Congressman Jay Obernolte, co-chair of the US artificial intelligence (AI) task force, has appealed to federal energy regulators to support behind-the-meter colocated data centers as a matter of national security and competition for global AI dominance.
First reported by Reuters, Obernolte argued that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should fast-track a clear rule set that will encourage the expansion of AI and its high energy requirements. The new rules would include an easier route for data center operators and energy providers to sign colocated agreements for AI-specific installations.
"As their energy requirements increase, the development of co-located energy production will be instrumental in mitigating grid strain, improving resilience, and reducing carbon emissions," wrote Obernolte.
The statement is particularly relevant following FERC's decision last month to reject a proposed Interconnection Service Agreement (ISA) for an expanded colocated load at an Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center connected to the 2.5GW Susquehanna nuclear power station in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
The proposal aimed to revise an ISA involving PJM, the regional grid operator, Susquehanna Nuclear, which owns the power plant, and transmission owner PPL Corp. The amendment would boost the data center's shared power demand from 300MW to 480MW.
The decision by FERC was precipitated by a complaint made by AEP Ohio and Exelon in June, who argued that the proposed ISA didn’t fit the current service class models, was poorly explained from an engineering point of view, and would result in AWS using the grid but not paying the required fees, pushing up costs for other customers.
FERC agreed with the assessment, stating that PJM had not provided sufficient justification for the nonstandard provisions allowing a “unique” arrangement for the data center.
In response, Talen Energy, the nuclear plant operator, requested a rehearing of its ISA proposal, arguing that FERC failed to apply the correct legal standard in its decision-making process, consider all of the recorded evidence, and explain why the ISA was subsequently rejected.
Following this, Constellation Energy, which has the largest nuclear fleet in the US, filed a complaint to FERC requesting a fast-track ruling on PJM’s lack of clear rules for interconnected generators to follow when seeking to provide a behind-the-meter service to fully isolated colocated load facilities, such as data centers.
AWS initially acquired the 960MW Cumulus data center campus in March from Talen in a $650 million deal. As part of the agreement, Talen agreed to supply AWS with energy via a 10-year Power Purchase Agreement from the Susquehanna site.
