John Farrell
@johnffarrell.bsky.social
Distributed energy nerd | Anti-monopoly policy guy @ ILSR | Making clean power local + fair | 📍Minnesota dad energy 🔌💡
My question for 2026: Will actual data center demand or speculative data center demand cause more harm to electricity consumers?
Today in Heatmap AM:
🪒 Canceled data centers shave 6 GW off Georgia demand
☀️ Solar supplies more California power as gas decreases: EIA study
🇨🇳 China connects new nuclear reactor to grid
Read all about it from @alexckaufman.bsky.social:
heatmap.news/am/georgia-d...
🪒 Canceled data centers shave 6 GW off Georgia demand
☀️ Solar supplies more California power as gas decreases: EIA study
🇨🇳 China connects new nuclear reactor to grid
Read all about it from @alexckaufman.bsky.social:
heatmap.news/am/georgia-d...
Canceled Data Centers Curb Georgia’s Projected Power Surge
On California solar eating gas, China’s newest reactor, and GOP vs. CCS
heatmap.news
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
My question for 2026: Will actual data center demand or speculative data center demand cause more harm to electricity consumers?
What If Utilities Just Made Less Money? A question that's right up there with "why do we regulate utilities like it's still 1920?"
What If Utilities Just Made Less Money?
California energy companies are asking for permission to take in more revenue. Consumer advocates are having none of it.
heatmap.news
November 21, 2025 at 4:29 PM
What If Utilities Just Made Less Money? A question that's right up there with "why do we regulate utilities like it's still 1920?"
This is 100% the right question to ask about our bizarre monopoly for-profit utility system. Thank you, @emilypont.bsky.social!
I'm dense when it comes to finance, so the fact that I got to a point of understanding how utilities earn profit and why they should or shouldn't earn less means you can too. I stayed up till 3am trying to explain in an accessible way. Hopefully it was worth it!
heatmap.news/energy/calif...
heatmap.news/energy/calif...
What If Utilities Just Made Less Money?
California energy companies are asking for permission to take in more revenue. Consumer advocates are having none of it.
heatmap.news
November 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
This is 100% the right question to ask about our bizarre monopoly for-profit utility system. Thank you, @emilypont.bsky.social!
Reposted by John Farrell
A casualty of behemoth utility parent companies with subsidiaries in multiple states. The "regulator" in a regulated monopoly industry should not have to appeal to a higher power to protect customers in their own state, but that's the system that has been created (and in this case, AEP won):
FERC dismisses cost allocation complaint over ‘self-planned’ AEP transmission projects
Kentucky Power is part of a broader transmission network of American Electric Power utilities and therefore benefits from those utilities’ local transmission projects, FERC said.
www.utilitydive.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:41 PM
A casualty of behemoth utility parent companies with subsidiaries in multiple states. The "regulator" in a regulated monopoly industry should not have to appeal to a higher power to protect customers in their own state, but that's the system that has been created (and in this case, AEP won):
Reposted by John Farrell
Chattanooga’s small municipal utility is doing big things with batteries.
Batteries are helping Chattanooga keep the lights on — and bills low
In Tennessee, municipal utility EPB is scaling up its battery fleet in order to improve grid resilience and also shave costs for its customers.
www.canarymedia.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Chattanooga’s small municipal utility is doing big things with batteries.
Three ways we could act to lower electricity bills now:
November 18, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Three ways we could act to lower electricity bills now:
Hey #EV friends. I had someone recommend this adapter for plugging a 120-volt car charger into a 240v dryer outlet. N14-50P. Am I right that the adapter basically restricts the total amps to 20 but at 240v, and then the car cable steps the voltage down to 120v?
www.amazon.com/WYM-world-N1...
www.amazon.com/WYM-world-N1...
NEMA N14-50P 50Amp to Dryer Plug to 6-20R EV Charger Adapter, 50A 250V 4-Prong Dryer Plug to 20A 250V 6-20R, 14-50P to 6-20R Power Cord for EV Car Charging at Dryer Outlet
NEMA N14-50P 50Amp to Dryer Plug to 6-20R EV Charger Adapter, 50A 250V 4-Prong Dryer Plug to 20A 250V 6-20R, 14-50P to 6-20R Power Cord for EV Car Charging at Dryer Outlet
www.amazon.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Hey #EV friends. I had someone recommend this adapter for plugging a 120-volt car charger into a 240v dryer outlet. N14-50P. Am I right that the adapter basically restricts the total amps to 20 but at 240v, and then the car cable steps the voltage down to 120v?
www.amazon.com/WYM-world-N1...
www.amazon.com/WYM-world-N1...
Good. It's helpful for people to see the consequences of politically motivated policing of street art: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/u...
Lubbock Will Remove Buddy Holly-Themed Crosswalk After Federal Crackdown
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Good. It's helpful for people to see the consequences of politically motivated policing of street art: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/u...
Join together, go solar, fight for solar rights. It's a beautiful mantra for a terrific approach to addressing energy affordability through local #solar. I'm so please to be a board member at Solar United Neighbors. vist.ly/4evdh
Power in Community: The Story of Solar United Neighbors
Solar United Neighbors (SUN) began with a single neighborhood coming together to go solar, and grew into a national movement. This film tells that story. Thr...
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Join together, go solar, fight for solar rights. It's a beautiful mantra for a terrific approach to addressing energy affordability through local #solar. I'm so please to be a board member at Solar United Neighbors. vist.ly/4evdh
TL;DR: cut utility profits, curtail wild utility spending, build more distributed energy.
Electricity is too expensive. @johnffarrell.bsky.social offers three ways lawmakers can fix it.
Electricity is too expensive. Here are three ways to fix that.
Lawmakers nationwide can lower power bills by cutting utility profits, rewarding the companies for boosting efficiency, and unleashing solar and storage.
www.canarymedia.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
TL;DR: cut utility profits, curtail wild utility spending, build more distributed energy.
I'm delighted to have the chance to work with Mary Rafferty and Common Charge on lowering electricity prices and customer bills with smart investments in distributed energy resources.
November 12, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I'm delighted to have the chance to work with Mary Rafferty and Common Charge on lowering electricity prices and customer bills with smart investments in distributed energy resources.
For anyone wondering what's in the GOP plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, please just Google the term vaporware
Tim Burchett on the Republican plan to replace the ACA: "I think we've had enough hearings. I think we need to just start bringing stuff to the table and start voting on it."
November 11, 2025 at 9:56 PM
For anyone wondering what's in the GOP plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, please just Google the term vaporware
Reposted by John Farrell
Here's the clean energy news you need to know today:
⚖️Clean energy groups sue Trump administration over climate project cuts
🏭 Xcel Energy wants keep its Comanche coal plant operating past its planned retirement
☀️ Sunrun reports 106,000 customers enrolled in its virtual power plant programs
⚖️Clean energy groups sue Trump administration over climate project cuts
🏭 Xcel Energy wants keep its Comanche coal plant operating past its planned retirement
☀️ Sunrun reports 106,000 customers enrolled in its virtual power plant programs
November 11, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Here's the clean energy news you need to know today:
⚖️Clean energy groups sue Trump administration over climate project cuts
🏭 Xcel Energy wants keep its Comanche coal plant operating past its planned retirement
☀️ Sunrun reports 106,000 customers enrolled in its virtual power plant programs
⚖️Clean energy groups sue Trump administration over climate project cuts
🏭 Xcel Energy wants keep its Comanche coal plant operating past its planned retirement
☀️ Sunrun reports 106,000 customers enrolled in its virtual power plant programs
Don't be Charlie Brown, senators.
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Don't be Charlie Brown, senators.
Would you like to save $1600 on your annual electric costs and join millions of Americans in collectively saving over $1 trillion? Then let's start bulldozing permitting barriers to rooftop solar: vist.ly/4dpm6 @michael-thomas.bsky.social
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
www.distilled.earth
November 10, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Would you like to save $1600 on your annual electric costs and join millions of Americans in collectively saving over $1 trillion? Then let's start bulldozing permitting barriers to rooftop solar: vist.ly/4dpm6 @michael-thomas.bsky.social
The price of fame...
I would love it if public discourse on data centers could be just a skosh more sophisticated than "data centers good vs. data centers bad."
November 7, 2025 at 4:27 AM
The price of fame...
I've heard of word salad, but thanks to our most smartest president, I was today years old when I found out about number salad: youtu.be/F0cHNY8qW7o?...
Fox and GOP Admit Anti-Trump Backlash Fueled Huge Democratic Election Wins: A Closer Look
YouTube video by Late Night with Seth Meyers
youtu.be
November 7, 2025 at 4:15 AM
I've heard of word salad, but thanks to our most smartest president, I was today years old when I found out about number salad: youtu.be/F0cHNY8qW7o?...
Now on to starving American children by refusing to fund SNAP!
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Now on to starving American children by refusing to fund SNAP!
The death party
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 3:16 AM
The death party
Here's an option
November 6, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Here's an option
We know the economy is bad, but we use dollars in the U.S., not pounds.
Oz: We thought it was 125 million pounds. Our estimate is Americans will lose 135 billion pounds by the midterms
November 6, 2025 at 6:28 PM
We know the economy is bad, but we use dollars in the U.S., not pounds.