield in Kentucky is exactly the kind of announcement that sounds transformative and means almost nothing until the power question is answered. The source is explicit: no power source is secured. At that scale, you are looking at a new bulk transmission interconnection in a territory that has not historically seen hyperscale data center load, and the study queue timeline for a 2GW interconnection request in that footprint will stretch years. Submer's Rubix is a credible company, but the gap between a brownfield site announcement and a cleared interconnection study at 2GW is where most projects at this scale quietly shrink or phase down. Watch whether an interconnection request actually gets filed, and in whose name.
03  Market Intelligence
PJM  · 1 signal
NuVu, Menlo Digital, Wagner Properties, Warrenton Group · 2026-07-22
Only NuVu's campus cleared Petersburg by-right; Menlo Digital came through a 2023 rezoning and two more are still pending, but the pattern shows a municipality whose zoning framework favors data center development at a moment when approvals elsewhere are slowing or reversing. Petersburg sits in a zone where PJM interconnection pressure is already intense. These projects will not improve the queue situation for anyone positioned behind them at nearby points of interconnection, so the relevant question for a developer looking at that corridor is whether their study position predates these campus applications.
MISO  · 2 signals
Wisconsin gas plant developers (multiple unnamed) · 2026-07-22
Wisconsin's absence of an integrated resource planning process means regulators review plant approval separately from utility need and cost, a structure advocates argue allows major investments to advance before need is formally established. The commission has not announced a vote timeline on pending gas proposals, and any legislative fix would follow approvals already in process. For anyone tracking gas capacity additions in MISO, Wisconsin is an active front.
FERC · 2026-07-22
Lansing Board of Water and Light bought capacity in MISO's 2026/27 auction at $400/MW-day and then got denied the late-entry correction they needed, leaving them holding duplicative capacity they now have to sell into a market at a price that will not cover what they paid. The procedural lesson is simple: municipal utilities running coal-to-gas conversions on a minority plant ownership stake need to have their capacity positions confirmed before the auction window closes, not after. FERC's denial here is consistent with how the commission has treated procedural deadlines in recent capacity market cases.
ERCOT  · 1 signal
Aligned Data Centers, MGX, BlackRock, Macquarie Asset Management · 2026-07-22
A consortium of MGX, AIP, and BlackRock GIP is acquiring Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management for $40 billion, with a further $5 billion committed for expansion of a 6.4GW portfolio across the Americas. The expansion commitment means near-term, aggressive pursuit of interconnection capacity at existing Aligned sites. Any developer or IPP holding a power position near an existing Aligned campus should expect that expansion budget to create competitive queue pressure at those points of interconnection faster than a greenfield entrant would.
ISO-NE  · 1 signal
Maine Department of Energy Resources · 2026-07-22
Maine's first competitive storage solicitation seeks up to 360MW of BESS capacity. State law requires PUC review and approval before the RFP can formally issue, so the procurement timeline depends on how long that review takes. For developers with storage assets needing an offtake path in ISO-NE, this is the proceeding to track. The ratepayer cost-reduction standard is the filter that will determine which project structures survive evaluation.
National & Policy  · 3 signals
City of Charlotte · 2026-07-22
The Charlotte moratorium is now the template, not the exception. More than a hundred local governments are running some version of this playbook, and the article is clear that the trigger was American Tower's Reedy Creek project, with water and power demand cited as the specific community objections. American Tower's rezoning is stalled at least through November, and the council member quoted is openly signaling the 150-day pause could extend. For any developer without a fully approved entitlement in a similar mid-size metro, assume this risk is in your project timeline. Political clearance has become a gating item on par with interconnection timing.
Brookfield Asset Management, Aypa Power, Blackstone · 2026-07-23
Brookfield is acquiring Aypa Power from Blackstone for roughly $7 billion enterprise value, gaining 6.5GW of operating and contracted BESS and a 20GW-plus pipeline across North America. The 95% contracted figure at a 17-year average contract duration is the number that defines what a fully contracted BESS book commands at institutional scale. For developers still building BESS pipelines speculatively, this transaction sets the valuation ceiling and will reset return expectations for the next wave of capital entering the sector.
rPlus Energies · 2026-07-22
Meta's PPA anchoring rPlus Energies' 125MW Pleasant Valley Solar 2 in Ada County, Idaho has reached commercial operations, with the 400MW Black Creek Energy Center now breaking ground in the same county. Both projects show how a hyperscaler offtake commitment can unlock development in a state with historically thin solar activity. For origination teams, this confirms that an anchor load like Meta can open markets that pure-merchant or utility procurement alone could not.
04  Regulatory Watch  · 8 filingsView Filings
EL26-67-000 · PJM · cost allocation · 3 filings
FERC initiates Section 206 proceeding against PJM, all commissioners concurring separately
Filed 2026-06-18   20260618-3105 ›  ·  20260708-5011 ›  ·  20260618-3111 ›
ER26-1323-002 · SPP · large load
SPP compliance filing for conditional high-impact large load service tariff provisions
Filed 2026-07-06   20260706-5174 ›
ER26-2698-000 · NYISO · queue reform
NYISO supplemental filing on interconnection process improvements affecting queue procedures
Filed 2026-07-08   20260708-5191 ›
RM21-17-000 · MISO · cost allocation · 3 filings
FERC extends time on major MISO regional transmission planning and cost allocation rulemaking.
Filed 2026-07-17   20260717-3052 ›  ·  20260717-3053 ›  ·  20260717-3051 ›
ER26-2577-000 · NYISO · queue reform
FERC accepts NYISO interconnection procedure revisions with commissioner concurrence
Filed 2026-07-20   20260720-3065 ›
ER26-2295-000 · MISO · queue reform
FERC denies interconnection or tariff waiver request for Lansing Board of Water and Light
Filed 2026-07-21   20260721-3017 ›
EL25-49-002 · PJM · large load
FERC issues rehearing/clarification order on PJM proceeding, likely large-load or cost policy matter.
Filed 2026-06-18   20260618-3103 ›
ER26-2514-000 · SPP · queue reform
FERC accepts SPP generator interconnection procedure revisions to Attachment V tariff.
Filed 2026-06-29   20260629-3054 ›
The Morning Read is published weekday mornings under the NexPhase Advisory imprint, written by Chris Santiago. Two decades in utility-scale development, from site origination and land control through interconnection, offtake, and delivery to NTP. 5+ GW delivered across major U.S. ISOs and RTOs.
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Questions or corrections: chris@nexphaseadvisory.net.
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