Ahead of a key vote, lawmakers in the D.C. area are urging the operators of the electric grid that powers the region to protect the energy rates customers pay.
Ahead of a key vote, lawmakers in the D.C. area are urging the operators of the electric grid that powers the region to protect the energy rates customers pay.
Lawmakers, including DC Council member Charles Allen, call on PJM Interconnection to adopt a plan the taxpayer protection proposal. It is a bipartisan proposal that, among other things, would require data center owners to provide their own power, cooling and other infrastructure resources, rather than relying solely on an electrical grid.
In the energy sector this is known as ‘bringing its own capacity’.
PJM is the electric grid operator for Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, among others.
At a press conference Monday, Councilman Allen said allowing data center operators to connect to the power grid without conditions would cost DC customers a lot of money.
“If nothing changes, residents of the District of Columbia could see increases of as much as $70 per month by 2028,” he said.
Senator Katie Fry Hester of Maryland, co-chair of the National Conference of State Legislators’ Energy and Environment Committee, said higher energy bills are not the only problem customers face.
“Whose power will be curtailed first when the blackouts that PJM has told us are coming arrive?” she asked.
On Wednesday, the PJM Board of Directors will decide how the connection of data centers to the regional electricity grid will be managed.
“PJM welcomes all proposals submitted in the Critical Issue Fast-Path stakeholder process, which aims to maintain grid reliability for the 67 million people we serve while managing the integration of data centers and other major electricity users into the system. The fact that we received 12 different thoughtful proposals indicates the importance of this issue, as well as the numerous opinions on how to solve it,” PJM told WTOP in an emailed statement.
Hester characterized the PJM decision as unprecedented and urged a well-thought-out approach.
“We welcome the economic opportunities that these data centers bring, but this growth must come with responsibility,” she said.
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