The US’ largest grid operator, PJM Interconnection, intends to file plans with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to secure more power and manage surging data center demand on the grid.

According to reporting from Reuters, the Regional Transmission Operator (RTO) filed two plans with FERC.

The first seeks to establish a "reliability backstop procurement" process aimed at matching supplies with data center power needs that have not been met with long-term ​contracting. The procurement process would commence on September 30 and continue through to October 21, with the results subsequently released in December.

According to the RTO, the plan is needed to close the widening gap between data center load and available power resources, with PJM projecting that demand from large loads could spike to 70GW across its coverage area by 2038. As part of its latest capacity auction held last month, power prices hit a price cap at $325 per megawatt-day, with PJM falling short by approximately 6.8GW of its reliability requirement to meet projected demand, creating significant risks of blackouts on the grid.

The second proposal laid out by PJM would form a registry ​for data centers and other large loads to track their location and energy usage. As part of this proposal, for data centers that do not have any on-site generation, PJM proposed that it could temporarily shut off electricity at the sites during periods of extreme grid stress to avoid rolling blackouts. However, that would require approval from individual state governments.

Earlier this month, the PJM grid saw a large proportion of data center load abruptly disconnect from the grid, causing a voltage disturbance felt across the network. In total, PJM reported that more than 3GW of power was rendered offline, which accounts for approximately three percent of the grid's total demand at the time, according to PJM operations data.