AI data centers on the East Coast are gobbling up so much juice that nonprofit grid operator PJM may be forced to enact rolling blackouts on its customers during both heat waves and exceptionally cold weather just to protect the grid’s integrity.
These blackouts would impact a staggering 67 million people in 13 states, according to The Wall Street Journal, which will no doubt fan more anger from residential customers and politicians who are already deeply ticked off about the mass construction of AI data centers.
“They’re pretty much the whole boat when it comes to increases in electricity demand,” John Quigley, senior fellow at University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, told CNBC last November about power-hungry data centers. “It’s going to get worse.”
The grid operator PJM is expecting demand for electricity to grow an average of 4.8 percent per year over the next 10 years, according to the WSJ, largely driven by the construction and running of these data centers, many of which are located in Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” which has 153 facilities in the town of Asburn alone.
Consulting firm ICF International estimates in a report flagged by the WSJ that America’s demand for power will go up 25 percent by 2030 compared to 2023 — and a whopping 78 percent by 2050.
The wrinkle for PJM is that newer power plants are not replacing older ones fast enough. In addition, tech companies pushed back on a proposal last year to voluntarily power down or get power elsewhere when the demand is highest.
That seems unfair to residential customers who would bear the physical and emotional brunt of a blackout — because after all, nobody is living inside these data center facilities. Increasing energy prices have already become a political hot potato among energy customers, from Arizona to Maine, who have also opposed the centers for high water usage and for generating local pollution.
PJM is now putting together another proposal to balance energy needs during peak demand, but it still needs to pass muster with tech companies, power producers, utilities and other stakeholders. Until it’s fully resolved, PJM customers should expect the occasional blackout.
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