Energy Department prepares backup power to battle winter storm

The Department of Energy asked the nation’s grid operators to make backup power from facilities such as data centers available — an emergency action in case the oncoming record-breaking winter storm leaves blackouts across the country.

The department estimates more than 35 gigawatts of unused backup generation is available nationwide, enough to power tens of millions of homes, which could mitigate blackouts and reduce costs during the storm.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned energy reliability coordinators and balancing authorities of a “national energy emergency” in a Thursday letter. 

“Across the country there are gigawatts of readily available backup generation that have remained largely untapped until now,” he said. “This backup generation can and should be used to save American lives and avoid billions of dollars in economic devastation, as energy subtraction policies of the previous administration cause acute scarcity events.”

The storm threatening heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across much of the U.S. will potentially test the Trump administration’s effectiveness in administering aid to states after natural disasters.

If power demand in electricity providers’ regions nears a potential blackout, they were told to tap into available backup energy used by manufacturing facilities, retail businesses and data centers, Mr. Wright told The Wall Street Journal.

“With the winter storm quickly approaching, we’re going to do everything we can to keep the lights on and to keep power prices down for all Americans,” he said on social media. 

These efforts are a last resort to maintain the balance of electricity supply and demand, as backup power would not address outages due to weather-related damage to the grid system.

Mr. Wright said his department has been working on the program for several months, which could also be implemented during peak demand in the summer.

His move marks the administration’s latest step to address energy challenges posed by artificial intelligence and data centers amid electricity shortages and high prices.

Mr. Wright recently instructed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which handles the interstate transmission and sale of electricity, to take over the states’ purview of how giant data centers connect to the power grid.  

The administration wants to take advantage of data centers’ industrial diesel generators, which can be used as backup in the event of a blackout during demand spikes.