How America’s power grid is strained by data centers and cryptocurrency mining giants

(Tnnd) — The United States faces a major challenge in the not-too-distant future, as big tech companies and cryptocurrency miners continue to consume massive amounts of energy.

Newer technologies such as cryptocurrency mining, as well as the spread of expanded artificial intelligence, are putting enormous pressure on the aging US power grid. New reports suggest that the burden will increase in the coming years, potentially leaving homes vulnerable to power surges, which could lead to fires.

Demand is increasing across the country, and much of this rise is due to massive data centers.

All told, the nation’s 2,700 powerhouses absorbed more than 4% of the nation’s electricity just two years ago. According to To the International Energy Agency. By 2026, the International Energy Agency expects this number to jump to 6%.

Data centers will likely consume a larger share of U.S. electricity in the following years, as demand elsewhere remains mostly flat due in part to improving hardware efficiency.

Operators of these massive facilities are connected to the grid as manufacturers prepare to build factories in the country at a pace not seen in decades. Many companies have made plans during the first half of the Biden administration to build more than 155 factories, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.

The impact is greater in some areas of the country.

Arizona’s largest utility estimates that data centers will provide more than half of its future electricity needs. The Washington Post reported early last yearQuoted from planning documents. The supply produced by Arizona’s public service as of 2023 will not be enough to meet demand in the next six years.

Demand for industrial energy in Georgia has also reached record levels.

Projections for new electricity use in the Peach State over the next decade are 17 times what they were recently, The Washington Post reported.

“When you look at the numbers, they’re staggering,” Jason Shaw, chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, told The Washington Post. “It makes you scratch your head and wonder how we ended up in this situation. How were the expectations so far off? This has created a challenge that we haven’t seen before.”

Where to place the centers can also be an issue for outer cities.

They also distort electricity flows to millions of Americans, a problem the report refers to as “bad harmonics,” which can lead to damaged appliances, arcing, and home fires, a Bloomberg analysis shows.

More than three-quarters of highly distorted power readings across the country occur within 50 miles of critical data center activity, Bloomberg reported.

This trend is occurring in rural areas and highly congested urban areas as well, according to the analysis.

More than half of the households tracked by Bloomberg showed that the worst distortions occur within 20 miles of significant data center activity. US Census Bureau information shows that more than 3.7 million Americans live in the most affected areas.

“Harmonics are a very good canary in the coal mine for detecting early signs of stress and problems,” says Bob Marshall, CEO of Whisker Labs Inc., which tracks surges using nearly 1 million residential sensors spread across the country. Nearly 90% of homes in the United States are located within half a mile of a sensor.

Concerns about fires have been in the news recently amid California wildfires that have scorched thousands of acres of land and burned tens of thousands of buildings.

Investigators are still weighing What caused the fires? In Southern California. The two most common causes of such incidents are arson and utility lines.

Data centers are just one major bottleneck on the network. The extreme ramp-up in cryptocurrency mining is another.

Cryptocurrency mining is an energy-sucking process that involves supercomputers working 24 hours a day to solve complex cryptographic puzzles.

The electricity demand associated with these operations in the United States has grown very rapidly over the past few years, primarily Energy Information Administration estimates Which suggests that annual electricity use from this mining probably represents 0.6% to 2.3% of total electricity consumption in the United States.

The sheer amount of energy required to mine cryptocurrencies is astonishing.

Bitcoin mining worldwide used 121.13 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023, According to the University of Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. This is similar to the Netherlands, a country with a population of more than 17 million, which consumed 121.6 terawatt-hours in 2022, the International Energy Agency reports.