Growing demand for artificial intelligence could lead to blackouts across the United States and Canada as soon as next year. The warning on Tuesday, Dec. 17, came from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), an industry watchdog.
NERC predicts that electrical consumption will increase by 15% over the next decade. The report comes as AI resources like ChatGPT and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers expect to see data center power usage double in just the next four years.
Electricity regulators are concerned that the U.S. and Canada’s power grids won’t be able to keep up with demand, saying “the shortfall” could lead to “blackouts during peak demand periods” in the United States and Canada in 2025.
The watchdog’s prediction comes as the U.S. is currently facing challenges with a slowly growing renewable energy market and as the country tries to cut its reliance on fossil fuels.
Expanding the grid to make room for expanding AI data centers has reportedly been a national security priority for the outgoing Biden administration. The White House says that it is pushing to get clean energy deployed quickly so it can meet the enormous energy needs of AI.
Industry experts say they expect a surge of new data centers with the incoming Trump administration.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to cut regulations on fossil fuel energy, which would boost the tech sector, and as the surge in AI demand continues, some AI companies have turned to nuclear energy to power their expanding operations.
