Soaring electricity demand from datacentres could strain supplies and contribute to much higher prices unless tech firms agree to act like aluminium smelters that can power up or down to support the grid, an energy analyst says.
The demand, fuelled in part by the growth of energy-hungry artificial intelligence services, could require between 3.3 and 5 gigawatts of additional capacity by 2030, or about 15% of total load, according to Tom Allen, an analyst with investment bank UBS.
