Regulators overseeing electricity are raising alarms that the significant rise in artificial intelligence utilization could result in power outages across the US and Canada as soon as next year. This warning follows the public launch of iOS 18.2, which introduced a host of new Apple Intelligence functionalities.
Services powered by artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, are expected to cause data center energy consumption to double within just four years, leading to potential challenges for power grids to accommodate this increase in demand.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a non-profit regulator overseeing the power generation industry, has highlighted these concerns, as reported by the Financial Times.
According to the industry watchdog, North America’s electricity grid is confronting “critical reliability challenges” as power production fails to keep pace with the escalating needs driven by artificial intelligence […]
The anticipated shortfall could result in blackouts during high demand periods in both nations starting as early as next year.
The NERC emphasizes that electricity demand is surging at an unparalleled rate, with data centers powering AI services being a significant factor in this trend, as noted in their Long Term Reliability Assessment report.
This aligns with the predictions from the International Energy Agency, which forecasts that energy consumption by data centers alone will surpass 1,000 terawatt hours by 2026, effectively doubling that of 2022.
The challenge is further exacerbated by the decline in fossil fuel generation, which is not being adequately offset by the expansion of renewable energy sources.
According to NERC, the Midwest region of the US is expected to be the first affected; however, nearly all areas across the US and Canada could face significant power outages within the next ten years.
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