Power supply in North America threatened by bottlenecks due to AI data centers

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In North America, the construction of new energy-intensive data centers for artificial intelligence and crypto-mining is threatening energy shortages. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a non-profit organization responsible for the coordination of electrical grids under state supervision, is warning of this. In its current ten-year outlook, it calls for an urgent expansion of energy generation and transmission capacities. Electricity shortages in the Midwest could occur as early as 2025.

To make matters worse, an energy transition is also underway in North America and old coal-fired power plants in particular are being shut down in favor of renewable energies. In the next few years, the decommissioning of power plants with a capacity of 115 gigawatts is planned, writes the NERC in its report and recommends that the timetable be carefully reviewed once again. Fossil-fuel power plants are often replaced by photovoltaic systems and wind energy, which are less reliable to plan for than the decommissioned power plants due to weather dependency and other variable factors, according to the report.

Electricity demand is growing faster than it has for a long time At the same time, electricity demand is growing faster than it has for over 20 years. According to forecasts, the summer peak load will increase by 132 gigawatts over the next 10 years and by as much as 149 gigawatts in winter. This significantly exceeds the previous year's forecasts of 80 and 92 gigawatts respectively.

In addition to AI data centers and crypto mining, the rising number of electric vehicles and the increased use of heat pumps in households are also driving electricity demand. If nothing is done, the security buffer for the power supply will fall below the limits in almost all areas. At the same time, NERC expects a further increase in energy demand. In the worst-case scenario, power outages could be imminent if there is not enough capacity available to generate and transmit electricity.

Big tech is already looking for solutions

Big tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are already planning to generate the energy for their AI data centers themselves or have it generated by partners. Nuclear power plays a major role here. There are plans to repair and reactivate old nuclear power plants or build new ones. These could be used to achieve climate targets and generate sufficient electricity at the same time.

(mki)

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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.

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