AI is eating up Pennsylvania's power, governor threatens to pull state from the grid — new plants aren't being built fast enough to keep up with demand

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Spiking demand is sending energy bills skyrocketing, while the governor threatens to pull the state from the grid.

Three mile power plant being converted to run datacenters.
(Image credit: Getty / Bloomberg)

Artificial intelligence and the hardware that powers it, is at the heart of a fallout in Pennsylvania, where electricity prices have risen dramatically for wholesalers and consumers due to surging demand. The governor is now threatening to abandon the state's grid energy provider, PJM Interconnection, via Reuters. He's demanding that PJM increase energy capacity through the acceleration of new energy plant construction and approval.

Following the launch of ChatGPT in 2023 and the explosion of competitor tools and chatbots in the months that followed, the regional transmission organization, PJM, saw a surge in demand for power as major tech companies scoured the country looking for spare grid capacity to run AI and build new data centers to support them. AI can demand a lot of power, so much so that Elon Musk is shipping an entire power plant to the US.

“We need speed from PJM, we need transparency from PJM and we need to keep consumer costs down with PJM,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told Reuters. “I think they've taken some steps in that direction which is really encouraging to me and we're going to continue to work at it.”

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale
Freelance Writer

Jon Martindale is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. For the past 20 years, he's been writing about PC components, emerging technologies, and the latest software advances. His deep and broad journalistic experience gives him unique insights into the most exciting technology trends of today and tomorrow.

18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • punkncat
    But hey, let's all be forced to get an electric car!
    Reply
  • Robutts
    Why don't they just build these things in the desert. Supply their own solar
    Reply
  • oobyone
    Why are we, the regular customer, getting price gouged to pay for AI and data center expansion?
    Reply
  • nikkileigh230
    Admin said:
    Spiking demand is sending energy bills skyrocketing, while the governor threatens to pull the state from the grid.

    AI is eating up Pennsylvania's power, governor threatens to pull state from the grid — new plants aren't being built fast enough to keep up with de... : Read more
    Why do regular consumers have to pay an egregious amount for energy bills because of AI? This rise in costs has been going on since covid and we all know that was years ago. It seems to me my home state of Pennsylvania can't get their act together!
    Reply
  • bit_user
    punkncat said:
    But hey, let's all be forced to get an electric car!
    The problem with grid capacity are felt during peak demand periods. Electric cars can be programmed to charge overnight, specifically during low-demand hours.

    In fact, in some instances you can even turn around and sell some of the power in your batteries back to the grid, during peak periods, thus helping to alleviate the problem rather than making matters worse.

    Does that make them a net positive? I don't know, but they're certainly not as dire as your comment implies.
    Reply
  • punkncat
    bit_user said:
    The problem with grid capacity are felt during peak demand periods. Electric cars can be programmed to charge overnight, specifically during low-demand hours.

    In fact, in some instances you can even turn around and sell some of the power in your batteries back to the grid, during peak periods, thus helping to alleviate the problem rather than making matters worse.

    Does that make them a net positive? I don't know, but they're certainly not as dire as your comment implies.

    Considering the small number of electric cars as opposed to legislating everyone have one there is no way to logically calculate the actual load on the grid outside estimates. Since we can surmise by the post and other poignant information coming to light about the shortcomings in our power grid as a country, and additionally the world, it would seem the conclusion would not be good at current levels. Nor will this be good when we consider the time to build new power plants, of a type that aren't just as bad as ICE vehicles in light of cost and power source, alongside the infrastructure improvements that will have to be made, costs passed on to consumers lamented above...time spent as victims at random charging stations across the country notwithstanding...(off subject, a straw man as one poster might say).

    The fact that many localities cannot supply clean power without brown-out under current conditions tends to lend to how DIRE the situation actually is. Alongside that let us consider the issues such as what happened in Texas a few years ago with the cold and people having no power due to demand. Add millions of recharging battery packs on top of that.
    Reply
  • Mr Majestyk
    punkncat said:
    But hey, let's all be forced to get an electric car!
    Forced? By who exactly, oh let me guess it's all Biden's fault right.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    Just a preemptive warning to all....leave the politics out of this.
    Deal?
    Reply
  • thestryker
    punkncat said:
    Considering the small number of electric cars as opposed to legislating everyone have one there is no way to logically calculate the actual load on the grid outside estimates. Since we can surmise by the post and other poignant information coming to light about the shortcomings in our power grid as a country, and additionally the world, it would seem the conclusion would not be good at current levels. Nor will this be good when we consider the time to build new power plants, of a type that aren't just as bad as ICE vehicles in light of cost and power source, alongside the infrastructure improvements that will have to be made, costs passed on to consumers lamented above...time spent as victims at random charging stations across the country notwithstanding...(off subject, a straw man as one poster might say).

    The fact that many localities cannot supply clean power without brown-out under current conditions tends to lend to how DIRE the situation actually is. Alongside that let us consider the issues such as what happened in Texas a few years ago with the cold and people having no power due to demand. Add millions of recharging battery packs on top of that.
    So the amount of power cited in the article that needs to be added is 30GW for these datacenters in the coverage area of the power provider. A standard L2 home charger pulls ~11.5kW maximum so if we use that figure the amount of power for just the new datacenters is the equivalent of charging over 2.6m cars at the same time.

    While the grid is certainly a problem, and has been for decades, the rate of actual electric car adoption is nothing in comparison. So if you're going to be pointing fingers at consumption problems you've got the wrong target.
    Reply
  • jp7189
    Three mile island is in PA, and they recently approved restarting. What's the timeline for bringing that back online?
    Reply