Dozens of data centers abruptly dropped off the grid, forcing operators to take emergency action.
New Threat to the Grid
The Wall Street Journal reports A New Threat to Power Grids: Data Centers Unplugging at Once
Early last year, a cluster of data centers in Virginia suddenly dropped off the power grid, threatening the stability of the already vulnerable system.
The roughly 40 data centers, which had been using enough electricity to supply more than one million homes, simultaneously switched to backup power sources in February 2025, when a high-voltage power line malfunctioned. The sudden plunge in electricity demand forced the grid operator to take quick action to avoid potentially serious damage.
The incident, details of which haven’t been reported, was the second such problem in Virginia within a span of months. In July 2024, about 70 data centers withdrew from the grid when another high-voltage line failed, requiring a similar scramble to keep power supply and demand in line.
Balancing the two is critical in maintaining the health of the grid: Both undersupply and oversupply of electricity demand can cause power plants to fail, resulting in blackouts and repair challenges. The issue is especially pressing in Virginia, where data centers are projected to use as much as 57% of the state’s electricity by 2030.
In both instances, the loss in data-center demand totaled less than 2,000 megawatts—a substantial amount of power, but not enough to create a crisis for the grid operator, known as PJM Interconnection. PJM had operations in place to quickly reduce the amount of supply on the grid in response to the demand loss.
“It didn’t cause an emergency, but I would say it caused concern,” said Mike Bryson, PJM’s senior vice president of operations. “What we’re worried about is, what if that happens for 3,000 megawatts or 5,000 megawatts?”
Concerns about the rapid build-out of data centers often center on the risk that adding too many in a given region could strain electricity supplies, particularly on hot or cold days when demand is high. If demand threatens to exceed supply, grid operators call on power plants to ramp up production and, as a last resort, order utilities to cut power to customers to maintain balance.
Now, the opposite risk is emerging. Data centers are equipped with technologies that monitor for disturbances on the grid that could cause a power outage and affect operations. When disturbances occur, many data centers automatically shift to backup supplies, severing their grid connections until power quality stabilizes.
Both risks have been most acute within PJM, which operates a power market spanning 13 states from New Jersey to Kentucky. Home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world, PJM has for years been grappling with the prospect of electricity supply shortages as the enormous facilities use more and more power. The prospect of them disappearing unexpectedly causes more headaches for the grid operator.
Mark Christie, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, last year requested a briefing on the risk of data centers tripping offline at once upon learning it had happened in PJM.
“I thought, ‘Here is another threat to the reliability of the grid that we’ve got to get in front of,’” he said. “As we move into this era of massive load customers, the system is now at risk of being crashed from the load side.”
A big problem with major consequences is highly likely. And it could be in either director, or both, one right after the other.
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I would have to take a look at the transmission system diagram but sudden load changes shouldn’t be too much of an issue because the same thing happens if the transmission line is suddenly lost due to some type of accident (line failure, tower failure, etc.). It could cause a grid shutdown (it is hard to design a system that is stable in all potential load scenarios, still supply all the load, and be relatively economical) but typically the equipment itself is protected and a controlled restart is required.
This is a surprise why? Like we ever had the vast energy needed to be functional. This was a pipe dream, much like EV’s and Climate Change. These hoaxes have got to stop. It’s coming from insufferable people, who can’t take “No” for their answer, because they are far too invested.
EV’s were never going to work in all of America, but so many jumped onto the bandwagon of unicorns with their investments, and now it has to work, but it still won’t. It’s not the concept, but rather the ability of the concept to succeed successfully. We don’t have the energy required to do so, without making the cost too high, and then affordability is again the issue. With an abundance of low cost Gasoline, who was dumb enough to decide we needed a new form of energy, that is more expensive, already in short supply, and adds environmental issues and no true cost savings in any way. GV’s will be at 50mpg as a standard shortly. Much cheaper to buy, and to run, and to fix (didn’t we only build like 10 charging stations for over 1 Billion$?).
Climate Change is a hoax and then some. The temperature has changed basically 1 Whole Degree since 1900. No, we cannot Block The Sun, and No, Windmills are too finicky, too expensive to maintain and fix, and only work part of the time, and not much at all on other days, an unreliable crap shoot every time. We also have to buy parts, because we can’t produce them, and if we could, not cheaply enough.
Now we are onto Data Centers, that consume vast quantities of Electricity and other issues too of course. They will Rob from what’s already needed and unavailable, and then we won’t have lights, and things like that. You know useless things for most, like AI will be. Might replace your job, but that’s not really useful for you now is it?
Somehow you managed to turn an article regarding instantaneous demand drops on the electrical transmission grid into a rant against EVs and climate change.
Same rant… find different energy ideas
Climate change is real. Quick physics lesson: electrons around atoms can only live at specific distances from the core of the atom, those are called valence levels. The earth reflects light from the sun, which is why you can see it from space. When that light hits greenhouse gases in the visible spectrum, it causes the electrons to absorb the photon of light, jump to an energy level higher than the highest valence level, and collapse back, giving up a photon in the infrared spectrum, which we call heat. That infrared photon shoots in all direction simultaneously, and since the earth is close, that’s where a little less than 1/2 of it ends up. So as you get more greenhouse gases, you get more heat reflected back to earth. This has been absolutely proven to be the case from hundreds of valid experiments. The increase in temperature thus far is about 2 degrees Fahrenheit and growing at about 1/3 of a degree per decade.
That will have little effect on our generation. But may be devastating for our grandchildren as they get older. They will rightfully despise us for being so ignorant and selfish and leaving them with less of a world than they could have had. Especially when making the necessary changes would actually have improved our own standard of living. But we were too blinded by ignorance, propaganda and ideology to do simple, smart things to make their lives better.
Hey Stu, ranting is one thing, but typing opinions as if they are facts is something else. Reading your comment brings me a picture of someone who would prefer to light up a gas powered light if you could, because you “think” it is cheaper. About this “10 fast charger costing 1B$” is a flat lie without a proof but went around a while (a year ago?), please update your list of “facts”. If we follow your advice, about gas being “cheap” so drop alternative ways to go from point A to point B is useless, we wouldn’t have LED lights. Initially they cost 3x or 4x of an equivalent lumen incandescent bulb. Now they are everywhere and also uses silicon, one ingredient of solar panels. Gas cars have been around more than a century and never gone beyond 60% efficiency (per unit energy, not mpg which only good to compare gas guzzlers: it is the wrong “efficiency” for general transportation) because simply burning for movement is not efficient, it generates more heat than movement. Trying to squeeze in 50mpg gas mandate is clever (makes me wonder what you drive) however not only EPA regulations are relaxed for that mpg “efficiency” but per unit of energy you put in a gas car is not as efficient as an electric car. For an average EV close to 90% of energy you put in goes to movement. Yes I know they are heavy…for now. Again no technology comes perfectly the way you want. That’s where innovation comes in my friend.
In the 1970’s, I designed an electric powered pump station for a large oil field waterflood project in a sparsely populated location that was dependent on a small REA power system. The pumps were well over half the demand load of the entire system and had intense start up required criteria to avoid impacting other users, but there were no criteria required for shut down which was done occasionally. So now fifty years later with all the advances that come with time, we are supposed to believe reducing load is a problem on par with say summer overloads and brown outs? Sorry, but for me this whole story does not pass the smell test. I would not be surprised to see someone have a patented solution ready for regulators to require for fixing a non-problem funded by rate payers.
Early last year, a cluster of data centers in Virginia suddenly dropped off the power grid, threatening the stability of the already vulnerable system.
The roughly 40 data centers
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you would think regulator w/ HALF FUNCTIONING BRAIN WOULD stop issuing permits in same geo. area?
this kind of shit i would expect from gov. in USSR , or Russia! not USA.
apparently there is no much diff for now.
The half functioning brain is impaired with the thought of a facility that can be taxed.
yeah.seems like it
or half functioning brain just hopes to get job in private sector later!
Maybe we shoulda thought this through??? How long have companies known they were going to suck up this kind of power???
engineers know, suits paper it over. “somebody will figure it out, don’t worry” /s
US embassy in Riyahd hit
no matter!!
iran is fuck11ed, but unless USA puts boots on the ground 100 *200 thous
Iran regime will survive.!!
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USA could kill ayatollah each month, there will be another 10 in line!
Clearly data centers pose a risk to the power grid. Data centers need off-grid power sources, paid by investors, not the government. Deregulate so they can install their own generators, but keep the same chimney scrubbing requirements like the regulated utilities have.
I think it still may raise rates because you will have another consumer trying to purchase the limited amount of nat gas/ coal. Or whatever
Shh… Your saying (paid by investors) the quiet part out loud. They want that little tidbit, to stay sealed away for now. That want you and I and everyone but themselves to pay for it. They know how truly expensive of an endeavor this is, now of course, after they invested…
60 years ago, as a chemical engineering student at Texas Tech, I had to take an electrical engineering class. Wow!!! It was incomprehensible, and I still can’t wire a two way light switch.
I’ll try to explain what happens when a large draw of electricity is suddenly added or removed from the grid.
Here in the US our grid operates at 60 hz. When something suddenly draws or stops drawing a large amount of power the generating turbine continues to output power at the previous rate. It takes time for the turbine to slow down or speed up based upon the new demand. This time period (which is quite small) is the problem. There are fail safe breakers that monitor the grid’s frequency. Any deviation of roughly .5 hertz in either direction triggers the breakers to trip. If you’ve been paying attention your probably thinking that this could cause a cascading failure and you’d be right.
That’s the quick and dirty of it. There are a ton more details that I didn’t include for the sake of simplicity.
Wow, that was a great explanation. Thanks for this.
Are some sources better adapted to handling that bette than others? Is there a difference if the source is nuclear, coal, gas or renewables?
It’s not so much tied to the generation type (coal, nuclear, natural gas, renewables), its tied to the mechanisms within the grid that are used to maintain the grid’s 60 hz. frequency.
Giant battery banks could absorb the excess juice should a sudden large drop in demand occur. Other mechanical means, like fly wheels, could also be used to absorb the excess juice. The issue is that all of those still have capacity constraints and cost money to maintain.
Anything electronic (i.e. solar with inverters) should be able to react instantaneously to the load change with solid state switching. Anything mechanical, typically rotating, takes time to react.
Right! One of my first jobs (many decades ago) was writing software to model ‘transient stability’ for power systems that measured the millisecond performance of the power grid in case of major power / load changes. The results would inform system engineers on how to better configure interconnections and where to place load-shedding breakers, condensors, etc. for improved resiliancy. Back then it was about unexpected power source losses (generator goes offline), whereas now I suppose it will involve more unexpected load drops!
The voltage also increases or decreases depending upon either a load shed or a load increase. Both the voltage protective relays and the frequency protective relays are programmable so the settings can be whatever the utility or the system operator require. A 0.5 Hz deviation would be huge. Sometimes I have had to program protective relays for as little as 0.1Hz deviation trip.
The turbine doesn’t actually slow down or speed up to demand changes, that would change the frequency. You adjust the power input (hot gas, steam, or water) to the driver of the generator to change the power output of the turbine. Of course since there already is a large amount of energy in the rotating mass it takes a while to change and the input power change is not instantaneous. This causes the speed and voltage change.
this country is being immiserated by large corporations
news out today
Alligator Alcatraz has a burn rate of $1.2mil A DAY after building with a billion dollar contract for 500 inmates
Wow! Maybe California can show them how to house homeless people for slightly less. LOL!
dont worry
it is all counted in gdp calculation!
enjoy!
And outside the US where solar panels from China don’t have ridiculous tariffs, the world is now building walls with solar panels because they are so cheap. I’ve seen these in South America but evidently, Europe is building them too.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5PrXalpL8I/
I think you missed the point of the article
The power grid cannot handle large swings in power usage and generation. So even if Solar and Wind become affordable. People switch how will they deal with it when the sun doesn’t shine or the Wind blow at the right speed. The issue is the backups which 90% of production will not or doesn’t currently have.
Everyone will blame the power companies for not providing backup and they will be asking why didn’t you have your own backup. After all you will not want to pay for them to create and have one.
Batteries. That was easy. What isn’t easy is figuring out cheap battery storage.
There is NO SUCH THING. I have owned RVs for decades and those Deep Cell Batteries (6 volt) have gotten MORE AND MORE expensive. Glass Mat and other types have ripped higher.
my last glass mat for my ice vehicle was $250
Exactly. And you require each data center to install them based on their projected consumption to buffer their start/stops. Don’t make the utilities (consumers) pay for the new need.