Tech giants are in search of direct energy provide offers with energy crops to satisfy their rising electrical energy wants, bypassing the normal grid system.
This development is exemplified by Amazon Web Services’ proposed association with Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna nuclear plant, which might divert 960 megawatts — sufficient to energy greater than 500,000 houses — on to a brand new information heart.
The Federal Vitality Regulatory Fee (FERC) has quickly blocked this “behind the meter” connection, the primary of its type to return earlier than the fee, elevating vital questions on grid equity and vitality accessibility. The choice’s implications lengthen past AWS, doubtlessly affecting your entire information heart business and nuclear energy sector.
The surge in cloud computing and synthetic intelligence is driving unprecedented demand for information heart energy. Whereas information facilities will be constructed inside two years, grid connection usually takes 4 years or extra. Direct energy plant connections might considerably cut back these timelines, making them enticing to tech corporations racing to develop their operations.
Critics, together with electrical utility house owners Exelon and American Electric Power, argue these preparations might quantity to grid freeloading, doubtlessly permitting AWS to keep away from $140 million in annual grid upkeep prices. Market watchdog Monitoring Analytics warns of “excessive” impacts if this mannequin extends to all nuclear crops within the mid-Atlantic grid.
Supporters counter that these preparations may benefit nuclear crops fighting market competitors from pure gasoline and renewable vitality, whereas decreasing the necessity for brand new transmission infrastructure. Talen Vitality, Susquehanna’s majority proprietor, initiatives vital income potential from the AWS deal.
Learn extra: Big Tech wants to plug data centers into power plants, utilities say it’s not fair
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