Governors of states in the PJM Interconnection regional footprint recently reached a statement of principles with federal officials  at the White House on a plan to speed up construction of new power generation projects to meet rising data center demand while ensuring that the costs are paid by developers and not consumers. Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro was one of the bipartisan group  that met to sign the statement urging PJM to quickly take several actions, including keeping a pric

Another Pennsylvania nuclear plant has reached an agreement to supply power to a large AI data center developer as the race among big tech companies race to secure enough electricity for their projects. Meta recently announced  a series of agreements up to 6.6 gigawatts of for nuclear power by 2035. One of them with Vistra , which operates the Beaver Valley nuclear plant in Beaver County and two others in Ohio. The 20-year power purchase agreement is for 2,176 megawatts (MW)

As Mid-Atlantic regional electric grid operator PJM Interconnection continues to struggle to develop rules for how data centers co-located with power plants should be connected to the grid, federal regulators have stepped in to provide direction. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently issued an order to PJM  to quickly develop the rules, and also provided several new pathways that data center operators and other large load customers can take when seeking to connect

Electric bills will continue to climb for customers in the PJM Interconnection regional electric grid after the most recent auction for future electricity totaled a record $16.4 billion due to rapidly rising demand for power. The grid operator for the 13-state Mid-Atlantic region, including Pennsylvania, has been struggling in recent years to meet rapidly rising demand and modernize its rules to bring new power supplies online quickly. Much of the increase in demand is due t

The independent market monitor for PJM has filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking it to require the regional grid operator to add large data centers only when they can reliably be served. Monitoring Analytics  claims in the complaint “that PJM is currently proposing to allow the interconnection of large new data loads that it cannot serve reliably and that will require load curtailments (black outs) of the data centers or of other customers a

As regional electric grid operator PJM and state regulators continue to grapple with questions about how to quickly add more power generation to serve rapidly increasing demand from AI data center operators without increasing existing customers’ bills, several new proposals are being floated. A proposal was recently submitted to PJM by the governors  of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia, developed in conjunction with the Data Center Coalition, that would give p

The U.S. government is entering into an $80 billion partnership with Westinghouse to accelerate the construction of new reactors across the country in order to meet increasing energy demand from AI and data center developers. The Department of Commerce, Cameco Corp., and Brookfield Asset Management jointly announced the strategic partnership  in a release. Cameco, a uranium producer, and Brookfield are both Canadian companies that purchased Westinghouse in 2023. Westinghouse,

Western Pennsylvania’s energy resources are coming to the forefront as shifting federal priorities and rapidly increasing demand for AI and data centers converge, speakers at the Oct. 21 PA Energy Ecosystem Conference  emphasized. The conference , hosted by the Washington & Jefferson College Center for Energy Policy and Management, brought together leaders in energy, policy, and industry for a daylong discussion of the rising need for energy and how this region’s natural gas

Electric customers in seven PJM states, including Pennsylvania, paid more than $4.3 billion in data center transmission costs in 2024, a new report found. The report from the Union of Concerned Scientists  said that the costs, for local transmission upgrades made to provide transmission service directly to data centers, have contributed to rising electric bills due to a “loophole” in the current regulatory structure. The Union of Concerned Scientists  is an advocacy group tha

Growth in data centers and cryptocurrency mining through 2030 could mean higher electric generation costs, as well as a spike in power...

The speaker lineup is set for the Pennsylvania Energy Ecosystem Conference on Oct. 21, hosted by the Center for Energy Policy and...

The regional electric grid operator is fast-tracking development of a plan to standardize how new data centers and other large-load...

The energy landscape in Pennsylvania is rapidly evolving as rising demand for electricity, rapid growth in data center development, and...

Projections of the increase in electric demand expected in the coming years due to the rapid growth of data centers continue to...

The cost of electricity continues to climb in the Mid-Atlantic region, as grid operator PJM Interconnection works to maintain adequate...

The U.S. power grid is not ready to meet the increased energy needs of AI in the coming years, which will put national security at risk,...

More than $90 billion in private investment in energy projects, data centers, and power infrastructure was the highlight of the recent...

The U.S. electric grid system remained relatively resilient even as it faced significant operational stress, according to the North...

U.S. electricity demand could climb by 26% through 2030 , more than twice the rate that many utilities have used in their long-term...

Amazon announced that it plans to spend at least $20 billion  to build two AI data center complexes in Pennsylvania, one of which will be...