Joseph Bowring monitors the energy market for PJM – the power grid that supplies Virginia – and he predicts chaos if this state does not join with 12 others and Washington, D.C. to make a simple demand.
“Require data centers that want to get online in PJM right now to bring their own new generation.”
Already, he says, wholesale prices to boost capacity have spiked, pushing consumer bills up in June, and they’ll keep rising until those served by PJM or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission take action.
“If a data center wants what we call 8760 generation, which is what we call every hour of the year, then they need to provide generation that can do that – typically gas-fired generators and not a solar or wind generator which are intermittent.”
He says Texas is already imposing that requirement, some firms building data centers in PJM territory have offered to supply their facilities with energy voluntarily, and he doubts forcing others to do so would deter them from locating near major fiber optic networks in Virginia.
