Susana Schwartz
Data center concentration can increase risk of winter blackouts — NERC recommends 6 steps for cold-snap preparedness
I live in the “snow belt,” where we average 114 inches of lake-effect snow each year. Ice weights heavy on our power lines, and storms sometimes strain our power grid. That’s why a NERC report about higher winter blackout risks due to data centers caught my eye. In its “2025-2026 Winter Reliability Assessment,” the North American Electric Reliability Corporation found that areas with high net-load hours and very high peak load hours could risk reserve supplies, especially those in which data centers alter the “daily load shape due to their round-the-clock operating pattern.”
An example NERC called out was The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the flow of electric power to more than 27 million Texas customers. This month, 220 gigawatts of projects have requested connection, 73% of which are data centers. Though NERC acknowledges that after 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, battery storage and demand-response resources were implemented to counter shortfalls, they recommend six preparedness steps to reduce the risks of energy shortfalls. Those recommendations can be found on page 7 of the report, and they apply to other areas with data center density and a chance of cold snaps, such as the Mid-Atlantic, U.S. West, and U.S. Southeast.
Susana Schwartz
Technology Editor
RCRTech
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