Collaboration among stakeholders will be crucial to maintaining Western grid reliability in the face of increasing demand posed by large loads such as new data centers, speakers said during a webinar hosted by WECC.

Intense heat coupled with this summer’s early and active fire season will likely increase the need for public safety power shutoffs later this year, according to utilities presenting at a California PUC workshop.

Five years ago, load growth from transportation electrification was a major issue for policymakers, according to speakers at a webinar. Now the focus has shifted to data centers.