Matt Valle

In a major shift for the U.S. energy and power sector, Devon Energy and Coterra Energy have agreed to merge in an all-stock deal valued at $58 billion, creating one of the largest independent shale producers in the country. Under the leadership of Devon CEO Clay Gaspar, the combined entity will produce over 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and aims to deliver about $1 billion in annual savings by 2027. The move reflects broader consolidation trends as producers strive for scale, operational efficiency, and resilience amid volatile crude prices and evolving energy demand. With Houston designated as its new headquarters and future strategy still unfolding, industry watchers are debating how this mega-merger could reshape competitive dynamics in U.S. energy. #DevonEnergy #CoterraEnergy #USEnergy #ShaleIndustry #OilAndGas #EnergyMergers #EnergyLeadership #ClayGaspar #LinkedInNews #EnergyTrends

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Here is a good summary of our new report on how PJM can meet its growing loads and reliability challenges. In addition to keeping existing plants around and adding all gas plants in its interconnection queue, we estimate that PJM will need 16 GW of dispatchable storage capacity (along with solar and wind to charge it) to address resource adequacy challenges and supply-chain constraints for gas turbines over the next years. Many of these resources are already under development and some of them can be added quickly. Unnecessary delays or the exclusion of some of the available resources will drive up costs, threaten reliability, and slow PJM's ability to support data center development. https://lnkd.in/eHE8BrWM Great work by my colleagues Akarsh Sheilendranath, Kate Peters, and Audrey Yan here at The Brattle Group.

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Dusting off old infrastructure isn’t going to do the job. China is pushing ahead on SMR tech. Africa is taking off. If the US wants to keep up, we need to take the limiters off of innovation right now, lest the world will pass us by!

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��The U.S. Air Force wants to hear from companies that could be interested in deploying small nuclear reactors at its bases.” Australia needs small nuclear reactors on its bases in regional communities, industries and mining sites plus desalination of much needed water particularly on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia to enable its huge potential to be developed!

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Framatome's post-irradiation examination (PIE) systems provide accurate, information on fuel performance, either during refueling outages or after unloading. By providing essential data to both nuclear fuel suppliers and operators, our PIE solutions offer unique advantages. Compared to costly hot cell examinations, PIE tests performed at the spent fuel pool offer a more efficient and economical alternative. Thanks to a unique innovative tool capable of performing more than a dozen different measurements, Framatome guarantees smarter, faster, and more cost-effective analysis of fuel performance by PIE measurements. Here is more baout our solution: https://lnkd.in/e3vwgD-f #FuelPerformance #NuclearInspection #Framatome

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Re-thinking costs in the energy transition: time to see the full picture. Honored to have contributed in my capacity at newcleo to the seminal UNECE study “Understanding the Full System Cost of the Electricity System” presented at the UNECE Sustainable Energy Week 2025. The report is an essential reading for anyone working on decarbonization and resilient grids. Main messages: 1. LCOE is too narrow — it hides balancing, backup, grid upgrades, resilience, and externalities. It’s an investors’ tool, not a planning metrics for an energy system. 2. Full system cost is the necessary compass — we propose a SCBOE (System Cost Breakdown of Electricity) framework including curtailment, integration, flexibility, ancillary services, environmental and societal costs. 3. Diversity matters — variable renewables absolutely need firm companions (nuclear, hydro, gas-CCS, storage) to keep systems stable and affordable. There isn’t ANY success in how much of a particular (perceived) “cheaper” technology you achieve to install if your system is then fragile, unstable, dependent, costly, and misses the energy trilemma. 4. Policy must evolve — planning, modeling, and regulation need to embed full-system thinking. And policy makers shall not underestimate the fallacies from not having the full picture. This is not a revolutionary report, it’s common sense: • Engineers must rethink “least-cost” design when system integration is factored in. • Policymakers must reward resilience, not just cheap generation. • Investors must avoid risks from hidden system costs and stranded assets. If decisions rely only on narrow cost metrics, the result will be fragile, inefficient, unfair systems. Real strength comes from the mix: variable + firm sources, flexible grids, and recognition of externalities. Official UNECE release coming soon. In the meantime read our extended executive brief: https://lnkd.in/eJvazNXa #EnergyTransition #SustainableEnergy #Decarbonization #Resilience #NuclearEnergy #Renewables #CleanEnergy #EnergyPolicy #GridIntegration

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U.S. has an estimated ~200 GW of back-up commercial/industrial generation available to be more effectively used to meet the growing power needs. W.S. Fern and subsequent heat, led to 54 distinct days this year when part of this generation was made available for reserves or actual use somewhere in the U.S Through August, well over half the states in continental U.S. were a part of orders from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to allow this generation to be used in emergency situations via Sec 202c orders (see slide). It is amazing that this tool had essentially never been used before Fern and is now becoming common place. This all points to a bigger opportunity for the industry working with the customers to more formally use this existing and new generation as a active part of the portfolio to help meet system needs well beyond those of facility level back-up generation. Florida Municipal Power Agency was fortune to be able to use our member and their customer back-up generation to help met our needs during the brutal cold (for C. FL) that reached wind chills of 5 degrees in Orlando area. This 50 MW of nameplate capacity provided 2% extra power for our needs. We see that with the growth of data centers around the country that all require 100% back-up generation, this generation can be more fully integrated into the utility dispatch to meet needs far beyond the facility itself where it be for local transmission support, potential fuel diversity, extreme temperature/load or large unit trip insurance. With proper pricing and contracts these arrangements can help reduce power costs for all customers/members while still providing the necessary back-up for the data center. The ~200GW and growing back-up generation represents represents a big part of the answer for providing low-cost and reliable power for all. Tapping into a portion of this 15% additional generation to the 1,200 GW of utility capacity in the U.S. is one of the quickest ways to meet the growing needs for power while the new infrastructure and facilities are being built. We learned the lesson in Fern and now are using it quite regularly throughout the country.

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🔧 Curriculum Review in Progress — Industry Feedback Wanted! As I review our Nuclear Power Engineering Technology (NPET) and Radiation Protection (RP) curricula here at Chattanooga State, I’d love to hear from our industry partners and employer connections — especially those working with: 💡 Digital Controls ⚙️ SCADA systems 🔌 PLCs and plant automation Your input helps ensure our graduates are ready to step directly into the technologies shaping today’s plants — from traditional LWRs to the next generation of advanced and small modular reactors. If you’re an employer, operator, or engineer working in these areas, I’d really appreciate your thoughts: 👉 What core skills, platforms, or certifications should students be learning? 👉 How is your facility modernizing or digitizing operations? Together, we can align education with the evolving needs of the nuclear and energy workforce. #NuclearEnergy #CleanEnergy #WorkforceDevelopment #STEMEducation #ChattanoogaState

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The Florida electric utility subsidiary of Duke Energy the nation's first integrated end-to-end cycle system (DeBary Production Storage System) for the production, storage and combustion of green hydrogen: https://loom.ly/XkqNj-U

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