At the beginning of November 2024, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected Amazon’s request to buy an additional 180 megawatts of power directly from the Susquehanna nuclear power plant for a data center located nearby. The rejection was due to the argument that buying power directly instead of getting it through the grid like everyone else works against the interests of other users.
Demand for power in the US has been flat for nearly 20 years. “But now we’re seeing load forecasts shooting up. Depending on [what] numbers you want to accept, they’re either skyrocketing or they’re just rapidly increasing,” said Mark Christie, a FERC commissioner.
Part of the surge in demand comes from data centers, and their increasing thirst for power comes in part from running increasingly sophisticated AI models. As with all world-shaping developments, what set this trend into motion was vision—quite literally.