At a hearing Friday in Wellsboro, Tioga County, industry advocates and the operators of PJM Interconnection sparred over the rush to build data centers across the commonwealth with virtually no state or local regulations in place to govern them. PJM operates the electricity grid that serves all or parts of thirteen states, including Pennsylvania, along with the District of Columbia.
One of the speakers was Indiana County Commissioner Sherene Hess, who said she wanted to be open minded and hear all of the arguments and concerns, and that will require more public hearings. Hess said “…it’s important to hear from our business community, from our education community, from our health care community, from all those will be affected” by data center development.
Conducted by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, an agency of the state legislature, the hearing featured what one committee member called “two different stories” about the need for data centers and their impact on the communities in which they would be built, with Dan Diorio of the Data Center Coalition contending that data centers are “not the only source of load growth” driving increased energy demand, to which PJM Interconnection’s Stephen Bennett responded “They are predominant, by far.”
Another hearing is planned in July. The date and location have not been announced.
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