Transition Finance Weekly - May 22, 2026
Plug-In Solar; Utility Mega-Corporation; FEMA Overhaul
1. New Hampshire Legislature Passes Plug-In Solar Bill
The Granite State became the seventh state to advance a bill to allow the easy installation of small-scale consumer solar systems.
The New Hampshire legislature passed SB 540 last week, which allows utility customers to connect solar devices up to 1.2 kW without seeking approval or permission from utilities. The bill now awaits approval from New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte.
New Hampshire is joining a growing list of states seeking to expand access to solar by allowing residents access cheaper, easily-installed solar: seven states, including New Hampshire, have passed legislation. The trend began in “deep-red” Utah, which passed a bill authorizing plug-in solar in 2025.
In total, more than 30 states have considered similar legislation. This includes California, which is the largest market for residential solar installations, where the State Senate passed the Plug and Play Solar Act by a 35-1 vote.
2. NextEra and Dominion Energy Seek To Create World’s Largest Utility
NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy, two of the country’s largest energy companies, are looking to merge with a $67 billion buyout offer from NextEra.
NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy released a bombshell announcement on Monday, saying the two companies reached an agreement to merge into one mega-utility serving more than 10 million customers across the Southeast. The combined utility would be the largest renewable energy and natural gas operator, and the second-largest operator of nuclear power in the country.
The merger will pair NextEra, the largest developer of renewable energy in the country, with Dominion Energy, which has faced criticism for its failure to bring batteries and renewables online fast enough. Still, NextEra and Dominion both retain a significant fleet of fossil-fired generators, and NextEra continues to build new gas plants to serve its growing base of data center customers.
The merger isn’t without its issues for customers either: both NextEra and Dominion have a long history of spending significantly on political campaigns, lobbying, and overcharging customers. Regulators in other states have rejected previous NextEra mergers for the risks posed to ratepayers.
David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, said: “A megamonopoly of this size, with the kind of money to buy political influence that NextEra will have, will be nearly impossible to regulate.”
3. Data Centers Shoot PJM Power Prices Up 76%
A report from PJM’s Independent Market Monitor found significant price spikes caused by data centers.
In its Quarterly State of the Market report for PJM, the region’s Independent Market Monitor warned that data centers have caused “very large” and irreversible price impacts on customers throughout the thirteen-state region. The monitor warned of further, larger price impacts if the region fails to make significant changes before the June 2026 capacity auction.
Significant price increases within PJM’s territory have caused the grid operator to receive major political blowback from politicians, many of whom have blamed PJM for the lack of capacity meeting data center-driven demand growth. The blowback has even led to a price cap in its capacity auctions, negotiated with PJM’s governors.
The Monitor recommended that data centers and large load customers bring their own generation, or be required to curtail their load. As PJM experiences an energy supply crunch, it’s certainly worth revisiting its long-standing rules that disadvantage clean energy sources in its interconnection queue.
4. FEMA Looks Like Trump’s Next Target
As recommended in Project 2025, a Trump Administration review panel recommended gutting FEMA and federally-provided flood insurance.
The Trump Administration’s FEMA Review Council has issued a set of recommendations to the President, signaling the likely next steps for the administration in its long-running efforts to reshape, and at times gut, the country’s disaster management system. Among the Review Council’s recommendations were to privatize the National Flood Insurance Program, as recommended under Project 2025, and raise the threshold for federal aid and involvement in disaster recovery.
The effort to privatize flood insurance federally appears similar to Florida’s efforts to “depopulate” its own Citizens Property Insurance Corporation by forcing customers of the insurer of last resort onto private market plans with lower levels of coverage and higher premiums.
The proposed plan would significantly reduce long-term federal support for municipalities after disasters, a key element of disaster recovery which research shows is critical for long-term economic stability and recovery.
5. Georgia PSC Race Shapes Up
Democrats finalize their candidates for two races to determine control of the Georgia PSC, while Republican candidates are still unclear.
On Tuesday, voters in Georgia went to the polls to choose candidates in the primaries for the District 3 and District 5 Public Service Commission races. In District 3, Democrat Peter Hubbard won his primary unopposed, while Republican Fitz Johnson, who lost to Hubbard last year, is leading his opponent by 0.38%, though has not yet claimed victory. In District 5, Democrat Sheila Edwards won her primary with 55%, while two Republican candidates will head to a runoff election as neither reached 50%.
Hubbard made headlines in 2025 alongside Alicia Johnson when they defeated two incumbent Republicans on the GaPSC, becoming the first Democrats to win constitutional statewide offices in Georgia in twenty years. Hubbard is required to run for reelection this year, since his race in 2025 was to fill the final year of a six-year term.
With the two races this year, Democrats could secure an outright majority on the Georgia PSC, which Hubbard and Johnson have both said they’d work with to lower rates and get more clean energy on the grid.
Georgia Public Service Commissioner Peter Hubbard: “We’re going to be making the case this year that we need to finish the job, and despite the fact that we’ve got a beachhead with two Democrats on the Public Service Commission, we’re still not going in the right direction.”
SPOTLIGHT: Microsoft Rumored to Scale Back Commitments — Risking Clean Energy Innovation and Impact
Earlier this month, tech giant and data center behemoth Microsoft was rumored to be considering dropping its commitment to match 100% of its hourly electricity use with clean energy by 2030. Microsoft initially announced its 100% hourly match goal in 2021, and has set the so-called “gold standard” of corporate renewable energy procurement.
For the most part, corporate renewable customers seek to match energy on an annual basis, buying renewable energy credits to cover their aggregated annual energy consumption. New research, though, shows that the hour-matched strategy can cut 42 times more carbon emissions compared to the annual-matched basis.
Importantly, hourly-matching strongly incentivizes battery investment, since customers can’t aggregate annual solar production to cover energy consumed at night, which would otherwise be allowed in annual-matching scenarios. Corporate 24/7 commitments have been a crucial ingredient in driving clean electricity investment and innovation.
