Every story tagged Power Management, curated for CIOs and IT leaders — ranked by source credibility, engagement, and freshness.
4 stories · open in the command center
The PJM Interconnection, serving 67 million customers across the eastern US, will begin curtailing power to large data centers (50+ megawatts) starting June 2027 to prevent grid blackouts as data center electricity demand is projected to quadruple by 2035. This policy shift will force data centers to invest in expensive on-site power generation infrastructure—such as diesel generators—increasing operational costs, environmental liabilities, and regulatory risks while contributing to wholesale electricity price increases that have nearly doubled over the past year. For IT organizations and CIOs, this represents a critical infrastructure dependency that requires immediate capital planning, alternative energy strategy development, and geographic diversification to mitigate supply disruption risks.
US power grid capacity constraints are forcing major datacenter operators to shift toward behind-the-meter (BTM) power generation, with projections showing 50%+ of new datacenters powered by onsite solutions by 2028 and a 50GW+ annual market opportunity by 2029. Grid-connected datacenter growth is being severely hampered by insufficient generation capacity additions (~15-20GW annually versus 84GW+ datacenter demand by 2030) and long interconnection timelines, leaving hyperscalers with limited alternatives to self-sufficiency. This fundamental infrastructure bottleneck will reshape IT capital allocation, vendor relationships, and site selection strategies as organizations increasingly invest in distributed energy solutions rather than relying on traditional utility partnerships.
NASA has shut down an instrument on the 49-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft to conserve dwindling nuclear power supplies, highlighting critical decisions around extending legacy system lifecycles when complete replacement is impossible. This decision underscores the strategic trade-offs organizations face when managing aging infrastructure—prioritizing core functionality over auxiliary capabilities to maximize operational longevity. The situation demonstrates that even mission-critical systems eventually require difficult choices about feature reduction versus continued operation.
This article examines how idle time and periods of inactivity are critical for cognitive function, creativity, and organizational effectiveness, challenging the productivity-obsessed culture that dominates modern workplaces. For IT leaders, this suggests that resource allocation strategies emphasizing constant utilization may be counterproductive, reducing innovation capacity and increasing burnout-related talent losses. Organizations that strategically build buffer time into projects and operations planning can expect improved system reliability, better problem-solving outcomes, and stronger employee retention.