INSIGHTSSERIES
Power & Utilities | Smart Grid
August 19, 2024
Grid Planners Grapple With Ensuring Reliability Amid Unprecedented Projections of Demand Growth From Data Centers
Rising power demand from rapid data center growth presents new challenges to utility planning amid the ongoing energy transition to meet clean energy goals.
The rapid surge in power demand from data centers has prompted calls for additional capacity to maintain grid reliability. Unlike “electrify everything” initiatives, such as…Read the full report
Key Takeaways
- U.S. data center power demand is anticipated to reach 35 GW by 2030, up from 17 GW in 2022, according to FERC’s latest summer assessment.
- Emerging data center loads present nuanced reliability and security challenges as they are very large with a short timeline for interconnection, and have different performance characteristics from historically large commercial loads, according to NERC.
- Congress has asked FERC to explain how it plans to cope with surging demand from data centers.
