A recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation estimated that more than 300 million people in the U.S. and Canada could face power shortages in 2024. It also found that electricity demand is rising faster now than at any time in the past five years, This Week reports.
They blame it on climate change, not the irrelevant policies put in place to meet an elusive, nebulous demand of climate change.
According to an article in The Washington Post by Evan Halper, America is running out of power because demand is exploding. They can’t believe the projections were wrong as they incentivize data centers to move in to pay a large chunk of taxes. They will do that but they also use an enormous amount of power.
The article focuses on demand but carefully leaves out the fact that the administration is destroying our oil, gas, and coal sectors.
In Georgia, new demand is projected to increase 17 times. In Arizona, their largest utility, Arizona Public Services, is “struggling to keep up.” Northern Virginia needs the equivalent of several large nuclear power plans to serve all the new data centers under construction.
They’d better get on it, then.
Texas has routine electricity shortages on hot summer days and faces the same dilemma. It’s ironic, given all the oil they have in the ground.
Meanwhile, nothing will stop the administration from demanding we electrify everything.
The result is a scramble to squeeze every bit of juice out of the aging grid. Wouldn’t it be nice if they pulled back on climate change waste and upgraded the grid first?
AI and computing infrastructure takes an incredible amount of energy. We’ve known this for a while now, but the chickens have come home to roost. Crypto-mining for Bitcoin is another energy drain.
Who will pay? Regulators are worried the struggling taxpayers will get stuck footing the bill.
According to the International Energy Agency, the nation’s 2700 data centers sapped more than 4% of the nation’s total electricity, and they are growing. By 2026, it will be 6%.
Meanwhile, let’s get those electric cars on the road, and cancel gas everything. Great idea. Biden incentivized solar farms, electric car batteries, and other so-called clean tech the public isn’t looking for and not demanding.
Utility projections for the amount of power needed over the next five years have doubled, and it’s growing.
Can you see the prices soaring?
There is a computer land rush without the necessary power grid available. “Across the board, power companies are saying, ‘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.'” Andy Cvengros, managing director of data center markets at JLL, said, “Everyone is now chasing power. They are willing to look everywhere for it.”
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