Change 4 mindsets to build a more resilient US grid: NERC CEO Jim Robb — SkimNews
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- Jim Robb, president and CEO of NERC, writes that the US is poised to lead the AI revolution "on every dimension except one: electric power," citing the country's inability to construct new infrastructure at the pace projected demand requires.
- Electricity represents just under 20% of end-use energy consumption today, but electrification of transportation, heating, and industrial processes will keep adding strain on the grid, Robb argues.
- NERC is working "at breakneck pace" to develop criteria for identifying the most consequential large computational loads and the performance requirements needed to keep the bulk power system reliable as city-sized data centers come online.
- The Electric Power Research Institute is developing a standardized load-flexibility framework called Flex MOSAIC to give grid operators a consistent way to curtail large energy users when reliability is at risk.
- Robb pushes back on picking only the lowest-cost resources (currently solar and batteries), noting each fuel has limits — solar needs sunshine, gas delivery can be curtailed, hydro depends on rainfall, nuclear needs refueling, and "the wind doesn't always blow."
- Industry forecasts project more than $1 trillion is needed to modernize the grid over the next four to five years, an investment Robb frames as comparable to the post-WWII industrialization that built today's system.
- Robb argues the US must stop letting "the perfect be the enemy of the good" on siting and permitting, shifting from decades-long approval rigor to responsibly getting more energy online faster.
Why it matters: With AI data centers and electrification driving unprecedented load growth and industry forecasting a $1 trillion modernization bill over four to five years, the bottleneck is no longer demand-side efficiency but supply-side permitting and infrastructure mindset — meaning ratepayers and grid reliability bear the cost if siting reform and load-flexibility frameworks like Flex MOSAIC don't scale quickly.
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