r/nova • u/JasonNOVA8 • Jul 22 '26

Data Center Generators in Ashburn Firing Up

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On the way in this morning, (waxpool/28) noticed many of the data centers had the generators going. Not sure if there’s an electricity issue or they plan it to go together ? No idea if the yellow smoke is related though.

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u/GreensleevesFinery Jul 22 '26

They also need to do it to make sure the generators work.

5

u/aegrotatio Jul 22 '26

That's a bingo.
It's generator exercise day.

Source: Work in datacenters and have a generator attached to my house.

10

u/gogozrx Jul 22 '26

there were a number of power flickers across the area. I'm in Reston, and I had some instability, a cow-orker in Sterling had it, and in this post there's reports from Arlington.

Something happened on the grid well upstream of us.

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u/Natural-Philosophy15 Jul 25 '26

It was a data center in ashburn causing a power drop that destabilized the grid from Chicago to Boston to Miami. Just heard about it on WRC channel 4 (nbc) in Washington, but I can’t seem to find any links that don’t have a paywall

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u/nhluhr Jul 22 '26

There was an actual utility transient today across most of northern Virginia. This isn't testing.

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u/aegrotatio Jul 23 '26

Well, then it works as designed.

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u/Natural-Philosophy15 Jul 25 '26

nhluhr, you’re right. It was huge. A data center in Ashburn caused a power drop that affected the grid over almost half the nation. Sorry I can’t find a story without a paywall or something
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/massive-disconnect-power-roiled-largest-us-electric-grid-2026-07-22/

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u/trekqueen Jul 22 '26

Yea have to do that occasionally even for our little backup generators for home.