PJM grid operator reviews data center rules after 4GW outage

PJM, the grid operator serving a large part of the eastern US, is considering changes to interconnection reliability requirements for data centers after an outage that originated in Northern Virginia knocked roughly 4GW of data center load offline.

Why it matters: Northern Virginia is the world's largest data center hub, so a 4GW outage there is a serious stress test for grid infrastructure during the AI buildout. Combined with Texas's own interconnection pause affecting 20% of US data centers, this suggests grid operators are starting to treat AI data center demand as a reliability risk requiring new rules, which could slow how quickly new AI compute capacity comes online.