A panel of authorities on the data center industry told Northwest energy planners Wednesday that the tech sector will take all the electricity it can get its hands on, warning of severe consequences if the region doesn’t respond in time.
“We’re going to need to build more transmission faster than any time we have in the last 70 years as a region,” said Robert Cromwell, who consults with Northwest power utilities. He said the region is already flirting with rolling blackouts because peak energy demand is already near the region’s capacity to provide electricity.
Data center demand is soaring because of artificial intelligence, which uses massive amounts of electricity for advanced computation. These powerful machines already consume more than 10% of all of Oregon’s power and forecasters say data center power use will be at least double that by 2030 — and perhaps some multiple higher.
If the Northwest fails to add enough generation and transmission to meet the growing energy needs, Cromwell said periodic blackouts are inevitable at times power demand is at its greatest. He used an industry term, “rotating load shedding,” to describe rolling blackouts, which briefly cut off power to homes, businesses and even hospitals that need electricity to provide life-saving care.
“Nothing will change policy faster than elected officials going to constituent funerals, and it won’t be for the better because it’ll be reactionary and less than fully thought through,” Cromwell told Wednesday’s meeting of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Oregon has one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing data center industries, owing in large part to some of the most generous tax breaks anywhere in the world. Data centers don’t employ many people, but the wealthy tech companies that run them enjoy Oregon tax giveaways worth more than $225 million annually.
