PJM proposes plan to handle power demands caused by data centers
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dbeard@dominionpost.com
MORGANTOWN - PJM Interconnection is seeking federal approval for a plan to deal with the power demands of data centers and other "Large Loads."
PJM - the 13-state regional power grid operator - submitted its proposal for an Interim Resource Adequacy Service (IRAS) and a Large Load Registry to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday.
The plan would enable PJM to keep track of Large Loads with significant power demands - 50 megawatts or more - and establish a path for Large Loads that don’t provide their own power to reduce their demand when the grid is strained to dangerous levels.
PJM explained its reasoning for the proposal to FERC in its 435-page filing. "PJM hosts the largest concentration of data center load in the world," it says. It predicts load growth of 32 gigawatts from 2024 to 2030, with 30 GW of that coming from data centers.
While PJM has seen generation capacity increase, it said, the capacity shortfall has grown even more.
"In other words," PJM told FERC, "the addition of new supply has not kept pace with rapid large load demand growth, thus giving rise to the significant tightening of the capacity market in recent years and subsequent resource adequacy shortfalls."
The IRAS would apply to new Large Load customers that don’t bring their own power supply. When the power supply is dangerously low, the IRAS procedure would notify utilities to reduce or transfer the electricity demand from new Large Load customers ahead of any action that would serve to shut off traditional consumers, including residential consumers, PJM said in a summary of the FERC filing.
IRAS, PJM said, would also apply to new Large Loads that don’t have their capacity needs covered through the Reliability Backstop Procurement process designed to fill forecasted capacity shortfalls starting in June 2027.
PJM descries how IRAS would benefit the grid: Supplies are running low and it notifies utilities to prepare to reduce Large Load demand; it then instructs utilities to reduce consumption, starting with Large Loads; this makes more power available for other customers; and the risk of outages for residential and other customers is reduced.
With the Large Load Registry, PJM told FERC, it "will be able to gain a better understanding of all the Large Loads currently on its system and the New Large Loads that will interconnect in the future. The registry will enable PJM to better forecast load growth, plan and manage the transmission system, and study and provide the anticipated new transmission services for co-located loads and Large Loads."
PJM said it contemplates that the registry will be available to states, transmission owners, electric distributors, "Load Serving Entities," the Independent Market Monitor for PJM, and FERC, subject to appropriate confidentiality and data protection safeguards.
In its summary, PJM said the IRAS and Large Load Registry model is consistent with its Ratepayer Protection Pledge introduced in March and expanded in July.
It said new Large Loads will "build, bring, or buy the new generation resources and electricity needed to satisfy their new energy demands, paying the full cost of those resources whether by building, or buying from, new or otherwise additive power plants" because it "advances self-sufficiency and protects Americans from higher prices.'"
PJM said a Large Load that is ordered to reduce its power usage could receive credit for helping maintain grid reliability. States and their local utilities would manage how these retail costs are shared among customers in affected areas.
Large Loads could also waive that compensation consistent with the Ratepayer Protection Pledge to "protect the American people from increased utility bills as a result of the development of these data centers," PJM said.
PJM said it proposes that beginning with the 2029/2030 capacity auction, new Large Loads that do not bring their own new supply to the system will not be included when calculating the future power needs to be procured in capacity auctions.
PJM has asked FERC to accept the petition within 60 days.