
Artificial intelligence and the hardware that powers it, is at the heart of a fallout in Pennsylvania, where electricity prices have risen dramatically for wholesalers and consumers due to surging demand. The governor is now threatening to abandon the state's grid energy provider, PJM Interconnection, via Reuters. He's demanding that PJM increase energy capacity through the acceleration of new energy plant construction and approval.
Following the launch of ChatGPT in 2023 and the explosion of competitor tools and chatbots in the months that followed, the regional transmission organization, PJM, saw a surge in demand for power as major tech companies scoured the country looking for spare grid capacity to run AI and build new data centers to support them. AI can demand a lot of power, so much so that Elon Musk is shipping an entire power plant to the US.