AI data centers could ‘distort’ the US power grid

The proliferation of data centers aiming to meet the computing needs of artificial intelligence could be bad news for the US power grid. A new report in Bloomberg.

Using 1 million residential sensors monitored by Whisker Labs and market intelligence data from DC Byte, Bloomberg found that more than half of households with the worst energy distortions live within 20 miles of significant data center activity.

In other words, there’s a correlation between data center proximity and “bad harmonics”—a term for the less-than-ideal flow of electricity into homes.

Bloomberg says this “distorted” power can eventually destroy connected devices, increase susceptibility to electrical fires and even cause burns and blackouts. And AI data centers can be even more problematic due to volatile power requirements.

“No network is designed to handle this kind of load variability, not just for a single data center, but for multiple data centers,” said Aman Joshi, chief commercial officer, Bloom Energy.

Chicago Union spokesman Edison told Bloomberg that the utility “strongly calls into question the accuracy of Whisker Lab’s claims and underlying assumptions.”