Energy Update | Week 3 – Oct 2025: NY Grid Strains, U.S. Fusion Plan & Amazon’s Nuclear Move

Energy Future: Powering Tomorrow’s Cleaner World with Peter Kelly-Detwiler explores the forces reshaping the global energy landscape — from grid reliability in the U.S. to renewable breakthroughs in Europe and Asia. Each episode dives into the week’s most important developments across clean energy, power markets, EVs, nuclear innovation, hydrogen, and sustainability policy.

As a leading energy expert and industry analyst, Peter brings clarity and context to complex stories about how technology, policy, and investment are driving the energy transition. Whether it’s the rise of small modular reactors, advances in fusion energy, or how utilities are modernizing the grid, you’ll get trusted insights grounded in real-world experience.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
I've got your energy stories for this for the third

(00:01):
week of October 2025.
And in the first one, New Yorkis joining other ISOs in facing
new grid reliability challenges.
The New York ISO's just releaseddraft reliability plan comments
that, quote, New York's electricsystem faces an era of profound
reliability challenges asresource retirements accelerate,
economic development drivesdemand growth, and project

(00:23):
delays undermine confidence infuture supply, unquote.
The plan also noted that onequarter of New York's generating
capacity is fossil fuel-basedand over 50 years old.
At greatest risk is the New YorkCity area, which is awaiting
completion of the 1250-megawattChamplain-Hudson transmission
line to bring power down fromQuebec, as well as the
816-megawatt Empire WindOffshore Project, which was

(00:47):
temporarily derailed by theTrump administration's stop work
order this past summer.
The U.S.
Department of Energy unveiledits fusion science and
technology roadmap meant to helpaccelerate the U.S.
fusion industry towardsmaturity.
The goal is to leverageinvestments from both the public
and private sector and addresscritical science, materials, and

(01:08):
technology gaps such as thebreathing and handling of fusion
fuels.
The roadmap identifies actionsand timelines through the
mid-2030s and specifies goalsfor the near, midterm, and long
term.
The report also notes that todate, the U.S.
private sector has invested over$9 billion.
While the Fed's been busy, theDepartment of Energy loan

(01:29):
program's office closed a$1.6billion loan guarantee with a
subsidiary of American ElectricPower to reconduct and rebuild
around 5,000 miles oftransmission lines across
Indiana, Michigan, Ohio,Oklahoma, and West Virginia.
The goal is to strengthen thegrid and its reliability across
the Midwestern United States.
This is the first loan guaranteeto be closed under the Trump

(01:51):
administration's energydominance planning program
created by the O TAABA.
Perhaps more noteworthy than theloan itself is the fact that it
will support reconductoring,which is the process of
stringing new and more efficientlines across the same tower
infrastructure and existingrights of way.
AEP is a leader in this space,with multiple applications over

(02:12):
the past decade predominantlybringing more capacity into
existing load pockets whererights of ways are limited.
The Electric Car ResearchInstitute notes that in previous
projects, AEP's newconfigurations provide about a
75% increase in line capacity.
While small modular nuclearreactors, also known as SMRs,

(02:32):
are beginning to look a littlemore real, with Amazon
announcing that it's workingwith Energy Northwest and
nuclear startup X Energy todevelop an advanced nuclear
plant in Washington State calledthe Cascade Advanced Energy
Facility.
The plan is to develop theproject in phases with initial
construction of four 80 megawattXE100 plants starting by the end

(02:53):
of the decade, eventuallyexpanding to 12 plants totaling
960 megawatts.
Commissioning of the firstgenerators is anticipated,
quote, in the 2030s, unquote,which leaves a little bit of
wiggle room.
Chinese electric vehiclemanufacturer NIO has set a new
national and thus global recordfor EV battery swaps, with over
145,000 swaps taking place on asingle day, October 1st.

(03:18):
During the past month, NEO hasaveraged 95,450 swaps per day,
with a total cumulative numberstanding at just under 88
million.
NEO currently operates 3,520swap stations in China and 61 in
Europe.
This year alone, it's opened 525new such stations.

(03:39):
And finally, Bloomberg reportsthat solar thermal energy
startup, Rondo Energy, hascommissioned the largest solar
industrial heat battery to date.
Rondo is using a 20-megawattsolar PV array to supply
electricity to a 100megawatt-hour thermal battery
that heats up clay bricks tostore energy.
That heat is then used to boilwater and create steam.

(04:02):
In a somewhat ironic carbontwist of fate, the first
customer is Holmes Western OilCorporation, which is using the
tech's steam for enhanced oilrecovery in Kern County,
California.
But Rondo sees the biggerpicture, which is the industrial
sector's need for clean, highheat in numerous thermal
applications such as cementmanufacturing and food

(04:23):
processing.
And Rondo is joining forces withPortugal's EDP for 2,000
megawatts of heat batteries inEurope.
Well, that's all for this week.