SERC said interest in AI and cryptocurrency is fueling rising use of data centers, which in turn is expected to raise load growth in its territory over the next 10 years. | Shutterstock

March 8, 2024

Happy Friday from ERO Insider, your window on the world of electric reliability! Today is International Women’s Day, a day for recognizing the achievements of women throughout history and in the modern day, and to support action against gender inequality around the world. Whatever your plans for the day entail, we hope you can make time to remember all the amazing women who keep the world running! 

SERC’s Long-Term Reliability Assessment dropped this week, painting an overall upbeat picture of the next 10 years while also highlighting some growing challenges for grid reliability in certain subregions. Join Holden Mann to hear about the risks the regional entity is preparing to handle. (See SERC Highlights DERs, Extreme Weather Challenges in LTRA.) 

ITC and Evergy will need to pay a total of $272,000 to their regional entities under a settlement agreement approved by FERC last week. Click through to see why the REs said the utilities’ facility ratings fell short, along with another settlement between SERC and the Army Corps of Engineers. (See FERC Approves $272K in ERO Standard Violation Penalties.) 

James Downing was on hand for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Winter Policy Summit in D.C. last week, and he’s got a report on the balancing act that the power industry is facing as the generation mix changes while new loads pop up on the system. Join him inside to see how attendees are planning to address the challenges. (See NARUC Looks at How to Manage New Large Loads.) 

Thanks again for joining us! We’ve got a full week planned, with reporters set to cover NERC’s Reliability and Security Technical Committee meeting in San Diego and events hosted by the Texas Reliability Entity. So keep checking back through the week, and we’ll have another rundown on Friday as usual. Until then, have a great week! 

Upcoming Stakeholder Meetings:

• 3/11/24: Technical Talk with RF
• 3/12/24: NERC Reliability and Security Technical Committee Meeting
• 3/12/24: Talk with Texas RE Policy Forum: State Initiatives
• 3/13/24: NERC Reliability and Security Technical Committee Meeting
• 3/20/24: NERC Standards Committee Meeting