US electric grids under pressure from energy-hungry data centers are
changing strategy
[September 13, 2025] By
MARC LEVY
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — With the explosive growth of Big Tech's data
centers threatening to overload U.S. electricity grids, policymakers are
taking a hard look at a tough-love solution: bumping the energy-hungry
data centers off grids during power emergencies.
Texas moved first, as state lawmakers try to protect residents in the
data-center hotspot from another deadly blackout, like the winter storm
in 2021 when dozens died.
Now the concept is emerging in the 13-state mid-Atlantic grid and
elsewhere as massive data centers are coming online faster than power
plants can be built and connected to grids. That has elicited pushback
from data centers and Big Tech, for whom a steady power supply is vital.
Like many other states, Texas wants to attract data centers as an
economic boon, but it faces the challenge of meeting the huge volumes of
electricity the centers demand. Lawmakers there passed a bill in June
that, among other things, orders up standards for power emergencies when
utilities must disconnect big electric users.
That, in theory, would save enough electricity to avoid a broad blackout
on the handful of days during the year when it is hottest or coldest and
power consumption pushes grids to their limits or beyond.
Texas was first, but it won't be the last, analysts say, now that the
late 2022 debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT ignited worldwide demand for
chatbots and other generative AI products that typically require large
amounts of computing power to train and operate.
“We’re going to see that kind of thing pop up everywhere,” said Michael
Weber, a University of Texas engineering professor who specializes in
energy. “Data center flexibility will be expected, required, encouraged,
mandated, whatever it is.”
Data centers are threatening grids
That's because grids can't keep up with the fast-growing number of data
center projects unfolding in Texas and perhaps 20 other states as the
U.S. competes in a race against China for artificial intelligence
superiority.
Grid operators in Texas, the Great Plains states and the mid-Atlantic
region have produced eye-popping projections showing that electricity
demand in the coming years will spike, largely due to data centers.
A proposal similar to Texas' has emerged from the nation's biggest grid
operator, PJM Interconnection, which runs the mid-Atlantic grid that
serves 65 million people and data-center hotspots in Virginia, Ohio and
Pennsylvania.
The CEO of the Southwest Power Pool, which operates the grid that serves
18 million people primarily in Kansas, Oklahoma and other Great Plains
states, said it has no choice but to expand power-reduction programs —
likely for the biggest power users — to meet growing demand.
The proposals are cropping up at a time when electricity bills
nationally are rising fast — twice the rate of inflation, according to
federal data — and growing evidence suggests that the bills of some
regular Americans are rising to subsidize the gargantuan energy needs of
Big Tech.
Analysts say power plant construction cannot keep up with the growth of
data center demand, and that something must change.
“Data center load has the potential to overwhelm the grid, and I think
it is on its way to doing that,” said Joe Bowring, who heads Monitoring
Analytics, the independent market watchdog in the mid-Atlantic grid.
Data centers might have to adjust
Big Tech is trying to make their data centers more energy efficient.
They are also installing backup generators, typically fueled by diesel,
to ensure an uninterrupted power supply if there's a power outage.
Data center operators, however, say they hadn't anticipated needing that
backup power supply to help grid operators meet demand and are closely
watching how utility regulators in Texas write the regulations.
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High-voltage transmission lines provide electricity to data centers
in Ashburn in Loudon County, Virginia, on Sunday, July 16, 2023. (AP
Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
 The Data Center Coalition, which
represents Big Tech companies and data center developers, wants the
standards to be flexible, since some data centers may not be able to
switch to backup power as easily or as quickly as others.
The grid operator also should balance that system with financial
rewards for data centers that voluntarily shut down during
emergencies, said Dan Diorio of the Data Center Coalition.
Nation’s largest grid operator has a proposal
PJM's just-released proposal revolves around a concept in which
proposed data centers may not be guaranteed to receive electricity
during a power emergency.
That's caused a stir among power plant owners and the tech industry.
Many questioned PJM's legal authority to enforce it or warned of
destabilizing energy markets and states scaring off investors and
developers with uncertainty and risk.
“This is particularly concerning given that states within PJM’s
footprint actively compete with other U.S. regions for data center
and digital infrastructure investment,” the Digital Power Network, a
group of Bitcoin miners and data center developers, said in written
comments to PJM.
The governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and Maryland
said they worried that it's too unpredictable to provide a permanent
solution and that it should at least be accompanied by incentives
for data centers to build new power sources and voluntarily reduce
electricity use.
Others, including consumer advocates, warned that it won't lower
electric bills and that PJM should instead pursue a “bring your own
generation” requirement for data centers to, in essence, build their
own power source.
A deal is shrouded in secrecy
In Indiana, Google took a voluntary route.
Last month, the electric utility, Indiana & Michigan Power, and the
tech giant filed a power-supply contract with Indiana regulators for
a proposed $2 billion data center planned in Fort Wayne in which
Google agreed to reduce electricity use there when the grid is
stressed. The data center would, it said, reduce electricity use by
delaying non-urgent tasks to when the electric grid is under less
stress.
However, important details are being kept from the public and Ben
Inskeep of the Citizens Action Coalition, a consumer advocacy group,
said that leaves it unclear how valuable the arrangement really is,
if at all.
A new way of thinking about electricity
To an extent, bumping big users off the grid during high-demand
periods presents a new approach to electricity.
It could save money for regular ratepayers, since power is most
expensive during peak usage periods.
Abe Silverman, an energy researcher at Johns Hopkins University,
said that data centers can and do use all the electricity they want
on most days.
But taking data centers off the grid for those handful of hours
during the most extreme heat or cold would mean not having to spend
billions of dollars to build a bunch of power plants, he said.
“And the question is, is that worth it? Is it worth it for society
to build those 10 new power plants just to serve the data centers
for five hours a year?" Silverman said. "Or is there a better way to
do it?”
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