How the U.S. energy grid is straining from data centers, crypto mining goliaths #CriptoNews

(TNND) — The United States is facing a major challenge in the not-too-distant future as big technology companies and cryptocurrency miners continue gobbling up massive amounts of energy.

Newer technologies like crypto mining, as well as the proliferation of scaled-up artificial intelligence, are putting incredible strain on the U.S.’s aging electricity grid. New reports suggest the burden will only get larger in the years to come, potentially making homes vulnerable to massive power surges, which can result in fires.

Demand is surging across the country, and much of the surge is a result of massive data centers.

All told the U.S.’ roughly 2,700 centers sucked up more than 4% of the country’s electricity just two years ago, according to the International Energy Agency. And by 2026, the IEA projects that number to jump to 6%.

Data centers are likely to consume a larger share of U.S. electricity in the following years, as demand elsewhere stays mostly flat due in part to better appliance efficiencies.

The operators of these massive facilities are hooking into the grid while manufacturers prepare to build factories in the country at a pace not seen in decades. Many companies put out 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 company estimates data centers will account for more than half of its future electricity needs, The Washington Post reported early last year, citing planning documents. The supply Arizona Public Service produced as of 2023 would be insufficient to meet demand in the next six years.

Demand for industrial power in Georgia is also blowing record highs.

Projections of new electricity use in the Peach State for the next decade are 17 times what it was recently, the Washington Post reported.

“When you look at the numbers, it is 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 projections that far off? This has created a challenge like we have never seen before.”

Where the centers are placed can also be an issue for outer-lying cities.

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

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

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

More than half of the households Bloomberg tracked showed the worst distortions happening within 20 miles of significant data center activity. More than 3.7 million Americans live in the most impacted areas, U.S. Census Bureau information shows.

“Harmonics are a pretty good canary in the coal mine for early signs of stress and problems,” per Bob Marshall, chief executive officer of Whisker Labs Inc., which tracks surges using roughly 1 million residential sensors spread out across the country. Nearly 90% of U.S. homes are located within half a mile of a sensor.

Concerns about fires have sprung into the news recently amid the California wildfires torching thousands of acres of land and burning 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 intentional arson and utility lines.

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

Mining crypto tokens is an energy-sucking process involving supercomputers running 24 hours a day to solve complicated cryptographic puzzles.

Electricity demand tied to these operations in the U.S. has grown very rapidly over the last several years, with preliminary estimates from the Energy Information Administration suggesting annual electricity use from such mining probably represents 0.6% to 2.3% of all U.S. electricity consumption.

The sheer amount of power required to mine crypto is astounding.

Worldwide Bitcoin mining used 121.13 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023, according to the University of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. That is comparable to the Netherlands, a country of more than 17 million people, which consumed 121.6 terawatt-hours in 2022, the IEA reports.