PJM has withdrawn its non-capacity backed load proposal, shifting the focus of its solution for rising large load additions to creating a parallel resource interconnection queue and reworking price-responsive demand.

The data center dilemma centers first on a familiar mismatch of timescales. Utilities and their regulators tend to plan based on the small, incremental demand growth. But development and the power demand it generates move at ever-increasing digital speed.

FERC received comments on its recent technical conference on co-located load in which parties offered suggestions for how the commission should move forward in dealing with the emerging issue.

FERC rejected an amended ISA filed by PJM to allow an existing data center co-located at a Talen Energy nuclear plant to expand, saying it did not meet the commission's standards for changes from its pro forma rules.

The war in the Ukraine, coupled with the boom in electricity demand driven by data centers, has created a “muscular resurgence” of interest in nuclear, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said.