FERC’s rejection of Talen’s proposed ISA expansion from 300MW to 480MW is raising different reactions – potential regulatory overreach affecting competition, gaps in PJM’s due diligence, and grid companies wanting a piece of a pie as it sees disintermediation, etc.
FERC concerns cover a range of issues – reliability, planning, cost shifting to customers, and lack of clarity on how much the co-located datacenter load will continue to rely on the grid during an outage of the nuclear supply as well as drawing on ancillary services including frequency control, reactive support, spinning reserves, black start, and other PJM administrative functions.
The demand for datacenter and hyperscalers is not going away, and the drive to find novel ways for to serve them when the traditional value chain and existing market provisions fail to fulfill demand in a timely manner.
What becomes obvious – is that there is much more analyses and richer and more sophisticated cost-benefit studies are warranted. Simplicity might be elegant but some problems are complex and require a more thoughtful consultation.
(Photo source: Chatgpt)
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