Power grid

Electricity is made at a power plant, travels far on high-voltage transmission lines, and is stepped down at substations before it reaches homes and buildings. The big web linking power plants, transmission lines and substations is the power grid. Electricity is hard to store, so the amount used and the amount made have to be matched moment by moment.

AI data centers use a great deal of electricity, all day long. But it takes several years to build new transmission lines and substations. So a data center can be fully built and still wait for power to be connected. Companies sometimes build next to a power plant, or add their own generating equipment, such as gas generators and fuel cells.

It is like water pipes. Even if there is plenty of water (electricity), a thin pipe into the neighborhood cannot run a big new factory. Replacing it with a thicker pipe takes a long time.

People say that after chips, electricity is what AI is short of. Arguments are also growing about electricity prices and power supply in the regions where data centers are built.