Policy · United States

DOE presses PJM on ratepayer protections from large load costs

Credited to Utility Dive · utilitydive.com · 10h ago

Photograph · Utility Dive

“A capability to continuously track whether a project enters into service... can help assign costs for new generation to the customers responsible for those investments,” DOE said in a rare filing.

Dive Insight:

Instead of waiting for a five-month hearing process to play out, PJM intends to file a proposal at FERC to revise its backstop procurement plan by Oct. 29, Jeffrey Shields, a spokesman for the grid operator, said in an email to Utility Dive on Thursday.

PJM plans to hold a special Members Committee meeting on Oct. 22 to consult with its members on the substance of the upcoming filing, according to Shields. Also, PJM will schedule a special Transmission Owners Agreement–Administrative Committee meeting, he said.

The PJM’s reliability backstop procurement proposal grew out of a fast-track stakeholder process and aims to address a pending capacity shortfall, largely driven by data center demand forecasts. PJM failed to acquire enough capacity in its last two base capacity auctions to meet its reserve margin targets.

The grid operator intends to acquire 6.8 GW of new capacity to make up for a shortfall from the capacity auction for the 2028/29 delivery year, according to a fact sheet on the auction process. PJM may reduce the target to account for new supply that is expected to be added to its system, which spans 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia.

However, the backstop procurement originally slated to begin Sept. 30 was put on hold at the last minute after FERC said that parts of PJM’s proposal — those dealing with cost allocation, transmission owner exit rules and load-serving entity collateral requirements — may be unjust and unreasonable.

The agency established a hearing process set to run through February to address those issues, but said PJM could propose its own fixes using guidance FERC included in its order.

In its filing, the DOE supported FERC’s decision, particularly on the agency’s concerns about how the proposal would allocate costs.

“Under the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, large electric energy loads — not American households or other business ratepayers — must fund the electric energy generation and related infrastructure that such new large load projects require,” the DOE said.

Companies committing to the pledge agreed to protect consumers from price hikes driven by large load energy demand and related infrastructure requirements, the department said. Utility companies in PJM’s footprint that signed the voluntary pledge include American Electric Power, AES, CenterPoint Energy, Dominion Energy, Exelon, FirstEnergy and PPL.

The DOE said PJM should adopt FERC’s recommended revisions to its backstop procurement plan to advance the Ratepayer Protection Pledge’s principles.

“DOE shares the Commission’s concerns that PJM’s proposed [reliability backstop procurement] cost allocation model may be unjust and unreasonable,” the department said, noting that FERC found it may not allocate costs to the consumers who caused them.

DOE agreed with FERC that PJM should allocate the backstop procurement’s costs based on updated load forecasts.

“A capability to continuously track whether a project enters into service — and therefore benefits from the capacity and system investments procured to serve it — or is delayed, reduced, or cancelled, can help assign costs for new generation to the customers responsible for those investments,” the DOE said.

Without up-to-date and project-level information, PJM cannot “reliably reconcile its base forecast with Load Adjustments, avoid omissions and double counting, revise the [reliability backstop procurement] target when forecast load fails to materialize, or attribute demand growth to the appropriate zone and load-serving entity,” the DOE said.

PJM’s tariff may omit large loads already included in the grid operator's baseline demand forecast, leading to flawed cost allocation, according to the DOE.

PJM needs adequate data to identify the large load projects reflected in its forecasts and to monitor their development, the DOE said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to add PJM’s comments.

Beijing Will Not Pace the Frontier: China’s Speed-First AI Safety Regime

Credited to SemiAnalysis$ · newsletter.semianalysis.com6h ago

Useful

AI safety is on fire. On 12 September 2026, Dario Amodei published an essay arguing that frontier labs must deliberately slow the pace at which they improve model capabilities. China was central to his geopolitical argument: export controls and tighter security could preserve…

View the article · $SemiAnalysis

Front Method

Policy · Europe

Permits, Not Power, Halt Google’s Finland Data Centers

Credited to Data Center Knowledge · datacenterknowledge.com · 6h ago

Photograph · Data Center Knowledge

Google had secured access to Finland’s northern grid, but environmental rules are blocking site work at two facilities in its €13 billion data center expansion.

Finland told Google to halt major site work at two planned data centers after regulators found that substantial land clearing and other site preparation had occurred before the required environmental impact assessments were completed.

For data center operators, Google’s experience shows that securing power and grid capacity does not guarantee that construction can proceed. Google had access to significant grid capacity in northern Finland through the Finnish grid operator Fingrid, but the project encountered another constraint when site preparation crossed into permanent environmental alteration.

“Power was the part Google had already solved. Fingrid said the northern grid had room,” said Stephen Sopko, practice lead for semiconductor and deep tech at HyperFrame Research. “The failure was treating forest clearance as preparatory work when Finnish law treats permanent conversion above 200 hectares as the action regulators are there to judge.”

Related: Google’s Grid-Interactive AI Data Centers: From Backup to Grid Partner

The Finnish Licensing and Supervisory Authority, known as LVV, directed Google ’ s subsidiary Tuike Finland Oy to suspend work that significantly alters the environment at planned sites in Muhos and Kajaani. The agency called for the work to stop immediately and no later than Oct. 23.

The request covers tree removal, topsoil removal, excavation, blasting, crushing, earthmoving, drainage work, and construction of site roads and storage areas. Planning, measurements, soil surveys and other limited or reversible activities can continue.

At Muhos, Tuike reported that about 330 hectares had been felled or prepared. At the Kajaani-Otanmäki site, the reported area was just under 200 hectares.

LVV said environmental impact assessment reports for the two projects are expected to be completed in 2026. The agency said allowing major site work to continue could undermine the assessment process by limiting the ability to identify environmental impacts, examine alternatives and prevent harmful effects.

Grid Capacity Wasn’t the Constraint

LVV’s intervention followed a Sept. 18 request for information from Tuike Finland, the Municipality of Muhos, the City of Kajaani and local building-control authorities. Based on the information it received, the agency determined that the preparatory activities warranted intervention under Finland’s EIA Act.

The issue is the sequencing of the work. An environmental impact assessment is intended to gather information about a project’s environmental effects before that information is used in decision-making, including identifying impacts, considering alternatives and determining measures to prevent or reduce environmental harm.

Related: Google Says AI Growth Is Outrunning Grid Decarbonization

With major site alteration already underway, the assessment has less ability to serve that function, according to Tiina Paloniitty, associate professor of environmental and sustainability law at the University of Helsinki, in an email.

“You can often do surveys and reversible site work ahead of the permit.... What you can’t do is clear 300 hectares and call it anticipation.” – Stephen Sopko, practice lead, HyperFrame Research

Google announced the €13 billion investment in September, including new data centers in Muhos, Kajaani and Vaala and an expansion of its Hamina site.

Google selected the northern Finland sites in part because of the available grid capacity near carbon-free electricity sources. Fingrid has said Muhos, Kajaani and Vaala have significant grid capacity in an area where electricity production exceeds consumption.

For operators planning large data centers, the Finnish case shows that environmental approvals can impose separate sequencing requirements even when a site has the electricity and transmission capacity needed for a large facility.

“This is not just a data center rule. It is the rule for any major project,” Sopko said. “You can often do surveys and reversible site work ahead of the permit. You certainly can in Finland. What you can’t do is clear 300 hectares and call it anticipation.”

Related: The Ripple Effect of Data Center Project Cancellations and Delays

Google Says It Followed Forestry Rules

Google said it acted in good faith under Finland’s Forest Act, conducted nature surveys and took measures to protect environmentally valuable areas.

“We understand the concern caused by the situation. In this case, we did not meet the high standards we set ourselves,” said Sondre Ronander, communications manager for Finland and Norway at Google, in a public statement.

Google said it is advancing landscaping and biodiversity plans, including tree planting across 130 hectares at Muhos.

Paloniitty said compliance with forestry rules does not necessarily satisfy separate environmental impact assessment requirements. The two laws serve different purposes, and complying with one does not remove obligations under the other.

“Compliance with one applicable law does not equal … compliance with other applicable laws,” Paloniitty said.

Based on publicly available information from LVV and Finnish media, Paloniitty said it appears that Google failed to comply with the Finnish EIA Act, even after the authority indicated that the projects required an environmental impact assessment.

“Good faith is not a legally relevant argument here,” she said.

Paloniitty said the environmental review cannot fully serve its intended purpose once substantial site work has already altered the area being assessed. That also limits the ability to evaluate alternatives and environmental impacts before decisions are made, she said.

Google’s plans to plant new trees do not resolve that issue, she said.

“New trees do not replace a full-grown forest,” Paloniitty said.

Intervention Is ‘Highly Unusual’

Paloniitty described LVV’s intervention as “highly unusual.” She said she could not recall a comparable intervention at this scale, although such action is not entirely without precedent.

The intervention does not cancel either data center project. It seeks to stop major site work while the environmental assessment procedures are completed.

The projects can continue through limited activities such as planning, measurements and soil surveys.

Tuike Finland has until Oct. 14 to provide LVV with a written explanation and state whether it will comply. Separately, the agency set Oct. 23 as the latest date by which the suspension of major site work must be in effect.

LVV is initially seeking voluntary compliance. If Tuike does not comply, the agency said it will consider initiating a formal enforcement procedure that could be backed by a conditional fine.

This article was originally published on TechTarget.com.

About the Author

Shane Snider is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of industry experience. He started his career as a general assignment reporter and has covered government, business, education, technology and much more. He was a reporter for the Triangle Business Journal, The Raleigh News & Observer and most recently a tech reporter for CRN. He was also a top wedding photographer for many years, traveling across the country and around the world. He lives in Raleigh, N.C.

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