I am writing on behalf of the Data Center Coalition (DCC) in support of Guidance Document APG-578, providing the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) explanation of how to interpret and apply the “sudden and reasonably unforeseeable electric outage” language found at 9 VAC 5-540-20 and 9 VAC 5-80-1110.  This is a welcome clarification that will prevent the inadvertent shut down of data centers and other users of emergency generators during certain electrical outages.

DCC is the national membership association for the data center industry. Our members

include leading data center owners and operators, as well as companies that lease large

amounts of data center capacity.[1] Data centers provide the digital infrastructure that keeps

us connected in our daily lives and supports many sectors of the 21st-century innovation

economy – including artificial intelligence, financial services, advanced manufacturing,

cybersecurity, healthcare, and other key industries.  Data centers are keenly focused on their environmental impacts, and are constantly striving to find ways to reduce energy and water demands, and to minimize air emissions.

Support for Guidance Document AGP-578

As DEQ explains in the guidance document, the definition of emergency in the Virginia air regulations includes “sudden and reasonably unforeseeable events where the primary energy or power source is disrupted or disconnected due to conditions beyond the control of an owner of a source.”  9 VAC 5-540-20; 9 VAC 5-80-1110.  The regulations further outline some examples of the types of events that fall within this definition. 

The very purpose of an emergency generator is to serve as a backup energy source when power is otherwise unavailable.  They are designed to start immediately upon a loss of power, and to cease operation once the power source is restored. The lack of energy from a sole supplier, whether due to a weather event or due to that sole supplier’s planned maintenance event, creates the same threat to data center operations, which must have continuous electrical power to function correctly.  Although utilities have the ability to plan shutdowns for purposes of conducting maintenance or other work, those plans are often not known or coordinated with data centers and other permittees far enough in advance to allow for arrangements to be made to avoid the loss of power.

With this guidance,[2] DEQ is recognizing that 14 days or less is insufficient time to locate alternative temporary generators or retrofit/install new generators, and thus constitutes a sudden and reasonably unforeseeable event that is beyond the control of the data center itself to address.  Where a data center receives 14 days’ or less notice of a utility or power plant shutdown, it is an emergency for the data center because, in many instances, it may require the shutdown of the data center with resulting impacts on end users who rely on timely access to data, including hospitals, schools, businesses, first responders, airlines and other modes of transportation, state and local government agencies and national security operations. 

Virginia’s emergency generator regulations are some of the most stringent in the country.  They are more stringent than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations, which allow the use of emergency generators for up to 50 hours of non-emergency purposes (counted as part of the 100 hours for maintenance and testing).  Instead, DEQ has interpreted the Virginia regulations to limit the operation of emergency generators solely to instantaneous emergency situations, and for limited hours of maintenance work on the generator itself.  Thus, there is no practical option other than shutdown when data centers and other permittees receive some notice of a power outage planned by a utility but not enough notice to make other arrangements. 

In issuing this guidance, DEQ provides limited relief to data centers and other permittees by recognizing the inability to make arrangements to continue operations when notice of 14 days or less is given by the power provider.  But DEQ also provides safeguards in these circumstances.  Page 5 of the guidance outlines notifications that must be made to DEQ regarding the operation of the emergency generators during such power outages.  Moreover, DEQ makes clear that emission limits and other permit requirements remain effective even during such an emergency event (see page 6 of the guidance, Section III).  

While this clarification is important to the DCC and its members, it will still present operational challenges.  DEQ assumes that 14 days is sufficient time to acquire enough temporary generators or retrofit or replace existing temporary generators, but in many circumstances this will not be feasible.  A 14-day turnaround from ordering to deliver to startup/retrofit/replacement is an aggressive schedule.  DCC appreciates DEQ’s recognition (top of page 6) that there may be extenuating circumstances that DEQ will consider based on documentation of such circumstances.  The ability to have continuing discussions with DEQ regarding the constraints created by such sudden and reasonably unforeseen events is important to DCC and its members.       

Clarifications

DCC requests two clarifications:

1.  There appears to be a typo in the second paragraph under Part II on page 5.  That paragraph currently reads as follows:

A permitted source with emergency generators receives notice from an electricity service provider fourteen (14) calendar days or less in advance of a planned outage. Power outage events longer than fourteen (14) calendar days normally provide sufficient notice for an operator of emergency generators to acquire and set up temporary mobile (i.e., non-road) generators on a site. The permittee takes the following measures in response:

We believe the second sentence should read:  “Power outage events longer where notice of more than fourteen (14) calendar days is provided normally provide sufficient notice for an operator of emergency generators to acquire and set up temporary mobile (i.e., non-road) generators on a site.”

            2.  It is unclear whether the 24-hour notice described in Section II.1 on page 5 is a condition for a determination that a power outage is considered an emergency.  If a facility is given 14 days’ notice, then providing notice to DEQ within 24 hours would likely not be an issue.  However, if a facility receives  notice of 1 day, and such notice is received on a holiday or weekend, it would be difficult for a data center to similarly provide notice to DEQ within 24 hours.  To provide clarification, it would be helpful for the guidance to provide, perhaps as a footnote to this section, that notice must be provided to DEQ as quickly as possible, preferably within 24 hours or, alternatively, within 24 hours of the first business day following receipt of the notice. 

Similarly, it may also be difficult for a data center to develop a complete or definitive plan of action within 24 hours of receipt of notice from the power provider.  A clarification might be that the permittee must provide DEQ with its plan of action as soon as it is developed and prior to the start of the outage.

Thank you for your consideration of this comment letter.  The DCC supports Guidance APG-578, and appreciates DEQ’s recognition of the impossible situations created when utilities announce power outages with notice of 14 days or less.  This guidance ensures that the terms “sudden and reasonably unforeseeable” and “beyond the control of” a source, as used in the regulations, is interpreted and applied in a manner that minimizes the impacts to data center operations while continuing to protect air quality.