Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly said the
revised forecast for power needs in Georgia showed power use in the state
increasing 17 times. New demand, not total demand, is projected to
increase 17 times. The article also misspelled the name of the agency that
advocates for Maryland ratepayers. It is the Maryland Office of People�s
Counsel. The article has been corrected.

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 new 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.�

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. AI is also part of a huge scale-up of
cloud computing. Tech firms like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft
are scouring the nation for sites for new data centers, and many lesser-
known firms are also on the hunt.

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.
Bottlenecks are mounting, leaving both new generators of energy,
particularly clean energy, and large consumers facing growing wait times
for hookups.

The situation is sparking battles across the nation over who will pay for
new power supplies, with regulators worrying that residential ratepayers
could be stuck with the bill for costly upgrades. It also threatens to
stifle the transition to cleaner energy, as utility executives lobby to
delay the retirement of fossil fuel plants and bring more online. The
power crunch imperils their ability to supply the energy that will be
needed to charge the millions of electric cars and household appliances
required to meet state and federal climate goals.

The nation�s 2,700 data centers sapped more than 4 percent of the
country�s total electricity in 2022, according to the International Energy
Agency. Its projections show that by 2026, they will consume 6 percent.
Industry forecasts show the centers eating up a larger share of U.S.
electricity in the years that follow, as demand from residential and
smaller commercial facilities stays relatively flat thanks to steadily
increasing efficiencies in appliances and heating and cooling systems.

Data center operators are clamoring to hook up to regional electricity
grids at the same time the Biden administration�s industrial policy is
luring companies to build factories in the United States at a pace not
seen in decades. That includes manufacturers of �clean tech,� such as
solar panels and electric car batteries, which are being enticed by
lucrative federal incentives. Companies announced plans to build or expand
more than 155 factories in this country during the first half of the Biden
administration, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a
research and development organization. Not since the early 1990s has
factory-building accounted for such a large share of U.S. construction
spending, according to the group.

Utility projections for the amount of power they will need over the next
five years have nearly doubled and are expected to grow, according to a
review of regulatory filings by the research firm Grid Strategies.

- - -

Chasing power

In the past, companies tried to site their data centers in areas with
major internet infrastructure, a large pool of tech talent, and attractive
government incentives. But these locations are getting tapped out.

Communities that had little connection to the computing industry now find
themselves in the middle of a land rush, with data center developers
flooding their markets with requests for grid hookups. Officials in
Columbus, Ohio; Altoona, Iowa; and Fort Wayne, Ind. are being aggressively
courted by data center developers. But power supply in some of these
second-choice markets is already running low, pushing developers ever
farther out, in some cases into cornfields, according to JLL, a commercial
real estate firm that serves the tech industry.

Grid Strategies warns in its report that �there are real risks some
regions may miss out on economic development opportunities because the
grid can�t keep up.�

�Across the board, we are seeing power companies say, �We don�t know if we
can handle this; we have to audit our system; we�ve never dealt with this
kind of influx before,�� said Andy Cvengros, managing director of data
center markets at JLL. �Everyone is now chasing power. They are willing to
look everywhere for it.�

�We saw a quadrupling of land values in some parts of Columbus, and a
tripling in areas of Chicago,� he said. �It�s not about the land. It is
about access to power.� Some developers, he said, have had to sell the
property they bought at inflated prices at a loss, after utilities became
overwhelmed by the rush for grid hookups.

- - -

Rethinking incentives

It is all happening at the same time the energy transition is steering
large numbers of Americans to rely on the power grid to fuel vehicles,
heat pumps, induction stoves and all manner of other household appliances
that previously ran on fossil fuels. A huge amount of clean energy is also
needed to create the green hydrogen championed by the White House, as
developers rush to build plants that can produce the powerful zero-
emissions fuel, lured by generous federal subsidies.

Planners are increasingly concerned that the grid won�t be green enough or
powerful enough to meet these demands.

Already, soaring power consumption is delaying coal plant closures in
Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin and South Carolina.

In Georgia, the state�s major power company, Georgia Power, stunned
regulators when it revealed recently how wildly off its projections were,
pointing to data centers as the main culprit.

The demand has Georgia officials rethinking the state�s policy of offering
incentives to lure computing operations, which generate few jobs but can
boost community budgets through the hefty property taxes they pay. The top
leaders of Georgia�s House and Senate, both Republicans, are championing a
pause in data center incentives.

Georgia regulators, meanwhile, are exploring how to protect ratepayers
while ensuring there is enough power to meet the needs of the state�s
most-prized new tenants: clean-technology companies. Factories supplying
the electric vehicle and green-energy markets have been rushing to locate
in Georgia in large part on promises of cheap, reliable electricity.

When the data center industry began looking for new hubs, �Atlanta was
like, �Bring it on,�� said Pat Lynch, who leads the Data Center Solutions
team at real estate giant CBRE. �Now Georgia Power is warning of
limitations. ... Utility shortages in the face of these data center
demands are happening in almost every market.�

A similar dynamic is playing out in a very different region: the Pacific
Northwest. In Oregon, Portland General Electric recently doubled its
forecast for new electricity demand over the next five years, citing data
centers and �rapid industrial growth� as the drivers.

That power crunch threw a wrench into the plans of Michael Halaburda and
Arman Khalili, longtime data center developers whose latest project
involves converting a mothballed tile factory in the Portland area. The
two were under the impression only a couple of months ago that they would
have no problem getting the electricity they needed to run the place. Then
the power company alerted them that it would need to do a �line and load
study� to assess whether it could supply the facility with 60 megawatts of
electricity - roughly the amount needed to power 45,000 homes.

AI is a control scam <info@alphabet.com> wrote in
news:f3cbb229b0f303a04904cfdbae7367f6@dizum.com:

> Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly said the
> revised forecast for power needs in Georgia showed power use in the
> state increasing 17 times. New demand, not total demand, is projected
> to increase 17 times. The article also misspelled the name of the
> agency that advocates for Maryland ratepayers. It is the Maryland
> Office of People�s Counsel. The article has been corrected.
>
> 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.

Just handle it the Texas Way, import
your power from Mexico.........

Texas To Import Power From Mexico
Feb 3, 2011
https://tinyurl.com/mpbewwnj

Outages oblige Texas to import Mexican power
October 10, 2014
https://tinyurl.com/3ezb75d4