-
Energy experts say cryptocurrencies and AI will drive exorbitant energy usage after decades of flat demand.
-
Data center power consumption is expected to triple in the United States over the next seven years.
-
“The power sector is facing a new normal,” said Tim Fox of ClearView Energy.
The excitement around artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies has not only rippled through the market. They are also shaking up the power sector.
The AI and cryptocurrency industries are served by data centers (essentially warehouses) full of giant computers running complex code 24/7, requiring large amounts of electricity and straining the power grid. We're pushing it to the limit.
“The power sector is facing a new normal,” Tim Fox, managing director of Clearview Energy, said in an interview with CNBC. “Annual electricity demand has been flat for the past decade, and continues to do so today. Americans consumed less electricity last year than in 2022. However, projections for annual consumption and peak demand are currently , higher than at any point in the past 10 years.” ”
Power sector consultancy Grid Strategies said in a report that its forecast for national electricity demand over the next five years has risen to 4.7% from 2.6% growth last year. They added that data centers are the main driver of the boom.
Cryptocurrency mining accounted for 0.6% to 2.3% of the nation's electricity demand in the United States last year, an Energy Information Administration study found. By 2023, miners alone will be using as much electricity as all of Australia, and the energy used by the cryptocurrency industry is expected to increase “significantly,” ClearView's Fox said.
AI is also expected to consume a huge amount of power. Driving the data center boom is generative AI, which in the U.S. predicts data center power consumption will triple by 2030, from 2.5% to 7.5%, Boston Consulting said. The group estimates.
Concerns among power industry experts are that the U.S. power grid is unprepared to handle the surge, that new power plants will take a long time to build, and that the U.S.'s aging power grid system Expanding and updating is a long process.
“While it may take only a year or two to connect a new load to the grid, it will take more than four years to bring a new generation online, and it will take more than four years to bring a new generation online, with It may take longer to build new transmission connections,” the grid said. The strategic report stated:
Complicating the calculations is that the world is facing a climate crisis, adding to the concerns of the power sector.
“There are also policy issues,” Fox said. “The Biden administration wants to decarbonize the electric grid. About 20 states have goals to mandate decarbonization of the electric grid. And these states are seeing flat to further decline in load demand. Therefore, we suggest that these goals are becoming increasingly difficult.'' “
Read the original article on Business Insider
