As Virginia State Corporation Commission hearings opened Thursday on the proposed $66.8B NextEra-Dominion merger, the utilities accepted 101 of 117 staff and consumer-counsel conditions and added a five-year, up to $5B Virginia Supplier Program, while rejecting six-year and three-year rate freezes. T&D World pairs Virginia's biennial rate-review fight with Pennsylvania's consumer-advocate challenge against PPL over data-center cost shifts. With closing targeted for the second half of 2027, large industrial and data-center loads are pushing state commissions to rewrite how grid upgrades get billed.
On the Automation World podcast, Mitsubishi Electric Automation robotics marketing manager Patrick Varley discusses how smaller manufacturers are adopting pre-programmed robotic machine-tending cells under robots-as-a-service contracts with zero upfront CapEx. The pitch targets shops losing production hours to operator turnover on repetitive loading work. Because the guest markets robotics for Mitsubishi Electric, treat it as a vendor view on financing structures rather than an independent shop benchmark.
Neura Robotics, E.ON and enviaM will train robots at TUM RoboGym in Munich on human demonstrations, robot data and simulation, then test inspection, substation monitoring and site security with Mitnetz Strom under real conditions in 2027. Mitnetz runs about 71,000 km of distribution lines, and the utilities keep their data and trained skills. This is a partnership announcement, so the live grid tests are still a year out.
At BIXPO, KEPCO demonstrated a virtual grid that models plants, substations and lines to preview where new renewables or a data center would overload the system, with apps planned for Jeju and Honam in 2027. It sat beside dynamic line rating pilots and LS Electric's 800 V DC to the rack work with LG Uplus. Validation is still planned for this year, but spare capacity on existing wires is being treated as inventory.
