Posted on 09/12/2025 10:01:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The US power grid is under significant stress due to rapidly increasing electricity demand from AI data centers and electric vehicles, coupled with the retirement of traditional power plants.
The grid faces mounting vulnerabilities from extreme weather events, cybersecurity threats, and physical sabotage, while policy gridlock and infrastructure delays hinder necessary upgrades.
Despite challenges, the situation presents investment opportunities in grid modernization, diversified generation, and solutions for energy storage and load management.
America’s power grid is straining under the weight of a fast-changing energy landscape. Beyond the usual summer hum of air conditioners, power demand is surging from electric vehicle chargers and sprawling new data centers. At the same time, the infrastructure built to deliver reliable electricity is aging and showing its limits. From Texas heatwaves to California blackouts, the warning signs are impossible to ignore.
This isn’t a technical challenge—it’s an economic and political reckoning. If the grid fails, it won’t be because we lacked solutions. It will be because we didn’t act quickly enough.
For nearly two decades, U.S. electricity demand was flat. Now, consumption is climbing, driven by technologies that arrived faster than planners expected.
Artificial intelligence has unleashed a wave of data center construction. These facilities, dense with high-performance servers and cooling systems, are among the most power-hungry assets in the country. In 2023, AI data centers consumed about 4.4% of U.S. electricity, and that share could triple by 2028, according to Penn State’s Institute of Energy and the Environment.
Northern Virginia—“Data Center Alley”—now handles 70% of global internet traffic, pushing utilities like Dominion Energy to scramble for capacity. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Google warn that a shortage of skilled electricians could delay expansion,
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
no problem
more windmills and solar farms...
Tear down some more dams.
“Now, consumption is climbing, driven by technologies that arrived faster than planners expected.”
This is why Communism never works, you stupid leftist slime.
Bring back nuclear and coal.
Decommission some more coal / natural gas power plants.
In the mean time, quit shutting down the nuke and coal plants we have and add more natural gas turbines. It ain’t rocket science. It is technology we have. We’re 10 years behind the curve and believe wind and solar will save us?? Pard you and I know that’s BS!
Zactly
At least those moonbats are curtailed.
Those idiots that pushed electric vehicles did not use the electrical engineering information necessary to consider the electrical load required to charge all those new electric vehicles. They are the same buffoons pushing for the busting up of hydroelectric dams, the end of natural gas and opposing any nuclear power production. There should be a crime for such incompetence.
Well that’s off gas that has to be compressed to a usable pressure then directed into a turbine or boiler then converted to electricity. We can’t use regular natural gas now. How the hell do you think greenies are going to receive your idea? I’m not against it but you’re dealing with the assholes that just killed Charlie Kirk. SSDD
🦬 💩
Trillions spent on nothing getting done.😡
They got something done.
NYSers are going broke paying their electric bills.
Mission accomplished.
This was obviously going to happen and is why many are against EVs. Unplug them.
I suspect another problem that is greater than the egg heads and no-nothings that are trying rebuild the grid to fit their theories miss is grid services that were provided by small (less than 10 MW) Hydro. These often low head systems provided generation and spinning mass, often way out on the distribution network, ameliorating echo from inductive loads. I believe that they have been being decommissioned for the last 50 years as they have been for all that time, one major expense from insolvency.
Not just NY.
I know, but since I live in NYS I feel able to comment on NYS with authority. :-)
And add the fact that NYSEG is foreign owned
What a coinkydink.
“Now, consumption is climbing, driven by technologies that arrived faster than planners expected“
How much of a problem would this be if they weren’t taking perfectly good power plants offline?
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