(Credit for Photo: Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) released an independent analysis warning today that rapidly growing electricity demand which is driven largely by data center development could create serious reliability risks across Pennsylvania and the broader region unless electricity supply keeps pace with that growth.

This analysis was conducted by Synapse Energy Economics and it examined whether sufficient electric resources will be available to reliably serve customers as demand grows and existing generation retires.

Synapse Energy Economics is an energy consulting firm that is nationally recognized.

This study found that based on the current load forecast from regional power grid operator PJM and assuming no additional policy actions, the regional grid fails to meet PJM’s reliability planning standard from the years of 2027 through 2030.

By 2030, the modeled reliability risk is almost six times worse than PJM’s planning standard.