Power shortage

North America should expect more frequent brownouts over the next 10 years as aging ­electrical grids strain to keep up with unprecedented demand from rapidly multiplying data centers. That’s ­according to a doomsday report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the organization that assesses electricity in the United States, Canada, and part of Mexico. It also cited the retirement of reliable fossil-fueled power plants in favor of weather-­dependent renewable energy as contributing to decreasing supply.

More than 5,000 data centers operate in the United States, and America’s tech giants are building more at breakneck speed. Major tech companies spent more than $200 billion in 2024 on AI and cloud computing infrastructure, and likely more than that in 2025. But the rush to add data centers is straining utilities and resources across the country.

Today’s generative AI, which performs multiple simultaneous tasks and crunches huge amounts of data, requires 10 to 30 times more energy than earlier task-specific AI computations, according to Shuting Pomerleau, director of energy and environmental policy at the American Action Forum. A simple ChatGPT query uses 10 times the electricity of a traditional online search, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. One hyperscale center with about 30,000 square feet of computers and equipment can draw 100 to 200 megawatts, the same amount of electricity needed to power a city like Charleston, S.C., or Salt Lake City, Utah.

Data centers consume about 5% of electricity generated in the United States. Their power requirements roughly doubled between 2000 and 2005 before leveling off for a decade with advances in cloud computing, computing efficiencies, better cooling, and power management, according to researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Annual energy consumption began climbing in 2017 as servers for AI began proliferating, and electricity usage topped 4% of the U.S. total by 2023. Electric cars and manufacturing growth also contribute to increased demand, but industry analysts predict data centers will account for up to 60% of load growth through 2030.

Estimates on how much additional grid capacity will be enough vary significantly, in part because tech companies don’t share proprietary data and requirements may change. The uncertainty makes planning difficult for utility providers, legislators, and operators who usually plan on two- to three-year production schedules, but often see delays of five or more years.

“The biggest hurdle for meeting AI data center demand is regulation, in my opinion,” Pomerleau said. “Utility regulators [should] streamline and simplify the approval processes to allow utilities to bring new generation sources to the grid as fast as possible.”

PJM Interconnection coordinates electricity transmission for 67 million people in 13 Eastern states, including data-center-heavy Virginia and Washington, D.C. The operator of the nation’s largest electrical grid forecasts data centers will account for nearly all of the planned new 32 gigawatts on its system through 2030. PJM officials in November said electricity demand continues to exceed addition of new generation sources. Without significantly increasing power supplies, PJM’s board warns, power shortages could come as early as summer 2026.

State legislators and regional regulators have told data center developers to fully fund needed grid upgrades, seek additional power through competitive markets, and plan for their own backup power or expect limited or no operations during extremely hot or cold days.