Exploding AI Power Use: an Opportunity to Rethink Grid Planning and Management
Liuzixuan Lin, Rajini Wijayawardana, Varsha Rao, Hai Thanh Nguyen, Wèdan Emmanuel Gnibga, Andrew A. Chien · 2024
The unprecedented rapid growth of computing demand for AI is projected to increase global annual datacenter (DC) growth from 7.2% to 11.3%. We project the 5-year AI DC demand for several power grids and assess whether they will allow desired AI growth (resource adequacy). If not, several “desperate measures”—grid policies that enable more load growth and maintain grid reliability by sacrificing new DC reliability are considered.