Energy Security

Presentation - Energy Security in jeopardy for residents and businesses in light of proposed Millstone Point Data Centers projects, by Bryan Sayles, Founder CCWEL.

We’re Living in a Nightmare:’ Inside the Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town, by Andrew R Chow/Granbury, Texas TIME Mag., July 8, 2024. The piece talks about bitcoin mining, but bitcoin mining happens in data centers, so this is really a data center piece. Worth noting: the setup is similar to what's being proposed here: set up the data center in close proximity to a power source.

Why So Many Bitcoin Mining Companies Are Pivoting to AI  TIME Mag. By Andrew R. Chow June 28 2024. As AI companies work furiously to improve the intelligence and usefulness of their products, their demand for cheap, plentiful energy has skyrocketed. This gold rush has been extremely profitable for an unlikely beneficiary: Bitcoin miners. 

New England Power Grid Declares Emergency as Heat Wave Hits (Bloomberg) Naureen S. Malik  Wed, Jun 19, 2024 -- New England’s power grid operator declared a level 1 emergency in a bid to shore up supplies, as the region faces an intense heat wave that’s forecast to last for days. 

Is there enough energy for a data center at Millstone?  Daniel Drainville, The Day, June 16, 2024.

The 'Transition Fuel' That Will Ride the AI Energy Boom  By Joel Litman, chief investment strategist, Altimetry May 28, 2024 Artificial-intelligence ('AI') poster child Sam Altman is pouring millions of dollars into nuclear energy...The way he sees it, nuclear power is the only way we'll meet our mounting energy demands.

Electricity grids creak as AI demands soar  May 20, 2024 by Chris Baraniuk, BBC Technology reporter

There’s a big problem with generative AI, says Sasha Luccioni at Hugging Face, a machine-learning company. Generative AI is an energy hog. “Every time you query the model, the whole thing gets activated, so it’s wildly inefficient from a computational perspective,” she says.

Data centers to run out of power in two years, says DigitalBridge CEO
lightreading.com Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies May 6, 2024

'We're kind of running out of power in the next 18 to 24 months,' warned Marc Ganzi of DigitalBridge. How data center operators might address this power shortage remains unclear.

Data centers as electricity hogs States rethink data centers as ‘electricity hogs’ strain the grid
By Kevin Hardy Newsbreak April 30, 2024

As internet data centers multiply, efforts to control them are growing. Washington Post

by Antonio Olivo April 30, 2024

A backlash against internet data centers has triggered a wave of laws around the country to restrain the rapidly growing industry that uses massive amounts of energy to make cloud computing and smart technology possible.

Google data center would be among Cedar Rapids’ largest water and energy users

City has surplus water capacity for proposed $576M project The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA by Erin Jordan Apr. 29, 2024 

Why the AI Industry’s Thirst for New Data Centers Can’t Be Satisfied

Wall Street Journal By Tom Dotan and Asa Fitch April 24, 2024 Supply bottlenecks slow the scramble to build bigger, more powerful facilities. The frenzy to build data centers to serve the exploding demand for artificial intelligence is causing a shortage of the parts, property and power that the sprawling warehouses of supercomputers require. [article paywall]

Is CT’s electric grid ready to handle more power? CT Mirror by Jan Ellen Spiegel April 9, 2024

Some lawmakers have argued that the grid can’t yet handle widespread electrification and therefore policies that require electric power should not be put in place.

Internet data centers are fueling drive to old power source: Coal The Washington Post By Antonio Olivo,  April 17, 2024

US electric utilities brace for surge in power demand from data centers.
By Laila Kearney Seher, Dareen Deep, Kaushik Vakil, Reuters 10 April 2024

Overall, power use from the thousands of giant computing warehouses that comprise data centers is expected to triple globally from less than 15 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2023 to 46 TWh this year, according to Morgan Stanley research. "The truth of the matter is these things (data centers) are pigs when it comes to energy use, and now they're the size of an elephant," said Eric Woodell ...

Plans for Massive Data Center Linked to Nuclear Power Spark Debate on Connecticut’s Energy Future CT Examiner, Francisco Uranga, 08 April 2024 Thomas Quinn wants to build a hyperscale data center — what would be the single largest user of electricity in Connecticut — next to the Millstone Nuclear Power plant in Waterford.

Now what the heck do we do about data centers? Ivy Main, The Virginia Mercury, 03 April 2024 Virginia’s 2024 legislative session wrapped up last month without any action to avert the energy crisis that is hurtling towards us.

[CT] Energy Committee Advances Procurement Bill [Senate Bill 385]

Republican Amendment Fails, But Needleman Says Language Is Still A Work In Progress by Hudson Kamphausen 22 March 2024

HARTFORD, CT – A bill that would include other New England states in the contract negotiations with the Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford was voted through the Connecticut General Assembly’s energy committee along party lines Thursday, but not without some resistance from Republicans. 

Data centers, bitcoin and EVs send utilities scrambling for more power
U.S. energy use has been flat, but bitcoin, data centers and EVs are fueling a spike and threatening climate goals. By Kristi Swartz, Pam Radtke, Floodlight 19 March 2024 Canary Media

Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power  By Evan Halper WaPo 07 March 2024 

Artificial intelligence, data centers and the boom in clean-tech manufacturing are pushing America’s aging power grid to the brink. Utilities can’t keep up. 

Millstone Power Procurement   By Mary Fitzpatrick, Associate Analyst 01 September 2020 | 2020-R-0203   

Issue:  This report discusses the power procurement authorized by PA 17-3, June Special Session (JSS). (For more information on that legislation and related requirements, see OLR Report 2018-R-0313.)