PJM, the largest U.S. power grid operator, said it ordered generators to run at maximum output and bring idle power plants online immediately on Thursday evening, as it faced escalating stress from a heat dome.
PJM’s orders, detailed on its emergency procedures website, were aimed at preserving reliability as it sought to maintain power on a grid serving 67 million people across the Mid-Atlantic, South and Washington, D.C., regions and the world’s largest concentration of data centers.
Even before this week’s heat wave that sent temperatures soaring toward 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), PJM had been straining to overhaul a system pushed to the brink by surging energy consumption by data centers and electric vehicles.
Yes but there still are externalized costs. We burned so much fossil fuel that the climate changed and now we are burning more to keep things cool in the warming climate. So they aren’t impacting the grid per se in this specific instance but they are still snowballing the problem. Which would be more understandable if they provided some real value to society. I’d also be curious about how often data centers are actually impacted by RAS load shedding schemes.