Copyright The New York Times
Electricity bills are higher than usual and many Americans blame A.I. The increasingly ubiquitous technology consumes enormous amounts of power. Hundreds of billions of dollars in deals have been struck to build fleets of data centers all over the United States (and beyond). Electricity use at U.S. data centers could triple by 2028, according to the Department of Energy, when data centers alone could account for 12 percent of total electricity consumption. Can the grid cope? Calvin Butler, who runs one of the largest utility companies in the United States, is in the hot seat. His company, Exelon, manages the electricity supply for more than 10 million customers across several states. It owns six regional utilities, including ComEd in Illinois, PECO in Pennsylvania and BGE in Maryland. The company’s share price is up more than 20 percent this year, outperforming the market and highlighting how the frenzy over artificial intelligence has transformed the normally boring, heavily regulated utility industry.
