A New Threat to Power Grids: Data Centers Unplugging at Once

Early last year, a cluster of data centers in Virginia suddenly dropped off the power grid, threatening the stability of the already vulnerable system.

The roughly 40 data centers, which had been using enough electricity to supply more than one million homes, simultaneously switched to backup power sources in February 2025, when a high-voltage power line malfunctioned. The sudden plunge in electricity demand forced the grid operator to take quick action to avoid potentially serious damage…