Massachusetts' first cannabis “microbusiness” opened in 2020. Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe
U.S. electricity demand has been surging after being flat for nearly two decades. A recent report from Grid Strategies, a power sector consulting firm, estimates that annual electricity demand is set to increase by 0.9%, while capacity added to the grid is set to increase by just 0.5%.
What is the cause of this crack? First, the number of data centers across the country is expected to increase due to a booming domestic industry and a growing need for AI-driven computing power.
But there are some lesser-known factors that could push America's power grid to its limits. The AI boom, the continued popularity of crypto mining, and the legalization of marijuana all add potential strain to the power grid at a time when extreme weather conditions are making it more vulnerable.
Data centers, essential to cloud computing, currently account for about 2.5% of the country's energy consumption. According to Boston Consulting Group, electricity usage is expected to triple by the end of the decade due to the growth of AI applications and cryptocurrency mining. The International Energy Agency takes a similar view, predicting that data center electricity demand will double between 2023 and 2026. In the US, one-third of the additional demand during this period was due to data center growth. PJM, an interconnection utility that covers parts of 13 states from Ohio to Virginia, “observed unprecedented data center load increases,” according to Grid Strategies. Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the United States, earning Loudoun County the nickname “Data Center Alley.” The state's power company, Dominion Energy, is delaying or refusing to ship the centers because it can't meet demand, according to industry publications. Data center dynamics.
Both AI and cryptocurrencies are energy-intensive activities. Training an AI model and populating prompts on terabytes of data is a data-dense process that consumes far more power than, say, an equivalent Google search.In a study Joule Globally, we predict that AI applications could use as much electricity as the entire Netherlands by 2027.
Virtual currencies also consume large amounts of electricity for the same reason. Miners compete to be the first to solve complex problems and are rewarded with cryptocurrency. Since the chances of being the first to solve it are infinitesimally small, miners have an advantage by using more and faster computers, which leads to intense energy demands.
“It was just a matter of pure luck,” said Samantha Robertson, a member of the strategy team at bitcoin company Bitdia. Texas Tribune. “To increase the chances, it makes sense to run these computers at scale.”
Nationally, the Energy Information Administration claims that cryptocurrency mining accounts for as much as 2.3% of U.S. energy use. In Texas, a popular destination for cryptocurrency mining operations, miners have requested power equivalent to 41 new nuclear reactors, according to the report. guardian. Grid Strategies said Texas' power grid has “continued to experience rapid load growth” since last summer.
Another fast-growing, power-hungry industry is marijuana. The drug's rapid decriminalization and legalization, not to mention the fact that American youth prefer bud to booze, has led to tremendous growth in the cannabis market. Currently, half of the states in the United States have some form of legal cannabis for recreational or medical use, and all that cannabis must be grown somewhere.
And it turns out that growing plants is an electricity-intensive task. Cannabis plants require strong lighting, fans for air circulation, and frequent temperature changes, similar to those found in hospital operating rooms. More than a decade ago, the National Conference of State Legislatures estimated that the marijuana industry uses about 1% of the nation's electricity. Nowadays, given its explosive popularity, the number is sure to increase further. In Massachusetts, marijuana currently accounts for 10% of the state's indoor energy use. Colorado, one of the first states to legalize marijuana in 2014, now emits as much carbon as mining, according to a letter from two lawmakers to the Department of Energy. This country's energy system. ”
All of this means that U.S. electricity demand is booming again after decades of being flat, thanks to economic changes and more efficient power generation. And national regulators may not be ready either. The nonprofit Energy Reliability Council of North America recently said that energy demand is “growing faster than at any time in more than five years,” with 13 of the continent's 20 electricity interconnection regions receiving electricity this summer. estimated to be at risk of shortage.
