By Tim McLaughlin
July 22 (Reuters) – A massive amount of power abruptly disconnected from the largest U.S. electric grid on Wednesday, causing a voltage disturbance that could be felt from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, according to experts and data from grid operator PJM.
The cause of the event in PJM Interconnection’s territory was unknown. But it underscores why federal and state regulators are studying measures to better manage sudden drops in demand from data centers and crypto miners that can destabilize grids.
The epicenter of Wednesday’s event happened about 7:55 a.m. ET in northern Virginia, home to the largest collection of data centers in the world, said Bob Marshall, CEO of Ting Labs. His company’s network of 1.4 million sensors recorded a range of voltage disturbances that extended along the eastern United States and to Chicago in the Midwest.
Grid disturbances are routinely corrected by operators and utilities in a matter of milliseconds, Marshall said. But Wednesday’s event took about 10 minutes before the grid was fully stabilized, he said.
“This was a massive event,” Marshall said.
PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for 67 million people in a territory that stretches from Washington to Chicago, reported more than 3 gigawatts of power demand going offline, or about 3% of the grid’s total electric demand at the time, according to PJM operations data.
PJM said it registered the sudden drop in power demand and a change in the grid’s frequency, which measures the grid’s balance of electricity supply and demand. But there were no impacts to PJM’s reliability.
“Our customers in northern Virginia reported flickering lights and noises coming from their air conditioners and refrigerators,” Marshall told Reuters. “The power quality took a pretty big hit.”
Electric utility Dominion Energy did not return a message seeking comment about the event in its territory.
(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Nia Williams)
Comments