With major cities on the East Coast experiencing a dangerous heat wave, Energy Secretary Chris Wright this week directed mid-Atlantic data centers to use backup power sources instead of drawing power from the public grid to provide enough power for residential air conditioning.
By 10 a.m. Thursday, the heat index had exceeded 100 degrees in all major metros from Washington, D.C., to New York City. And as the mercury has risen, so has the energy used for air conditioning.
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“Maintaining affordable, reliable and safe power in the PJM service area is non-negotiable,” Wright said in a statement.
Wright’s order Tuesday targeted data centers and other large power customers served by PJM, the nation’s largest power grid operator. The PJM region consists of 13 states. Virginia is home to the world’s largest cluster of data centers, and its dramatic energy use has caused some mid-Atlantic states to experience severe spikes in electricity prices in recent years.
New York City, where power outages occurred Thursday, is not part of the PJM regional grid. More than 15,000 Con Edison customers in the New York City subway and further north were without power as of late Thursday afternoon due to the heat wave, according to the utility’s outage map.
In a post on X, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani urged residents to set their air conditioners to 78 degrees and unplug appliances to conserve energy and reduce stress on the grid.
Wright said the Trump administration is “using every tool available to ensure that Americans in the Mid-Atlantic region continue to have access to affordable, reliable, and safe energy to power, heat, and cool their homes.”
The Department of Energy estimates there is more than 35 gigawatts of unused and available backup generation across the country, but has not said how much of that is in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The use of backup generators would reduce the strain on the power grid, but many large generators run on gas or diesel and are less efficient than utility-scale power plants, creating more pollution and air quality problems near the center.
Compared to other states with large numbers of data centers, such as Texas and California, the PJM region has fewer large batteries to store energy that can be used during peak loads and demands, such as the current heat wave.
