Largest US grid floats paying data centers to shut off during power scarcity
>“One of the fundamental problems at PJM is political, not economic, not the physics of the grid,” Mark Christie, a former FERC chairman, said in an interview with Straight Arrow earlier this year, referring to how differing state policy affects grid operations.
>It wouldn’t be the first time industrial facilities have been paid for shutting down amid stress on the grid. In 2023, the bitcoin company Riot Platforms made $31.7 million for allowing its power demand to be controlled by Texas’ grid operator through a voluntary demand response program. But under the IRAS plan, data centers in PJM that don’t secure their power would not have a choice.
>“We are really in uncharted water here,” Gordon said. A few years ago, he said “the idea of singling out a specific type of customer for curtailment would be unthinkable,” but the fact that it’s happening now is a sign of how drastic a shift data centers are causing in how the grid is run.