The proliferation of knowledge facilities aiming to fulfill the computational wants of AI might be unhealthy information for the US energy grid, in line with a brand new report in Bloomberg.
Utilizing the 1 million residential sensors tracked by Whisker Labs, together with market intelligence knowledge from DC Byte, Bloomberg discovered that greater than half of the households displaying the worst energy distortions reside inside 20 miles of great knowledge heart exercise.
In different phrases, there seems to be a hyperlink between knowledge heart proximity and “unhealthy harmonics” — a time period for the less-than-ideal movement {of electrical} energy into houses.
Bloomberg says this “distorted” energy may finally destroy plugged-in home equipment, improve vulnerability to electrical fires, and even result in brownouts and blackouts. And AI knowledge facilities might be much more problematic due to their risky power necessities.
“No grid is designed to have the ability to deal with that type of load fluctuation not just for one knowledge heart however for a number of knowledge facilities on the identical time,” mentioned Bloom Vitality’s chief industrial officer Aman Joshi.
A spokesperson for Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison informed Bloomberg the utility “strongly questions the accuracy and underlying assumptions of Whisker Lab’s claims.”
