Overview
- NERC’s chief told a FERC conference that rising small outages and near misses mark a “five‑alarm” reliability risk tied to surging AI data‑center demand.
- Bank of America reports average utility payments rose 3.6% year over year in Q3, linking higher household bills to data‑center‑driven load and grid upgrades, with further increases likely.
- Utilities are accelerating investment and faster fixes, including FirstEnergy’s roughly 30% boost to five‑year transmission capex and AEP’s $1.6 billion DOE‑backed reconductoring program.
- Power is the binding constraint for new capacity, with developers facing five‑to‑seven‑year grid lead times, sub‑3% vacancy in key markets, and growing reliance on on‑site generation, fuel cells, and nascent SMR plans.
- Public and political pressure is mounting as regions near data hubs see sharp wholesale price spikes and an AP‑NORC poll finds about four in ten adults are highly concerned about AI’s environmental impacts.