The Exchanges

Q little bit deeper into data centers. So, um, questions about the energy intensity of data centers are wrapped up in this bigger trend. You know, power demand is surging in different pockets of the country, and many utilities are suddenly revising their resource planning, sometimes in really dramatic ways. Um, Michelle, over to you. How are these, how acute are these demand increases, and where are data centers fitting in?

A Yeah, so that's a great question, um, and a recent report by Grid Strategies, which is a grid, um, firm, found that demand forecasts were increasing. They found that there is a shift from 2.6% increase in demand over the next five years to 4.7% increase in demand over the next five years. So, you know, somewhere around a one percent increase in electricity demand per year across the country is Is predicted, and that's reflected in filings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They found that peak demand in twenty-twenty-eight was going to be increasing by about 17 gigawatts. For context, um, the total peak demand right now is around 742 gigawatts. That's about two percent of our total peak demand that they saw, um, you know, increasing in the forecasts. Um, AI right now is using about one to two percent of our electricity, and some reports expect it to maybe triple by 2030. Um, so these are big increases in demand. You know, one percent of total U.S. electricity demand is not a small amount, but to put that in a broader context, to reach a net zero economy, we need total electricity demand to totally double or even triple or more by 20 50. So, while these are significant increases in electricity, we actually need a lot more, and for us at Energy Innovation, we see this as a good moment to start learning how to grow again so that we're preparing ourselves for those much b…

AI assessment note: “a shift from 2.6% increase in demand over the next five years to 4.7%”

Q And, and as you said, you are making the case for utilities to learn to grow again. What does that mean? What are some examples of utilities that are growing the right way and meeting this new demand and growing the wrong way?

A Yeah, so just to start out, you know, what do we mean by the right way and the wrong way? And, you know, many of these utilities have their own stated carbon goals and decarbonization goals. So in some ways, this is, you know, learning how to grow again the right way to meet their own goals. Of course, there are also U.S., um, Carbon emission reduction goals. There are state carbon emission reduction goals, um, that are, that also need to be met. So growing in the right way would be growing in such a way that they can meet those goals, and also in such a way that, um, reduces costs for customers and reduces health impacts on, and on those communities that are, uh, hosting power plants. So that's what we mean about growing, growing the right way. Yeah, so just some examples of, Ways to grow well in terms of meeting those carbon goals and saving customers money would be one really great example is Excel Energy. So they do see a large forecasted increase in electricity demand, but yet they still plan to retire all of their coal plants by the early 20 thirties and install significant amounts of new renewables. Um, one thing that's really great that Excel is doing is they're planning to make the most of their existing resources by bringing new clean energy, like wind, solar batteries, um, Online at retiring and retired coal sites, so reusing that existing interconnection point, and …

AI assessment note: “one really great example is Excel Energy. So they do see a large forecasted increase”