Power incident involving Ashburn data centers raises questions about electric reliability
ASHBURN, Va. (7News) — A power issue in Ashburn, Virginia, last week is raising concerns about whether data centers could hurt the reliability of the power grid not just by using too much energy, but also by suddenly using too little. The incident happened last Wednesday when a transmission line in Ashburn experienced a fault that automatically caused it to go out of service, A spokesperson for Dominion Energy told 7News. As a result, several data centers chose to go off the grid and switch to backup power. According to PJM, an organization that oversees the movement of electricity in 13 states and D.C., data centers disconnected 3,000 megawatts of power from the grid. According to reporting by Reuters and others, that caused lights to flicker not just in Northern Virginia, but over a huge area as far as Chicago. Alan Cooper, the CEO & Co-Founder of ON.energy – which makes products aimed at keeping the grid stable – says it’s fortunate nothing worse happened. “When the grid feels that volatility, an electrical system will seek to protect itself, which could make the problem worse,” he said. “So that’s really the nightmare scenario, that it could cause sort of a rolling blackout scenario. It’s very important to note that data centers are applying billions of dollars of investment, including technologies like the ones that we deploy, to make data centers grid safe.” Both JPM and Dominion Energy stress that no serious problems happened in this case. “Within minutes of the incident occurring, our system operations team was able to stabilize the situation and return to normal operating conditions,” Dominion wrote in a statement. “Our system protections acted exactly as they were intended to support the reliable operation of the grid. Similar events have occurred in the past, and just as in those events, we will work in partnership with our data center customers, sharing information to continue improving what is already a very strong and reliable grid.” 7News reached out to some of the largest data center companies in Loudoun County. Amazon Web Services responded, sending 7News a statement from Brandon Oyer, their director for Energy and Water: "Last week, a local utility's transmission line experienced an unexpected event. In response, our facilities transitioned to backup power systems, which performed as designed and prevented customers from experiencing any impact. The broader grid also responded as expected. We work closely with our utility partners to continuously improve our operational practices, balancing the protection of our equipment with grid reliability, and remain committed to supporting the power infrastructure serving our customers in Northern Virginia and across the country." Amazon stressed that it was not data centers that caused the initial transmission line issue. Meanwhile, PJM says it is working closely with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which tells 7News it is coming up with an action plan that will lead to standards to help with reliability amid large demand for power from businesses such as data centers.
ASHBURN, Va. (7News) — A power issue in Ashburn, Virginia, last week is raising concerns about whether data centers could hurt the reliability of the power grid not just by using too much energy, but also by suddenly using too little. The incident happened last Wednesday when a transmission line in Ashburn experienced a fault that automatically caused it to go out of service, A spokesperson for Dominion Energy told 7News. As a result, several data centers chose to go off the grid and switch to backup power. According to PJM, an organization that oversees the movement of electricity in 13 states and D.C., data centers disconnected 3,000 megawatts of power from the grid. According to reporting by Reuters and others, that caused lights to flicker not just in Northern Virginia, but over a huge area as far as Chicago. Alan Cooper, the CEO & Co-Founder of ON.energy – which makes products aimed at keeping the grid stable – says it’s fortunate nothing worse happened. “When the grid feels that volatility, an electrical system will seek to protect itself, which could make the problem worse,” he said. “So that’s really the nightmare scenario, that it could cause sort of a rolling blackout scenario. It’s very important to note that data centers are applying billions of dollars of investment, including technologies like the ones that we deploy, to make data centers grid safe.” Both JPM and Dominion Energy stress that no serious problems happened in this case. “Within minutes of the incident occurring, our system operations team was able to stabilize the situation and return to normal operating conditions,” Dominion wrote in a statement. “Our system protections acted exactly as they were intended to support the reliable operation of the grid. Similar events have occurred in the past, and just as in those events, we will work in partnership with our data center customers, sharing information to continue improving what is already a very strong and reliable grid.” 7News reached out to some of the largest data center companies in Loudoun County. Amazon Web Services responded, sending 7News a statement from Brandon Oyer, their director for Energy and Water: "Last week, a local utility's transmission line experienced an unexpected event. In response, our facilities transitioned to backup power systems, which performed as designed and prevented customers from experiencing any impact. The broader grid also responded as expected. We work closely with our utility partners to continuously improve our operational practices, balancing the protection of our equipment with grid reliability, and remain committed to supporting the power infrastructure serving our customers in Northern Virginia and across the country." Amazon stressed that it was not data centers that caused the initial transmission line issue. Meanwhile, PJM says it is working closely with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which tells 7News it is coming up with an action plan that will lead to standards to help with reliability amid large demand for power from businesses such as data centers.
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