U.S. grid managers are warning that data centers could trigger blackouts if they suddenly trip offline — and companies are looking to Texas for a solution.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main grid operator, is set to vote on rules Tuesday that would require data centers to stay online during temporary grid disruptions.
If ERCOT’s plan is finalized, data centers could be ordered to disconnect from the grid if they fail to “ride through” power disruptions and are considered a threat reliability. Developers are pushing back, saying ERCOT is overstepping its authority and unfairly targeting artificial intelligence projects and crypto-mining facilities.
The stakes are high.
Texas saw widespread power outages in 2021 during Winter Storm Uri, which killed more than 240 people in the state. Power was cut off to millions of residents amid fears of a widening grid failure, and now Texas is working on a blueprint to avoid a similar disaster caused by data centers. Decisions in Texas may affect outlooks across the country, as developers plan a surge of data centers in red and blue states alike. The idea is to keep problems at one site from destabilizing the wider power system.
“If those cascading things happen, then there could be a collapse of the grid,” said Prasad Enjeti, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Texas A&M University.
A large data center that goes offline during a temporary grid disruption, Enjeti said, could cause a ripple effect in the grid’s demand-supply balance. And that could cause more data centers to trip offline — creating a larger and larger wave of grid disturbance that could force electric substations and generators to go offline.
ERCOT’s board of the directors is poised to vote on the rules Tuesday and send them to the Public Utility Commission of Texas. If that happens, the PUC could give a final approval later this year.
Ian Rock, chief technology officer at TerraFlow Energy, said ERCOT’s proposed rules are already being used as a blueprint by other grid operators across the country. Terraflow manufactures batteries for data centers.
In a meeting with a data center client and another grid operator, Rock said the operator — which he declined to name — told him to just use ERCOT’s proposed parameters when he asked about what criteria the project would need to meet to ride through blips on the grid.
“I think others are watching and taking the criteria,” Rock said. “I’d say ERCOT is in a very market-leading position, which they often are.”
By Shelby Webb
