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Affordability First- a not so new paradigm in Large Load interconnect and siting
The sudden emergence of Large Hyperscalers brought to the forefront a term that is as old as the grid itself-Affordability. The grid has always been a shared infrastructure that answered major criteria as part of a large multi-state collaborative compact: Safety, Reliability, Scalability and Affordability. In recent decades we added a few more criteria to the mix to truly understand this compact- Resilience, Sustainability and Cybervigilance.
Utilities nationwide are grappling with how to balance the grid modernization of an ageing infrastructure, keeping rates low for rate payers and yet answering the demand from large hyperscalers looking to urgently connect to the grid for thier AI workloads. In response, ORNL built a multi-criteria decision support platform aimed at state governor's offices, economic development and state energy offices, IOUs, data center builders and other local/county level stakeholders that introduced a new paradigm for data center siting Affordability-->Feasibility-->Ease of Doing Business--> Siting.
We are actively collaborating with leading IOUs like PSEG and consulting companies like TRC both of whom are strategic advisors to ORNL in this project. We will demonstrate the work that includes census block group level electricity,rent affordability models, substation headroom capacity and other impacts including impact on rate payers that emerge from the deep AI analysis built into this platform and ramifications for the nation. What questions would an IOU like PSEG look to this platform for answers? How could this accelerate the service delivery for a consulting organization like TRC with thier many customers nationwide? Join us for an exciting discussion about
