Electricity consumption for AI will increase 80 times in 6 years

Utilities are seen as a cheap way for investors to gain access to the AI trend.

Here's What We Know

The chart above shows how AI is expected to require much more energy in the coming years. Demand is estimated to grow from 8 megawatt hours this year to 652 megawatt hours in 2030. A terra watt-hour is equivalent to the consumption of 1 trillion watts of electricity for an hour.

American Electric Power Co. (AEP) interim CEO Ben Fowke presented the chart at a hearing held by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

He added that a few years ago, a large manufacturing facility might have required as much electricity as 100,000 homes, but now a single data centre typically requires three or even 15 times that amount of power.

Over the past month, shares of utility companies have risen by 11%.

The growing demand for electricity from artificial intelligence will have significant implications for the power grid and the environment. Utilities will have to build new power plants and transmission lines to meet this demand, leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: MarketWatch