WaPo: Tech Companies Are Straining US Power Grid

The Washington Post reports:

Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.

A major factor behind the skyrocketing demand is the rapid innovation in artificial intelligence, which is driving the construction of large warehouses of computing infrastructure that require exponentially more power than traditional data centers.

The proliferation of crypto-mining, in which currencies like bitcoin are transacted and minted, is also driving data center growth. It is all putting new pressures on an overtaxed grid — the network of transmission lines and power stations that move electricity around the country.

Read the full article.

Artificial intelligence, data centers and the boom in clean-tech manufacturing are pushing America’s aging power grid to the brink.

Utilities can’t keep up. https://t.co/ow2z6s8COH

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 8, 2024