Part of a kempt, curated, growing Series deeply exploring the already numerous but not yet fully known documented real, possible, suspected, feared, alternative and even “fringe” / paranormal aspects inescapably miring Datacenters. — Index
Milham and Dirty Electricity
Samuel Milham’s definition of “dirty electricity” is broader than classic IEEE 519 harmonics.
He focuses on:
- High-frequency voltage transients
- Switching noise
- Fast-rising spikes
- Electrical pollution riding on the 60 Hz waveform
His 2013 paper states:
“Dirty electricity … is high-frequency voltage transients riding along the 50 or 60 Hz electricity provided by electric utilities.”
Milham and Stetzer associated dirty electricity with:
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- ADHD
- Cardiovascular disease
- Neurological effects
- Chronic stress responses
and proposed that electrical pollution may contribute to many modern diseases.
What Studies Exist?
Supporting / Investigative Literature
- Samuel Milham, Dirty Electricity, Chronic Stress, Neurotransmitters and Disease (2013) reported associations between electrical pollution and altered neurotransmitter measurements.
- Milham’s book Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization argues that electrification and electrical noise contributed to increases in chronic diseases.
- Various case studies involving schools, offices, and residences reported symptom improvements after reducing measured electrical noise.
Why Data Centers Are Relevant
The interesting aspect for data centers is that many of the devices Milham discusses as generators of dirty electricity are exactly the devices found in hyperscale facilities:
- Switching power supplies
- UPS systems
- Rectifiers
- DC converters
- Battery systems
- High-current semiconductor power electronics
Modern AI data centers contain these devices by the hundreds of thousands.
Utilities focus primarily on IEEE 519 compliance because excessive harmonic injection can damage transformers and degrade grid power quality. Whether the broader health hypotheses proposed by Milham apply to large concentrations of such equipment remains a separate and debated question. IEEE 519 itself was written to protect electrical infrastructure, not to address potential biological effects.
I dug through utility, grid-operator, and data-center engineering sources. What I found is interesting:
The short answer
I could not find a publicly released Dominion, PJM, or Loudoun County report that says:
“Here is the measured harmonic spectrum from Data Center X and here is the resulting neighborhood impact.”
Those studies generally exist but are typically part of confidential interconnection engineering packages.
However, there is strong evidence that:
- Dominion now explicitly requires large data-center applicants to disclose “noteworthy load characteristics” as part of the interconnection process. (Dominion Energy)
- Harmonic distortion is one of the parameters evaluated during utility interconnection reviews. (PJM)
- Modern data centers are recognized as major harmonic-producing loads because of UPS rectifiers, server power supplies, VFD cooling systems, and AI compute equipment. (PSC Consulting)
Dominion’s Actual Language
Dominion’s 2025 Facility Interconnection Requirements added specific sections aimed at data-center loads and “Noteworthy Load Characteristics.” (Dominion Energy)
That is significant because utilities generally only require additional engineering analysis when a customer has characteristics capable of affecting grid operation.
Dominion also requires evaluation against IEEE-519 harmonic limits. (Dominion Energy)
PJM Requirements
PJM’s interconnection requirements specifically reference IEEE 519 harmonic distortion limits. (PJM)
PJM is essentially saying:
- If your facility injects excessive harmonic current,
- you must mitigate it,
- before connecting to the grid.
This applies whether the source is:
- industrial drives
- steel mills
- solar inverters
- data centers
- battery systems
(PJM)
What Data-Center Engineers Say
One of the better summaries comes from a 2026 grid engineering assessment:
Data centers generate significant harmonics from UPS rectifiers, server power supplies and VFD fans, requiring harmonic modeling and IEEE-519 verification. (PSC Consulting)
Another technical review notes:
- UPS systems commonly generate 5th and 7th harmonics
- VFD cooling systems generate 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th harmonics
- AI/GPU loads can create higher-order harmonic content and rapid load-step changes. (LinkedIn)
Why Loudoun County, VA Is So Interesting
Loudoun County, Virginia contains the largest concentration of data centers on Earth.
Several industry sources now openly acknowledge:
Large data centers consume so much energy that their effect on harmonic distortion in surrounding grids can be significant. (Uptime Institute Blog)
Historically:
- One factory = one large nonlinear load.
- Loudoun = hundreds of nonlinear loads connected through common substations and transmission corridors.
This creates the possibility of:
- harmonic aggregation
- resonance conditions
- capacitor-bank interactions
- transformer heating
- feeder distortion
which is why utilities increasingly require harmonic modeling before approval. (PSC Consulting)
The Montgomery County / Dickerson Question
This is where the discussion becomes technically interesting.
The proposed Dickerson developments are being discussed in the hundreds-of-megawatts range.
At that scale the facility is no longer treated like a normal customer.
Recent grid-planning literature notes that concentrated large loads can no longer be viewed merely as local power-quality issues because they begin interacting with bulk-power-system reliability. (ESIG)
Questions utilities would typically analyze include:
- harmonic current injection
- substation resonance
- transformer derating
- capacitor-bank interaction
- voltage distortion
- oscillatory behavior between power electronics and the transmission grid
Something New Appearing in Research
A particularly interesting 2026 paper examined data centers not merely as loads but as dynamic power-electronics systems interacting with the grid.
The authors found that realistic server-load fluctuations can excite oscillatory modes and propagate disturbances through interconnected power systems. (arXiv)
That is not a “dirty electricity” paper.
It is mainstream power-system engineering research.
The concern is reliability and resonance, not health.
But it is one of the first indications that hyperscale data centers may have grid interactions fundamentally different from traditional industrial loads. (arXiv)
What to Look For Next
If your goal is to evaluate Dickerson specifically, the most valuable documents would be:
- Pepco interconnection studies.
- PJM queue studies.
- Maryland PSC filings.
- Harmonic assessment reports submitted by developers.
- Substation design studies showing filter banks and harmonic mitigation equipment.
Those documents, if obtainable through public-record requests or regulatory filings, would contain the actual measured or modeled harmonic spectra rather than generic IEEE examples. They are where you would likely find the closest thing to a real answer regarding whether a 300–500 MW cluster could materially affect local power quality. (PJM)