Largest U.S. Grid Threatens Power Cuts To Data Centers That Don't Bring Their Own

Facing skyrocketing demand, the nation’s largest grid operator plans to require new data centers to provide their own power or have their service cut when the grid is strained.

PJM Interconnection, whose service area encompasses Washington, D.C., and 13 states in the mid-Atlantic and Midwest, has been scrambling to contend with an unprecedented, data center-driven wave of electricity demand that has threatened the grid’s stability and raised customer utility bills. Now, the grid operator is asking federal regulators to approve a new framework governing how data centers connect to the grid and acquire power.

Under the proposal, submitted Friday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, newly built data centers that don’t add capacity to the grid will have their power supply curtailed when the grid approaches dangerously low levels compared to demand...