As soaring data center electricity demand strains the grid, PJM has proposed a two-part plan that critics say could favor large fossil-fuel power plants while making it difficult for microgrids, energy storage, and other distributed energy resources to compete. World Business Academy Founder Rinaldo Brutoco tells Microgrid Knowledge that the long-term economics favor cleaner distributed energy, as fossil fuels face rising costs and states increasingly require data centers to account for their emissions. He argues that recognizing these hidden future costs now could encourage data center operators to adopt cleaner, more affordable distributed energy resources from the outset.
Read the full story by Lisa Cohn at Microgrid Knowledge:
How PJM’s Plans for Meeting Data Center Energy Needs Make Deploying Microgrids and DERs Difficult