Entrepreneurs and investors are leaning into building startups that utilize AI to solve the challenges holding back the power grid.

Why it matters: The grid will need to undergo a major transformation to handle soaring demand, the energy transition and storage.

State of play: The power grid is a complicated and massive machine that stretches across power generation, transmission, distribution, storage and consumption in homes or by industries like data centers.

• Entrepreneurs are using AI to automate manual processes, ease data utilization, and simulate and predict outcomes throughout the power grid.
• Automating and optimizing grid operations is a growing subsector that includes startups ThinkLabs, Gridsight, Camus Energy, Splight and Plexigrid.
• Automating grid interconnection studies is another subsector where AI has shone. Enverus, an energy-focused SaaS firm, acquired interconnection software startup Pearl Street Technologies earlier this year.
• California utility PG&E is using AI to manage complex jobs like maintaining trees around power lines or finding documents for its nuclear plant Diablo Canyon.

Case(s) in point: When energy entrepreneur Thomas Scaramellino decided last year he wanted to build a company using AI for the power grid, he sketched out a whiteboard with 40 different grid applications before finally settling on GridStrong.

• The startup, which automates grid compliance and operations, announced a $10 million Congruent Ventures-led seed round Wednesday.
• Separately, energy data startup 257 yesterday launched an agentic AI tool that enables energy companies, like solar installers, to more easily access datasets to lower their customer acquisition costs.

What they're saying: There have been a fair number of AI applications for the back end of grid infrastructure, says 257 co-founder and CEO Scott Rosenberg, but using AI to place energy assets and services in the home is more "uncovered."

The bottom line: Investors and startups that are able to identify key AI applications for the grid early on will find eager energy customers looking for help.

For a steady diet of scoops and smart analysis, talk to our sales team about Axios Pro Deals, where this item first appeared.

🆕 Schneider Electric, the power equipment and tech heavyweight, inked a deal to buy 31,000 tons of CO2 removal from Climeworks by 2039.

• Why it matters: It's "Schneider Electric's first purchase of high-durability carbon removal and Climeworks' largest-ever portfolio agreement to date," the announcement states. Terms were not disclosed.

👀 Prominent players in the climate world are joining forces to speed up decarbonization projects via a new platform called Climate Tech Atlas.

• Why it matters: It unites well-resourced and well-established parties like Breakthrough Energy, Stanford, McKinsey and more.
• The big picture: It "seeks to ignite bold, scalable breakthroughs and drive ambitious global investment in existing, emerging, and yet-to-be-discovered climate technologies," the website states.
• Go deeper: Heatmap News broke the story and has much more.

💵 Global banks collectively financed 89 cents of low-carbon energy for every dollar that went to fossil fuels last year, per research firm BloombergNEF.

• Why it matters: That ratio is almost unchanged from 2023, and the stasis reflects "inertia both in the energy industry and with institutional financing strategies," the analysis states.

The House yesterday passed three bills aimed at furthering the GOP's "energy dominance" agenda.

Why it matters: All passed largely along party lines, reflecting the entrenched polarization of energy issues.

Driving the news: One bill, which passed 216-206, would let electricity grid operators submit proposals to prioritize connecting new projects that use "dispatchable" energy sources to the grid, ahead of intermittent sources like wind and solar.

• Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio), the sponsor, said new generation isn't coming online quickly enough to offset resources being taken out of service.
• But Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the Energy & Commerce Committee's ranking Democrat, said it "would make it harder to hook clean power up to the electric grid."

Zoom in: The second, approved 224-203, would overhaul the approval process to build oil and gas pipelines or electric transmission equipment across the U.S.-Canada or U.S.-Mexico borders while reigning in a president's authority to cancel such projects.

• Approvals for cross-border pipelines and transmission lines typically are issued by the State Department, Energy Department, or Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
• The bill would require applicants to obtain permission from the Energy Department for electrical lines and FERC for oil and gas projects.
• Republicans have cited the Keystone XL pipeline project, which then-President Biden canceled in 2021, as a justification. But Democrats said the bill would harm national security by taking State out of the process.

The third bill, approved 217-209, would reestablish the Energy Department's advisory committee on the coal industry. The Biden administration didn't renew the National Coal Council's charter in 2021.

What's next: The bills go to the Senate, where they face steeper odds.

🫴 DOE is seeking big generation, transmission and grid projects that would benefit from its "coordination, technical assistance, and financial support."

• Why it matters: The solicitation under the new "speed to power initiative" says demand growth is happening at a "pace and scale that presents significant challenges to the U.S. electric grid."

🧪 EPA will "prioritize" reviews of new chemicals used in data centers and related component manufacturing, the agency said yesterday.

• Why it matters: Federal agencies are working multiple angles to speed data center buildouts under the wider White House AI strategy.

⏸️ Trump administration lawyers asked a federal court to send a key permit for the SouthCoast Wind project off Massachusetts back to Interior for review, Bloomberg reports.

• The big picture: It's the latest move in Trump officials' wider push to slow or scuttle offshore wind.

When it comes to batteries, South Korea needs the U.S. as badly as we need them.

Why it matters: America lacks the know-how to make advanced batteries to power EVs and data centers, so it leans on South Korean experts.

• For South Korea, the economic opportunity is too lucrative to ignore the U.S. market, despite its anger over the arrest and alleged mistreatment of its citizens at a Georgia factory owned by two of Korea's largest companies.

Catch up quick: On Sept. 4, ICE raided a battery plant under construction by Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solutions.

• Hundreds of workers were arrested, shackled and transported to a detention center, where they were held for a week before returning to Seoul, sparking national outrage there.

Threat level: The rupture of one of America's most important alliances in Asia, and the risk that South Korea would renege on $350 billion in investment pledges, seemed to trigger a White House about-face.

• Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau was dispatched to Seoul to try to mend fences.
• President Trump himself acknowledged in an extraordinary Truth Social post that the U.S. must welcome foreigners to train American workers.

The bottom line: Whether it's German stamping presses or Japanese robots, specialized technicians are often needed to install equipment and train U.S. workers to use it.

• That's true for lithium-ion batteries, too. While the tech originated in the U.S., most battery manufacturing occurs in Asia.
• The U.S. is trying to correct that, but reshoring supply chains will take years.
• For now, U.S. automakers rely on Korean partners like LG, SK On and Samsung, partly to avoid restrictions on sourcing batteries from China.

Full story

"They weren't on different planets, which is where we find ourselves today."

That's a snippet from Podesta's chat on the new episode of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program's podcast.

• He's recalling when both then-senators had cap-and-trade plans, though he notes Obama's climate proposals were more aggressive.
• Full podcast.