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America is racing to build power plants for AI. There's another way to do this

What if the answer isn't building more? What if utilities just need to use what already exists more intelligently?

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The push to build new power plants for artificial intelligence is moving at breakneck speed. Tech companies are reviving shuttered nuclear reactors, signing deals for gas turbines backordered through 2028, and pouring billions into transmission lines that won't be finished for years.

What if the answer isn't building more? What if utilities just need to use what already exists more intelligently?

The U.S. electric grid runs at about 50% capacity on average. It's built for the worst days, and underutilized every other day. The August afternoon when everyone cranks their air conditioner. The winter morning when every heater runs at maximum. All that expensive infrastructure sits idle most of the time.

Utilities could increase utilization by just 10% and save Americans more than $100 billion in the next decade, said Ian Magruder, who leads the Utilize Coalition, an industry-led campaign to lower the cost of electricity in America backed by companies including Google and Tesla. More users splitting the fixed costs of the grid means lower per-person prices.

Here's the counterintuitive part: Adding a massive data center to your grid could actually lower your electricity bill.

"If we add new load to the system........

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