Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: Get The Facts On The Illinois Prescription Drug Board
Next Post: Uber Partners With Cities To Expand Urban Transportation
Posted in:
* A story last month from Bloomberg…
Artificial intelligence is poised to help drive a 900% jump in power demand from data centers in the Chicago area, according to Exelon Chief Executive Officer Calvin Butler.
About 25 data center projects that would consume around 5 gigawatts of power total — roughly equivalent to the output of five nuclear plants — are undergoing engineering studies in Exelon unit Commonwealth Edison’s territory, Butler said. That compares with about 400 megawatts of data center demand currently on its system. Butler expects up to 80% of the planned developments to be completed.
“We are seeing quite a bit of activity,” Butler said during an interview on the sidelines of the S&P Global Power Markets Conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Data center developers are attracted to ComEd’s low electricity rates, carbon-free generation from nuclear reactors and state tax incentives, he added. An Exelon spokesperson said the company will continue to ensure that its system can handle the additional power load growth.
The demand surge wouldn’t be met immediately by more power generation. New data centers would initially be served by excess capacity already on the regional grid, imported electricity from other areas and then eventually by newly constructed sources, said Paul Patterson, a utility analyst for Glenrock Associates.
Data centers qualify for a range of state tax exemptions and credits in Illinois and in other states. The incentives have helped create a ton of construction jobs and Illinois is now one of the top locations for data centers in the country.
* Gov. JB Pritzker held a press conference yesterday to showcase the state’s burgeoning electric vehicle industry, so Isabel asked him about this topic…
Isabel: Governor, are you at all concerned that the growth of state subsidized data centers will eventually put strain on the power supply?
Governor Pritzker: It’s a great question because we do have to balance what kinds of companies we’re letting live off of the grid that we’ve got here in the state. Remember, we’re a net energy exporter in the state. So we produce a lot of electricity. We don’t want to have it all sucked up by just one industry. [We] want to make sure that we’re spreading it about, we want to make sure we have lots of jobs that get created, particularly in manufacturing.
We’re monitoring, we’ve still got the incentives in place for data centers. But we’ve got to make sure that data centers are using power efficiently and that they’re using clean energy on their own sites to reduce the amount of energy they’re pulling from the grid.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 7:57 am
Previous Post: Get The Facts On The Illinois Prescription Drug Board
Next Post: Uber Partners With Cities To Expand Urban Transportation
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
Agree with the Governor that Isabel Miller asked a great question.
She actually asks a lot of great questions.
Comment by Back to the Future Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 8:29 am
=we’re letting live off of the grid=
JB assuming ownership of the electricity supply is rich. If the concern is that capacity will be strained by Data centers - well let’s get more power stations up and running. Data centers are and will continue to be a growth industry - New AI infrastructure will require expansion - Microsoft is breaking ground on a huge one in WI. don’t shame an industry rather work on solutions.
Comment by Donnie Elgin Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 8:51 am
Isabel’s question is an important one that doesn’t seem to be getting much attention elsewhere. The impact on the grid, if Excelon is only 1/3 correct, will be substantial and affect everyone.
=roughly equivalent to the output of five nuclear plants=
Time to build more nuclear capacity.
Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 8:56 am
Need more windmills and solar panels
Comment by Spooky32 Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 9:08 am
Electric car power usage is a significant factor as well. We need to get serious about expanding existing nuclear power facilities and pushing other options as well or we’re going to be caught up short in the middle of summer/winter.
Comment by Former ILSIP Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 9:08 am
We’ve been seeing pretty alarming power constraints down here in Ameren territory for the last 2-3 years. Lots of potential development projects have gotten the dreaded “unable to serve” response.
More needs to be done at the State/Federal level to eliminate the bottlenecks for renewable deployment…particularly with the interconnection process.
Comment by sulla Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 9:27 am
Data Centers, AI, EVs, the overall electrification of the economy, shifting away from natural gas, etc. is going to lead to an increased demand on the electric grid and an increased need for reliable power. You still want them built here. It’s goof for your economy, and it’s better for the environment to have the built here than somewhere else. You just need to plan accordingly.
Comment by George Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 9:47 am
=increased demand on the electric grid and an increased need for reliable power=
We are in the beginning stages of a huge problem created by legislation - we will need new baseload capacity for EVs and data centers, unfortunately, IL passed a law that makes new Coal/Gas plants unfeasible (natural-gas-fired power plants of that size must reach zero emissions by 2045) Instead, we passed laws incentivizing Small modular reactors (SMRs) which will not be ready for large-scale installation for decades. And of course, other states continue to build Nat gas plants
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=60663
Comment by Donnie Elgin Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 10:15 am
This is a major crisis brewing for our state (and our nation). After more than a decade of flat growth in electricity demand, suddenly the combination of AI, data centers and electrification is making forecasters concerned. This is going to be a major issue.
And no, it’s not because of CEJA as this is a national issue. But the pain will initially be localized to some specific areas including the Ameren area.
Thanks, Isabel, for asking the question.
Comment by New Day Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 10:39 am
Donnie Elgin has more faith in the marketplace than I have. Alternatively, instead of allowing nuclear plants to close…
Comment by Jibba Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 11:05 am
The NYT had this story yesterday.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/07/climate/battery-electricity-solar-california-texas.html
Lots of distance still to cover on the grid, clean power generation, storage. But overall California can now power 10 million homes for a few hours just off battery supply. They accomplished that in less than 5 years.
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 11:44 am
Meanwhile:
Exclusive: Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature
Comment by very old soil Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 11:55 am
“They accomplished that in less than 5 years.”
Energy storage is the key and it can be done here. Unfortunately it takes time to get through the interconnection queue and get projects built. But something better happen and fast or this state is going to have a power supply train wreck.
Comment by New Day Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 12:23 pm
- JB assuming ownership of the electricity supply is rich. -
Are you a child? The state regulates utilities, and reliability is a valid concern.
Sending a message to them to keep that in mind when studying these projects is common sense.
Comment by Excitable Boy Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 12:24 pm
== Need more windmills and solar panels ==
Those do t work very well at night, and data centers operate 24/7/365
Comment by RNUG Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 12:26 pm
- Those do t work very well at night -
No wind at night? That’s news to me.
There are also ways to store energy generated during the day.
Solar and wind aren’t the end all be all solution, but your knee jerk talking points add nothing to the discussion.
Comment by Excitable Boy Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 12:34 pm
== windmills== In addition to night stopping solar, the slowest avg windspeeds are in Summer so on hot Summer nights, renewables wont be enough for the AC. And BTW, only one person uses the term windmills. His supporters then repeat the term to make it seem legit. Kind of like the old fairy tale “The King and His new Clothes”. Gotta agree with his highness when he speaks.
Comment by Anotheretiree Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 12:38 pm
==Those do t work very well at night==
Does the wind stop blowing at night? I’ve never heard that. Either way, we know that batteries are key to keeping the grid stable. California has made lots of progress on this, we can too.
Comment by supplied_demand Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 12:45 pm
=has more faith in the marketplace=
Yep, they deliver the electricity that my family relies on.
Comment by Donnie Elgin Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 12:47 pm
== No wind at night? ==
A fair amount of the wind is thermally generated from land masses warming up during the day. Observe some of the wind farms here in the Midwest; a lot of them don’t start spinning until 2 to 3 hours after day break.
Comment by RNUG Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 1:13 pm
Something greater than a quarter of the power consumed at data centers is for cooling the computers. Instead of running the chillers when cooling is most needed, it is entirely possible to make a giant block of ice (or other cold sink) when electricity is available at a low price and then use the stored cold to cool the computers later when the processors are running full tilt. Off-peak cooling is one of the technologies which could help stabilize the electricity grid.
Comment by Ivory-billed woodpecker Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 1:22 pm
=it is entirely possible to make a giant block of ice=
This is done everyday on the south side of the Chicago Loop.
More efficient heat pumps and geo thermal units will also benefit cooling data centers. L
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Wednesday, May 8, 24 @ 2:36 pm