PANews reported on December 24 that according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), cryptocurrency mining and artificial intelligence (AI) operations are pushing North America's electricity demand to new highs, especially after large-scale connections of data centers and facilities to the grid. This growth poses challenges to electricity demand forecasting and grid reliability.
The report points out that the electricity usage of cryptocurrency mining often fluctuates with market prices, leading to sudden changes in grid load, while AI data centers significantly increase electricity consumption due to processing, cooling, and storage demands. The uncertainty in energy consumption characteristics and load behavior in these industries further exacerbates the stress on the grid during peak periods or operational failures.
Especially in regions concentrated with cryptocurrency mining and AI, such as Texas, the grid operator ERCOT reports that fluctuations in the load from these industries could trigger blackout risks similar to those from variable energy resources, and increase the complexity of grid management. NERC's long-term reliability assessment shows that Texas's summer peak electricity demand is expected to grow by 4.6% annually by 2029, four times more than previously predicted.