Federal regulators have agreed to let large energy users, including power-hungry artificial intelligence data centers, connect more quickly to the nation’s electric transmission system. Energy Secretary Chris Wright had urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to act in an effort to help the United States better compete with China for superiority in the fast-growing AI sector.

Background

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. Tech companies and data center developers have welcomed the chances for faster connections to the country’s power supply.

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 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.

Impact

Data centers would pay the full cost of any grid upgrades needed for their connection, under the commission order. However, that order can do little to address the tightening energy supplies that are driving up electricity bills in some areas and raising warnings of blackouts as the construction of data centers outpaces the speed of new power plants coming online to serve them.

Companies such as xAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, OpenAI, and Amazon have signed Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, in which they agreed to build or buy new sources of power generation for their data centers and cover the expense of infrastructure upgrades.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.