The U.S. Needs 5000 Miles of New High-Voltage Lines Annually. It Only Built 392
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Hyman is an economist and financial analyst specializing in the energy sector.
He headed utility equity research at a major brokerage house and… Power does not flow point-to-point; it sloshes across the entire network seeking the path of least resistance.
Building a power plant next to a data center still overloads a constipated grid.
There is an old Yiddish expression that translates literally as “stop beating the teapot” which we would freely translate as, “We’ve heard this before, so why don’t you just stop?” Well, as new numbers come out and our great leaders keep coming up with new solutions to whatever they think ails the energy sector, we just can’t resist.
So here they are, the latest yearly average of miles of high-voltage transmission added to the grid since 2010: Transmission lines of under 345KV are largely used for local distribution networks.
Some transmission experts say the industry should add about 5000 miles per year to keep up with needs.
The additions reached almost 4000 miles in 2013.
Before the sudden increase in demand on the system caused by the new AI load, the electric reliability organization and infrastructure engineers lamented the inadequacy of additions to the transmission grid, warning of the impact on grid reliability.
Now a plethora of data center builders in a hurry want to add large power plants to the grid.
As we have pointed out, building a power plant near or next to the data center does not obviate the need for more grid capacity, because electricity does not flow from point A (generator) to point B (data center).
Instead to flows from A into the grid, sloshes around, seeks the path of least resistance, and B takes electricity generated anywhere that finds the path of least resistance to B.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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