US electrical networks under pressure from energy -strategic data centers change the strategy

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (AP)-With explosive growth of Big Tech Data Data Centers, which threatens to increase US electricity networks, policy makers take a closer look at a difficult solution to love: energy-related data centers collide during energy networks.

Texas moved first, as legislators in the state are trying to protect the population at the data center call from another A fatal blackoutLike the winter storm in 2021 when dozens died.

Now the concept appears in the 13 -day Atlantic Medium Network and other places, as huge data centers come online faster than the power stations that can be built and connected to networks. This has sparked a reaction from large data and technology centers, which is vital.

Like many other states, Texas He wants to attract data centers As an economic power, but it faces a challenge in facing large quantities of electricity required by the centers. Lawyers have acknowledged a draft law in June, among other matters, requesting energy emergency standards when facilities must separate adult electricity users.

This, in theory, it will save enough electricity to avoid widespread blackouts in a handful of days during the year when it is more hot or colder, and energy consumption pushes networks to its borders or outside.

Analysts say that Texas was first, but it will not be the last Openai‘s Chatgpt The demand all over the world has caught on Chatbots and other artificial intelligence products that usually require large amounts of computing energy for training and operation.

“We will see this type of things floating on the surface everywhere,” said Michael Weber, a professor of engineering at the University of Texas, who specializes in energy. “It is expected that the data center is expected to be flexible, required, encouraged, assigned, whatever it will be.”

Data centers threaten networks

This is because networks cannot keep pace with the rapid number of data center projects that are revealed in Texas and perhaps 20 other states, where the United States competes in A. A race against China to The superiority of artificial intelligence.

Network operators in Texas, the Great Plains and the mid -Atlantic region have produced eye expectations that it was found that the demand for electricity in the coming years will rise, due significantly to data centers.

A similar proposal for Texas appeared from the country’s largest network operator, PJM Interconnection, which runs the mid -Atlantic network that serves 65 million people and hot points for the data center in Virginia, Ouhayu and Pennsylvania.

Southst Power Pool, CEO, which runs the network that serves 18 million people in the first place in Kansas, Akloumaoma and other major plains, said it has no choice but to expand energy reduction programs-probably for the largest power user-to meet the increasing demand.

The proposals rise at a time when electricity bills rise at the national level – twice the inflation rate, according to federal data – and The increasing evidence indicates The bills of some ordinary Americans rise to support the huge energy needs of large technology.

Analysts say building a power plant cannot keep pace with the growth of the data center, and that something should change.

“Downloading the data center bears the ability to overcome the network, and I think it is on its way to do so,” said Joe Burring, who heads analyzes, who monitors the independent market in the Atlantic network.

Data centers may have to control

Big Tech tries to make its data centers more efficient in using energy. They also install backup generators, which are usually fueled by diesel, to ensure an energy source without interruption if there is energy interruption.

However, the data center operators say they did not expect the need to reserve energy supplies to help the network operators meet the demand and closely monitor how organizers in Texas write the regulations.

The Data Center coalition, which represents major technology companies and data center developers, wants the standards flexible, because some data centers may not be able to switch to easy -to -back up or at other speed.

Dior Dioro of the Data Center Alliance said that the network operator should balance this system with the financial rewards of data centers that are closed voluntarily during emergency situations.

The largest network operator in the country has a proposal

The PJM proposal is just released about a concept that the proposed data centers may not be guaranteed to receive electricity during the state of energy emergency.

This caused a stir among the owners of power stations and the technology industry.

Many people questioned the legal authority of PJM to impose or warn against destabilizing the energy markets and countries that frighten investors and developers of certainty and risks.

“This is especially worrying, given that the countries within the PJM fingerprint are actively competing with other American regions of the data center and investment in digital infrastructure,” said the digital energy network, a group of bitcoin mines and data center providers.

The rulers of the state of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and Maryland said they are concerned that it is very expected to provide a permanent solution and that at least it should be accompanied by incentives for data centers to build new energy sources and reduce the use of electricity voluntarily.

Others, including consumer advocates, warned that it would not reduce electricity bills and that instead PJM should follow the requirements of “bring your generation” to data centers, in essence, to build their power source.

A confidential deal

In Indiana, Google has taken a voluntary way.

Last month, Electric Utility, Indiana & Michigan Power and Tech Giant submitted a contract for power generation with Indiana organizers to a proposed data center worth $ 2 billion planned in Fort Wayne where Google agreed to reduce the use of electricity there when the network is confirmed. He said that the data center will reduce the use of electricity by delaying uncommon tasks when the electrical network is under lower pressure.

However, the important details of the public are kept, and Ben Inskeep told the Citizen Work Coalition, a consumer advocacy group, that it is not clear that the value of the arrangement is absolutely left.

A new way to think about electricity

To some extent, the lifting of adult users from the network during highly demanding periods is a new electricity approach.

It can save money for ordinary prices, because energy is more expensive during peak periods.

Abe Silverman, Energy Researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said that the data centers can use all the electricity they want for most days.

He said that taking data centers from the network for those hours during more than the most extreme heat or cold will mean that there is no need to spend billions of dollars to build a group of power stations.

“The question is, is this worth it? Is it worth it for society to build these ten new power plants only to serve databases for five hours per year?” Silverman said. “Or is there a better way to do this?”

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This story corrected the dictation of the last name of Michael Weber in paragraph 7.

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Follow Mark Levy on X in: https://x.com/timelywriter