PJM proposes data center registry with teeth

The nation’s largest grid operator plans to create a registry of data centers and other large energy users whose electricity may be curtailed during a power shortage.

PJM Interconnection announced the move Monday, along with plans for an extra capacity auction in September. The Reliability Backstop Procurement, as that auction is called, aims to cover the system’s peak demand after PJM’s most recent capacity auction fell about 60 gigawatts short.

The pair of decisions comes at a moment of existential crisis for PJM, which manages a power grid serving 13 states in the mid-Atlantic and Midwest. The grid operator faces bipartisan pressure from states as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to prove that it can manage unprecedented load growth across a sprawling region.

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