NERC president warns of ‘five-alarm fire’ for grid reliability

The issue of data centers — and how to ensure they can be safely added to the grid — was a key focus of a grid reliability conference held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday.

Generally, grid reliability is strong in the United States, but challenges are growing, Jim Robb, president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., said at the meeting.

“The reliability of the power grid remains extremely high, but, paradoxically, the risks to reliability continue to mount,” Robb said. “We’re seeing … an increasing number of small scale events and near misses that continue to reinforce what we can’t call anything but a five-alarm fire when it comes to reliability.”

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