Need more inspiration?  Here's what I just filed.

Comments of Keryn Newman
Docket No. AD25-7

“Breaking the internet” is a figurative phrase coined to describe an overwhelming surge in web traffic that impedes the operation of the World Wide Web. In an ironic twist, the internet is now breaking us, or more precisely our grid. The generators, transmission lines and distribution systems that make electricity available to everyone can no longer function in the same way they have for decades because they have been overwhelmed by new service requests from artificial intelligence data centers.

This enormous surge in electricity demand is breaking energy transition goals, bedrock regulatory principles, how we plan the energy system, and PJM’s capacity market, just to name a few. It is also breaking consumers ability to pay for the electricity they need. Soon it could even impede their ability to receive service at all as the amount of electric generation continues to shrink and the amount of electricity required by artificial intelligence skyrockets. We are sacrificing our real, human world for an artificial one that exists inside machines.

Our entire energy system and the way we regulate it needs to be torn down and rebuilt to efficiently and cost effectively serve today’s reality. Of course, that cannot happen. We no longer have the luxury of time. Elected officials and regulators have ignored the clear warning signs that were present for a number of years in favor of indulging in politicized industry fantasy. The fantasy is over. It’s now reality.

At FERC’s Resource Adequacy Technical Conference, Commissioner Christie asked whether states should require load-serving entities to acquire enough generation to cover their load forecasts in advance, requiring that they build or buy sufficient generation to meet load. That ought to be the first condition to be a member of a resource sharing organization such as PJM Interconnection, but it is not. PJM states such as Virginia are raking in the cash and benefits created by new data centers and leaning on other states to supply the power they need to enable those new data centers. As Commissioner Christie pointed out during the technical conference, when everybody leans on everybody else, everybody eventually falls down.

Importing more electricity from a neighboring state to serve increased demand is not smart energy policy. It’s a house of cards that cannot stand. PJM has become a group of “haves” and “have nots.” PJM’s State Import-Export Map shows a real time picture of which states are importing electricity, and which states are exporting it. West Virginia and Pennsylvania are consistent electricity exporters. Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Delaware and New Jersey are consistent energy importers. It is no longer an equitable sharing of resources among states. There are states that have energy, and states that have not. There are states that are givers, and states that are takers. Where’s the value of PJM membership for the states that are consistent exporters and perpetual givers? There is no value when one state is consistently taken advantage of over and over again. West Virginia has been treated as the east coast’s sacrifice zone, exploited by corporations to benefit wealthier states and treated like a dump that becomes the butt of rude jokes. But, perhaps artificial intelligence is also breaking West Virginia’s victimhood. This year West Virginia approved a new law called the Power Generation and Consumption Act, which allows companies seeking to build data centers in the state to create their own, independent energy grids to power them. West Virginia is getting into the data center game, trying to lure the industry here where energy is plentiful and data centers can bring their own generation and be part of the solution, not just the problem. It makes so much more economic and engineering sense to bring the load to the power than to try to bring the power to the load. West Virginia has found a way to accommodate data centers that does not create financial burden on other ratepayers, or land use burdens on private property.

Over the past several years, PJM Interconnection has planned and ordered more than $11B worth of new baseload transmission to import more and more electricity to Northern Virginia’s “data center alley” from West Virginia and Pennsylvania. These new transmission lines do not provide benefit to West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They are nothing more than gigantic extension cords for the purpose of exporting resources to “have not” taker states, mainly Virginia.

The resource adequacy crisis needs an immediate solution. Satisfying new data center demand can be done three different ways. The fastest and cheapest way is to restrict new data centers to locations with onsite or nearby available power. The second would be to build new generation near data center load, but that takes more time to permit and build and the price is steep. The last, most time consuming and expensive option would be to build transmission extension cords from existing generation to new data centers in other localities. Instead of selecting the fastest and cheapest option for the grid, PJM and the Commission have opted to rely on the slowest and most expensive way to power new data centers, building new transmission. This is not a viable solution and will take much too long to implement because new transmission is never a sure thing.

The impacts of Virginia’s skyrocketing data center load will be devastating to West Virginia, which is primarily bearing the brunt of the Commission’s broken regulatory system that no longer assists consumers in obtaining reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means, and collaborative efforts. West Virginians will pay more than $440M to construct and operate two new transmission extension cords for Virginia's data centers. The MidAtlantic Resiliency Link is a new 160-mile 500kV line that will take a new 200-foot wide right-of-way through private property. Valley Link is a new 261-mile 765kV transmission line that will take an additional 200 ft. wide right-of-way through private property. In Hampshire and Jefferson Counties, West Virginia, these two separate transmission lines will converge to create a transmission superhighway as wide as two football fields laid end to end. Hundreds of homes may be taken and demolished to make way for Virginia’s insatiable appetite for new data centers. There are no benefits for West Virginia, just impacts. Membership in PJM and the Commission’s transmission planning and cost allocation procedures no longer work to provide benefit to West Virginians. We’re being used to benefit other states.

The Commission has been constantly tinkering with interconnection queues, markets and other forms of regulation but has yet to find a solution to the growing problem of resource adequacy. There seems to be little the Commission can do in the face of rapidly increasing load from data centers. All its tools no longer work. What the system needs is more generation near data center load. Because Virginia refuses to build it, other states are being torn apart for new extension cords and consumers are quickly being priced out of being able to afford basic electric service. The system is broken.

Data centers are not just another electricity customer who must be accommodated using existing rules that share burden among all customers. The Commission should take a page from West Virginia’s book and require data centers to bring their own power to wherever they choose to locate, or locate where they may directly connect with generators with excess capacity. Those localities that will not allow data centers to build their own generation cannot continue to lean on the system to support their own economic development. It’s parasitic. Once data centers are separated from the host they have been feeding on and become self-reliant, the resiliency problem solves itself. We simply don’t have any more time to wait while the Commission slow rolls minor fixes here and there and hopes for results.

Stand up for West Virginia!  It's not going to change until you do!

YOU get a substation!  Everyone gets a substation!

Has NextEra promised you a substation?  Has another transmission company that wants to run a transmission line through your county or district offered you a substation?  Does your county actually NEED a new substation, or is it being promised as a speculative draw for new data centers or industry in your county?

Talk is cheap.  Reality is expensive.  Really, really expensive.  A new 500kV substation costs around $50M to build.  Even looping MARL (or another new line) through an existing substation in your county costs about $20M.  Who do you think is going to pay for that?  If there's no actual NEED for a new substation, your county or district is going to pay for that.  All of a sudden, it doesn't sound like such a bargain, does it?  After all, your county doesn't have $50M to invest in speculative infrastructure to attract new businesses, does it?

All those promises about NextEra "dropping a substation" in your county or district are likely not only false promises, they are actually ludicrous to anyone who knows anything about how transmission is planned and built.  Don't parade your lack of knowledge around like a blinking beacon.  It's time to look your gift horse in the mouth.  It's just not happening.

Here's the reality about how transmission lines (and substations connected to them) are planned.  In the case of the MARL 500kV transmission project, the NEED came from increased load requests in the Dominion Power zone in Northern Virginia.  Dominion could not serve all the requests it had received to hook up new data center proposals in its service territory.  Dominion's load forecast is made up of actual requests from customers, not speculative requests from politicians or local county planners.  Only electric companies that serve actual customers can add new service requests that become part of the electric company's load forecast at PJM.  If there is no actual customer or NEED for new service, it doesn't go into the load forecast and it doesn't get to PJM. 

Those new service requests at Dominion got added to Dominion's load forecast that was sent to PJM.  In response, PJM opened a new proposal window to serve that need using the transmission system.  MARL was one of the proposals that is purposed to provide 7,500MW of new electricity imports from coal-fired plants in northern West Virginia.  Dominion and its future data center customers are counting on that new extension cord to build.  Those customer requests were made several years ago and cannot be connected until the transmission line is built.  Customers in Northern Virginia can expect to wait up to seven years to get service (if the project is built on time).

If a new data center wants to locate in Hampshire County, West Virginia, it would first make a new service request to the local electricity provider, Potomac Edison.  Potomac Edison would make a determination if it could serve the new customer using the existing system.  If not, Potomac Edison would add the new request to its load forecast that feeds up to PJM for transmission solutions.  However, that new service request would become part of a new planning window, it would not simply "jump the line" to take service away from customers waiting for service in Northern Virginia.

However, if there is no customer in Hampshire, and no new service request for Potomac Edison to serve, Potomac Edison would not add speculative load to its forecast.  The utilities only build the service we actually need.  They don't overbuild their systems based on speculation or political promises.  That's because new transmission and substations are paid for by ALL Potomac Edison customers, and for lines (and substations) 500kV and above, the costs are actually allocated to all consumers in PJM's 13-state region.  Utilities can only charge ratepayers for infrastructure that is used and useful to them.  It cannot charge ratepayers for speculative projects that don't even have a user.

So, where did NextEra's substation promises come from?  Most likely from lobbyists... those sweet talkers who will promise elected officials anything they want to hear in exchange for getting what the company wants.

MARL was originally planned to begin at the 502 Junction substation in Greene Co., Pennsylvania.  It was an unbroken "fly over" transmission line until it reached Frederick County, Virginia, more than 100 miles to the southeast.  There, MARL would build a new 500kV substation to connect MARL with the existing 500kV transmission line called Bismark-Doubs.  That new substation has been named Woodside.  From Woodside, both the existing Bismark-Doubs and the new 500kV MARL line will continue east another 60 miles or so until they connect with an existing 500kV substation in Loudoun County's "data center alley" called Goose Creek.

However, when transmission lines have really long spans between connecting substations, they can lose voltage.  Transmission system owner FirstEnergy noticed that the long span between 502 Junction and Woodside was going to cause unacceptable voltage drop, so they proposed to PJM that the line not simply bypass its existing Black Oak substation as originally planned, but connect there instead on its way east.  According to PJM, the loop into Black Oak is to provide voltage support to the MARL line.  It is NOT to serve new customers in Allegany County, Maryland, as it may have been sold to them in order to gain their support for MARL.  It will actually be taking power from Black Oak, not delivering it.

But, since the Black Oak connection worked so well to snow Allegany County elected officials that they were "getting something" in exchange for hosting the transmission line, perhaps NextEra simply couldn't resist using the same tactic on other elected officials in other impacted communities?  Next thing you know, everyone gets a substation!  And they're just going to "drop" out of the sky, like magic... free magic!  Do these elected officials think that NextEra is paying for all these free, unneeded substations?  Sorry, NextEra has a hard cost cap on the MARL project.  Any freebies they give away are coming out of NextEra's profits.  Also, an unneeded substation is unlikely to be permitted by state regulators.  PJM would have to testify that such a substation is NEEDED and, as as explained above, there is no NEED.  As well, NextEra doesn't serve any end use customers in West Virginia and never will.  Any new service request would be made to Potomac Edison.

In fact, when I asked PJM's planners about the possibility of a substation being "dropped" in Hampshire County (or any other county on MARL's route) I was told that there's currently no plan to do that.  In fact, PJM said that any new customers in those counties would have to make a request to the local electricity provider (Potomac Edison) before anything was planned.  Now go back where we started and read again about how new transmission and substations are planned to serve new customers.

There are currently NO PLANS for new substations to be "dropped" along MARL's route.  Anyone who believes that had best check their facts.  

A new substation is not any more likely than the promises of millions of dollars of new property tax revenue and jobs, jobs, jobs.  It's just not happening.  Oprah can give away cars, but NextEra cannot give away substations.  Don't look like a fool.

Ever feel like the filling in a tuna sandwich?  The "stuff" inside an Oreo?  Well, that's exactly what you are if you're on the Jefferson County section of PJM's 502 Junction to Goose Creek transmission project.  We're being sandwiched between NextEra's MARL on the western side, and FirstEnergy's Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek project on the eastern side.  We're the one remaining area without any maps or information.  Apparently we're being saved for last because we're the ones FirstEnergy is most worried about.  We're the ones who are supposed to remain compliant and in the dark because FirstEnergy has not given us any notice.  Well, wake up folks, this is your notice!

FirstEnergy has finally emerged from their bat cave to disseminate public information about the eastern half of the project.  As I told you several weeks ago, FirstEnergy is calling the eastern half of MARL the melodious Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek project.  You can continue to call it MARL if you like.  It doesn't matter what you call it, as long as you don't call it late for the financial incentives buffet (haw, haw, haw).

But, FirstEnergy is only willing to share information about the Maryland part of its project, and says it wants to file an application with the Maryland PSC by the end of the year.

Despite PJM's empty promises about "using existing rights of way" for eastern MARL, FirstEnergy is planning to expand existing easements and acquire more property.

Fact sheet?  What fact sheet?  Maybe it's on their website?  What website?  The only information you're going to get is going to be in person at the ONE and ONLY "Open House" FirstEnergy is holding for this project.

A public information session on the project is scheduled for June 11 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Upper Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Department in Beallsville.

This is your only chance to get information.  Be there.

Meanwhile FirstEnergy continues to slink around, approaching landowners with predatory proposals before giving them complete information about the project.

Don't just sit there.  Do something!

For the past 4 years, consumers have had someone looking out for them at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  FERC Commissioner Mark Christie, most recently Chair of the Commission, never forgot who he was working for.  He never forgot that regulation serves to protect the captive consumers of monopoly utilities.

​The American Bar Association defines regulation like this:

It used to be that regulation was a specialized skill practiced by experienced regulators.  But all that seems to have been chucked aside in the past 20 years as politics invades the regulatory realm.  There should never be politics in regulation because politics are not necessarily in the public interest.  However, when you let politicians nominate and/or appoint regulators, you may just end up with more powerful politicians.  And sometimes, you end up with special interests in regulator seats, where they regulate in the interest of corporations or special interest ideology.  

And then there was Commissioner Christie, who always did the right thing, because it was the right thing to do.

One of the more memorable things is his famous PATH rant at the December 2023 Commission meeting.  Begin at minute 13:48 and watch for about 5 minutes until he's finished.

And then there was his recent dissent on Valley Link's request for financial incentives.

And then there was the time he wanted to open up an investigation of PJM's cost allocation for data center transmission lines.

Commissioner Christie has both surprised and delighted this long-time FERC watcher.  I can truthfully say that he is the BEST Commissioner FERC has had in the almost two decades I've been doing this.  I remember how much he terrified me the first time I encountered him in full poker face, sitting on a stage at an SCC public hearing for the PATH transmission project.  But that was a different time and a different me.

So, why this dirge?  

Imagine that after a long career of service you find out you're fired when a reporter calls you for a quote?  He deserved much better than this (finally something I can agree with former FERC gadfly Neil Chatterjee about).

I hope Commissioner Christie deals with this the same unique way he's carried out his term at FERC.  Maybe instead of jumping right into private practice as some white shoe law firm's FERC whisperer, Christie might just retire.  I mean really retire.  Enjoy life.  Do all those things on his bucket list.

If not, I'm sure he'll do good wherever he goes next.

​So, what's next for FERC?  Laura Swett, who currently works for one of those white shoe law firms after a brief stint being an advisor at FERC.  That revolving door is spinning away.

It's kind of like being given a handful of poison berries instead of the M&M's you're used to eating.

Why did someone think it was a good idea to replace an experienced regulator who works in the public interest with a corporate attorney?  Is there anyone left at the Commission who knows that they are working for consumers?