America’s power grid is facing increasing challenges exacerbated by the growing energy demands of the evolving digital age. Artificial intelligence can revolutionize industries ranging from healthcare to transportation to energy, but its advancement hinges upon access to affordable, on-demand power only natural gas provides.
“Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country,” The Washington Post reported earlier this year.
Data centers, the backbone of AI, are ravenous consumers of electricity. In 2022 alone, the nearly 3,000 U.S. data centers consumed 4% of the nation’s total electricity, a figure projected to exceed 6% by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Tech giants are consuming more and more electricity. AI-powered Google searches consume 10 times as much power as conventional searches, amounting to an additional 10-terawatt hours of electricity per year. That’s enough electricity to power 700,000 homes for an entire year. Furthermore, Microsoft’s electricity usage has tripled since 2018. In 2023, the company consumed more power than the entire country of Iceland.
The grid isn’t prepared for the huge demand growth in America. PJM estimates that nearly 25% of its existing generation capacity is at risk of retirement by 2030. Those units at risk are all powered by coal and natural gas. PJM acknowledges that most of these retirements are due to government policy.
PJM’s queue for new generation sources is largely comprised of intermittent resources that require multiple megawatts to replace each single megawatt of thermal power. Natural gas represents a mere 6% of proposed generation in the queue. The future reliability and resiliency of the grid is at risk, but there is an easy solution.
“The only way we’re going to be able to keep up with the kind of power demand and the electrification that’s already afoot is natural gas,” Williams Companies CEO Alan Armstrong recently told CNBC. “If we deny ourselves that we’re going to fall behind in the AI race.”
Adding more efficient, easily dispatchable natural gas powered units to the grid, which slashed Pennsylvania’s power sector CO2 emissions by 46%, offers the only reliable, low-cost solution to this complex challenge. It’s why operators like PJM expect gas will supply 60% of the data center-driven demand growth.
Pennsylvania’s strategic position as the nation’s top electricity supplier and second largest natural gas producer presents a unique opportunity to meet the increasing power demands driven by artificial intelligence advancements. By utilizing abundant natural gas resources, the Commonwealth can ensure sustainable, reliable power generation while driving economic growth and technological innovation.
“Natural gas is the multi-tool of the energy world,” MSC President Dave Callahan told members during the Annual Membership Meeting in June.
“The uses for gas are seemingly endless – power generation, transportation fuel, heating, cooling, chemical feedstock, hydrogen source and so much more. Let’s keep working together to show our policymakers and stakeholders that natural gas is indispensable for global progress.”
