PJM, the largest U.S. power grid operator, said it ordered generators to run at maximum output and bring idle power plants online immediately on Thursday evening, as it faced escalating stress from a heat dome.
PJM’s orders, detailed on its emergency procedures website, were aimed at preserving reliability as it sought to maintain power on a grid serving 67 million people across the Mid-Atlantic, South and Washington, D.C., regions and the world’s largest concentration of data centers.
Even before this week’s heat wave that sent temperatures soaring toward 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), PJM had been straining to overhaul a system pushed to the brink by surging energy consumption by data centers and electric vehicles.
If I find myself in that conversation with a wrong-thinker, I couch renewables as a way of reaching independence from a generally uncertain world, energy costs and grid stability (all while avoiding other hot-button topics). I try to discuss the positive aspects for everyone. They are usually agreeable, and I keep pressing (with mild excitement) with how cool the tech is getting, how I am learning things and then talk electricity and now we’re on to general topics and the comfort zone returns for them. Hopefully their perspective changed a smidge. If not, nbd to me.
That’s pretty much how I was talking about it since I know they are kinda tech-oriented. I could just tell I hit onto something winger-identity-oriented, though, even though I was not talking about any personalities (Biden, Trump) but just about how the subsidies are going away at the end of 2025. I think the mention of subsidies might have been the trigger…
BTW, it was interesting to watch some of these types being entirely uncertain about how to think about Tesla, especially early last year. On the year, they’ve been getting told real men should probably alter their enormous diesel trucks to roll coal on EVs, bicyclists, etc. And that owning an EV is really quite gay.
But then along comes Elon with the Nazi shit and he’s working for Donvict, too. Talking to these people and throwing out that I’m thinking of buying an EV was pretty wild last year. It was like they were not yet given all the right talking points to try to thread that needle… 🤣
One of the funnier reactions when I told them that new EV sales were approaching 10% of sales (this was earlier last year): “Well, Elon is involved… so, um, I guess I’m okay with those being sold here?”
I was like…my dude, no one is asking for the permission of people like you in order to buy these things. It really is like these people think that just because Donvict is in office, everything needs to be run by his supporters for every aspect of life. It’s truly sick. Anyway, that didn’t really seem to register for him, but even more wild was when I was saying how Tesla is going to really have some strong headwinds in China when it comes to trying to sell there. His reaction: well, Trump will have something to say about that. I asked him what he thought Trump was going to do in China to force people to buy Teslas in their market?
These people are hair-trigger man. It’s like they think Donvict “wins” an election here, and even the Chinese market, en masse, should bend the knee to buying Elon’s cars…just because.