“ Put it all together and the picture is clear: West Virginia isn’ t managing a decline in coal, we’ re modernizing it, diversifying its applications and positioning it to continue being the foundation of the state’ s energy economic future,” Hamilton says.
West Virginia is part of Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland( PJM) Interconnection, a regional transmission organization that supplies and manages power to 13 states and Washington, D. C. With its abundance of resources, the Mountain State can both meet its own needs and export power to other areas in the PJM.
Photo by PJM Interconnection.
Currently, the state’ s generating capacity sits at approximately 14,000 megawatts. Of this, 12,500 come from coalfired resources while around 1,000 are from natural gas. Asim Haque, senior vice president for PJM Interconnection, says each resource is assigned a value according to how it performs during tight system conditions. If the resource can contribute high capacity during these times, it is given a higher value than a resource performing at that same capacity during low-risk hours. Coal’ s value currently sits at around 85 %.
“ As generators retire and more intermittent energy resources come online, we are in need of more dispatchable generation,” Haque says.“ Traditionally, this has been a role filled by coal, natural gas and nuclear resources.”
Despite the state’ s reliable power, the demand for data centers and other large loads that require mass amounts of energy is surpassing the available power in the grid, creating a need for more energy infrastructure. Haque says PJM is working on maintaining grid reliability and affordability for consumers as data centers begin to integrate into the system.
One way to balance data centers and grid reliability is through co-location, or placing the data center next to a generator it can then offtake power from. A ruling from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has allowed these arrangements to take place, meaning there will likely be more of them moving forward.
Haque says expanding electric and gas transmission systems in the state is the biggest factor in maintaining its status as a regional energy supplier in the PJM. This means building more pipelines and generating more electric transmission to meet in-state needs and be able to export power elsewhere.
Echoing this sentiment, Rebecca McPhail, president-elect of Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, explains that
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