Full Title: How “Power Couples” Can Help the United States Win the Global AI Race
Author(s): Alex Engel, David Posner, and Uday Varadarajan
Publisher(s): Rocky Mountain Institute
Publication Date: February 20, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The race is on to power the artificial intelligence revolution. AI’s strategic importance to national security and American economic competitiveness is making headlines, but at the same time, companies looking to build out very large data centers are struggling to find enough electric power. Inadequate and outdated market and regulatory processes have led to wait times of nearly five years to get grid access for new generation and lead times of eight years or more to build out new transmission infrastructure.
Big tech companies working to bring data centers online quickly have tried siting these large loads alongside existing power plants, but many of the proposed “co-locations” have sought to co-opt output from these plants. Critics have raised concerns that the deals would worsen customer costs and grid reliability.
RMI analysis finds that a new co-location strategy — which they call “Power Couples” — can help pioneering AI firms rapidly supply clean electricity to data centers without risking grid reliability. Additionally, the approach could improve the affordability of electricity for the average customer while reducing overall grid emissions.
A Power Couple is the pairing of a large electricity consumer with new-build solar, wind, and battery resources sized to meet the on-site load, all located near an existing generator with an approved interconnection.
This arrangement would trigger a fast-track approval process for connecting the new generation resources to the grid, and strict physical safeguards would ensure that the new load cannot impact grid reliability. Not least of all, costs are borne by the customers creating the demand, who can also take advantage of the modularity of clean energy technologies to reduce their exposure to risk.