#PJM Interconnection

[rebuiltzine]

The Green Lie: How Corporations Are Bulldozing Maryland Under the Banner of Climate Progress

Part of The New Land Wars series They call it clean energy.But there’s nothing clean about bulldozing forests, slicing through farmland, and suing families to make way for high-voltage transmission lines that don’t even benefit the people losing everything. The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) is being sold to the public as an environmental necessity — a vital step toward…

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

A half-century-old Pennsylvania power plant fueled by oil and natural gas will keep running beyond its scheduled shutdown date following an order from the Trump administration just one day before it was due to retire.

The Eddystone Generating Station near Philadelphia was to close permanently last Saturday because its owner determined it no longer made economic sense to run.

But an order from the U.S. Department of Energy on Friday directed the plant’s owner, Constellation Energy, and grid manager PJM Interconnection to take “all measures necessary” to ensure that the two remaining generation units at the plant are available to operate. The order is effective until Aug. 28 and can be extended.

“Operational availability and economic dispatch of the aforementioned Eddystone Units 3 and 4 is necessary to best meet the emergency and serve the public interest,” said the order from Energy Secretary Chris Wright. He said the 90-day duration of the order was also intended to “minimize adverse environmental impacts.”

The order said the continued operation is justified by a national “energy emergency” declared by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, and by PJM’s responsibility to ensure electric reliability. On April 8, Trump issued another executive order saying that all available electricity supplies “must” be used to meet an unprecedented increase in national demand for power, especially to run artificial intelligence data centers. At the same time, the Trump administration has cracked down on efforts to expand renewable energy, including an executive order to freeze development of new offshore wind projects.

The new order is the second of its kind from Trump’s DOE. In late May, Wright directed the 1,560-megawatt J.H. Campbell Plant in western Michigan to stay open past its scheduled closure date, also last Saturday. The agency said action was needed to minimize the risk of blackouts and improve grid security.

[mariacallous]

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump held a press conference to announce the signing of executive orders intended to shape American energy policy in favor of one particular source: coal, the most carbon-intense fossil fuel.

“I call it beautiful, clean coal,” President Trump said while flanked by a crowd of miners at the White House. The crowd chuckled knowingly at the now-familiar phrase. “I tell my people never use the word coal, unless you put ‘beautiful, clean’ before it.”

Trump has talked about saving coal, and coal jobs, for as long as he’s been in politics. This time, he’s got a convenient vehicle for his policies: the growth of AI and data centers, which could potentially supercharge American energy demand over the coming years. One of the executive orders signed Tuesday includes instructions to designate coal as a “critical mineral,” expedite coal leasing on federal land, and identify opportunities for expanding coal-fired power to support data centers.

Using coal to drive AI “would be one of the great technology ironies of all time: Let’s go to a 1700s technology in order to power 21st-century technology,” says Seth Feaster, an energy data analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “It really is a vast oversimplification of how power markets, power production, and the grid works in the US.”

In Tuesday’s presser, Trump, trodding familiar territory, targeted Democrats for the destruction of coal jobs as part of a “Green New Scam,” laying the blame on both Joe Biden and Barack Obama. In truth, though, coal retirement isn’t a function of who’s in the White House. More coal-fired power came offline under Trump’s first presidency than under either of Obama’s terms.

Unfortunately for Trump, the US coal industry suffers from some truly unavoidable economic realities. The last large coal-fired power plant built in the US came online in 2013; coal plants in the US are, on average, 45 years old. This aging fleet also has higher maintenance and upkeep costs for equipment than competing types of power. The fracking revolution in the 2010s—as well as the increasing availability of cheap renewables—has also made coal-fired power increasingly expensive. In 2023, just 16 percent of the US’s power generation was from coal, down from 51 percent in 2001.

With the executive order, Trump is “putting the thumb on one energy source in particular that happens to be one of the highest-cost energy sources,” says John Moore, a director at the National Resource Defense Council. “There are much cheaper and cleaner options.”

While coal’s downward turn in the US has been predictable, something has changed since the last time Trump was in office: AI. After remaining flat for several decades, various industry forecasts now predict skyrocketing demand for energy as companies talk a big game around plans for data centers. In September, Bloomberg Intelligence found that data center electricity use in the US could increase fourfold over the next five years, driven in large part by generative AI. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, said in February that global energy demand from data centers could increase 165 percent by the end of the decade.

The promise of new demand is driving some utilities to reconsider scheduled coal plant retirements. In Virginia, where Amazon Web Services keeps 96 data centers and is investing $35 million to expand its campuses, the regional transmission organization, PJM Interconnection, requested a delayed retirement of two coal plants due to increased demand from data centers. Demand from Google and Meta data centers has also kept a coal-fired power plant in Nebraska online past its retirement date.

But keeping a patient on life support is substantially different than bringing a corpse back from the dead. A PJM executive said at a conference last month that he wasn’t sure if the market was “sending the signal right now that coal should actually stick around.” Building new, technologically up-to-date coal plants—an idea Trump floated at Tuesday’s presser—would be a hard sell in an economy where investors are wary of big capital investments for outdated technology. Tech companies, meanwhile, are focusing long-term energy investments on nuclear power, as well as renewables and battery technologies.

Even in states where coal wields political power, data centers haven’t proven to be a savior. In March, lawmakers in West Virginia attached provisions to juice up coal use to a bill intended to jump-start the data center industry in the state. Despite cheerleading from the governor, the bill ultimately passed without the coal provisions after Appalachian Power, West Virginia’s largest utility, intervened, claiming that the coal requirements would raise bills for customers. An executive told lawmakers that even a big new customer like a data center wouldn’t spur the utility to buy more coal-fired power; the regulatory and financial reality, he said, favors natural gas.

Regulations on coal plant emissions are a clear target for this administration. Last month, the EPA rolled out a suite of attacks on a wide swath of regulations, signaling its intent to reconsider everything from rules on power plant emissions to greenhouse gas reporting. The agency also created an email address to allow polluters to petition for a temporary exemption from mercury and air toxics standards set out under the Clean Air Act—known as the MATS rule—as the agency reconsidered a host of pollution rules. Montana’s Colstrip power plant—one of the dirtiest coal plants in the country, which was fighting upgrades mandated by an updated pollution rule—has already requested an exemption.

If the new executive orders are any suggestion, the Trump administration sees this deregulation, and the targeting of climate change policies, as a key element of propping up coal. A separate presidential proclamation released Tuesday extends the MATS exemption for an unknown number of coal plants, while another executive order tasks the attorney general with attacking state-level climate regulations, singling out Vermont, New York, and California.

It’s possible that costs for coal could come down slightly with fewer climate regulations. “You can run all these coal plants without environmental regulations or reduced environmental regulations—I’m sure that will save industry money,” Feaster says. “Whether or not the communities around those places really want that is another issue. Those environmental regulations are there for a reason.”

Costs, after all, aren’t just measured in dollars. Coal emissions include a mix of heavy metals and chemicals, including sulfur dioxide, that can be deadly to people living around power plants. A study published in 2023 in Science estimated that between 1999 and 2020, coal-fired power plants were responsible for 460,000 excess deaths in the US alone. Coal waste, meanwhile, is stored in toxic ponds of ash; spills have cost some utilities millions of dollars in settlements.

Utilities, Feaster says, have priced in the health risks of coal and the liabilities that come with coal into their decisions. But it’s not clear if the Trump administration understands these risks. Cuts at Health and Human Services this month have expelled workers involved in black lung research and other protections for coal miners at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

On Wednesday, as international markets melted down, Donald Trump posted an invite on TruthSocial to companies to move their business to the US. “No Environmental Delays,” he wrote. “DON’T WAIT, DO IT NOW!”

[sebongica]

sebongica's reading recommendations 💌 (random groups edition)

this post contains all of the fics i've read from other groups, compiled into one messy masterlist. majority of these fics are from enhypen, bts, and stray kids. don't forget to like and reblog the fics below to show some love and appreciation for the writers <3

💋 - smut ☁️ - fluff 🧃 - angst 🎧 - absolute fav

2:27PM - heeracha ☁️🎧 (pjs)

all of the girls you loved before - jaylver ☁️🧃 (pjs)

all about you - acciojaeyun 💋 (pjs)

halos, horns, & everything in between - heartandfangs 💋 (lhs, pjs)

nonsense - bambheez 💋☁️🎧 (sjy)

cherry - fallinforgyu 💋☁️🧃🎧🎧🎧 (lhs)

you, me, and the moon - heeracha ☁️🧃 (lhs)

how to fake date your best friend - jakesimfromstatefarm ☁️ (sjy)

children of divorce - sankyeom ☁️🧃🎧 (lhs)

just right - jngsngie 💋☁️ (pjs)

when hearts drop with rain drops - kdyism ☁️ (pjs)

say it already - kdyism ☁️ (pjs)

5:09PM - jaeminvore ☁️ (pjs)

ride - fallinforgyu 💋 (sjy)

the a-list - jayflrt 💋🧃🎧 (pjs)

we're dating! (not really) - jayflrt ☁️ (lhs)

hear.t fm - luvknow ☁️🧃 (hjs)

press play - luvknow ☁️ (bc)

dive - skeezsbbygirl ☁️🎧 (bc)

everything in @subskz's masterlist 💋☁️🎧

no nut november - sluttywonwoo 💋🎧

that one sex pollen fic about scientist!jisung but i just found out the author deactivated(?) i'm devastated fr

man eater hunting - httpjungkookcom 💋☁️🧃🎧🎧🎧 (jjk)

freak-quency - gukslut 💋☁️ (jjk)

black marauder - fantasybantan 💋🧃🎧🎧🎧 (kth)

champagne, chandeliers, and thigh high slits - mimithings97 💋☁️ (kth)

heart is where the home is - gukyi 💋☁️ (kth)

peppermint mocha - pasteljeon 💋☁️🎧 (ot7)

earnestly yours - gukyi ☁️ (pjm)

eargasm - lavishedinjimin 💋 (myg)

the rich man's crochet club - kpopfanfictrash 💋☁️🎧 (knj)

interconnection - gukyi ☁️ (myg)

[darkmaga-returns]

PJM Interconnection warns of potential power shortages this summer due to extreme heat, retiring fossil fuel plants, and slow renewable energy growth, risking blackouts across 13 states.

The grid operator admits available power may fall short of demand if temperatures exceed 90 degrees, forcing emergency measures to prevent collapse.

Spain’s 2025 blackout serves as a warning, yet U.S. policymakers continue shutting down reliable power plants without adequate renewable replacements.

PJM reports 21% of its generating capacity will retire by 2030, while demand from data centers, EVs, and industry surges beyond current supply.

[dertaglichedan]

PA Grid Operator Pays 700% More to Buy Power, Warns Price Hikes Will Follow

Red lights are flashing at one of America’s largest electricity transmission operators over possible power outages after it was forced to spend 700 percent more to buy power for its customers in the latest auction.

“The significantly higher prices in this auction confirm our concerns that the supply-demand balance is tightening,” said PJM President and CEO Manu Asthana.

It’s quite a shock for a nation that leads the world in natural gas and wind power production and ranks second in solar electricity.

PJM Interconnection is America’s largest regional transmission organization, coordinating the movement of wholesale electricity across 13 states, including Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. It spent $14.7 billion during the auction to secure some 135,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. That’s nearly seven times the amount the company paid last year to purchase less power.

PJM officials said there’s enough energy through the spring of 2026, but warned that might not be the case in the future as more coal and natural gas power plants are forced off the grid by new Biden-Harris administration emissions policies.

Those higher energy prices will likely be passed along to consumers in the form of higher bills – possibly between 10 and 20 percent.

[technofeudalism]

The largest US power grid is on emergency alert because of a heat wave

PJM has ordered all power plants to be online and for consumers enrolled in demand-response programs to be ready to curtail their electricity usage to keep power supply stable, according to a notice late Wednesday.

...

The largest US grid issued an Energy Emergency Alert for the 13-state eastern US grid and called on all power plants to operate at full capacity on Thursday July 27th due to massive heat waves. We are breaching the cracking point in our infrastructure due to the effects of climate change. This will be an example of what the energy infrastructures around the world will look like, if not already there. Persistent heat will demand more energy from the grid which in turn creates more climate changing effects. For example, air conditioning generates about 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, twice as much as the entire aviation industry.

[reddit]

[newssphere0]

To prevent blackouts, Trump administration keeps another aging power plant online through summer

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy has ordered another power plant, this time an oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania, to keep its turbines running through the hottest summer months as a precaution against electricity shortfalls in the 13-state mid-Atlantic grid. The department’s order to the grid operator, PJM Interconnection, regarding the Eddystone power plant just south of…

[govindhtech]

Google Utilizes AI To Supercharge PJM Electric Grid

Electric grid PJM

Google announced their biggest AI investment to strengthen the PJM energy grid. Google is partnering with Alphabet-incubated moonshot Tapestry and North America's largest grid operator PJM Interconnection.

Tapestry will develop new AI tools and models with Google Cloud and DeepMind using its core technology. The system will intelligently manage and optimise power generation to the PJM electric grid, which includes 13 states, the District of Columbia, and much of the industrial Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. The technology will allow PJM to connect energy sources to the system faster to enhance power dependability and affordability for its 67 million customers.

Making the grid stronger

Artificial Intelligence might help the US innovate and grow. To take advantage of this, a major electrical infrastructure investment is needed. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's five-year demand growth prognosis for 2024 predicts a 128 GW rise in peak energy consumption in the US, more than doubling from the previous year.

Advanced AI can assist reduce the US power generating backlog. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicted that by 2023, the backlog will have more than twice the U.S. power fleet's installed capacity, with 2,600 GW of potential capacity awaiting connections to organised electricity grids. Grid operators are updating their databases, models, and evaluation tools to manage the jump in interconnection requests from a few dozen per year to thousands.

Connectivity automation and optimisation using AI

AI might improve and expand the American PJM power system while maintaining security and reliability. PJM is partnering with Alphabet's Tapestry, Google Cloud, and Google DeepMind to develop a suite of collaborative AI tools to help it make faster, more confident choices. New capacity may be added faster with Tapestry's tools and insights, which reduce project application processing time.

The multi-year effort aims to advance PJM by:

Faster grid energy capacity growth

Tapestry is using AI to automate and improve the data verification process, making the interconnection application and key verification phases easier for PJM planners and energy developers. This is meant to speed up project approval and PJM grid connection.

Improving affordability and efficiency

Tapestry will compile PJM's network model from dozens of datasets and technologies used to examine interconnection requests, making grid planners and project developers feel confident working together. The platform speeds up data input and grid planning so more projects may connect to the grid and supply affordable power.

Using several energy sources

A large portion of the PJM interconnection backlog involves variable energy resources. Tapestry's AI-powered automation and planning technologies can reliably and swiftly integrate diverse energy sources into the grid.

Meeting its power needs responsibly

Innovative governmental and private sector solutions are needed to ensure the US has the energy capability, affordability, and reliability to capitalise on the expanding potential. Alphabet is committed to leading this new age with various execution efforts.

Google is also developing sophisticated nuclear and geothermal technologies alongside its unique cooperation with PJM to employ AI for the grid. Google is also exploring new development and procurement tactics to generate fresh, dependable power for its businesses and a more intelligent, cost-effective electrical grid for everybody.

[ohioelectricityrates]

AES Price Hike Approved

New Post has been published on https://www.ohenergyratings.com/blog/aes-price-hike-approved/

AES Price Hike Approved

AES Ohio Customers Can Expect Bills To Rise

Learn why AES Ohio customers face a price hike that could add over $40 more this year to their bills. Find out how the OCC is fighting it.

It’s exactly what you don’t want to hear. If you are an AES Ohio customer, your bills will be going up. At the end of May 2024, PUCO approved a 53% increase to transmission charges. While there are plenty of objections to this increase, those are still in the legal pipes. As a result, the case may not resolve before in time to help your summer electric bills. So let’s see how much can you expect to pay with the AES price hike in place

Why Does AES Want a Price Hike?

In August, 2023, the PUCO authorized AES Ohio to add a transmission cost recovery rider (TCRR) to its bills. The TCRR charge recovers transmission costs charged to AES by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) or PJM Interconnection. In March 2024, AES applied to update TCRR rates to go into effect on its June 2024 bills.

On March 22, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) moved to intervene on behalf of AES Ohio residential customers. The OCC claims there is little oversight in these rate increases. They argue that PUCO should look over the further to avoid over-charging customers. Since PUCO has overruled the final objection posed to them, the OCC is turning to the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) to review the objection and rule on the rate increase. They expect a ruling in the coming weeks.

Dayton area electricity consumers can expect to pay more this year due to a AES transmission price hike.

AES Price Hike Affects Consumers

According to the OCC, this rate increase would add around $40 every year to the average AES Ohio bill. Broken down, this equals around $3.33 per month. Tor the average AES Ohio customer, this isn’t a huge monthly increase. But with fluctuating energy costs due to rising summer temperatures, this could push bills beyond budget friendly means. Currently an AES Ohio bill averages around $89. This could easily push bills into the $93-95 area.

Why Is AES Ohio Raising Transmission Rates?

AES Ohio does have valid reason to increase transmission rates. The charge will go towards replacing old transmission equipment, and expansion projects. These increases also go towards repairs from increasingly strong storms that have ripped through the region. Additionally, increased demand from residential electric vehicle charging, hot power line problems from rising temperatures, and costly transmission repairs are quickly becoming a significant problem for utilities. In other words, the Ohio grid needs to better withstand severe weather and that costs money. Unfortunately, these transmission rate increases pass that on to consumers.

Bill Increases Affect Your Electricity Rates

With the transmission rates increasing, this affects all AES Ohio customer bills. So, switching your provider isn’t going to get you out of a transmission rate increase. However, switching your Dayton electric provider can help lessen the blow. By shopping around for a new lower rate, you can keep your electricity bills from becoming overwhelming with new fees. There are also tons of tips you can try to keep your electricity usage down. And if you are planning one looking for a new rate, you can shop all the best prices in the Dayton area right here on www.ohenergyratings.com

[rebuiltzine]

Marylanders Could Face Blackouts This Summer — Thank the Green Agenda and Grid Mismanagement

Marylanders might want to invest in candles and battery packs this summer. PJM Interconnection—the regional power grid operator serving 65 million people across the Mid-Atlantic—has issued a stark warning: rolling blackouts are possible during periods of peak demand. While mainstream outlets chalk it up to heatwaves and demand surges, the truth runs deeper—and more political. This isn’t about…

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Canary Media:

As long-distance transmission line capacity emerges as a bottleneck for Illinois’ clean energy transition, state lawmakers and advocates are drafting legislation to establish state incentives for power line projects.

One proposal under consideration would allow independent transmission developers to access subsidies through the state’s Renewable Energy Credit (RECs) program, the same mechanism that has fueled the state’s solar boom.

“Merchant transmission developers are essentially building a road — generators pay to put their electricity on that road and send it to customers,” said James Gignac, Midwest senior policy manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a member of the coalition working with legislators on an energy bill building on 2017’s Climate & Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA.

The Illinois legislation being prepared for this spring’s session would create another source of revenue for such projects, lowering the cost burden on wind and solar developers looking for a more direct route to power customers. Unlike projects funded by utility ratepayers, merchant lines do not need to go through the lengthy planning and financing process overseen by regional grid operators such as MISO and PJM.

“These [high voltage, direct current] lines can serve a different purpose,” Gignac said. ​“It’s an overlay or additional feature of the transmission system. They can provide important benefits that supplement the [regional transmission organization] plan.”

CEJA mandates that almost all of the state’s fossil fuel generation cease by 2045. Especially with the boom in data centers, some are worried Illinois won’t be able to meet its energy needs with renewables and nuclear power if coal and gas plants close.

“Transmission is a huge part of the equation, it will be important in helping us take inefficient coal and gas plants off-line, and it will help bring on extraordinary amounts of clean energy,” said Christine Nannicelli, Sierra Club Beyond Coal senior campaign representative.

In December, MISO, which manages the grid for most of Illinois and a large part of the central U.S. spanning from the Dakotas to the Gulf Coast, approved a batch of 24 long-distance transmission projects on top of 18 interregional transmission lines approved in 2022. But these lines will likely take a decade or more to build, given lengthy bureaucratic processes.

Merchant lines can be constructed much more quickly, as they do not need to be studied and deemed necessary through the regional transmission organization process. They just need to be interconnected to the regional grid system, as well as receive certain approvals in the states they pass through. Illinois advocates have also proposed that legislation designate merchant lines as public utilities, giving them an easier path to eminent domain powers.

[gwydionmisha]

Internet data centers are fueling drive to old power source: Coal

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — A helicopter hovers over the Gee family farm, the noisy rattle echoing inside their home in this rural part of West Virginia. It’s holding surveyors who are eyeing space for yet another power line next to the property — a line that will take electricity generated from coal plants in the state to address a drain on power driven by the world’s internet hub in Northern Virginia 35 miles away.

There, massive data centers with computers processing nearly 70 percent of global digital traffic are gobbling up electricity at a rate officials overseeing the power grid say is unsustainable unless two things happen: Several hundred miles of new transmission lines must be built, slicing through neighborhoods and farms in Virginia and three neighboring states. And antiquated coal-powered electricity plants that had been scheduled to go offline will need to keep running to fuel the increasing need for more power, undermining clean energy goals.

The $5.2 billion effort has fueled a backlash against data centers through the region, prompting officials in Virginia to begin studying the deeper impacts of an industry they’ve long cultivated for the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue it brings to their communities.

Critics say it will force residents near the coal plants to continue living with toxic pollution, ironically to help a state — Virginia — that has fully embraced clean energy. And utility ratepayers in the affected areas will be forced to pay for the plan in the form of higher bills, those critics say.

But PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator, says the plan is necessary to maintain grid reliability amid a wave of fossil fuel plant closures in recent years, prompted by the nation’s transition to cleaner power.

Power lines will be built across four states in a $5.2 billion effort that, relying on coal plants that were meant to be shuttered, is designed to keep the electric grid from failing amid spiking energy demands.

Cutting through farms and neighborhoods, the plan converges on Northern Virginia, where a growing data center industry will need enough extra energy to power 6 million homes by 2030.

With not enough of those green energy facilities connected to the grid yet, enough coal and natural gas energy to power 32 million homes is expected to be lost by 2030 at a time when the demand from the growing data center industry, electric vehicles and other new technology is on the rise, PJM says.

“The system is in a major transition right now, and it’s going to continue to evolve,” Ken Seiler, PJM’s senior vice president in charge of planning, said in a December stakeholders’ meeting about the effort to buy time for green energy to catch up. “And we’ll look for opportunities to do everything we can to keep the lights on as it goes through this transition.”

A need for power

Data centers that house thousands of computer servers and the cooling equipment needed for them to runhave been multiplying in Northern Virginia since the late 1990s, spreading from the industry’s historic base in Loudoun County to neighboring Prince William County and, recently, across the Potomac River into Maryland. There are nearly 300 data centers now in Virginia.

With Amazon Web Services pursuing a $35 billion data center expansion in Virginia, rural portions of the state are the industry’s newest target for development.

But data centers also consume massive amounts of energy.

One data center can require 50 times the electricity of a typical office building, according to the U.S.Department of Energy. Multiple-building data center complexes, which have become the norm, require as much as 14 to 20 times that amount.

The demand has strained utility companies, to the point where Dominion Energy in Virginia briefly warned in 2022 that it may not be able to keepup with the pace of the industry’s growth.

The utility — which has since accelerated plans for new power lines and substations to boost its electrical output — predicts that by 2035 the industry in Virginia will require 11,000 megawatts, nearly quadruple what it needed in 2022, or enough to power 8.8 million homes.

Thesmaller Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative recently told PJM that the more than 50 data centers it serves account for 59 percent of its energy demand. It expects to need to serve about 110 more data centers by July 2028.

Meanwhile, the amount of energy available is not growing quickly enough to meet that future demand. Coal plants have scaled down production or shut down altogether as the market transitions to green energy, hastened by laws in Maryland and Virginia mandating net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 and, for several other states in the region, by 2050.

Dominion is developing a 2,600-megawatt wind farm off Virginia Beach — the largest such project in U.S. waters — and the company recently gained state approval to build four solar projects.

But those projects won’t be ready in timeto absorb the projected gap in available energy.Opponents of PJM’s plan say it wouldn’t be necessary if more green energy had been connected to the grid faster, pointing to projects that were caught up in bureaucratic delays for five years or longer before they were connected.

A PJM spokesperson said the organization has recently sped up its approval process and is encouraging utility companies and federal and state officials to better incorporate renewable energy.

About 40,000 megawatts of green energy projects have been cleared for construction but are not being built because of issues related to financing or siting, the PJM spokesperson said.

Once more renewable energy is available, some of the power lines being built to address the energy gap may no longer be needed as the coal plants ultimately shut down, clean energy advocates say — though utility companies contend the extra capacity brought by the lines will always be useful.

“Their planning is just about maintaining the status quo,” Tom Rutigliano, a senior advocate for clean energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said about PJM. “They do nothing proactive about really trying to get a handle on the future and get ready for it.”

‘Holding on tight’ to coal

The smoke from two coal plants near West Virginia’s border with Pennsylvania billows over the city of Morgantown, adding a brownish tint to the air.

The owner of one of the Morgantown-area plants, Longview LLC, recently emerged from bankruptcy. After a restructuring, the facility is fully functioning, utilizing a solar farm to supplement its coal energy output.

The other two plants belong to the Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. utility, which had plans to significantly scale down operations there to meet a company goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by nearly a third over the next six years.

The FirstEnergy plants are among the state’s worst polluters, said Jim Kotcon, a West Virginia University plant pathology professor who oversees conservation efforts at the Sierra Club’s West Virginia chapter.

The Harrison plant pumped out a combined 12 million tons of coal pollutants like sulfur and nitrous oxides in 2023, more than any other fossil fuel plant in the state, according to Environmental Protection Agency data. The Fort Martin plant, which has been operating since the late 1960s, emitted the state’s highest levels of nitrous oxides in 2023, at 5,240 tons.

After PJM tapped the company to build a 36-mile-long portion of the planned power lines for $392 million, FirstEnergy announced in February that the company is abandoning a 2030 goal to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions because the two plants are crucial to maintaining grid reliability.

The news has sent FirstEnergy’s stock price up by 4 percent, to about $37 a share this week, and was greeted with jubilation by West Virginia’s coal industry.(Hadley Green/The Washington Post)

“We welcome this, without question, because it will increase the life of these plants and hundreds of thousands of mining jobs,” said Chris Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association. “We’re holding on tight to our coal plants.”

Since 2008, annual coal production in West Virginia has dipped by nearly half, to about 82 million tons, though the industry — which contributes about $5.5 billion to the state’s economy — has rebounded some due to an export market to Europe and Asia, Hamilton said.

Hamilton said his association will lobby hard for FirstEnergy’s portion of the PJM plan to gain state approval. The company said it will submit its application for its power line routes in mid-2025.

PJM asked the plants’ owner, Texas-based Talen Energy Corp., to keep them running through 2028 — with the yet-to-be determined cost of doing so passed on to ratepayers.

That would mean amending a 2018 federal court consent decree, in which Talen agreed to stop burning coal to settle a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club over Clean Water Act violations. The Sierra Club has rejected PJM’s calls to do so.

“We need a proactive plan that is consistent with the state’s clean energy goals,” said Josh Tulkin, director of the Sierra Club’s Maryland chapter, which has proposed an alternative plan to build a battery storage facility at the Brandon Shores site that would cut the time needed for the plants to operate.

A PJM spokesperson said the organization believes that such a facility wouldn’t provide enough reliable power and is not ruling out seeking a federal emergency order to keep the coal plants running.

With the matter still unresolved, nearby residents say they are anxious to see them closed.

“It’s been really challenging,” said John Garofolo, who lives in the Stoney Beach neighborhood community of townhouses and condominiums, where coal dust drifts into the neighborhood pool when the facilities are running. “We’re concerned about the air we’re breathing here.”

Sounding alarms

Keryn Newman, a Charles Town activist, has been sounding alarms in the small neighborhoods and farm communities along the path of the proposed power lines in West Virginia.

Because FirstEnergy prohibits any structure from interfering with a power line, building a new line along the right of way — which would be expanded to make room for the third line — would mean altering the character of residents’ properties, Newman said.

“It gobbles up space for play equipment for your kid, a pool or a barn,” she said. “And a well or septic system can’t be in the right of way.”

A FirstEnergy spokesperson said the company would compensate property owners for any land needed, with eminent domain proceedings a last resort if those property owners are unwilling to sell.

Pam and Gary Gearhart fought alongside Newman against the defeated 765-kilovolt line, which would have forced them to move a septic system near FirstEnergy’s easement. But when Newman showed up recently to their Harpers Ferry-area neighborhood to discuss the new PJM plan, the couple appeared unwilling to fight again.

Next door, another family had already decided to leave, the couple said, and was in the midst of loading furniture into a truck when Newman showed up.

“They’re just going to keep okaying data centers; there’s money in those things,” Pam Gearhart said about local governments in Virginia benefiting from the tax revenue. “Until they run out of land down there.”

In Loudoun County, where the data center industry’s encroachment into neighborhoods has fostered resentment, community groups are fighting a portion of the PJM plan that would build power lines through the mostly rural communities of western Loudoun.

The lines would damage the views offered by surrounding wineries and farms that contribute to Loudoun’s $4 billion tourism industry, those groups say.

Bill Hatch owns a winery that sits near the path of where PJM suggested one high-voltage line could go, though that route is still under review.

“This is going to be a scar for a long time,” Hatch said.

Reconsidering the benefits

Amid the backlash, local and state officials are reconsidering the data center industry’s benefits.

The Virginia General Assembly has launched a study that, among other things, will look at how the industry’s growth may affect energy resources and utility rates for state residents.

But that study has held up efforts to regulate the industry sooner, frustrating activists.

“We should not be subsidizing this industry for another minute, let alone another year,” Julie Bolthouse, director of land use at the Piedmont Environmental Council, chided a Senate committee that voted in February to table a bill that would force data center companies to pay more for new transmission lines.

Loudoun is moving to restrict where in the county data centers can be built. Up until recently, data centers have been allowed to be built without special approvals wherever office buildings are allowed.

But such action will do little to stem the worries of people like Mary and Richard Gee.

As it is, the two lines near their property produce an electromagnetic field strong enough to charge a garden fence with a light current of electricity, the couple said. When helicopters show up to survey the land for a third line, the family’s dog, Peaches, who is prone to seizures, goes into a barking frenzy.

An artist who focuses on natural landscapes, Mary Gee planned to convert the barn that sits in the shadow of a power line tower to a studio. That now seems unlikely, she said.

Lately, her paintings have reflected her frustration. One picture shows birds with beaks wrapped shut by transmission line. Another has a colorful scene of the rural Charles Town area severed by a smoky black and gray landscape of steel towers and a coal plant.

CORRECTION

A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Prince William County receives $400 million annually in taxes on the computer equipment inside data centers. It receives $100 million annually. In addition, the article incorrectly stated that two FirstEnergy plants in West Virginia have been equipped with carbon-capturing technology. They do not have such technology in place, The article has been corrected.

[southjerseyweb]

PJM's interconnection delays threaten clean-energy goals - NJ Spotlight News

In New Jersey, interconnection delays also impact the distribution system overseen by the BPU. In South Jersey, the distribution system is so …

[darkmaga-returns]

“You know why divorces are so expensive? They're worth it.” – Willie Nelson

Edward de Bono’s seminal 1967 book, The Use of Lateral Thinking, gave name to a form of creative brainstorming known to produce innovative candidate solutions to vexing problems. Although such approaches come naturally to some, de Bono sought to create a training manual usable by the general public, and the book became wildly popular in business and entrepreneurial circles. Among the techniques of the lateral thinker are the use of random simulations, provocative questions, reverse thinking, and indiscriminate entry—Charlie Munger’s famous adoption of mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi’s mantra to “invert, always invert” is a prime example.

Consider the challenge of satisfying the seemingly insatiable demand for electricity to power supercomputers for artificial intelligence (AI). The base assumption of most analysts is that this trend must surely be bullish for grid operators, as incremental demand for electricity should drive growth and excessive profits for the otherwise sleepy industry. For reasons previously articulated—namely that, as a public good, electricity is deliberately priced below its consumed value—we have been skeptical that simply tacking significant new demand onto existing grids was the likely outcome, let alone an ideal one. 

To laterally ponder other possibilities, we explore the following provocative question: What if governments made it illegal to power new data centers using the grid? It is not as far-fetched as it might seem:

“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has denied plans for Talen Energy to supply additional on-site power to an Amazon Web Services’ data center campus from the neighboring Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. The regional PJM grid operator filed for an amended interconnection service agreement on behalf of the companies to facilitate expanded power sales—increasing from 300 MW to 480 MW—directly to AWS. Opponents of the plan argued that such a deal could threaten grid reliability and raise customer rates.