The Northern Virginia area could face more than 430 hours of power outages per year by 2030 as the power grid struggles to keep up with the growth of AI and data centers, a report from the Department of Energy says. That’s a significant increase from the current rate of 2.4 hours per year.
The July report details the current power grid’s capability to supply power for data centers in different parts of the country. The DOE estimates that energy demands will grow by 50 GW by 2030 due to increases in AI usage.
The report points out that the U.S. plans to retire 104 GW worth of firm power, including coal and natural gas. This will be replaced by 209 GW of new power generation, but only 22 GW of that will be firm power. The U.S. Energy Information Administration defines firm power as power that is available at all times, even under adverse conditions.
In the region which encompasses most of Virginia, the DOE report lays out different power outage scenarios. If some plants close as planned, the average loss of load hours would increase from 2.4 hours to 430.3 hours. Even without those closures, it still projects the loss of load hours to spike to 213.7.
NoVA’s Growing Data Center Presence
Northern Virginia is the world’s largest data center market, WTOP reported in June, with an inventory of 4,900 MW. And it’s continuing to grow, with 1,100 MW currently under construction and almost 5,500 new megawatts planned.
The presence of data centers in the region has been growing rapidly for several years. A report from the Northern Virginia Techology Council showed that it went up 500 percent between 2015 and 2023.
The subject has been a source of intense debate among NoVA residents and officials. Some, like Buddy Rizer, executive director of the Department of Economic Development in Loudoun County, say it’s a driver for the local economy with new jobs and billions of dollars invested in the regional economy.
Others, like Elena Schlossberg, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, have expressed concern over the increased demand for power. And the potential for decreased quality of life in the rural areas where the data centers are being built.
“In the state of Virginia, we were working towards the Virginia Clean Economy Act: clean air, clean water. We were making progress towards those goals, and that’s being lost due to a new reliance on coal and gas and diesel generators,” Schlossberg said of data centers’ power demand.
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
