According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon Web Services is nearing a deal with Constellation Energy, the nation’s largest owner of nuclear power plants, to buy electricity directly from its nuclear plants. In March it bought one such data center in Pennsylvania, built by Talen, the owner of the nearby nuclear plant. Other tech companies, especially those which operate energy-hungry data centers that deal with artificial intelligence, are seeking similar deals. It is clear that the tech industry views nuclear energy as the most reliable energy source, but instead of building additional capacity, it is trying to lock-in access for itself, and leave the rest of the economy dependent upon the more sporadic and unreliable energy sources. Data centers currently consume about 4% of the power in the U.S., but many expect that to grow to 9% by 2030. Much of the power grid is already in crisis with ever-growing demand, and this merely invites more blackouts and brownouts.
This “behind-the-meter” arrangement is a new phenomenon and is fueling economic tensions. Local utilities always worked with large industrial consumers to assure sufficient power for all. However, for the first time a large consumer would get priority; all the others would get what is left. It further puts little interest in building a broad power grid for the nation or even a region. In fact, two utilities have requested a hearing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to complain that the Pennsylvania data center would not pay its fair share for the $140 million needed to maintain the local power grid, with the result that the data center would be subsidized by residential customers.
