Computing meets power
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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Says Phasor Measurements Can Understate Higher-Frequency Oscillations from AI Training Data Centers
The laboratory's report says artificial intelligence training data centers "with periodic load profiles can induce sustained grid oscillations across a wide frequency range," and that "the filtering inherent in the phasor estimation process can significantly attenuate oscillation magnitudes."
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Operational Data and Communications: The Final Draft of NERC's Proposed Standard for Computational Load Sites
NERC's final draft of CLO-002-1, dated October 2026, would require each Computational Load Operator to "comply with each Operating Instruction issued by its Transmission Operator(s), Balancing Authority, or Reliability Coordinator," unless the action cannot be physically implemented or would violate safety, equipment, regulatory or statutory requirements. Its timetable anticipates board adoption in the fourth quarter of 2026.
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Not Well Documented: Berkeley Lab's 2025 Update on United States Data Center Energy Use
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's update of June 2026 estimates how much electricity data centers in the United States use, and could use by 2030. On how much of its grid connection a data center uses, it says the share "is not well documented."
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Secured or in Advanced Stage: The Data Center Power Pipeline in Prologis's Results for the Third Quarter of 2026
Prologis's supplemental information for the third quarter of 2026 gives its data center power pipeline as "secured or in advanced stage." Its notes define each kind of power, and say of the second that "There is no guarantee that such capacity will become secured power."
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Electrical Equipment, Electricians and a Pause in Texas: Data Centers in the Federal Reserve's Beige Book of October 2026
The Federal Reserve's Beige Book of October 2026 summarizes what contacts outside the Federal Reserve System reported in its twelve districts. In the Kansas City Fed's section, "it was noted that the data center buildout has crowded out other production and put pressure on the labor market."
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What the Panel May Ask: Large Loads at FERC's Reliability Technical Conference of October 21, 2026
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's notice of September 9, 2026 sets out the agenda of its Reliability Technical Conference on October 21. The title of its first panel includes "Operational Challenges of Integrating Large Loads in Evolving System Dynamics."
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Connected for More Than They Use: Data Centers in AEMO's 2026 Electricity Statement of Opportunities
The Australian Energy Market Operator's 2026 Electricity Statement of Opportunities says that, to date, data centers in the National Electricity Market "have been operating with a relatively flat load typically well below the maximum connection capacity." It also counts the projects proposed and canceled, and forecasts their consumption.
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Backup Generation as a Last Resort: The Energy Department's Order No. 202-26-50 to PJM
The U.S. Department of Energy's Order No. 202-26-50 determines that a statutory emergency exists in the PJM region. It authorizes PJM to direct backup generation resources to operate as a last resort before declaring an EEA 3, or during one, and it says such a resource is not a capacity resource.
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Loads That Leave the Grid: NERC's Reliability Insights on Large Computational Loads and Voltage Sensitivity
NERC's Reliability Insights of September 2026 describes large computational loads, data centers among them, that remove themselves from the grid when the voltage dips, in what it calls a familiar pattern. It reports changes by data centers that may have reduced the load lost in one event, and a load reduction in Virginia in July 2026 whose specifics are still being analyzed.
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"Fault Cleared Properly": PJM Reviews Its Load Transfer Events
PJM's operational review of October 6 lists three dates on which load transferred to backup generation. The slide for each describes a fault on a transmission line and carries the same line: fault cleared properly.
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Rapid Fluctuations in Active Power Consumption: Large Loads in ERCOT's Board Update of September 2026
ERCOT told its board in September 2026 that large loads, "particularly those associated with data center AI training processes, are capable of producing rapid fluctuations in active power consumption," and that its draft NOGRR "will recommend" a limit on that variation.
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"They Should Not Disconnect From the Grid": PJM's Account of the July 22 Load Transfer
On July 22, 2026, data centers in Virginia disconnected from the grid and switched to backup generation after a line fault. PJM's account of August 11 gives the sequence in two waves and what operators did, and reports that the first phase of new reliability standards will not address ride-through.
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Prior to Receiving a Request: NERC's Level 3 Alert on Computational Loads
On May 4, 2026, NERC sent the grid's planners, owners and operators a Level 3 alert on computational loads such as AI training, with seven essential actions and questions to answer by August 3. The alert says it "does not create a mandatory obligation to take the Essential Actions."
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Power, Not Space: Risk Factors on Power in Equinix's Annual Report for 2025
In its annual report for 2025, signed on February 11, 2026, Equinix says that in certain instances it has had difficulty securing energy supply it contracted for or needs for its expansion plans, that its ability to find partners and sites for expansion may be limited by access to power, and that power, not space, is a limiting factor in many of its data centers. It expects limited availability of water and power and grid constraints in many markets to continue.
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Typically Without UPS or Backup Generators: NERC's Review of Crypto-Mining Load Loss in ERCOT
In January 2026 NERC reviewed 26 events, identified by ERCOT, in which crypto-mining facilities in Texas lost load in response to normally cleared transmission faults. Such facilities, it says, typically have no UPS systems or backup generators, unlike AI data centers, and some are transitioning toward AI or cloud workloads.
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Access to Power Capacity: Alphabet's Data Center Energy Strategy Call of November 2025
Asked on the call whether the primary constraint is "power availability, or construction labor and trade resources," Alphabet's head of data center energy named "access to power capacity" first, and the skilled labor to build and connect that power with it: "It's really a both/and."
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Training and Saving Checkpoint Progress: NERC's White Paper on Emerging Large Loads
A white paper of NERC's Large Loads Task Force, dated July 2025, sets out the characteristics and risks of emerging large loads. It says that, generally, AI training executed in large clusters has rapid fluctuations during training periods and while saving checkpoint progress, and that the rapid ramps seen in those cycles are not observed in current AI inference methods.
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Load That Did Not Return for Hours: NERC's Incident Review of a Data Center Load Loss
On July 10, 2024, faults on a transmission line in the Eastern Interconnection were cleared properly, and data centers in the area moved their load to backup power. NERC's incident review says most of the sustained load reduction came with the third voltage depression, and that this load did not return for hours.
