Julia Selker, the executive director of the WATT Coalition, a trade association for grid-enhancing technologies, said both the projects and the scale of the investment are significant. Trump continues to stick up for data centers, even as politicians from both major political parties criticize them and many communities try to block them. The eastern Pennsylvania electric utility says two data centers in its territory came online this year and six more https://www.hocbench.com/category/uncategorized/ are under construction, with enough other data centers in the advanced planning stages that its peak electric demand could quintuple by 2032.
This acute crisis is happening just weeks after the White House declared a national emergency regarding the bulk-power system, explicitly citing the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and data centers as a major factor compounding the grid’s vulnerabilities. His administration meanwhile has pushed to help tech giants build and connect data centers to power plants and high-voltage power lines and convert Cold War-era uranium enrichment plants into data center and power plant complexes. To create that capacity would require a build-out of roughly 5,000 miles per year of high-capacity regional transmission, plus additional miles of interregional transmission, according to Grid Strategies. And it’s expected to get even worse, Tim Holt, in charge of grid technologies for Siemens Energy, told the outlet, with transformer demand in 2027 on pace to more than double the demand seen in 2020. The average wait time to replace a large transformer at a major substation, which are built to handle tens or even hundreds of thousands of volts, has jumped from less than a year to a staggering 128 weeks since 2021 alone, the outlet writes, with some lead times exceeding five years. A new bill called the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act aims to do just that by “giving the federal government more authority to approve major interstate power lines” while forcing data centers to pay for their transmission costs.
Then there’s the problem of the system’s age, and its loose confederation of 101 regional balancing authorities nationwide that manage the flow of power generated and distributed by the three interconnections. The gunmen fired 120 shots, taking out an alarming 17 transformers at a Pacific Gas and Electric’s Metcalf electrical substation just outside San Jose, New York Times Magazine reported. However, if the past is any indicator, it’s far from certain that this bill will eventually become law. In the case of Oregon, for example, a recent report stated that one-quarter of the state’s power goes to data centers.
People also ask
- That rule, among other things, requires utilities and regional grid operators to consider the next 20 years of power demand forecasts in their transmission planning rather than simply considering short-term needs.
- So it may be unsurprising that tens of thousands of people in northwest Indiana have remained without power since storms knocked down power lines across the region last week.
- It took PG&E 27 days to bring the substation back online after the attack, which remains a mystery and no arrests have been made.
- That includes 21,000 people in the city of Gary, Indiana, where people have sought relief from food pantries or gone to community centers just to charge their phones.
- In the case of Oregon, for example, a recent report stated that one-quarter of the state’s power goes to data centers.
- The gunmen fired 120 shots, taking out an alarming 17 transformers at a Pacific Gas and Electric’s Metcalf electrical substation just outside San Jose, New York Times Magazine reported.
It took PG&E 27 days to bring the substation back online after the attack, which remains a mystery and no arrests have been made. All you have to do is look at a map of the grid and figure out where most of the wires go into the substations — that’s a critical substation,” Wellinghoff said. He said it didn’t even matter which nine were hit, as long as each was among the 10 most important in its respective region, and that with enough guns the entire grid could be taken out in 20 minutes. “If you knock out nine total substations along those three grids, you can black out the entire United States.” The US is at a heightened risk of a catastrophic blackout that could last up to 18 months due to aging power grid infrastructure that takes agonizingly long to update and is potentially vulnerable to a precision weapon strike.
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- He first raised the alarm in 2013 after gunmen shot up 17 transformers at an electrical substation near San Jose, California
- PJM operated through similar conditions and a DOE emergency order amid elevated temperatures in September.
- “If you knock out nine total substations along those three grids, you can black out the entire United States.”
- Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
- According to the New York Post, it took Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) nearly a month to bring the California substation back online in 2013.
- Federal authorities are arresting more than two dozen foreign nationals in California who authorities said have illegally registered and voted in U.S. elections
The Department of Energy issued an emergency order effective from Oct. 13 to Oct. 16 to authorize PJM Interconnection, which operates the regional grid, to use extra backup generation resources as needed to keep the power on. The average age of large power transformers, which have even shorter service lives than their smaller cousins, was years old in 2014. While the future looks grim for curtailing climate emissions, building out infrastructure that can connect new clean energy projects as they come online could stop billions of tons of pollution in just the next 15 years, according to Yale Climate Connections. Confusingly, Wright’s own Office of Electricity released a draft of its 2026 National Transmission Needs Study weeks earlier, saying that NIETCs “use valuable federal financing and permitting tools to spur construction or modification of transmission facilities.” The announcement comes amid warnings that AI’s voracious demand for power is threatening to overwhelm U.S. power supplies, as massive new data centers come online faster than new power plants can be built.
Congress has failed to speed up transmission line permitting
NIPSCO said its work includes replacing 300 poles and 44 power transmission poles That includes 21,000 people in the city of Gary, Indiana, where people have sought relief from food pantries or gone to community centers just to charge their phones. According to the New York Post, it took Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) nearly a month to bring the California substation back online in 2013. He told the NYT Magazine that even 12-year-olds could find them with a map on the internet, and anyone with enough guns could destroy them in 20 minutes. “If you knock out nine total substations along those three grids, you can black out the entire United States.” “We came up with some very astounding numbers,” Wellinghoff told the publication.
Data Centers and the US Grid
And establishing a transmission investment tax credit would be helpful,” Zimmerman said by email. That would also depoliticize the process, because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission operates more independently from the White House than the Department https://flarealestates.com/recycling-in-small-spaces-efficient-equipment-for-urban-areas.html of Energy. Zimmerman of Grid Strategies identified several measures that could speed up domestic transmission permitting and development. But in August 2026, Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that he was canceling these three proposed corridors. In December 2024, the Department of Energy finally advanced three proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors in the areas identified as having the greatest need for additional transmission capacity. But for over 15 years, the Department of Energy was unable to designate any such corridors due to a series of court decisions in favor of states, landowners, and environmental groups, ruling that the bill’s language was insufficiently clear.
That rule, among other things, requires utilities and regional grid operators to consider the next 20 years of power demand forecasts in their transmission planning rather than simply considering short-term needs. For example, Congress could allow important transmission projects to move directly to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permitting, rather than waiting for the Department of Energy to first define national interest corridors. Despite acknowledging the importance of building new transmission lines, Wright characterized these proposals as part of “a climate-alarmist agenda” intended by the Biden administration “to advance their Green New Scam agenda and accelerate decarbonization.”
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The demand for electrons on the U.S. power grid remained relatively flat for decades, increasing by a mere 5% between 2005 and 2023. “Failing to pass permitting reforms would have real consequences for all of us,” said Zach Zimmerman, director of research and policy for Grid Strategies, a power sector consulting firm, in an email. You’ll receive the latest climate change news, tips, and inspiring stories twice a week.
According to the National Weather Service, unseasonable and record-breaking warmth has settled over much of the Southern Plains, Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions. The most “acute” issues were anticipated in areas served by Baltimore Gas and Electric, Pepco and Dominion Energy, which cover parts of the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia region. On Oct. 14, PJM expected to https://newtou.info/the-rise-of-sustainable-shopping-how-online-retailers-are-embracing-eco-friendly-practices/ be within 900 megawatts of its reserve margin, while overall demand was expected to be 113,312 megawatts. States covered by PJM service include all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. PJM operated through similar conditions and a DOE emergency order amid elevated temperatures in September.
These sorts of jams haven’t been a problem until just recently, as power-hungry data centers proliferate and demand from electric vehicles, heat pumps, and air conditioning grows. Like too many cars on the road, too many electrons traveling across power lines can cause traffic jams. However, temperatures may fall as much as 20 to 25 degrees later in the week as the warm spell passes.