There’s a positive side to the data center boom: innovations in the U.S. power grid

The AI ​​boom is causing energy demand to skyrocket across the country. Critics argue that this surge in connections is stress-testing America’s aging power grid infrastructure. There are growing concerns that energy shortages will lead to higher electricity bills in the short term, and ultimately lead to power outages and other technical problems in the long term.

At TechCrunch Disrupt earlier this month, industry players tempered much of that criticism with optimism about how the flood of new energy connections could actually open the door to grid modernization. Apoorv Bhargava, founder and CEO of WeaveGrid, Tim Heidel, CEO of Veir, and Kristin Eberhard, vice president of policy at Rewiring America, said that while the electric grid faces new challenges, there are also many new opportunities.

“This is a completely different power grid, right?” Bhargava said. “We’re dealing with a ton of new variables, including renewable energy. We’re dealing with a ton of new loads in the form of electric vehicles, data centers and heat pumps. And the ability to manage and adjust is basically what utilities are grappling with right now.”

All these new connections are putting ever-increasing stress on the power grid, but Bhargava’s company wants to provide the kind of load orchestration and management that allows utilities to maximize the potential of their current systems. WeaveGrid’s software can help organizations deploy energy efficiently while optimizing connectivity and lowering utility payers’ bills, the founders said.

Heidel, on the other hand, runs a company that works to build and expand the physical infrastructure of the grid, while also helping it run more efficiently. Veir sells superconducting power lines that promise much more efficient energy transmission than traditional ones. Veir’s cables can carry power five times farther than traditional cables and require 20 times less space, the company says. Earlier this month, the startup raised $110 million in a Series C funding round.

“The scale of investment in AI infrastructure is driving a tremendous amount of innovation,” Heidel said. “There’s a ton of new technology that’s starting to launch and scale. By combining them, we can really make sure that data centers are the best neighbors and residents of their communities.”

He added: “I think we really need to look at how we can put all of this into practice as quickly as possible to facilitate the next phase of growth.”

Eberhard, whose organization advocates for home electrification, also said that while the surge in energy demand for data centers has given new urgency to modernization, it has also created an environment in which the industry is ready to try new things.

“I feel like this era of increased AI and increased workloads is a time of great improvement,” Eberhardt said. “There’s a lot of yes-and-eye repetition going on. So, yes, we need more power lines. Yes, we need more centralized power plants. We also need to make sure that we leverage all the other things that we’ve left on the table in the past when the demand for AI was less urgent.”