Rising electricity demand from data centers is raising the risk of blackouts across a wide swath of the US during extreme conditions this winter, according to the regulatory body overseeing grid stability.
Power consumption has grown 20 gigawatts from the previous winter, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said Tuesday in its winter assessment. A gigawatt is the typical size of a nuclear power reactor. Supply hasn’t kept up.
As as result, a repeat of severe winter storms in North America that unleash a polar vortex, of which there have been several in recent years, could trigger energy shortfalls across the US from the Northwest to Texas to the Carolinas. All regions have adequate resources in normal conditions.
“Data centers are a main contributor to load growth in those areas where demand has risen substantially since last winter,” Mark Olson, manager of the reliability assessment, said in an emailed statement.
America’s power grid has been facing rising blackout risks for years as aging infrastructure is increasingly stressed by severe storms and wildfires. Now the data center boom, driven by the spread of artificial intelligence, is adding to the strain by supercharging US electricity growth after being stagnant for two decades.
Winter is especially risky because solar generation is available for fewer hours and battery operations may be affected. Gas supplies, meantime, could drop off because of freeze-offs or pipeline constraints.
The areas designated by NERC as having elevated risks of shortfall shifted from the previous winter to include the US southeast and parts of the West, including Washington and Oregon.
The Texas grid continues to be highlighted after cascading failures in February 2021 left millions of people without power for days and resulted in more than 200 deaths. New England also continues to face elevated risks on potential natural gas pipeline constraints.
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