The debate over data center flexibility, largely precipitated by a Duke University paper published earlier this year, has reached something of a fever pitch in recent months. Driven by soaring demand projections from AI data centers and high-profile efforts to turn that load into grid assets, states and markets around the country are grappling with how to get computing power online faster.
But in PJM, home to Northern Virginia’s Data Center Alley, the conversation escalated dramatically earlier this month when the Independent Market Monitor labeled flexible data center load as “regulatory fiction.” In a report that has reverberated through the demand response world, the monitor argued that massive new data center load must bring its own matching capacity, or risk saddling ratepayers with up to $5.48 billion in additional annual costs.
But the report is just the latest data point in a broader regulatory stalemate over data center interconnection that’s unfolding in PJM. On Wednesday, a vote on 12 different “large load” proposals ended in deadlock, with stakeholders rejecting all options on the table, including the IMM’s proposed “bring your own generation” plan, and a rival, “flexible compact” plan proposed by a coalition of PJM governors and tech giants.
In this Latitude Dispatch, we’re sitting down with analyst Julia Hoos, who leads Aurora Energy Research’s work on the Eastern U.S., to take stock of the flexibility landscape in the wake of the report. We’ll dig into:
- What the IMM report says (and doesn’t say) about the reliability of data center demand response
- The viability of flexibility proposals today in PJM
- How the report moves the flexibility conversation forward, and the implications for markets outside of PJM
Bring your questions or submit them ahead of time to editors@latitudemedia.com.
Can’t attend live? Register to receive a recording of the Dispatch.
About
