FERC Jump-Starts Plan to Get Data Center Connections Right
FERC orders regional grids to move quickly to handle the biggest issue facing the electricity grid today.
WASHINGTON – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered regional grid operators to accelerate efforts to better handle surging electricity demands from new data center construction and let customers know how much that new demand is costing them.
FERC is ordering grids to come up with plans in 60 days to ensure the public knows about the cost impacts of connecting new data centers, to quicky and cheaply upgrade transmission capacity and to figure out how to get data centers to cap their power draw during times of grid strain.
The following is a comment from John Moore, director of the Sustainable FERC Project at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“While we will need to see the details, it’s encouraging that FERC is acting with speed and force to address this critical issue. FERC is focused on the right issue: making sure regular customers don’t face skyrocketing bills because of surging data center demand.
“Most importantly, the actions proposed today focus on protecting consumers from unnecessary costs and will help existing transmission lines carry more juice, making our current infrastructure more nimble and efficient. We need to update the grids we have to connect battery storage, solar, and wind to the grid – and feed the data centers hungry for power.
“This is a promising start. It’s now going to be up to regional grid operators to get to work and deliver the price transparency and grid upgrades that FERC is demanding. We are going to be advocating to make sure they don’t use this situation to make a dash for gas and instead put in place the policies to deliver low-cost solar, wind and storage to power the future.”
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).