With the insatiable appetite for electricity due to the widespread development of AI by every major corporation, the demand for more and larger data centers with access to uninterrupted power has exploded. Utility companies are struggling to keep up, so they are exploring new ways to answer the call.
One, Dominion Energy, is considering hook-ups from data centers to specific power generators that it owns or controls, according to CNBC:
Dominion Energy is exploring the possibility of connecting a data center directly to a nuclear plant in Connecticut, as the tech sector hunts for carbon-free electricity to power artificial intelligence applications.
The Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Connecticut, provides more than 90% of the Nutmeg State’s carbon-free power and generates enough electricity for nearly two million homes annually, according to Dominion.
“We’re certainly open to the idea of a co-located data center,” Dominion CEO Robert Blue told analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday when asked about Millstone.
“We continue to explore that option,” Blue said. “We do clearly realize any co-location option is going to have to make sense for us, our potential counterparty and stakeholders in Connecticut.”
Without question future electricity needs will only grow exponentially, and will have to be met with sources that can provide baseload generation — like from nuclear, natural gas, and coal. That a major utility like Dominion would consider addressing AI-dependent data center needs by connecting them directly to a massive nuclear generator only shows that demand will continue to grow.
Meanwhile, renewables like wind and solar, due to the intermittent availability of their sources, cannot address such needs. Ask why data centers aren’t hooked up directly to wind or solar developments and you’ll get laughed out of the room. Nonetheless, Dominion Energy is spending an estimated $9.8 billion on a wind energy project off the coast of Virginia. In reality the initiative is a big taxpayer subsidy grab, because it would never be built without it.
That data centers want the dependable electricity from direct connections to generators like nukes also puts the lie to the claims that big tech companies like Amazon and Apple make about powering their data centers with “100 percent renewable energy.”
NLPC is (co-)suing Dominion and the Biden Administration over the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind development, because of the threat it poses to the habitat of the North American right whale.
NLPC, @CFACT and @HeartlandInst are suing the #BidenAdministration and @DominionEnergy for failing to protect Right #Whales with their #windenergy development scheme — WATCH #renewables #wildlife #oceans pic.twitter.com/40Bp7i0PYy
— NLPC (@NLPC) March 22, 2024
Question: If big corporations start connecting directly to utilities’ dependable sources for their AI/data center needs, what does that mean for the power companies’ residential customers? Are they going to get soaked more than they already are with the costs of inconsistent, more expensive renewables?
