Advocates ask for more investment in Oregon’s grid to support the state’s data center industry and protect ratepayers.
Soaring demand for electricity in the tech sector could lead to an era of rolling blackouts in Oregon. That’s according to The Oregonian, which this month quotes insiders who say more generation and transmission infrastructure must be built in the Pacific Northwest, a region already near capacity to provide electricity.
Oregon today has one of the country’s largest and fastest-growing data center industries with companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Oracle and Meta with large installations around the state including the plains of Eastern Oregon and the outer edges of the Portland metro area. This is due in part to generous tax breaks established 40 years ago to aid ailing small factories. The state now gives away more than $225 million per year.
Data centers currently account for around 10% of power usage in Oregon, with demand for electricity by data centers soaring due to the proliferation of artificial intelligence, which uses massive amounts of power for advanced computation. Data centers run round-the-clock and demand for AI is currently so high, data center operators will take as much power as they can get. Analysts say data center power use will at least double by 2030.
Without new investment, the region’s growing energy needs may lead to an increase in rotating load shedding, aka rolling blackouts, which briefly cut off power to energy users, from hospitals to homeowners, according to energy consultant Robert Cromwell, who earlier this month addressed officials with the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The council is a regional organization that works with utilities and governments to balance power needs with environmental protections. Its regular forecasts seek to provide lawmakers realistic views of future energy demands in the Pacific Northwest.
Officials face tough choices when determining who should lose power when demand exceeds supply. Cutting power to hospitals and homes have obvious downsides but data centers support myriad businesses and online systems and shutting them down can have disastrous consequences, as well, as in last summer’s CrowdStrike outage.
Cromwell told the council its forecasts for future energy demand in the region do not go far enough. An extreme case calls for an additional 6,500 average megawatts to power new data centers, or enough to power nearly 5 million homes.
Panelists of the power council suggested the establishment of a regional transmission authority to streamline new power lines and interstate collaboration. They said action should be taken to ensure data center operators bear the brunt of upgrading power transmission and generation, so the cost isn’t borne entirely by energy ratepayers.
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