data-center load that left the grid in the July 10, 2024 Northern Virginia 230 kV disturbance (six faults over 82 s; 60 load points at 25 substations), later a driver of NERC's rare May 2026 Level 3 alert
~1,500 MWobserved
| Value kind | observed — Reported measurements, counts, and specifications keep the precision and scope stated by their source; an exact specification is not treated as a range. |
|---|---|
| Scope | Load loss as seen by the grid. NERC's incident review ("Load Details") found the affected data centers transferred their loads to backup power (static UPS, decentralized rack UPS or DRUPS) in response to the disturbance. The figure is lost demand at the interconnection, not an IT outage or a restart of training jobs. |
| Caveat | About 1,500 MW is the total customer-side load reduction across the six-fault sequence. About 1,260 MW, at the third voltage depression, stayed off the grid for hours. The 2026-07-22 Ashburn event, about 3.8 GW from one normally cleared fault, was roughly 2.5 times the 2024 scale. |
| As of | 2024-07 |
| Source | NERC, Incident Review: Large Load Loss (2025-01-08), pp.7–8; NERC comments to FERC, Docket EL25-49 (2025-04-23), Attachment A (April 17 presentation), PDF p.17 · Incident Review pp.7–8 (third voltage depression); NERC FERC comments Attachment A, PDF p.17 (60 load points, 25 substations) |
| Review | checking…review by 2027-05-01 · standard cadence |
| Recorded changes | last 2026-10-13 · 22 revisions tracked |
| Claim id | data-center-load-lost-in-the-july-10-2024-n |
Where the guide uses it
- 0.5 Reliability, Redundancy & Availability: The Design-Basis Primer
- 2.2 Delivery Models & the Owner's Organization
- 4.2 Utility Interconnect, On-Site Substation & MV Distribution
- 4.3 Substation & Transmission Ownership, Operations & NERC Compliance
- 4.5 UPS & Energy Storage: From Ride-Through to Transient Absorption
- 4.8 On-Site Generation: Electrical Integration
- 4.10 Grid-Interactive Behavior: Ride-Through, Reactive/Voltage Support & Frequency Response Toward the POI
- 7.12 On-Package Power Delivery & Power Integrity
- 11.2 Physical Security: Siting, Zones & Kinetic/Drone Threats
- 11.10 Cyber-Physical & Destructive Attacks on OT/Facility Systems
- 11.11 Compliance, Certification & Governance
- 12.2 The AI-Cluster Reliability Rethink: Goodput vs Facility Availability
- 13.3 Electrical Power Acceptance (L3/L4)
- 13.4 Commissioning On-Site Generation & Microgrid Controls
- 13.6 Level 5 Integrated Systems Testing (IST) & Failure-Mode Demonstration
- 13.10 Staged Power/Load Ramp, Go-Live & Handover to Operations
- 14.5 Predictive & Preventive Maintenance of Power and Cooling Plant
- 14.7 Capacity, Power & Thermal Management in Operation
- 14.13 Agentic Ops, RL Control & the Autonomy Ladder
- F Failure-Mode / FMEA Catalog
← Full numbers register — every date-stamped figure in the guide, with revision history.