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Federal regulators on Thursday agreed to let large energy users connect more quickly to the nation’s inefficient and aging electric transmission system to accommodate surging demand from power-hungry artificial intelligence data centers.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright had urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to act in an effort to help the U.S. better compete with China for superiority in the fast-growing AI sector. Tech companies and data center developers have welcomed the chances for faster connections to the country’s power supply.
But utilities, states and regional grid operators worried that the Republican administration’s plan would remove their authority to manage the process. Clean energy advocates want the agency to advance, rather than undermine, state-level efforts to require the use of renewable energies.
The commission’s actions come as a backlash grows against data centers over fears about rising electricity prices and concerns about the massive amounts of energy and water they use, polluting communities across the country and straining water resources and the electric grid.
FERC members voted unanimously to direct that AI data centers and other large power users are “able to connect to the transmission system in a timely and orderly manner.”
Laura Swett, an appointee of President Donald Trump who chairs the commission, called the vote a historic action to push the country’s electricity market into the future while also protecting ratepayers from shouldering the costs of connecting big power users to the grid.
