#electric-grid

#electric-grid

PJM released a white paper this week that said the region "has years, not decades" to make fundamental changes to the way it operates. "The current situation is not tenable," PJM CEO David Mills wrote in a foreward to the report. Normally, this sort of wonky report would land on the desks of a few legislators and regulators. But PJM's territory includes a large number of data centers, including the compute-dense region of Northern Virginia. What happens to PJM will send ripples throughout the tech world.

The U.S. has been grappling with an outdated grid system, as the result of decades of underinvestment and an aging infrastructure. As tech companies increasingly rely on grid operators for electrical power, reliability issues and production limitations have threatened the speed of AI implementation, raising investor concerns of an AI bubble, as well as resignation the U.S. has already lost the battle with Chinese tech.

The growth in electricity demand from data centers is threatening the South's transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. Current projections indicate an increase in reliance on fossil fuels, further raising carbon emissions.