Data Centers Need Own Power Supply, US Grid Watchdog Says
(Bloomberg) -- Data centers looking to connect to the largest US grid must bring their power supply, the system’s independent watchdog said.
The warning escalates the watchdog’s position from just a month ago when it said the grid operated by PJM Interconnection LLC, stretching across 13 states from Virginia to Illinois, has no spare supply for new data centers and suggested developers build their own power plants.
However, in its quarterly report released Thursday, watchdog Monitoring Analytics LLC said it “recommends that large data centers be required to bring their own generation.”
The grid is home to the highest concentration of data centers whose soaring power demand has strained aging infrastructure, driven up costs for consumers and become a political flashpoint.
“The current supply of capacity in PJM is not adequate to meet the demand from large data center loads and will not be adequate in the foreseeable future,” the report said. “There is still time to address the issue but failure to do so will result in very high costs for other PJM customers.”
PJM said in a statement that it’s working with all of its stakeholders, including the market monitor, to address the imbalance of supply and demand, which it said was primarily driven by unprecedented growth in electricity use.
(Updates with comment from PJM in last paragraph)
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