Google is facing waiting times of more than ten years to connect new data centers to the US power grid. According to a Google energy manager, transmission barriers are the biggest challenge to expanding data center infrastructure.
The technology giant is reaching the limits of the US electricity system. Marsden Hanna, Global Head of Sustainability and Climate Policy at Google, told an American Enterprise Institute event that one energy company even indicated that studying the interconnection timeline would take 12 years. “Which is sort of wild, but that’s what we’re seeing,” Hanna said.
Transmission barriers are the biggest obstacle. The explosive growth of energy-intensive data centers, which are increasingly used for training and deploying AI, is putting unprecedented pressure on the electricity grid.
Colocation as a way out
Google is looking for alternatives to circumvent the long waiting times. The company is investigating colocation arrangements in which data centers are placed directly next to power plants. This construction allows complete bypass of the transmission system. “That’s the strategy we’re pursuing with colocation and our hope is that these can eventually be grid-connected resources,” Hanna said.
In general, Google prefers to connect to the power grid. But reality forces pragmatism.
However, colocation is not without its problems. It raises questions about who bears the costs and what it means when power from an existing power plant is diverted to a single customer. Federal and regional regulators are currently considering guidelines on the costs and reliability issues that arise when building data centers next to existing power plants.
According to Hanna, in order to tackle waiting times, the licensing process for new transmission must be addressed. Energy companies must also deploy technologies to increase power supply from the existing system.