Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hey, man, that's my IP address you're looking at in the picture.

I see that this article has been posted by BootinUp over in GD, with the same title.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218752922

BUSINESS
Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power
AI and the boom in clean-tech manufacturing are pushing America’s power grid to the brink. Utilities can’t keep up.

By Evan Halper
March 7, 2024 at 6:05 a.m. EST

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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.

In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of electricity use for the next decade now 17 times what it was only recently. Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up, projecting it will be out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade absent major upgrades. ... Northern Virginia needs the equivalent of several large nuclear power plants to serve all the new data centers planned and under construction. Texas, where electricity shortages are already routine on hot summer days, faces the same dilemma.

The soaring demand is touching off a scramble to try to squeeze more juice out of an aging power grid while pushing commercial customers to go to extraordinary lengths to lock down energy sources, such as building their own power plants.

“When you look at the numbers, it is staggering,” said Jason Shaw, chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, which regulates electricity. “It makes you scratch your head and wonder how we ended up in this situation. How were the projections that far off? This has created a challenge like we have never seen before.”

{snip}



Microsoft and Amazon data centers, seen just beyond a residential area, sit on what used to be farmland in Northern Virginia. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

{snip}

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By Evan Halper
Evan Halper is a business reporter for The Washington Post, covering the energy transition. His work focuses on the tensions between energy demands and decarbonizing the economy. He came to The Post from the Los Angeles Times, where he spent two decades, most recently covering domestic policy and presidential politics from its Washington bureau. Twitter https://twitter.com/evanhalper

[Think. Again.]

1. and yet we STILL haven't started...

...building out the non-CO2 plants that would add to supply.

[BootinUp]

2. K&R

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Hey, good morning. We seem to have been busy little beavers this a.m. on the same story. NT

[BootinUp]

5. I added a link to this thread.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Gawrsh.

[BootinUp]

7. Heh.

Will be easier to find/see here later.

[Lonestarblue]

4. I haven't kept up with bitcoin facilities, but I know Texas has a large one using enormous amounts of power.

Perhaps new home construction should now be required to include solar panels. The auto industry fought seat belts because of cost decades ago, but they have saved lives. Construction companies would fight solar panels, but they would be cist efficient over the long run in reduced power costs.

[progressoid]

8. Last month I read that bitcoin used 2% of our electricity.

That's a staggering amount.

edited to add:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/over-2-percent-of-the-uss-electricity-generation-now-goes-to-bitcoin/

While its analysis is preliminary, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates that large-scale cryptocurrency operations are now consuming over 2 percent of the US's electricity. That's roughly the equivalent of having added an additional state to the grid over just the last three years.