DEV Community: Matt Kundo

Google's Texas Solar PPA: What Commercial Buyers Should Do

Matt Kundo — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:06:27 +0000

      Renewables & PPAs for Commercial Buyers
      May 19, 2026
      7 min read

    Google's Texas Solar PPA: What Commercial Buyers Should Do

Google just locked up 500 MW of Texas solar for 15 years. Hyperscaler PPAs at this scale tighten the commercial renewable market and change how smaller buyers should sequence their next contract.

The News

While most businesses focus on their next electricity bill, Google just signed a 15-year deal for 500 MW of Texas solar, and that kind of move has ripple effects for commercial buyers still planning their own energy contracts. The deal, signed with developer Linea Energy, covers output from the Duffy Solar Project in Matagorda County and includes a co-located 235 MWac battery energy storage system already under construction.

For commercial and industrial electricity buyers in ERCOT, this is the latest signal that large-load customers are systematically absorbing Texas renewable capacity in 15 to 25-year blocks. That compresses the window for smaller commercial buyers to lock in competitive renewable rates before supply tightens further. A Texas commercial electricity PPA at this scale reshapes the procurement environment for buyers operating under 5 MW load.

What Happened

Google signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with Linea Energy for 500 MW of solar capacity from the Duffy Solar Project, a 3,526-acre utility-scale facility in Matagorda County, Texas. The project is co-developed with a 235 MWac battery energy storage system (Duffy BESS) that is already under construction. Construction on the solar project starts Q3 2026, and the deal supplies Google's ERCOT-connected data center operations. Details on the announcement were published by W.Media, ESG News, and ESG Today.

The deal lands as ERCOT crosses a structural threshold. According to the EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook, utility-scale solar will exceed coal generation in ERCOT in 2026 for the first time: roughly 78 billion kWh of solar versus 60 billion kWh of coal, with the gap widening to 99 billion versus 66 billion in 2027. The Duffy project adds to that buildout, and the BESS component means more of that solar output can be shifted into evening hours when load remains high.

Impact on Texas Commercial Electricity Buyers

This deal matters for commercial buyers in three concrete ways: midday wholesale pricing, contract supply, and grid reliability economics. Each affects different parts of your procurement and operations strategy.

Midday Price Suppression, Evening Risk

Adding 500 MW of solar plus 235 MWac of co-located storage to ERCOT pushes wholesale prices lower during peak solar hours, which benefits indexed buyers with daytime load. But that same shift concentrates price risk in the evening ramp, when solar fades and storage discharges into still-elevated demand. Buyers on indexed or block-and-index contracts should expect a wider spread between noon and 7 PM pricing as more projects like Duffy come online.

Shrinking Renewable Supply for Smaller Buyers

Hyperscalers locking up renewable capacity in 15-year blocks shrinks the pool available for shorter commercial contracts. Buyers seeking 1 to 5-year renewable addendums or green tariffs may face higher premiums or fewer options within 12 to 24 months. The competitive renewable pricing available today reflects a supply pool that is being steadily absorbed by deals like this one.

Stabilized Frequency, Lower Scarcity Risk

The BESS component does more than shape solar output. Battery storage at this scale stabilizes ERCOT grid frequency and reduces the probability and severity of scarcity pricing events. For commercial buyers exposed to ancillary services pass-throughs or scarcity-driven cost spikes, more storage on the grid is structurally positive for cost predictability.

The Commercial Buyer's PPA Signal Checklist

Use this checklist to decide whether a corporate mega-PPA like Google's should trigger a change in your procurement timeline or contract strategy. Run through these seven action steps before your next renewal conversation.

      1. Review your contract expiration timeline. If your contract expires in 18 months or less, begin RFP conversations now, before more renewable capacity gets absorbed by other hyperscaler deals.

  2. **Ask your REP or broker about renewable addendums at your load size** (under 500 kW, 500 kW to 2 MW, 2 MW or larger). Compare quotes to where pricing sat 6 months ago.

  3. **Evaluate indexed contract exposure.** Ask your provider to model the daytime versus overnight cost split, since solar-heavy patterns are creating a structural split in pricing across the day.

  4. **Check demand response eligibility.** With more BESS entering ERCOT, demand response programs can offset peak-hour costs and add a revenue line, particularly for buyers with flexible load.

  5. **Request a 3 to 5-year forward price forecast** from your broker. Large renewable projects changing the supply curve make forward pricing more meaningful, not less.

  6. **Document your sustainability goals.** Use the Google deal logic to structure a renewable supply conversation with your broker even at smaller scales. Specifics about Scope 2 targets shift the conversation from price to product.

  7. **Watch for green tariff program updates from your TDU.** Check current offerings from [AEP Texas](https://www.aeptexas.com), Oncor, CenterPoint, and TNMP, since utility-led renewable programs in competitive ERCOT territories are less common but evolving.

Questions to Ask Your REP or Broker

      - With hyperscalers locking up Texas renewable capacity in 15-year PPAs, what shorter-term renewable options are still available at my load size?

  - How does 500 MW of new solar plus 235 MW of co-located storage entering ERCOT affect wholesale pricing on my indexed or block-and-index contract over 12 to 24 months?

  - Should I lock in a renewable addendum or green tariff now, or will more capacity come to market soon enough to keep prices competitive?

  - What is my current contract's overnight and evening pricing exposure as solar-heavy daytime generation pushes price volatility into off-peak hours?

  - Does my facility qualify for ERCOT demand response programs that could offset scarcity pricing risk and add a revenue stream?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a PPA, and how does a corporate deal like Google's affect my business electricity costs?

A power purchase agreement (PPA) reserves the output of a generation project for a specific buyer over a defined term. When Google signs a 500 MW PPA, that output is no longer available on the open market for other buyers. Over a 12 to 24-month horizon, as corporate buyers absorb more of the Texas renewable pipeline through deals like this, smaller commercial accounts may see higher premiums for renewable products or fewer fixed-price green options.

I am a small business. Does a 500 MW Google deal really affect my electricity rates?

Not directly in the short term. Your next quote will not visibly move because of one PPA. But the cumulative effect of hyperscaler PPAs across ERCOT does change the renewable supply curve over 12 to 24 months. The result is fewer competitive renewable addendums for small to mid-size buyers and a wider gap between standard and green pricing tiers. The earlier you secure a renewable contract, the more options you have.

What is the Duffy Solar Project?

The Duffy Solar Project is a 500 MW utility-scale solar farm spanning 3,526 acres in Matagorda County, Texas, developed by Linea Energy. It is co-located with the Duffy Battery Energy Storage System, a 235 MWac battery installation that is already under construction. Output from the solar project is contracted to Google under a 15-year PPA to supply ERCOT-connected data center operations. The BESS component smooths solar generation variability and adds dispatchable capacity that can moderate scarcity pricing events on the ERCOT grid. Additional context on ERCOT generation trends is available from ERCOT and reported by SolarQuarter.

Will more renewable PPAs lower my commercial electricity rate?

The wholesale price impact is mixed. More solar capacity tends to suppress midday wholesale prices, which helps indexed and time-of-use buyers with flexible daytime load. But it concentrates price risk in evening ramp hours, when solar output fades. For fixed-rate commercial buyers, the bigger near-term factor is renewable supply absorption: as more capacity is locked into long-term corporate PPAs, the premium on shorter renewable products may rise even if wholesale energy prices stay flat.

Originally published at texascommercialplans.com

TX Commercial Rates Fall 9.3% | May 2026 - Texas Commercial Plans

Matt Kundo — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:05:43 +0000

← Back to Weekly Market Insights

      Weekly Market Report
      May 19, 2026
      7 min read
      · Updated weekly

    Texas Commercial Electricity Rates Drop 9.3% Across All Five TDU Territories

Texas commercial electricity rates dropped 9.3% week-over-week across 304 tracked plans, with all five TDU territories posting double-digit declines and long-term contracts now pricing below short-term offers.

Market Pulse: Rates Drop 9.3% as All Five TDUs Post Double-Digit Declines

Across the 304 commercial electricity plans tracked in our proprietary texascommercialplans.com dataset the week of May 12 through May 18, 2026, the average rate offered to Texas commercial electricity buyers fell 9.3% to roughly 11.43 cents per kWh, down from about 12.60 cents the week prior. The drop was broad-based: every one of the five competitive TDU territories posted a double-digit decline, with AEP North leading at negative 20.0% and TNMP close behind at negative 18.9%. Texas REPs also pushed an unusually large volume of plan changes through the book this week, with 364 plans pulled and 131 launched against the backdrop of ERCOT's shifting generation mix.

For commercial buyers with contracts rolling in the next 30 to 90 days, this week's data is the clearest opening of 2026. The rate curve has also inverted: long-term offers (25 to 36 months) now price lower on average than short-term offers, an unusual signal that REPs are pricing softer forward power for businesses willing to lock the back end of the year. Buyers who have been waiting for a re-pricing window now have one to act on.

What's Moving the Market

EIA forecasts ERCOT solar generation will exceed coal for the first time in 2026. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's latest Short-Term Energy Outlook projects roughly 78 billion kWh from utility-scale solar versus 60 billion kWh from coal inside the ERCOT footprint this year. Solar's share of ERCOT generation rose from 4% to 12% between 2021 and 2025. For commercial buyers, the practical implication is more midday supply and continued downward pressure on daytime wholesale pricing, which is consistent with this week's spot softening in the retail book.
Major parties reach settlement in CenterPoint Houston Electric DCRF case. Major parties in the Public Utility Commission of Texas proceeding over CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric's Distribution Cost Recovery Factor have reached a settlement establishing new Rider DCRF rates. Because the DCRF is billed to REPs and passed through to retail customers, the outcome will flow into commercial pricing in the CenterPoint service territory. Buyers signing CenterPoint contracts in the next few weeks should ask whether the proposed DCRF is reflected in the quoted rate or will be added as a pass-through later.
Texas grid-scale battery storage credited with $750 million in 2024 energy cost reductions. Policy analysis attributes roughly $750 million in market-wide energy cost reductions in 2024 to Texas battery storage additions, with batteries easing peak pricing pressure. For C&I customers facing 4CP exposure or ancillary service charges, the continued buildout of battery capacity is the structural force most likely to dampen the kind of summer price spikes that have driven the last three years of pass-through volatility.
NRG and Renew Home advance 1 GW Texas virtual power plant partnership. NRG and Renew Home announced a partnership targeting 1 gigawatt of virtual power plant capacity in Texas by 2035, anchored on smart thermostat aggregation. NRG has reached 150 MW as of 2025. For commercial sites with controllable load, the expansion of REP-led demand response programs is a credit on the procurement side that should be priced into any new contract, not treated as a separate aftermarket conversation.

Pricing Trend Analysis

The headline 9.3% drop understates how broad the move was. A same-plan comparison across 74 plans that were live in both weeks shows 13 plans cut rates, 11 raised them, and 50 held flat, with the average movement among changed plans landing around negative 6.3%. The signal is not that every REP repriced; it is that the REPs that did reprice cut decisively, and a few outsized cuts on Fixed Price products in Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP North, and TNMP territories pulled the averages down sharply.

The most notable structural shift this week is at the term curve. Short-term offers (1 to 12 months) currently average about 11.75 cents per kWh across 213 plans, mid-term (13 to 24 months) average 11.18 cents across 64 plans, and long-term (25 to 36 months) average 10.16 cents across 20 plans. The long end is now meaningfully cheaper than the short end, an inversion that typically signals REPs see softer forward power than current near-term cover. Commercial buyers comfortable with the credit and counterparty side of a 24 to 36 month commitment have an opening this week that did not exist a month ago.

TDU-level movement was synchronized in a way the dataset rarely shows. AEP North dropped 20.0% week-over-week, TNMP dropped 18.9%, AEP Central dropped 14.1%, CenterPoint dropped 11.0%, and Oncor dropped 10.6%. Some of that movement reflects plan-mix churn (364 plans removed against 131 added is a notably high turnover week), but the directional signal across every TDU at once is consistent enough to call this a genuine market reset rather than composition noise.

Our weekly TDU rate trend chart, available in the full data download, shows the convergence between the historically more expensive territories (AEP North, TNMP) and the larger urban TDUs (Oncor, CenterPoint) is the tightest it has been in four weeks. Buyers running multi-territory portfolios should expect tighter spreads in this week's quoted RFPs.

See the full pricing breakdown and plan-level data in our data download.

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REP Spotlight: Constellation Energy

Constellation Energy is one of the largest competitive generation and retail energy providers in the United States and has been an active commercial provider in the Texas deregulated market for over a decade. This week's spotlight covers Constellation's commercial offering on a publicly observable, directional basis.

Plans tracked this week: 14 commercial plans
Contract term range: 1 to 12 months
TDU coverage: All five Texas competitive TDUs (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Central, AEP North, TNMP)
Rate structures: Fixed and variable
Green energy: 5 of 14 plans include a renewable component
Market positioning: Generally positions above the broader market average for comparable terms and TDUs

Constellation's value to commercial procurement teams is its national balance sheet and operational scale, which translate into deeper credit capacity, more flexible product structures (including indexed and hybrid offerings), and the ability to support load aggregation across multi-site portfolios. Buyers who weight counterparty credit and the option to layer in indexed or block-and-index structures should treat Constellation as a useful comparison anchor, even though the spot fixed-rate quote is unlikely to be the lowest in the room. With every plan capped at 12 months, Constellation's current Texas book also skews short-term, so buyers seeking 24 to 36 month commercial product will need to pair them with longer-dated providers.

Get Constellation Energy's full plan-level data and rate detail in our data download.

Buyer Intelligence

This is the most actionable week for Texas commercial electricity buyers in 2026 so far. The combination of a 9.3% aggregate drop, broad-based TDU softening, and an inverted term curve all point in the same direction: re-evaluate any pending RFP, ask incumbents to refresh quotes, and pull forward renewals sitting in a 60 to 90 day window before the next news cycle resets the floor.

Should Texas commercial buyers lock in rates now or wait?

Based on this week's data showing a 9.3% week-over-week drop across 304 tracked plans and double-digit declines in every TDU territory, commercial buyers with contracts expiring in the next 30 to 90 days should accelerate their procurement timeline rather than wait for further softening. The term curve has inverted, with long-term offers (25 to 36 months) now averaging about 10.16 cents per kWh versus 11.75 cents for short-term (1 to 12 months), which means buyers comfortable with longer commitments can lock the lowest rates in the market right now. The opportunistic move is to take refreshed quotes from at least three providers this week and compare 12, 24, and 36 month options side by side before the next macro event resets the curve.

Which Texas TDU territory has the most rate movement right now?

AEP North led the week with a 20.0% week-over-week drop in the average commercial rate, followed by TNMP at 18.9%, AEP Central at 14.1%, CenterPoint at 11.0%, and Oncor at 10.6%. All five competitive TDU territories posted double-digit declines, which is unusual: most weekly cycles show divergence between the urban TDUs (Oncor, CenterPoint) and the smaller-population territories (AEP, TNMP). Some of the AEP North and TNMP movement reflects plan-mix churn (364 plans removed and 131 added across the dataset this week), so buyers should evaluate offers against the trailing four-week trend before signing.

Data Snapshot

Tracked REPs this week: 30
Active commercial plans: 304
Plans added this week: 131
Plans removed this week: 364
Plans with rate changes: 24
Average contract term: 13.0 months
Week-over-week average rate change: -9.3%
TDUs with rates lower week-over-week: 5 of 5 (AEP North, TNMP, AEP Central, CenterPoint, Oncor)

Full rate data, plan comparisons, and historical trends available in our data download. Prior weekly reports: May 5, 2026, April 28, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Texas commercial electricity rates change the week of May 12, 2026?

The average commercial electricity rate across 304 tracked plans in Texas fell 9.3% week-over-week, dropping from approximately 12.60 cents per kWh to 11.43 cents per kWh. All five competitive TDU territories posted double-digit declines, with AEP North leading at negative 20.0% and TNMP at negative 18.9%. A same-plan comparison across 74 plans live in both weeks shows the REPs that repriced cut decisively, with an average movement of negative 6.3% on changed plans.

Why are long-term Texas commercial electricity contracts cheaper than short-term right now?

Long-term offers (25 to 36 months) currently average about 10.16 cents per kWh across 20 tracked plans, while short-term offers (1 to 12 months) average 11.75 cents across 213 plans. This inversion reflects REPs pricing softer forward wholesale power, partly tied to the projected generation mix shift in ERCOT (where the EIA forecasts solar generation to exceed coal for the first time in 2026). Buyers comfortable with longer commitments can lock the lowest rates in the active commercial book this week.

How did the EIA solar versus coal ERCOT forecast affect Texas commercial rates this week?

The EIA's latest Short-Term Energy Outlook projects ERCOT solar generation of approximately 78 billion kWh in 2026 versus 60 billion kWh for coal, the first time solar has been forecast to outpace coal inside the Texas grid. The retail market response was a synchronized rate softening across all five TDU territories this week, consistent with REPs pricing in cheaper midday wholesale supply. The directional impact is most visible at the long end of the term curve, where 25 to 36 month offers fell below short-term offers in the active book.

Originally published at texascommercialplans.com

LinkedIn Device Targeting 2026: What B2B Advertisers Must Do Now | MKDM

Matt Kundo — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:04:54 +0000

Home / Blog / LinkedIn Device Targeting 2026 Recent News & Marketing News & Paid Media & LinkedIn Ads May 19, 2026 7 min read LinkedIn Device Targeting 2026: What B2B Advertisers Must Do Now

LinkedIn quietly rolled out Device Type and Device OS targeting in Campaign Manager. Here is the 3-Step Audit B2B advertisers should run this week to stop overpaying for mobile clicks that do not convert.

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LinkedIn just closed a gap that cost B2B advertisers real money for years. As of mid-May 2026, Campaign Manager now exposes Device Type and Device OS controls under Audience Attributes, giving advertisers the ability to restrict delivery to Mobile, Desktop, or Tablet, and to filter by operating system. PPC Land first surfaced the rollout on May 19, 2026, and the feature is shipping globally over the next two weeks. This is a structural change. If you run B2B LinkedIn ads and you know desktop converts at roughly twice the rate of mobile, you finally have a lever to act on it.

What Happened

LinkedIn added two new controls inside Campaign Manager under Audience Attributes: Device Type (Mobile, Desktop, Tablet) and Device OS (with the ability to suppress specific operating systems such as iOS on conversion campaigns). The rollout was not announced via press release. It was spotted by practitioners and PPC Land confirmed the change is rolling out gradually, reaching most accounts within a couple of weeks.

Until this update, LinkedIn was one of the last major B2B ad platforms without device-level separation. Advertisers were forced to accept blended bids across devices or build clunky audience workarounds. The new controls let you restrict delivery to a single device category without relying on creative format hacks. For B2B accounts where 60 to 70 percent of meaningful form fills happen on desktop, the math has been begging for this fix for years.

Why This Matters for Your Marketing

B2B Conversion Rates Are Not Equal Across Devices

The data is unambiguous. Martal's 2026 Conversion Rate Statistics show desktop visitors convert at 5.06 percent versus 2.49 percent on mobile, roughly a 2x gap. A second benchmark set in the same analysis shows mobile landing pages at 4.1 percent versus desktop at 6.3 percent, a 35 percent gap favoring desktop. Digital Applied's 2026 Display Benchmarks show mobile conversion rates lagging desktop by 25 to 35 percent across B2B prospecting. For LinkedIn, where lead gen forms and demo requests dominate, the gap usually skews even further toward desktop.

You Have Been Overpaying for Mobile Traffic

Here is the practical impact. Take a $5,000 per month LinkedIn budget at a 50/50 device split. If mobile converts at 0.4 percent on form fills and desktop converts at 1.2 percent, the desktop half of your spend delivers three times the conversions for the same dollars. Until last week, the only way to act on this was to lower bids broadly, accept the inefficiency, or build inverted audience workarounds. With Device Type targeting live, you can either suppress mobile entirely on conversion campaigns or apply lower bids to mobile placements without affecting desktop reach.

What This Means for Budget Efficiency

Improvado's 2026 LinkedIn Advertising Guide notes that LinkedIn audiences are already smaller and more expensive than other B2B platforms, which makes any added inefficiency (like overpaying for mobile clicks that do not convert) disproportionately painful. Evokad's 2026 Social Media Advertising Guide recommends audiences above 50,000 members to avoid artificial scarcity, which compounds the problem: when your audience is already expensive, mobile waste hurts more.

The 3-Step LinkedIn Device Targeting Audit

This is the audit I run to figure out where a B2B LinkedIn account stands. Three steps, in order, before you adjust a single bid.

Step 1, Pull a 90-day device performance split. Inside Campaign Manager, go to Demographics, then segment by Device. Export 90 days of data for every active campaign. You need impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions, and conversion rate by device, broken out at the campaign level.
Step 2, Calculate the desktop versus mobile CPA differential. For each campaign, compute (spend by device) divided by (conversions by device). Flag any campaign where mobile CPA is 1.5x or more above desktop CPA. These are the campaigns where the new Device Type targeting will deliver the fastest efficiency win.
Step 3, Set device bid adjustments and ship one device-optimized creative per ad set. For flagged campaigns, either suppress mobile (if it never converts) or apply a negative bid weight to mobile delivery. Then build one mobile-specific creative variant per ad set with a tap-friendly CTA and a shorter form, so mobile stays useful for engagement campaigns even when it is suppressed on conversion ones.

Your Action Plan This Week

Seven tactical steps in priority order. Most B2B accounts can complete the whole list in a single afternoon once the feature appears in their account.

Check if Device targeting is live. Open Campaign Manager, go to Edit Campaign, then Audience Attributes. Look for a Devices panel with Mobile, Desktop, Tablet and Device OS options. If it is not there yet, give it 14 days then re-check.
Run the 3-Step Audit. Pull 90-day device data, calculate the CPA split, and flag campaigns with greater than 1.5x mobile-to-desktop CPA.
Apply Device Type restrictions to conversion campaigns first. Demo requests, trial signups, and high-friction lead forms see the biggest desktop skew. Suppress mobile on these first.
Leave mobile on for awareness and engagement campaigns. Sponsored Content and Message Ads designed for engagement still benefit from mobile reach. Do not blanket-exclude mobile across the account.
Build a mobile-optimized creative variant. If you do keep mobile on for some campaigns, ship one tap-friendly CTA variant and a shorter form (3 fields maximum) per ad set.
Segment major budget lines by device. For any campaign spending over $1,000 per month, consider splitting into two campaigns: one desktop-only with full bids, one mobile-only with conservative bids. This gives you cleaner data going forward.
Monitor for 14 days, then 30 days. LinkedIn's conversion window stretches up to 30 days. Resist the urge to declare results after 7 days. The right cadence is a directional check at 14 days and a structural decision at 30 days.

How MKDM Can Help

I run the 3-Step LinkedIn Device Targeting Audit for B2B clients as part of my paid media engagement. It pairs with a broader LinkedIn account structure review (audience size, bid strategy, creative coverage, lead gen form hygiene) and lands in a one-page action plan with bid-by-bid recommendations. If your LinkedIn account spends more than $3,000 a month and you have not segmented by device, you almost certainly have desktop conversions subsidizing mobile waste. That lives under my paid media services. Reach out and I will pull a no-cost device split on your account and tell you what the audit would surface.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is LinkedIn device targeting and where do I find it?

LinkedIn device targeting is a new control inside Campaign Manager that lets B2B advertisers restrict ad delivery to Mobile, Desktop, or Tablet, and filter by Device OS (including iOS suppression). You find it under Audience Attributes within campaign setup. The feature is rolling out gradually through May and June 2026, so if it is not in your account yet, check back within two weeks before assuming you are missing it.

Should I exclude mobile entirely on LinkedIn?

Not by default. Mobile drives top-of-funnel reach and engagement on LinkedIn, even if it converts at roughly half the desktop rate for form fills and demo requests. Exclude mobile only on bottom-funnel conversion campaigns (demo, trial, high-friction forms) where the device CPA gap is greater than 1.5x. Keep mobile in awareness and engagement campaigns where the click is the goal, not the form.

How does LinkedIn device targeting compare to Google Ads device bidding?

Google Ads has offered device bid adjustments since 2016, letting advertisers raise or lower bids by device type and even exclude devices. LinkedIn's new control is similar but later to market by nearly a decade. The structural takeaway: every B2B platform with meaningful budget now supports device-level control, so device-blind LinkedIn campaigns are no longer defensible. If you have a Google Ads playbook for device bidding, port it to LinkedIn this month.

What if the device targeting feature is not in my account yet?

The rollout is gradual and reaches accounts over a two-week window. If you do not see the Devices panel under Audience Attributes, the workflow is to (1) pull baseline device performance data from the Demographics report now so you have a before-and-after benchmark, (2) draft the bid and creative plan in advance, and (3) check Campaign Manager weekly. For broader context on what good LinkedIn paid performance looks like, see my LinkedIn marketing benchmarks breakdown. Once the panel appears in your account, you can deploy the full audit in a single afternoon. Trusted by marketing teams at

Originally published at mattkundodigitalmarketing.com

NRG's CPower Expansion: What Texas C&I Buyers Should Do Now

Matt Kundo — Tue, 19 May 2026 05:11:48 +0000

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    Demand Response & Energy Management

  NRG's CPower Expansion: What Texas C&I Buyers Should Do Now

    May 17, 2026
    |
    7 min read

NRG Energy, the parent of Reliant and the largest retail electricity provider in Texas, has made demand response a centerpiece of its growth plan under new CEO Robert Gaudette. The company's acquisition of CPower from LS Power gives Texas C&I customers a direct route to enroll in demand response through their existing Reliant relationship. NRG reached 200 MW of virtual power plant capacity in 2025 against an initial 20 MW target, a 10x overshoot that signals how aggressively the company plans to monetize flexible load. If you buy commercial electricity in Texas, demand response is no longer a side conversation. It is now a negotiable line item that belongs in your next REP contract review, and Texas commercial demand response programs deserve a seat at your procurement table.

What Happened

NRG closed its roughly $10 billion acquisition of LS Power assets in early 2026, bringing both CPower, a commercial and industrial demand response operator, and a 13 GW conventional generation fleet into the NRG portfolio. Robert Gaudette took over as CEO at the end of April 2026 with a stated mandate to integrate CPower (C&I), Reliant (Texas retail), and Vivint (residential VPP) into a single energy stack. According to a May 2026 Fortune interview, Gaudette is positioning the combined business around what NRG calls "bring your own power," a strategy aimed at AI hyperscale buyers and commercial customers who can put flexible load or behind-the-meter generation to work in the wholesale market.

NRG also has 1 GW of battery storage and 1.5 GW of new gas capacity under construction in Texas. On the Q1 2026 earnings call, management cited an ERCOT all-time peak of 85+ GW and a long-term ERCOT load forecast of 367 GW of large-load requests by 2033. The strategic implication is straightforward: NRG expects volatility and reserve margin tightening, and it is building the products, including CPower demand response, to monetize both.

Impact on Commercial Electricity Buyers

Three things change for Texas C&I buyers because of this expansion. First, demand response enrollment has gotten simpler for Reliant customers. Second, the value of flexible load is rising as ERCOT scarcity events get more expensive. Third, the contract conversation now needs to cover curtailment rights and 4CP interaction, not just $/kWh.

Pricing impact. Demand response participants are paid for reducing load during qualifying events, which directly offsets supply costs. NRG management has previously discussed Texas margin targets in the range of $25 per MWh against retail prices above $80 per MWh, per Utility Dive's coverage of NRG's Texas Energy Fund gas plant. When wholesale prices spike, those margins compress for the REP and the value of curtailment rises for the customer. A facility that can shed 500 kW for 60 to 90 minutes during a scarcity event can earn meaningful event payments and avoid coincident peak charges in the same window.

Contract implications. Demand response typically requires a curtailment agreement that sits next to your REP supply contract. If your supply contract has tight load-shape requirements or penalties for under-consumption, those clauses can conflict with curtailment commitments. Read the early termination, baseline, and curtailment language carefully before enrolling.

Operational reality. Demand response works best where you have identifiable flexible loads: HVAC pre-cooling, lighting, non-critical processes, EV charging, and cold storage. ERCOT's load programs documentation covers Emergency Response Service and other ancillary markets that aggregators like CPower use to monetize this flexibility. Battery storage compresses that operational lift significantly, because the storage system absorbs the curtailment rather than the production process.

The Texas Commercial Buyer's Demand Response Readiness Checklist

Run this five-question check before you take any meeting with CPower, Reliant, or another aggregator. If you cannot answer all five with specifics, you are not ready to negotiate terms.

Question 1. What flexible loads do you actually have?

List every load segment that can be reduced for 30 to 120 minutes without operational damage. HVAC, lighting, non-critical pumps, cold storage holding capacity, EV charging, process scheduling. Estimate kW per segment. If the total is under 100 kW, demand response economics are usually marginal.

Question 2. Do your contract terms allow demand response participation?

Check your supply contract for load shape, take-or-pay, and third-party demand response clauses. Some REP contracts penalize under-consumption or restrict outside aggregator participation. Resolve this before signing any curtailment agreement.

Question 3. What is your curtailment tolerance, in events per year and minutes per event?

Demand response programs vary on dispatch frequency. ERS programs may dispatch only a handful of times per year. Other programs can dispatch dozens of times during summer. Define your tolerance in advance and match it to a program structure.

Question 4. Is your metering ready?

Interval metering and telemetry are required for most C&I demand response programs. If your facility runs on monthly billing without interval data, plan for a metering upgrade and a baseline establishment period before payments begin.

Question 5. Does your broker or REP relationship cover demand response?

Some brokers run procurement only and never touch demand response. Others run both. Ask whether your broker has placed CPower or equivalent programs for similar facilities, and what their commission structure is on the demand response side.

What You Should Do

      1. Audit flexible loads first. HVAC, lighting, refrigeration, non-critical processes, and EV chargers are your demand response assets. Quantify kW per segment before any vendor conversation.

  2. **Ask your REP about CPower specifically.** If you are a Reliant customer, request a written eligibility check against CPower and a quote on the available demand response programs.

  3. **Get the payment rate in writing.** Demand response economics turn on $/kW-month capacity payments and $/MWh event payments. Both should be in your enrollment agreement before signing.

  4. **Review your supply contract for curtailment language.** Look for take-or-pay, load shape, and third-party DR clauses. Resolve conflicts before enrolling.

  5. **Model demand response against 4CP exposure.** For facilities above 500 kW, ask your broker to project bill credits against your current 4CP charges so you can compare apples to apples.

  6. **Include demand response revenue in any battery ROI model.** Storage on its own may not pencil. Storage plus demand response plus 4CP avoidance often does.

  7. **Reschedule high-energy processes.** Even without enrollment, moving process loads off summer afternoon peaks reduces 4CP exposure and supply costs.

Questions to Ask Your REP or Broker

      1. Does your REP offer CPower or an equivalent demand response program, and what is the qualifying load threshold?

  2. **What is the per-kW capacity payment and per-kWh event payment for demand response at our facility size?**

  3. **Will participating in demand response affect our 4CP measurement, transmission capacity charges, or ancillary service pass-through?**

  4. **What is the minimum curtailment notice period, and how many events per year are typical for our load segment?**

  5. **Does our current supply contract allow third-party demand response participation without penalty, and what metering upgrades would enrollment require?**

FAQs

What is CPower demand response and how does it work for Texas businesses?

CPower is a commercial and industrial demand response aggregator now owned by NRG Energy. CPower enrolls flexible business load into ERCOT and utility programs, dispatches reductions during qualifying events, and shares the resulting payments with the customer. For Texas businesses, that typically means a capacity payment for being available plus an event payment when you actually curtail.

How do virtual power plants work for commercial electricity buyers?

A virtual power plant aggregates distributed resources such as battery storage, flexible loads, and behind-the-meter generation, then dispatches them as a single block of capacity into the wholesale market. For a commercial buyer, joining a VPP usually means letting an operator control specified loads or storage during defined events. Payments flow back through the VPP operator after settlement.

Can any Texas commercial electricity buyer participate in demand response?

No. Most ERCOT and utility demand response programs require a minimum load threshold (often 100 kW or higher), interval metering, and an executed enrollment agreement. Smaller buyers can sometimes participate through aggregation, but the economics weaken below roughly 100 kW of curtailable load.

What is "bring your own power" and is it relevant to my business?

"Bring your own power" is NRG's strategic framing for customers who pair their load with flexibility or generation, often to support large new sites or AI workloads. For most existing commercial buyers, the practical version is simpler: enroll your flexible load in demand response and treat it as part of your supply strategy rather than an afterthought.

How does demand response affect my 4CP charges or capacity tags?

Demand response and 4CP avoidance are related but separate. Curtailing during the four highest ERCOT system peaks each summer reduces your transmission cost allocation for the following year. Curtailing during demand response events earns event payments. Some demand response programs intentionally dispatch on likely 4CP days, but you should confirm program design before assuming overlap. For the latest framework, see NRG's investor disclosures and your REP's most recent rate sheet.

If you want to compare commercial plans by contract type and term length, start with our Texas commercial electricity rates overview.

Originally published at texascommercialplans.com

Google Signals Change June 2026: What to Do Now

Matt Kundo — Tue, 19 May 2026 05:10:22 +0000

On April 15, 2026, Google sent an email to all customers with linked GA4 and Google Ads accounts announcing a change taking effect June 15, 2026. The notice was short, framed as a simplification, and easy to miss. What it actually describes is the removal of Google Signals as a privacy control over advertising data, a change that Krista Seiden, a former Google Analytics product manager (2016-2019) and founder of KS Digital, is calling one of the most significant privacy control removals advertisers have seen in years. Her April 21 LinkedIn post on the topic generated 650+ reactions and 69 comments within hours, a level of engagement that reflects how seriously practitioners are taking this. If your business runs Google Ads campaigns linked to GA4, you have until June 15 to audit your Consent Mode setup. Here is what changed, why it matters, and exactly what to do.

What Happened: The Google Signals Change June 2026

Google Signals is a GA4 feature that associates behavioral data with signed-in Google users, enabling cross-device reporting and audience building. Currently, Signals governs both GA4 internal reporting and advertising data collection for linked Google Ads accounts. That dual role ends on June 15, 2026.

After that date, Google Signals will be restricted to behavioral reporting inside GA4 only. The authority over advertising data, including all advertising identifiers, cookies, and behavioral attribution flowing to Google Ads, transfers exclusively to the ad_storage consent signal in Consent Mode. Google framed this as "simplifying controls and streamlining the consent process," but as reported by PPC.land citing Seiden's analysis, the practical effect is that a privacy lever marketers could use to restrict ad data collection is being removed.

Timeline:

April 15, 2026: Google emails affected accounts. The 90-day disclosure update window begins.
April 21, 2026: Krista Seiden posts her critique on LinkedIn. 650+ reactions, 69 comments within hours.
June 15, 2026: Change takes effect. Signals loses authority over ad data. ad_storage becomes the only control.

Why the Google Signals Change Matters for Your Marketing

What Google Signals Actually Does Now

Right now, if you have Signals enabled, it serves two functions: it powers cross-device reporting in GA4 (linking behavior across devices when users are signed into Google), and it governs whether advertising identifiers flow to linked Google Ads accounts. If you have Signals disabled, it acts as a brake on ad data collection, even if your Consent Mode is loosely configured. That brake is being removed.

What Changes on June 15

After June 15, the only thing that determines whether Google Ads receives advertising data from your GA4 property is the ad_storage consent signal. If ad_storage is granted, Google Ads gets full access to advertising cookies, identifiers, and behavioral signals. If ad_storage is denied, Google Ads is restricted to non-persistent methods only (such as URL parameters like gclid), which significantly limits conversion tracking and remarketing pool size. Seiden's concern, shared by GDPR officers and privacy engineers in the LinkedIn thread, is that this consolidation increases legal exposure for EU/EEA data controllers who may not realize their ad_storage configuration is granting more data access than they intended.

The Consent Mode Gap Most Businesses Do Not Know They Have

This is where most coverage of this story stops. What gets less attention is that the majority of businesses that have "implemented" Consent Mode have done so incorrectly, or incompletely, and the June 15 change removes the Signals fallback that was quietly protecting some of them.

Consent Mode v2 requires four consent signals: analytics_storage, ad_storage, ad_user_data, and ad_personalization. Each must default to denied before any user interaction, then update to granted after the user accepts via a Consent Management Platform (CMP). Proper implementation means the consent_default command fires before any Google tags load, not after. Most implementations I audit get this backwards. The CMP fires, the tags fire first, and then the consent update catches up too late to matter for that session.

Current data puts GA4 Consent Mode v2 adoption at around 31%. That means roughly 69% of GA4-linked Google Ads accounts are running without proper Consent Mode. Some of those accounts had Signals enabled as a partial safeguard. After June 15, that safeguard is gone. If ad_storage is misconfigured or absent, those accounts will either lose attribution data (if ad_storage defaults to denied without a proper grant pathway) or unknowingly over-collect data (if ad_storage is defaulting to granted with no CMP in place). Neither outcome is acceptable from a compliance or measurement standpoint.

The 7-Step Signals Safety Checklist Before June 15, 2026

No competing coverage on this story includes a concrete implementation checklist. Here is the exact audit I run for clients before any Consent Mode change of this scope:

Confirm GA4-Ads linkage. In GA4, go to Admin > Product Links > Google Ads Links. If your property is linked, this change applies to you. Document the linked account IDs.
Locate your Consent Mode initialization tag. In Google Tag Manager, search for your Consent initialization tag (usually labeled "Consent Defaults" or "Consent Mode v2"). Verify it is triggering on "All Pages" and positioned before any Google tags via tag sequencing or trigger priority.
Verify ad_storage defaults to denied. Open the tag configuration and confirm ad_storage: 'denied' is set in the default state. If you see ad_storage: 'granted' as the default, that is a GDPR exposure and a misconfiguration that predates this change but becomes more critical after it.
Audit your CMP configuration. If you use OneTrust, Cookiebot, Usercentrics, or a similar platform, log in and verify that the "Advertising" or "Marketing" consent category maps to ad_storage and ad_personalization. Missing this mapping means user consent never reaches Google's consent signals.
Update your privacy disclosure. Google requires disclosure updates within 90 days of April 15 (deadline: June 15). Your privacy policy must describe the ad_storage consent mechanism and what data it controls. Have your legal team review the language, especially for EU/EEA audiences.
Test with Google Tag Assistant. Navigate to your site with Tag Assistant active. Verify that consent_default fires first, with ad_storage: denied, and that consent_update fires after user acceptance with ad_storage: granted. Any deviation from that sequence is a bug.
Document your configuration for compliance records. Export a screenshot of your Consent Mode tag settings, your CMP mapping, and your privacy disclosure version. Date-stamp it. GDPR enforcement requires you to demonstrate what consent configuration was in place and when.

How MKDM Can Help

Consent Mode audits are part of every Google Ads engagement I run. The June 15 deadline is tight for any business that has not yet confirmed its ad_storage configuration, and the consequences of getting it wrong go beyond lost data. For EU advertisers, a misconfigured ad_storage tag that defaults to granted without proper CMP consent is a live GDPR liability.

If you want a second set of eyes on your Consent Mode setup before June 15, or if you are not sure whether your property is even affected by this change, contact MKDM for a quick audit. I can review your GTM container, confirm your CMP mapping, and flag any configuration gaps before they become a compliance problem.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Signals and why is it changing in June 2026?

Google Signals is a GA4 feature that links behavioral data to signed-in Google users for cross-device reporting and audience building. Starting June 15, 2026, Google is removing Signals as a control over Google Ads data collection. After that date, Signals will only govern behavioral reporting inside GA4, while ad_storage in Consent Mode becomes the sole authority over all advertising data flowing between GA4 and Google Ads. The change was announced via email on April 15, 2026, and drew sharp criticism from former Google Analytics PM Krista Seiden, who argued it benefits Google by consolidating control in a layer (Consent Mode) that many organizations have not implemented correctly.

Does the Google Signals change affect my business if I am not in the EU?

Yes. The change applies to all GA4 properties linked to Google Ads accounts globally, not just EU businesses. Any advertiser using cross-device reporting, remarketing audiences, or conversion tracking that relies on Google Signals data will be affected. GDPR risk is elevated for EU advertisers, but attribution and measurement impacts apply to accounts worldwide. If your GA4 property is linked to a Google Ads account, you need to complete the 7-step checklist above before June 15.

What is Consent Mode ad_storage and how do I check if it is set up correctly?

ad_storage is a Consent Mode parameter that controls whether Google Ads cookies and advertising identifiers can fire on your site. To check your setup: open Google Tag Manager, find your Consent Mode initialization tag, and verify that ad_storage defaults to denied before user interaction, then updates to granted after the user accepts via your CMP. Use Google Tag Assistant to test live consent signal behavior on your domain and confirm the sequence fires in the correct order.

What happens if I do not update my privacy disclosure before June 15, 2026?

Google requires all affected accounts to update their privacy disclosures within 90 days of the April 15 notification, making June 15 the effective deadline. Missing the disclosure update creates legal exposure under GDPR for EU advertisers and risks a policy violation from Google. The bigger operational risk: if your Consent Mode is misconfigured, you will lose attribution data and remarketing audiences with no Signals fallback to compensate, and you may not notice until campaign performance data starts diverging from expectations weeks later.

Originally published at mattkundodigitalmarketing.com

Google Ads Advisor: Stop Policy Violations Before Launch

Matt Kundo — Tue, 19 May 2026 05:09:43 +0000

Google Ads policy violations are one of the most expensive surprises in paid search. A campaign goes live, an ad gets disapproved, and you're left scrambling while your budget sits idle and competitors pick up your traffic. On average, a disapproved ad takes 3.2 days to fix and resubmit, and across the industry, ad disapprovals contribute to an estimated $2.3 billion in lost advertiser revenue annually. Google just moved the review window from after-launch to before-launch.

On April 21, 2026, Google announced three new agentic safety features inside Google Ads Advisor: real-time policy review during campaign creation, 24/7 passkey security monitoring, and instant restricted-category certification powered by Gemini. For anyone running Google Ads, this is a meaningful shift in how compliance works, not a minor UI update.

What Google Announced (April 21, 2026)

Google Ads Advisor's three new features represent a shift from reactive violation management to proactive compliance. Here is what each one does, announced by Priya Baliga, Senior Engineering Director for Ad Platforms.

Real-Time Policy Review During Campaign Creation

This is the headline feature. Ads Advisor now scans your campaign during the creation and editing process, not after you click "Publish." When it detects a potential policy violation, it flags the issue inline with specific guidance on how to fix it before the ad is submitted.

The initial focus categories include circumventing systems (the most severe, no grace period), unacceptable business practices, and counterfeit goods. More categories will follow as the feature rolls out. The end-to-end troubleshooting flow scans, guides you through fixes, and then confirms the resolution.

24/7 Passkey Security Monitoring

A new security dashboard inside Ads Advisor monitors account activity around the clock and flags suspicious behavior. Passkey authentication replaces traditional passwords for account login, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. For agencies managing multiple client accounts, this matters: a compromised account can trigger policy violations that affect the entire account history.

Instant Restricted-Category Certification via Gemini

This is the feature with the most direct impact for businesses in regulated industries. Google's Gemini AI can now process restricted-category certification applications in seconds instead of weeks. According to Google's announcement, the certification timeline has been compressed from "weeks to seconds" for supported categories.

Rollout is in the coming months to English-language accounts globally.

Why Google Ads Policy Violations Are Now Preventable

Real-Time Review: What Changes for Campaign Managers

The practical change is this: your launch checklist now has a mandatory Ads Advisor step. Previously, you would submit a campaign and wait for Google's review to surface any violations, sometimes hours or days later. Now, policy review happens during creation. For high-volume agencies launching multiple campaigns per week, this alone eliminates a significant source of reactive work.

The feature focuses first on the most severe violation categories, the ones that result in immediate pauses and sometimes account suspensions with no warning. Catching those before launch is not a convenience, it is a safeguard against account health damage.

Restricted Categories: Healthcare, Legal, and Financial Services Get Faster Approvals

This is the angle most coverage is skipping, and it deserves more than a bullet point.

Healthcare advertisers, legal services, financial products, and gambling operators face the highest policy friction in Google Ads. These industries routinely deal with restricted category designations that require formal certification before certain ad types, audiences, or claims are permitted. Until now, that certification process meant submitting documentation and waiting, sometimes for weeks, before a campaign could legally run.

Gemini-powered instant certification changes the timeline entirely for supported restricted categories. Instead of sitting on a campaign because you are waiting on a certification decision, an advertiser in a restricted vertical may be able to receive approval in the same session they apply.

For agencies with healthcare or financial services clients, the action item is immediate: check which restricted categories your clients fall under, verify whether those categories are included in the initial rollout, and apply for certification now before your competitors do. Being certified when a competitor is still waiting is a real competitive advantage in time-sensitive campaigns.

Passkey Security: What It Means for Agency Account Access

From a security standpoint, passkey adoption removes the biggest single risk for account compromise: password reuse and phishing. Google blocked or removed 8.3 billion ads in 2025, with 99% stopped before they displayed, largely due to Gemini-powered enforcement. The 2025 Ads Safety Report also shows a drop in account suspensions from 39.2 million in 2024 to 24.9 million in 2025, reflecting the effectiveness of pre-display enforcement. The passkey feature extends that protection to account access itself.

The Pre-Launch Policy Compliance Playbook

With Google Ads Advisor now offering real-time policy review, the campaign launch process should be updated. Here is a seven-step playbook to integrate these features into your standard launch procedure.

Access Ads Advisor: Navigate to Tools > Advisor inside your Google Ads account. Confirm the policy review feature is active (rolling out to English-language accounts globally in the coming months).
Run a policy review simulation before your next launch: Before submitting any new campaign, use Ads Advisor to scan for policy flags. Treat this as a mandatory pre-flight step, not optional.
Apply for restricted-category certification now: If your business or any client is in healthcare, legal, financial services, or another restricted category, start the certification application before you need it. Instant certification via Gemini is only useful if you have initiated the process.
Enable passkey authentication in Settings: Navigate to Settings > Security in your Google Ads account and enable passkey login. Do this for every account you manage, including client accounts.
Audit active campaigns for existing policy flags: Use Ads Advisor to review currently-running campaigns, not just new ones. Existing violations that have not surfaced yet are a liability.
Update your campaign launch SOP: Add an "Ads Advisor policy review" step as a required checkpoint before any campaign goes live. Document it so every team member follows the same process.
For agencies, add this to your client onboarding checklist: When onboarding a new client, verify their restricted-category status and initiate any needed certifications during the setup phase, not when you are ready to launch.

How MKDM Can Help

Platform changes like this are manageable when you are paying close attention and not when you are catching up after the fact. I track Google Ads platform updates as part of active campaign management for MKDM clients. That means proactive compliance review, restricted category strategy for clients in regulated industries, and account health monitoring built into ongoing work, not an add-on.

If your campaigns are running without a structured policy review process, or if you have clients in healthcare, financial services, or legal that have not navigated restricted-category certification, that is a good reason to have a conversation. Reach out here and I can take a look at where your account stands.

You can also learn more about how I approach Google Ads management and the specific Google Ads services I offer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Ads Advisor and how do I access it?

Google Ads Advisor is an AI-powered tool inside Google Ads that provides campaign recommendations, policy guidance, and now real-time compliance review. Access it through Tools > Advisor in your Google Ads account. The new agentic safety features are rolling out to English-language accounts globally in the months following the April 21, 2026 announcement.

How does Google Ads real-time policy review work in 2026?

The real-time policy review feature scans your campaign for potential policy violations during the creation and editing process, before you submit it. When a violation is detected, Ads Advisor flags it inline with specific guidance on how to fix it. The feature currently focuses on the most severe violation categories including circumventing systems, unacceptable business practices, and counterfeit goods, with more categories to follow.

Which restricted categories can get instant certification through Google Ads?

Google's Gemini AI can now process restricted-category certification applications in seconds for supported categories, down from the previous timeline of weeks. The feature covers regulated industries including healthcare, legal services, financial products, and gambling. Check your account's Ads Advisor to see which categories are eligible in your region. Apply now even if you do not have an immediate campaign need, since certification takes time to integrate into your account status.

How do passkeys improve Google Ads account security?

Passkeys replace traditional passwords with a cryptographic key pair tied to your device, eliminating the risk of phishing attacks and password reuse. Ads Advisor now supports passkey authentication along with 24/7 account monitoring via a security dashboard that flags suspicious activity. For agencies managing multiple client accounts, enabling passkeys on each account reduces the single biggest attack vector for unauthorized access.

What should I do if my Google Ads campaign gets disapproved?

If a campaign is disapproved, review the specific policy violation cited in your notification, make the required changes to your ad or targeting, and resubmit for review. The average disapproved ad takes 3.2 days to fix and resubmit, so acting quickly limits budget loss. With Ads Advisor's real-time review now available, use it before your next submission to catch any remaining issues before they trigger another disapproval cycle.

Originally published at mattkundodigitalmarketing.com

Google Ends FAQ Rich Results: Your 3-Step SEO Response

Matt Kundo — Tue, 19 May 2026 05:08:58 +0000

You spent time and budget adding FAQ schema to key pages and watched them earn expanded SERP real estate. On May 7, 2026, Google quietly removed FAQ rich results from search results everywhere, and started winding down the related Search Console reporting behind it. No big announcement, no warning email, just a documentation update and SERPs that looked different the next morning. Search Engine Roundtable and the Marie Haynes SERP tracker both flagged it within hours. If you invested in structured data SEO to win those expanded snippets, this is your signal to audit, adapt, and redirect your effort toward what actually moves rankings today.

What Happened

On May 7, 2026, Google retired FAQ rich results from all Google Search results, globally, on desktop and mobile, without a public blog post. The change was published as a quiet update to Google's FAQPage structured data documentation, which now states FAQ rich results no longer appear in Search. Google also confirmed it will remove the FAQ search appearance filter, the rich result report, and Rich Results Test support in June 2026, and remove FAQ data from the Search Console API in August 2026.

This completes a phase-out that started years ago. FAQ rich results launched in 2019, became one of the most popular structured data targets for SEOs, then got restricted in August 2023 to only well-known government and health sites. May 7, 2026 was the final step. As PPC Land noted, HowTo rich results followed the same path on desktop in 2023, which means this pattern is now well established.

Why This Matters for Your Marketing

What You Lose in the SERP

FAQ rich results historically lifted click-through rates by roughly 20 to 30 percent at the same ranking position, according to SEO industry analyses compiled before the removal. The mechanic was simple: an expanded FAQ accordion under your blue link gave you more SERP real estate and surfaced your answer before the click. Now that visual lift is gone everywhere. Pages with informational intent are the most exposed, and the SERP space FAQ accordions used to occupy is increasingly getting absorbed by AI Overviews and People Also Ask blocks.

What Happens to Your Existing FAQ Schema

FAQPage schema itself is not deprecated. Google explicitly said the markup remains valid, will continue to be used to understand page content, and that unused structured data does not hurt rankings. In other words, you do not need to rip out FAQ schema overnight. The pages keep working. They just do not get the rich result anymore.

The People Also Ask and AI Overview Connection

Here is the angle most coverage will skip: Google still reads structured FAQ content. That makes it a candidate for AI Overviews, Search Generative Experience answers, voice search results, and possibly People Also Ask placements. If your FAQ schema accurately reflects real questions your audience asks, it is still working for you on the AI surfaces, which is where most of the click attention is moving anyway.

The 3-Step FAQ Schema Reset Plan

This is the action plan I would run on any client site this month.

Audit. Pull every URL with FAQ schema. Use the Google Search Console structured data report under Enhancements while it is still available (it goes away in June 2026). Cross-check with a Screaming Frog crawl filtered on FAQPage schema in the Structured Data tab. Export both lists and reconcile to one master URL list.
Decide. For each page, answer two questions. First, does the FAQ block accurately reflect questions a real customer asks? Second, am I willing to maintain it? If both yes, keep the schema. It still feeds AI Overviews, voice search, and Google's understanding of the page. If either is no, queue the page for removal.
Replace. Take the time and budget you used to spend chasing FAQ rich results and pivot it. Identify People Also Ask questions for your target keywords and write content that directly answers them. Add HowTo schema to true process content where it still helps. Add Speakable schema to short answers you want voice search to read aloud. The structured data game is not dead, the target moved.

Two extra steps to close the loop. Validate every page you change with the Google Rich Results Test before you push live, then watch impressions and CTR for the affected URLs in Google Search Console for the next 30 days so you can quantify the impact and adjust.

How MKDM Can Help

This is exactly the kind of work I do for clients in SEO and technical SEO engagements. I run the structured data audit, decide what stays and what goes on a page-by-page basis, and rebuild the SEO roadmap around what Google rewards today, which means AI Overview optimization, People Also Ask targeting, and the schema types that still earn visible SERP features. If you have FAQ schema across a content site or a service business, I can scope a one-time audit and reset, or fold it into an ongoing technical SEO retainer. Reach out and I will take a look at your site.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I remove FAQ schema from my website now that rich results are gone?

Not automatically. Google confirmed FAQPage schema is still valid markup and unused structured data does not hurt rankings. Keep the schema on pages where it accurately describes content and may help AI Overviews, voice search, or future SERP features. Remove it from pages where it was only added to chase rich results and now adds page weight without value.

Will keeping FAQ schema hurt my SEO after Google's May 2026 update?

No. Google's documentation states that unused structured data does not negatively impact Search rankings. FAQ schema may still help Google understand your content, which is relevant for AI Overviews and Search Generative Experience surfaces. The only reason to remove it is page weight, maintenance cost, or accuracy if the content no longer matches the schema.

What structured data types still work for rich results in 2026?

Product, Review, Recipe, Event, JobPosting, Article, Breadcrumb, LocalBusiness, Video, and Speakable schema all still drive visible SERP features for eligible content. HowTo rich results were removed from desktop in 2023 and remain limited. Focus structured data effort on the schema types Google actively rewards with visible enhancements.

How do I find which pages on my site use FAQ schema?

Use Google Search Console's structured data report under the Enhancements section until June 2026 when the FAQ report is retired. After that, crawl your site with Screaming Frog and filter for FAQPage schema in the Structured Data tab, or run the Rich Results Test on any page you suspect. Export the URL list and use it as the audit baseline for the cleanup plan.

Originally published at mattkundodigitalmarketing.com

Google Tests Ads in AI Overviews: What Marketers Need to Know

Matt Kundo — Tue, 19 May 2026 05:08:09 +0000

For the first time, Google AI Overview ads are appearing as paid placements inside the AI-generated answer summaries that sit above traditional search results. Industry tracking shows ads now appear on roughly 25.5 percent of AI Overview SERPs as of March 2026, up from 5.17 percent earlier in the year. Combined with Google's expansion of AI Overview ads beyond the US to additional English-speaking markets, this is the most consequential shift in Search since Performance Max launched. If you run Google Ads, organic SEO, or both for a small or mid-sized business, here is what changed, why it matters, and the action plan to run this month.

What Happened

Google rolled out ads inside AI Overviews to desktop and more countries globally through 2025 and into 2026, building on the original US-only test that began in late 2024. Search Engine Land confirmed the expansion to select English-speaking markets, with Shopping-style product placements and standard Search text ads both eligible to surface inside or directly alongside the AI answer block.

At the same time, the broader ad-tech market is repositioning around AI search. StackAdapt opened ChatGPT ad access to its full advertiser base the same week Google's expansion landed, and AI Max for Search is now Google's fastest-growing AI Search ads product. AI is no longer a side surface, it is the surface.

Why This Matters for Your Marketing

Google Ads: Bid Strategy and Quality Score Pressure

Ads inside AI Overviews are served from your existing Search and Shopping campaigns. There is no opt-in toggle. Eligibility leans toward broad match keywords paired with Smart Bidding, AI Max, and Performance Max with a clean Merchant Center feed. Bïrch reports CPCs climbing on high-intent terms as advertisers chase the remaining clickable real estate, and CTR dropping on traditional text ads that fall below the AI summary. Quality Score below 7 is unlikely to compete inside AI Overview placements where Google factors landing page relevance heavily.

Organic SEO: A Defensive Move for SMBs Priced Out of AI Overview CPCs

If your budget cannot absorb the rising CPCs inside AI Overview ad inventory, organic citation inside the AI answer becomes the consolation prize that actually pays. AI Overviews currently appear on roughly 13 percent of all Google queries per JumpFly's March 2026 data, and that share is growing. Pages with strong E-E-A-T signals, structured data, and clear topical authority are more likely to be cited inside the Overview, which keeps your brand visible even when the user does not click through.

Content Strategy: GEO-Optimized Content Influences Eligibility

The third lever is content. Search Influence reports CTR on the top organic result drops from 19.70 percent to 6.34 percent when an AI Overview is present. Content built for AI consumption (clear Q&A structure, schema markup, definition-style answers near the top) is more likely to feed the AI Overview and earn the brand citation that drives downstream conversions. Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is no longer optional for businesses that depend on Search traffic.

The 3-Layer AI Overview Readiness Check

This is the audit I run for clients to figure out where they stand. Three questions, in order, before you spend a dollar adapting.

Layer 1, Organic citation: Is your site already cited inside AI Overviews for your top 10 commercial keywords? Run each keyword in an incognito browser, check whether an AI Overview triggers, and note whether any of your URLs appear as a citation. If yes, your content is already AI-eligible and you have leverage. If no, you need GEO and schema work before paid placement will pay off.
Layer 2, Ad eligibility: Are your Search and Shopping campaigns structured to compete inside AI Overviews? Confirm you have broad match coverage on at least one campaign, Smart Bidding (Target CPA or Max Conversions with a cap) instead of manual CPC, full asset coverage on responsive search ads (15 headlines, 4 descriptions), and a clean Merchant Center feed if you run Shopping. Missing any of these is a structural disqualifier.
Layer 3, Quality Score reality check: Pull keyword-level Quality Score for your top 50 spending keywords. Anything below 7 is unlikely to win AI Overview placements where landing page relevance carries more weight than legacy keyword bidding. Fix the landing page experience before raising bids.

Your Action Plan This Month

Eight tactical steps in priority order, scoped for an SMB or mid-market account.

Manual AI Overview audit. Pull your last 90 days of Search Terms data, take your top 10 non-brand commercial queries, and run each in an incognito browser. Tag each as "AI Overview present" or "no AI Overview." Save the labeled list as the working map for the rest of this plan.
Quality Score sweep. Pull keyword-level Quality Score across your top 50 keywords by spend. Flag everything below 7 for landing page work or pause.
Landing page relevance. For each flagged URL, confirm the headline matches the query intent, the H1 contains the keyword, the page loads in under 2.5 seconds, and there is a clear conversion action above the fold.
E-E-A-T signal audit. Add author bios, credentials, original data or examples, and external citations on pages that target informational queries where AI Overviews appear. This feeds both ad eligibility and organic citation.
Schema layer. Add FAQPage, HowTo, or Article schema on the relevant page types. Speakable schema on definition-style answers helps voice and AI consumption. Validate every change with the Google Rich Results Test.
Impression share report. Run the impression share report for the campaigns serving AI-Overview-heavy queries. If absolute top impression share is below 20 percent on key terms, AI Overview placements are likely being absorbed by competitors with stronger Quality Score or asset coverage.
Comparison or "vs" page. Build one comparison page for your highest-value service or product against the top alternative. These pages perform disproportionately well as AI Overview citations because they answer the comparative question directly.
Negative keyword review. Broad match plus Smart Bidding will pull in mid-funnel queries that trigger AI Overviews. Review your Search Terms weekly and add negatives for any query theme that drains spend without converting.

How MKDM Can Help

I run this exact audit for clients as a paid Google Ads engagement, and I pair it with technical and content SEO work to make sure the organic side is feeding the AI Overview citations too. If you want a Google Ads audit for AI Overview readiness across your campaigns, that lives under my paid media and SEO services. Most accounts need a 30 to 60 day sprint to retrofit campaign structure, landing page relevance, and schema before AI Overview placements pay off, and I scope the work in plain language with no agency retainer lock-in. Reach out and I will take a look at your account.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Google AI Overview ads?

Google AI Overview ads are paid placements that appear inside or directly adjacent to AI-generated answer summaries at the top of Google Search results. Most placements use Shopping or product ad formats, with Search text ads also eligible. They draw from your existing Search and Shopping campaigns rather than a separate campaign type, so there is no dedicated opt-in toggle in the Google Ads interface today.

How do I get my ads to show in AI Overviews?

Ads inside AI Overviews are served from your existing Search and Shopping campaigns. Eligibility skews toward broad match keywords paired with Smart Bidding, AI Max for Search, and Performance Max with a healthy Merchant Center feed. There is no checkbox to enable AI Overview placement. Improve match-type breadth, asset coverage, and feed quality, then monitor Search Terms to confirm AI Overview triggers.

Will Google Ads costs increase because of AI Overview ads?

Likely yes on high-intent queries where AI Overviews still leave room for clicks. Industry analyses report rising CPCs on commercial-intent terms as advertisers concentrate spend where users still convert, and CTR drops on traditional text ads below the AI summary. Budgets need to flex by query type, not just overall.

What happens to SEO when ads run inside AI Overviews?

Organic clicks compress further as AI Overviews and embedded ads consume above-the-fold attention. The defensive move is content that gets cited inside AI Overviews, which is largely an E-E-A-T, schema, and topical authority play. SEO does not disappear, it shifts from chasing rank to earning AI citation.

Originally published at mattkundodigitalmarketing.com

Google Marketing Live 2026: How to Prepare Your Campaigns

Matt Kundo — Tue, 19 May 2026 05:07:21 +0000

Google Marketing Live 2026 is three days away on May 20, and Google is not waiting for the keynote to roll out the biggest shift in paid search since Performance Max. In the last week, Google quietly updated its search terms report to show a "best approximation" of user intent instead of the exact query typed, expanded AI Max into Search and Shopping, and started serving ads inside AI Overviews. If you run Google Ads, especially without a dedicated PPC team, the safest move is to audit your account this week, before the keynote triggers automated changes you cannot easily reverse.

What Happened: The Pre-GML AI Updates

Google scheduled Google Marketing Live 2026 for May 20, and pre-keynote changes started rolling out the week of May 12. The most concrete signal so far is a quiet documentation change to the search terms report. Google now states that in AI Mode and AI Overviews, the search terms column reflects Google's "best approximation" of user intent rather than the literal query a user typed. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable flagged this as the pre-GML change paid search professionals are scrutinizing most closely, because it changes the meaning of one of the most foundational reports in the platform.

Other pre-GML moves include expanded AI Max for Search and Shopping, ads served inside AI Overviews, and natural-language campaign controls quietly entering the Google Ads UI. Industry analysts expect GML to formally name this direction "agentic advertising," where AI systems make campaign decisions autonomously inside parameters the advertiser sets. The pattern in 2026 is consistent: Google is not asking permission, it is shipping defaults.

Why Google Marketing Live 2026 Matters for Your Marketing

The combination of agentic advertising and reduced search query transparency changes how every Google Ads advertiser plans, optimizes, and measures. The risk is uneven. Smaller advertisers without enterprise-level guardrails feel the impact first, and they have the fewest people available to catch it.

Your Search Term Data Just Changed

If your search terms report now reflects a "best approximation" of intent rather than exact-match queries, your match-type strategy and negative keyword workflow are running on different inputs than they were last month. Negative keyword optimization is the standard defense against wasted broad-match spend, and it gets noisier when the queries you are excluding are themselves AI inferences instead of typed strings. You can no longer assume the column shows what someone actually searched for, which means you cannot assume your negatives are blocking what you think they are blocking.

Agentic Advertising Is Not Optional

Google has signaled that the keynote will frame AI as the default operating model for campaign management. Advertisers who do not configure AI guardrails (asset labels, exclusions, audience signals, bidding constraints) before GML will be running campaigns with weaker controls afterward. The defaults are about to shift in favor of more automation, and the time to set the rails is before the train leaves, not after.

SMB Advertisers Face More Exposure Than Enterprise

Large advertisers have human reviewers, budget caps, automated rules, and dedicated PPC teams to catch when an automated system spends five thousand dollars on the wrong audience overnight. Most small business advertisers I work with do not. A Performance Max or broad-match campaign on autopilot is fine when the system makes good decisions ninety-five percent of the time. It becomes expensive fast when the five percent of bad decisions all hit in the same week, on a two-hundred-dollar daily budget, with nobody watching the account closely enough to pause it.

The 4-Step Pre-GML Account Health Check

Here is the audit I would run on any Google Ads account between now and May 20, in priority order. None of this requires deep PPC expertise, just discipline and a calendar block.

Pull a search terms baseline today. Export the last thirty days of search terms data from every active campaign before the AI-intent change fully rolls out. You want a reference set that still reflects exact-query history. Save it somewhere durable. If post-GML reporting degrades, this snapshot is the only evidence you have of what "queries" used to mean in your account.
Tighten negative keyword coverage. Review and expand your campaign-level and account-level negative lists. With AI-inferred intent showing "approximations," sloppy negatives let more irrelevant impressions through. Pay particular attention to brand-defense negatives, competitor names you do not want to bid on, and broad-match catch-all phrases that historically pulled in junk traffic.
Audit AI Max eligibility and Performance Max controls. Check whether Google has auto-enrolled any of your Search or Shopping campaigns in AI Max. Set explicit asset labels, audience signals, geographic exclusions, and brand exclusions in Performance Max. The agentic features rolling out post-GML will lean harder on these inputs, and unlabeled assets give the system permission to do whatever the model thinks is optimal.
Lock in conversion tracking and document your baselines. Verify every conversion action is firing correctly using Google Tag Assistant or the Conversions report. Snapshot your current daily budgets, target CPA, target ROAS, conversion rates, and CPC by campaign. If automated bidding decisions degrade performance after May 20, this baseline is the only way you will prove it without arguing from feel.

Once those four steps are done, plan to watch the GML keynote live on May 20 or follow PPC Land and Search Engine Land for real-time updates as announcements drop. Expect a follow-up wave of in-account changes inside the seventy-two hours after the keynote.

For broader context on how this fits into a managed PPC program, my Google Ads management pillar walks through the recurring optimization workflow that absorbs platform changes like GML without breaking client campaigns.

How MKDM Can Help

I monitor Google Marketing Live and the steady stream of platform changes that follow it, so business owners do not have to track every documentation update, beta release, and policy shift themselves. My Google Ads management service handles the audits, baselines, and guardrails that protect campaign performance when Google's defaults shift toward more automation.

If you are not sure whether your campaigns are ready for the changes Google Marketing Live 2026 will bring, get in touch. I will run the 4-step health check on your account and flag any risks before May 20.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Marketing Live 2026?

Google Marketing Live 2026 is Google's annual advertising keynote, scheduled for May 20, 2026. The event is expected to formally introduce agentic advertising, AI systems that manage campaign decisions autonomously inside parameters advertisers define, along with expanded AI Max features and changes to how search activity is reported. Pre-keynote updates are already live in Google Ads accounts.

What is AI-inferred intent in Google Ads search terms?

Google updated its documentation in May 2026 to state that search terms in AI Mode and AI Overviews reports may now reflect a "best approximation" of user intent rather than the exact words users typed. This affects how advertisers optimize match types and build negative keyword lists, because the queries shown are AI interpretations of search activity rather than raw user input.

What is Google agentic advertising?

Agentic advertising refers to AI-driven systems that can create, adjust, and optimize advertising campaigns with minimal human input, operating inside parameters the advertiser sets. In practice it means budget allocation, audience selection, asset rotation, and bidding decisions handled by automation, with the advertiser setting the rails rather than approving every individual change.

Should I pause my Google Ads campaigns before GML?

No. Pausing campaigns wastes ramp-up data and gives competitors free air time during a high-attention week. Instead, document your current performance baselines, tighten your negative keyword lists, audit AI Max and Performance Max controls, and verify that conversion tracking is firing correctly. Those four steps protect you from the changes Google Marketing Live 2026 is likely to introduce.

Originally published at mattkundodigitalmarketing.com

Texas Commercial Electricity Rates 2026: Buyer Action Plan - Texas Commercial Plans

Matt Kundo — Sat, 16 May 2026 05:05:36 +0000

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    Energy Contracts & Procurement

  Texas Commercial Electricity Rates 2026: What Your Business Should Do Before Summer Peaks

    May 15, 2026
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    7 min read

U.S. wholesale electricity prices surged up to 62% in major markets in 2025, and the bill is now landing on Texas commercial electricity rates 2026. ERCOT solar generation is on track to pass coal for the first time this year (EIA projects 78 BkWh from solar vs. 60 BkWh from coal), but cleaner megawatts have not flattened the curve heading into summer peak demand. For commercial buyers with contracts expiring in the next 90 to 180 days, the question is not whether prices are moving. It is whether to lock a fixed rate now, accept index exposure, or chase a corporate PPA before the next round of capacity comes online.

What Happened: A Wholesale Price Reset Heading Into 2026

Three forces converged in 2025 to push U.S. wholesale electricity prices higher and tighten the supply outlook for 2026. Natural gas costs climbed on data center and LNG export demand, scarcity hours widened across ISOs, and capacity margins compressed as thermal retirements outpaced new dispatchable additions. Mondaq's market analysis put the 2025 surge as high as 62% in the worst-hit markets, with PPA renewal risk and basis exposure now central to procurement conversations.

ERCOT specifically is facing record load growth from data centers and AI deployments at the same time its generation mix is rotating. EIA's May 2026 forecast shows solar output passing coal in ERCOT for the first time on an annual basis. New battery storage is starting to relieve evening peak stress: Sunraycer Renewables closed $901 million in project financing for a 479.5 MWac solar plus 236.5 MWac two-hour BESS portfolio, with the Eagle Springs project in Delta County, Texas online this year. But near-term supply is still tight, and Power Magazine reports record gas-fired generation expected this summer as coal retirements and AI loads collide.

Impact on Texas Commercial Electricity Rates 2026: Where You Sit on the Curve

Rising wholesale costs do not hit every commercial buyer the same way. Where you sit on the contract curve determines your 2026 exposure, and three groups face very different decisions. Buyers on monthly index or pass-through products are most exposed: their bills move with ERCOT settlement prices, and summer scarcity hours can drive monthly bills up sharply. Buyers on 12 to 24 month fixed contracts signed in 2023 and 2024 captured pre-surge rates and are now approaching renewal at materially higher offer prices. Buyers on corporate PPAs face their own version of the problem in the form of basis risk: if ERCOT prices stay elevated relative to the PPA strike, the hedge works in your favor; if not, the unhedged settlement gap grows.

H2 2026 is also a 4CP exposure window that commercial buyers consistently underestimate. ERCOT's Four Coincident Peak mechanism ties a meaningful portion of next year's transmission demand charges to your interval-metered demand during the four highest summer system peak hours. That means interval-metered C&I accounts effectively pay for peak hour exposure twice: once in the energy component of the bill if you are on an index product, and again in TDU transmission demand charges that flow through your delivery rate regardless of REP. New BESS coming online in 2026 and 2027 will help flatten net-peak hours, but the marginal MW of storage is small relative to load growth, so 4CP risk remains elevated this summer.

The Texas C&I Rate Timing Decision Matrix

Most coverage of 2026 Texas commercial electricity rates stops at "lock something in." That framing misses the question commercial buyers actually need to answer, which is which structure fits their load profile and risk tolerance given a specific contract expiration window. The matrix below maps the three real options against load type, risk factor, and trigger conditions.

          Contract Type

          Best For (Load Profile / Risk Tolerance)

          Key Risk Factor

          When to Trigger

      **Fixed rate, 12 month**
      Stable load (multi-site retail, office portfolios), tight margins, low operational flexibility, contract expiring Q3 to Q4 2026.
      Premium over current market if ERCOT softens post-summer; you may renew at lower rates in 2027 once BESS capacity is fuller.
      Sign 60 to 90 days before expiration. Treats summer 2026 as the peak risk window and preserves the option to re-rate after Eagle Springs and similar projects stabilize.


      **Fixed rate, 24 month**
      Predictable consumption, expansion plans through 2027, executive teams that need budget certainty for capital planning.
      Locks in elevated 2026 pricing for a second year just as new storage capacity comes online and may soften wholesale prices.
      Sign only if your CFO weights budget certainty over capturing a potential 2027 softening, or if you face a high-load summer that justifies the spread.


      **Index or index-plus-cap**
      Load flexibility (curtailable processes, on-site generation, EV charging schedulable, HVAC pre-cooling capacity), sophisticated energy management.
      Direct exposure to ERCOT settlement spikes, especially during 4CP peak hours; cap products limit but do not eliminate upside risk.
      Use when you can demonstrably curtail during summer peak hours. Pair with a cap or demand response enrollment to limit tail risk.


      **Corporate PPA**
      Multi-site enterprises with sustainability mandates, long capital horizons, treasury teams comfortable with basis risk.
      Basis risk between PPA delivery point and your load zone; mark-to-market accounting on the hedge can swing meaningfully quarter to quarter.
      Trigger only after running a basis-risk analysis against your settlement points and a 10 to 15 year load forecast. Not a "lock a rate" tool; it is a hedge.

What You Should Do

For Texas commercial electricity buyers with contracts rolling in 2026, the practical sequence below converts the matrix into a 90 day action plan. None of these steps require a sales conversation with a REP yet. Most should happen before you take a quote.

      1. Audit your contract expiration date. If renewal is Q3 or Q4 2026, start your RFP at least 90 days in advance. Buyers who wait into the last 30 days routinely accept worse pricing because they have lost negotiating leverage.

  2. **Identify your current rate structure.** Pull your last three bills and confirm whether your energy component is fixed, indexed, or a blend, and whether your delivery charges include a separately stated 4CP transmission demand component.

  3. **Map your 4CP exposure.** Request interval data for June through August of the prior year from your REP or TDU portal. Identify your demand during ERCOT's published 4CP intervals and estimate your annual transmission demand cost at the upcoming year's rate.

  4. **Request index, fixed, and blended quotes from at least three REPs.** Force quote comparability by specifying the same start date, contract length, and pass-through assumptions. Do not let a REP quote you on different terms than its competitors.

  5. **Decide on contract length explicitly.** Reference the matrix above. A 12 month fixed lets you re-rate after summer 2027 BESS capacity stabilizes; a 24 month lock captures today's rates if you expect further volatility.

  6. **Evaluate ERCOT demand response.** If you can curtail during peak hours, ERS or 4CP-targeted DR programs can offset transmission demand charges materially.

  7. **Ask about storage-backed or index-plus-cap products.** Several REPs now offer structures that hedge peak-hour spikes; these were not widely available 24 months ago and rarely get pitched unless you ask.

Questions to Ask Your REP or Broker

      - What was my actual 4CP demand exposure last summer, and what will it cost this year under my current rate?

  - Given wholesale prices are up 62% in 2025, is a 12 month or 24 month fixed rate better for my contract expiring this fall?

  - What index rate exposure do I have on the 4 ERCOT peak hours this summer, and how is it billed?

  - Are there index-plus-cap products available that limit my upside exposure if ERCOT prices spike this summer?

  - How does the new battery storage coming online in 2026 and 2027 affect long-term wholesale price forecasts in my load zone?

  - Can I add a demand response rider to reduce my 4CP transmission charges, and what curtailment commitment is required?

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are Texas commercial electricity rates rising in 2026?

Three factors compounded in 2025 and carried into 2026: record data center and AI load growth in ERCOT, natural gas cost increases driven partly by LNG exports, and tight capacity margins as coal retirements outpaced new dispatchable supply. Wholesale prices surged up to 62% in major U.S. markets in 2025, and that reset is now flowing into commercial offer prices for contracts renewing this year.

Should I lock in a fixed electricity rate now or wait?

It depends on your load profile and risk tolerance. Buyers with predictable consumption and tight operating margins generally benefit from fixed rate certainty, particularly for contracts expiring before or during summer 2026. Buyers with flexible loads (curtailable processes, schedulable EV charging, HVAC pre-cooling capacity) can capture upside from indexed products if they pair them with a cap or demand response enrollment. The Texas C&I Rate Timing Decision Matrix above is a more useful starting point than a blanket recommendation.

What is the 4CP coincident peak and how does it affect my commercial electricity bill?

ERCOT's Four Coincident Peak (4CP) mechanism identifies the four 15 minute intervals each summer (June through September) with the highest system-wide demand. Your interval-metered demand during those four intervals sets a portion of your transmission demand charges for the following year. Commercial buyers with interval meters and significant peak hour load pay this exposure through their TDU delivery charges regardless of which REP they use. Curtailing load during identified peak hours can materially reduce next year's transmission cost allocation.

Will new battery storage in ERCOT lower my commercial electricity rates?

Eventually, yes, but not enough to change 2026 contract decisions. New BESS capacity coming online in 2026 and 2027, including the 236.5 MWac Eagle Springs project, will help flatten ERCOT's evening peak prices and reduce scarcity hours. But the marginal megawatts of storage are still small relative to load growth, so summer 2026 peak risk remains elevated. The fuller relief is more likely to show up in 2027 and 2028 wholesale price curves, which is one reason a 12 month fixed lock can be more attractive than a 24 month lock for buyers who want optionality.

Is a corporate PPA a better hedge than a fixed retail contract?

A corporate PPA is a different instrument than a retail contract, not a better version of one. PPAs hedge wholesale price exposure through a long-term financial contract with a generation asset, but they carry basis risk between the PPA delivery point and your load settlement points. They also create mark-to-market accounting volatility that finance teams should understand before signing. Buyers should run a formal basis-risk analysis and a 10 to 15 year load forecast before treating a PPA as a substitute for a retail fixed rate.

Originally published at texascommercialplans.com

AI Advertising Consumer Trust 2026: New Canva Research | MKDM

Matt Kundo — Sat, 16 May 2026 05:04:48 +0000

Home / Blog / AI Ads Consumer Trust Recent News & Marketing News May 15, 2026 7 min read AI Advertising Consumer Trust 2026: New Canva Research

Canva's new State of Marketing 2026 study exposes a trust gap between marketers racing to adopt AI and consumers who are growing skeptical. The data points to a clear path forward for small businesses.

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Marketing leaders and the customers they are trying to reach are moving in opposite directions on AI, and the gap just got measured. Canva's State of Marketing and AI 2026 report, released May 13, 2026, found that 99% of marketing leaders plan to increase AI budgets this year, while 70% of consumers say AI generated ads feel like they are missing their soul. For small businesses, that gap matters more than for large brands. Big companies have brand equity to absorb a few off-key ads. Small businesses do not. Every customer interaction either deposits trust or withdraws it, and AI can do both depending on how you deploy it.

What the Canva Report Actually Says About AI Advertising Consumer Trust in 2026

Canva surveyed marketing leaders and consumers for its third annual State of Marketing and AI report, and the findings expose a stark gap between investment and reception. On the marketer side, 99% are increasing AI budgets, 41% now view AI as a director making autonomous decisions, and 39% treat AI as a collaborator. On the consumer side, 78% prefer human made ads, 74% say they are more likely to purchase from brands using human created ads, and mentions of "AI slop" have jumped 9 times year over year, according to Meltwater data cited in the report.

The most interesting finding is one most coverage glossed over. Canva found 68% of consumers are open to AI generated ads when those ads make content more relevant or helpful to them. The 68% consent threshold is the line that separates AI that converts from AI that alienates. Meanwhile, 87% of marketing leaders concede the best advertising still requires a human touch, even as they ramp up automation. Platform pressure is accelerating the question. TikTok announced new AI ad formats at TikTok World 2026, and Anthropic is now actively targeting small businesses after its enterprise push.

Why This Trust Gap Matters for Your Marketing

The trust gap shows up in every channel, but it shows up differently in each one. Knowing where AI helps and where it hurts is the difference between an efficient marketing engine and a steadily eroding brand.

Content Marketing

AI is excellent at research synthesis, outline structure, and first drafts. It is bad at original voice, lived expertise, and the specific phrasing that makes a reader say "this person gets me." Use AI to compress hours of research and to draft non-customer-facing content. For anything that wears your name, the human edit is non-negotiable.

Paid Media

AI generated creative variants help you test more, faster. The risk is that all your variants start to look the same as everyone else's variants. The brands winning paid media in 2026 are using AI to scale testing of human conceived creative, not to replace the human concept stage. The Edelman 2025 Trust Barometer shows trust is increasingly tied to brands feeling transparent and human, especially in digital communications.

Social and Email

AI captions and email subject lines optimize for opens. Real customer relationships optimize for retention. Your captions and subject lines should pass the 68% test: is this version more relevant to the reader, or just faster to produce?

The Productivity Paradox Most Marketers Are Missing

Canva's report found 89% of marketing teams save 4 or more hours weekly using AI. That is real and significant. The question nobody is asking is where those hours are going. If your team reclaims 4 hours and reinvests them into deeper customer research, sharper creative direction, and more thoughtful strategy, AI is a multiplier on quality. If those hours fund more volume of mediocre output, you are running faster in the wrong direction.

I see this play out repeatedly with small businesses. A team adopts AI, productivity spikes, output volume increases, and three months later engagement metrics are declining and nobody can figure out why. The volume bias is the trap. Faster does not mean better unless the saved time is deliberately invested in the parts AI cannot replicate. McKinsey's research on generative AI adoption consistently finds the best results come when AI is embedded in workflows with human oversight and process redesign, not isolated content generation.

The productivity paradox is solvable, but only by deciding in advance what the saved hours will fund. If you cannot answer that question for your business, the answer is "more volume," and that is the path to the AI slop trend Canva measured a 9x increase in.

The Human-AI Trust Scorecard: A 5-Question Audit

Before you publish another AI assisted piece of marketing, run it through this scorecard. Answer yes or no honestly. Three or more "no" answers is a signal you are on the wrong side of the 68% threshold.

Does this AI generated content reflect your actual brand voice? Not a generic professional tone. Yours specifically.
Can a team member explain every factual claim in the content? AI hallucinates. Every claim needs a verifiable source.
Did a human edit this before publication? Not skim, edit. Voice, examples, judgment.
Would your best customer be able to tell this was AI written? If yes, that is data worth acting on.
Does this content make the reader's life easier, more informed, or more entertained? The 68% test in one question.

Action Plan: What to Do This Week

Audit every place AI currently touches customer facing content in your business. Most owners are surprised by the list.
Document a brand voice guide. One page is enough. Tone, words you use, words you avoid, examples of on-brand and off-brand copy.
Add a mandatory human review step to every AI workflow. No exceptions for time pressure.
Run the Human-AI Trust Scorecard on your last 10 pieces of published content. Track scores month over month.
Identify the specific human work the AI productivity gains should fund. Write it down. Otherwise the volume bias wins.
Never use AI for founder story, mission, or origin content. That is the voice readers come for.
Ask your three best customers if they have noticed any change in your communications recently. Their answer is the truest data you can get.

How MKDM Approaches AI Without Losing the Human Layer

I built MKDM around the premise that AI works best as a productivity multiplier on human strategy, not a replacement for it. My marketing services use AI for research, drafting, and analysis, but every deliverable reflects a human strategist with brand context, editorial judgment, and accountability for the work. The complete guide to AI advertising I maintain breaks down the specific applications where automation helps and where it hurts. If you are a small business owner trying to capture the productivity gains without losing the trust that drives your conversions, get in touch and we can map out what that looks like for your business. The 68% threshold is achievable. You just have to design for it intentionally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do consumers actually know when ads are AI-generated?

Consumers can often sense AI generated ads even when they cannot prove it. Canva's 2026 research found 78% of consumers prefer human made ads, and 9 times more conversations are happening about "AI slop" compared to last year. The tell is rarely a single visual cue. It is the cumulative feeling of generic copy, predictable structure, and emotional flatness that signals automated production. Disclosure helps. FTC guidance on deceptive practices is already tightening around synthetic media in advertising.

Does AI marketing hurt conversion rates?

AI marketing hurts conversions when it makes content less relevant to your specific audience, and helps conversions when it makes content more relevant. Canva's research found 74% of consumers say they are more likely to purchase from brands using human created ads, but 68% accept AI when it improves helpfulness. The variable is application, not technology. The same AI tool can lift conversions or sink them depending on whether a human is shaping the output for the brand and audience.

How do I use AI in marketing without losing my brand voice?

Start with a documented brand voice guide before any AI use. Feed that guide into every AI prompt as context. Require a human edit on every customer facing piece. Never let AI write your founder story, mission, or origin content. Use AI for first drafts, research synthesis, and structural work, then have a human apply judgment, examples, and emotional resonance. The brands losing voice are the ones treating AI as a finisher instead of a starter.

Is AI marketing worth it for small businesses?

AI marketing is worth it for small businesses when used as a productivity tool with human oversight. The 89% of teams saving 4 or more hours weekly with AI is real, but the question is what those reclaimed hours fund. If they fund more thoughtful strategy, better customer research, and tighter creative direction, AI pays back. If they fund more volume of generic output, AI quietly erodes the trust your business depends on. The technology is neutral. The discipline around it is everything.

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View All Insights [ Recent News & AI 7 min read

AI Creative Tools 2026: Close the Marketing Execution Gap

Read Article → ](https://mattkundodigitalmarketing.com/blog/ai-creative-tools-marketing-2026/) [ Marketing News & AI & Paid Media & Google Ads 7 min read

Three Springs, Durango, CO: What It’s Really Like to Live Here | Southwest Colorado Real Estate | Destination DRO Real Estate Group

Matt Kundo — Tue, 12 May 2026 19:40:24 +0000

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Three Springs, Durango, CO: What It’s Really Like to Live Here
Three Springs, Durango, CO: What It’s Really Like to Live Here
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](https://www.threespringsdurango.com/)Photo: Three Springs

There’s a moment that happens as you enter the neighborhood community of Three Springs in Durango, CO on any given morning. Something shifts as you turn off Highway 160 onto Three Springs Boulevard and catch a glimpse of wetlands from the corner of your eye. If you’re especially lucky, you may see one of the resident great blue herons take flight over the cattails. Ahead of you, tree-lined streets give way to homes with spacious front porches, offering the perfect spot for enjoying your morning coffee. A neighbor, along with her dog in tow, walks by and waves as she heads towards the Spur Line trails, offering six miles of beginner-friendly biking, hiking, and snowshoeing that are accessible directly from the neighborhood. And in the background, just beyond the wetlands, are the beautiful La Plata Mountains, reminding you of just how special this community is.

What Makes Three Springs Different From Other Durango Neighborhoods

Once you enter Three Springs, you’ll sense just how easy it would be to call this place “home”. Offering energy-efficient single-family homes, townhouses, and apartments only ten minutes away from historic downtown Durango, it’s the kind of neighborhood that seems designed for people first, cars second. That’s by design. Three Springs was built from the ground up in accordance with Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) principles, which honor both the land itself and the history of the people and cultures of Durango and Southwest Colorado.

The Three Springs community includes walkable blocks, pocket parks, restaurants and businesses, community gathering spaces, and neighbors who actually know each other. It’s also Durango’s first fiber-optic-wired community. So if you’re looking for fast internet, easy access to trails, and fantastic mountain views, this may be the place for you. I’ve shown homes in Three Springs for years, and I’ve watched when families explore this community for the first time. They begin to relax and imagine the possibilities…

Three Springs: Built Green From the Ground Up

Compared to many other Durango neighborhoods, Three Springs stands out for another reason: it was built to a different standard than the more traditional neighborhoods in town.

In June 2006, the Durango City Council approved the Three Springs Sustainable Development Program. It was the first formal green building program of its kind in the area, and one designed to serve as a model for the broader City of Durango. Developed in partnership with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe Growth Fund, the program reflects a deep respect for the land and the enduring history of the people in Southwest Colorado.
Photo: Three Springs

As an EcoBroker, I pay attention to how homes are built — and Three Springs homes are certainly built to a high standard. Every residential home is required to meet Built Green Colorado® certification, including Energy Star® ratings and specific requirements for energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality, and responsible materials. Commercial and civic buildings are held to LEED standards. The parks and streetscapes are irrigated with non-potable raw water rather than treated drinking water, and landscape irrigation is designed to use 30% less water than a conventional baseline.

The wetlands you pass on Three Springs Boulevard aren’t just there for aesthetics, though they are quite soothing. They’re a protected natural system, managed under a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit that requires stormwater to be filtered through the wetlands before it leaves the site.

Nearly 300 of the neighborhood’s 681 acres are preserved as open space, parks, wetland habitat, and school land. For buyers who care about how a neighborhood was made, this matters.

Other green practices found at Three Springs include:

The re-planting of trees and shrubs throughout the neighborhood gathering areas.
The planting of plum trees as part of Fort Lewis College’s “Food for Thought” program.
The installation of energy-efficient lights on neighborhood trails and streets.
The launch of a single-stream recycling program by the Neighbors at Three Springs.
The diversion of nearly 80% of construction waste from landfills to recycling facilities instead.

And for buyers focused on long-term operating costs, the energy efficiency standards built into every Three Springs home mean lower utility bills than you might typically see in an older Durango neighborhood. In fact, Three Springs touts a 33% reduction in energy consumption compared to typical homes built to code. Organizations like 4CORE (Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency) were cited in the plan as part of the program’s coordination team, which speaks to the values imbued in this place from the start.

Trails, Parks, and Outdoor Life in Three Springs

Whether you’re looking at Durango neighborhoods for the first time or are already a long-time resident looking for a change, the Three Springs Durango trails and open spaces are hard to pass up. They provide recreational fun right outside your front door.

Three Springs offers 300 acres dedicated to open space, parks, and trails, including:

Spurline Trail — 6 miles for biking, running, and hiking.
Telegraph Trail System connection — single-track mountain-biking, hiking, and running trails.
SMART 160 Trail — an ongoing project that will eventually link Three Springs to the Animas River Trail and Bayfield.
12 Pocket Parks and Three Springs Plaza — a grassy area with benches, trees, and an outdoor stage for community events offered throughout the summer months.
Confluence Park — a 15-acre neighborhood park featuring a large playground, picnic shelter, benches, large grassy areas, and ADA accessibility.
Southern Open Space — a scenic, soft-surface loop trail perfect for dog-walking.

Photo: Three Springs

Three Springs Schools, Families, and Community Life

Living in vibrant Three Springs has been described as living in a chill, family-friendly “village,” with restaurants and businesses just a few steps from your front door. Three Springs’ bustling Mercado Business District offers a fitness center, a yoga studio, numerous other professional services, and banks, including Alpine Bank.

Restaurants like Home Slice, one of Durango’s locals’ favorites, are located in the business district, as is Taco Boy, serving up street tacos inside or on its outdoor patio and featuring a full-service bar (and kitschy sombreros on the wall). Make sure you check out their daily specials, including “Monday Margaritas,” and “Sopes, and Whiskey Wednesdays.” Bear’s General Store is nearby to supply you with “beer, wine, spirits, and everyday convenience items.”

Right smack in the center of the Mercado Business District is the Three Springs Plaza, where residents and other locals gather for live entertainment and family events. Enjoy summer night movies, the annual Easter egg hunt, and the Halloween parade with your family and friends. The Plaza also hosts weekly “Concerts in the Plaza” during the warm summer months. And you just can’t beat the starry-filled view of the sky over Three Springs at night.

Another great perk of living in Three Springs? The proximity to healthcare. CommonSpirit Mercy Regional Medical Center is literally in the neighborhood. Located right next to the Mercado Business District, Common Spirit is the district’s largest employer and offers a range of medical services, from emergency trauma care to specialized outpatient clinics, making Three Springs the ideal relocation spot for retirees and healthcare workers.
Photo: Three Springs

Coming Soon: Three Springs Elementary School

There’s been an excited buzz around the neighborhood lately. The Three Springs Elementary School is breaking ground this year with plans to open in the Fall of 2028. With the intention of creating a school in “harmony with its natural surroundings” and based on input from a Design Advisory Group (DAG) comprised of Three Springs residents, educators, parents, and other community members, the project architects are focused on constructing a school building that maintains a connection to nature and encompasses a “where the desert meets the Southwest” vibe.

The 70,000-square-foot elementary school will accommodate around 500 students (3 classrooms per grade) and include a multi-purpose library, two multi-purpose flex classrooms, and porches off each classroom for outdoor learning.

For those families looking to relocate to Three Springs, the convenience is truly a deal-maker. The fact that it was a school designed with substantial community feedback makes it that much more special. We can’t wait for the doors to open in 2028.

What Homes in Three Springs Actually Look Like (and Cost)

One of the first things people notice about the neighborhoods in Three Springs is how intentional they feel. It’s easy to note that a lot of careful consideration and thoughtful planning went into its design. Everything from the setbacks to the streetscapes was designed with people (especially walkers) in mind.

In the Three Springs neighborhoods, no two homes look alike. You’ll find a real mix of housing, including townhomes, duplexes, single-level patio homes, and apartments. Architecturally, the neighborhood has a fresh, familiar look that evokes the “modern farmhouse meets contemporary mountain” style.

Inside, you’ll typically find open-concept layouts, upscale finishes, and high-efficiency appliances. Outside, the emphasis on relaxing livability continues with backyard patios, courtyards, detached garages, and direct access to the neighborhood’s trail systems. HOA fees do exist for homeowners and cover such things as alley maintenance and snow removal (in some areas). Potential buyers should confirm current fees.

Home Pricing in Three Springs

Home prices vary in Three Springs, depending on what you’re looking for in a new home. When complete, Three Springs will have over 2,000 residential homes.

Here are a few pricing statistics on Three Springs homes:

Median sales price for single-family homes over the last 12 months — $740,000
Median sales price for townhomes/condos over the last 12 months — $651,459
Sales range in 2025/2026 — $475,000–$900,000
List to Sale Price Ratio — 99%
Median days on the market — 1 year, 47 days

Is Three Springs Right For You?

If you are a household that values walkability and close proximity to trails, conveniences, and community events, or if you are a recent retiree or healthcare worker, the Three Springs move-in-ready neighborhood may be the perfect fit.

Three Springs may not be the right fit for those looking for substantial acreage or a more spacious, rural feel. Buyers who prioritize proximity to downtown bars, galleries, and the Animas River may prefer other Durango neighborhoods.

Experience Three Springs For Yourself!

If you are curious to learn more about Three Springs living or would even like to walk around the neighborhood with someone who knows a little something about it, reach out.

Durango is the kind of town that’s hard to fully appreciate until you’re standing smack dab in the middle of it and Three Springs is no exception to that rule. Whether you’re just starting to explore your options or you’re ready to get serious, I’m happy to be your enthusiastic guide and we’d love to help you get to know this unique community a little better!

Written by [Heather Erb](https://www.destinationdro.com/blog/author/bt-326323/) on May 12, 2026. Posted in [Durango Area Guides](https://www.destinationdro.com/blog/category/durango-area-guides/), [Durango Living Guide](https://www.destinationdro.com/blog/category/durango-living-guide/), [Relocation Resources](https://www.destinationdro.com/blog/category/relocation-resources/)

Tags: colorado, durango, Durango healthcare, Durango living, Durango neighborhoods, Durango schools, Three Springs Durango

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