C. James Davis of Duquesne Light Co. portrayed the vast energy use of the artificial intelligence-led data center boom in numbers, saying the company's peak load last year was 2,700 megawatts and a "hyperscale" data center could require up to 1,000 megawatts.
"A single data center could account for as much as 30 percent of the current peak load in our entire service are in Allegheny and Beaver counties," Mr. Davis said.
He was among 10 testifiers at a public hearing held by the state Public Utility Commission, which is trying to grapple with the looming effects of the data center boom. The hearing, run by Administrative Law Judge Charles Rainey Jr., was intended to help the commission come up with a tariff for what it calls "large load" electricity customers, including data centers.
Representatives from Google and Amazon Data Services testified. So did the state interim Consumer Advocate Darryl Lawrence, whose job is to represent consumers in statewide utility matters.
Questions from the commissioners and responses from testifiers showed that no one can say with certainty just how much energy the data center industry will be using five years from now.
The arrival of a group of new, massive energy users "is something we have not seen in our lifetime," said PUC Vice chairperson Kimberly Barrow. She noted that a "hyperscaler" data center can drain as much energy as a mid-sized city, and cities have taken decades if not centuries to reach their current size.
Ms. Barrow asked that a recent report issued by a Harvard Law School program — titled "Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers are Paying for Big Tech's Power" — be put into the hearing record.
Brendon Baatz, an executive at Google, said forecasts of future energy use issued by PJM Interconnection, the organization that manages the grid in Pennsylvania and 12 other states, contain speculation. That speculation, Mr. Baatz said, is "causing us all a lot of headaches."
Testifiers described how everyday life in the U.S. already is interwoven with data center activity. Lucas Fykes, an executive at a trade group representing 36 data center owners and operators, said there are average of 21 "connected devices" per household.
Mr. Lawrence, the consumer advocate, cautioned the commission about the potential for having data centers connect to the grid and then having the costs for the necessary new transmission lines or substations shifted to ratepayers. He described "stranded investments" where grid improvements are made to accommodate a new, energy-intensive entity, only to have it use less energy than anticipated with the cost of the improvements borne by other ratepayers.
"Large load" customers like data centers, he said, may "need specialized studies and additional transmission and distribution infrastructure that typical industrial customers do not require." There was back and forth with testifiers about exactly what level of power use would define "large load."
Asked during a break in the hearing about what "grid impacts" in Duquesne Light's service area might arise if the state doesn't manage the situation properly, Mr. Davis said the "quality" of power might suffer. He declined to elaborate.
In his testimony, Mr. Davis said the company is committed to supporting large load growth in the Pittsburgh region while at the same time ensuring adequate generation supply, reliability, affordability and safety of the grid.
PUC Chairman Stephen DeFrank, referring to the work ahead, said, "This is a challenging issue, but with great challenge comes great opportunity."
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