Read the full article: https://www.powermag.com/energy-the-most-critical-7-of-americas-gdp/
How AI Is Reshaping Grid Permitting and Why America Must Act Now
Opinion: Permitting delays in the U.S. threaten to hinder critical grid modernization efforts needed for clean energy, electrification, and national security.
Read the original post here: https://www.tdworld.com/distributed-energy-resources/demand-side-management/blog/55325072/how-ai-is-reshaping-grid-permitting-and-why-america-must-act-now
The power grid is the backbone of our economy and national security—but permitting delays are threatening our ability to modernize it so that we can deploy clean energy at scale, electrify transportation, and deliver stable, reliable power.
Let’s cut to the chase: Between local, state, and federal requirements, grid permitting in the U.S. is a disaster. Yes, I’m stating the obvious, but sometimes you have to. Slow and convoluted permitting processes are turning urgent infrastructure upgrades into decade-long sagas.
It’s a national emergency. At September’s Seattle Fusion Week conference, one industry executive shared that it took over 15 years to add a new capability to 17 miles of existing power lines. Without major reforms, we’ll be outpaced by fast-moving global competitors with centralized decision-making and strong, consistent government investment in grid projects. The question isn’t whether permitting reform is necessary; it’s how quickly we’ll act to remove bottlenecks and get power flowing.
If America wants to win the technology, business, and national security fights in front of us, the clock is ticking. Energy demand could increase by up to 79% by 2050 according to reports from Ignition Research that used data from the US Energy Information Agency (US-EIA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). The rapid rise of AI data centers, the reshoring of manufacturing, and the growth of electrified transportation are changing the scope and timelines for power demand and distribution. According to Bloomberg, worldwide demand from AI data centers is expected to quadruple in the next decade.
A new report from global risk firm DNV projects even higher AI demand growth, with AI data center demand growing tenfold within the next five years, far outpacing growth from general-purpose data centers (Axios).
Growing Demand and a Strained U.S. Grid
Data centers, EV charging stations, and manufacturing plants have something in common—along with U.S. military bases, healthcare facilities, and other critical industries. They depend on uninterrupted power. That requires something we don’t have: an unbreakable grid. Without this, we can’t handle skyrocketing energy demand (projected to grow 78% by 2050), let alone promise reliability or cost stability to utilities and end-users.
Permitting delays are backing up interconnection queues and holding up new energy projects. We’re letting our infrastructure crumble and importing grid materials rather than manufacturing them at home. Meanwhile, our rivals own the global energy supply chain and are pouring billions into expanding and modernizing their grids.
Meeting Data Center Power Needs
The power requirements of new data centers from Meta, Microsoft, Google, and others rival those of entire cities. Bloomberg reports that electricity prices near major data centers have surged 267% over the last five years, costs that are ultimately passed down to consumers.
The old model of “carving out” power from the grid for data centers is broken. Our permitting mindset needs to shift from approving and connecting individual sites to the grid. We need to first generate sufficient power to sustain the needs of data centers, then flow excess capacity to local communities.
E&E News reported that, to prioritize grid stability, PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. wholesale power market, recently proposed cutting off new, non-self-supplied data centers during emergencies before considering rolling blackouts. This marks utility planners’ recognition of a new level of urgency in navigating surging AI-driven demand.
AI’s Role in Permitting Reform and Beyond
In an interesting paradox, AI is the very thing that can help us meet rising energy demand from AI and data centers, among other new demand drivers.
Modernizing grid permitting with AI-based solutions is critical for:
- Global Competition: China deploys energy infrastructure projects much faster and at greater scale.
- Grid Demand: Only AI-powered systems can coordinate, optimize, and manage power delivery to meet our grid’s sprawling, dynamic needs.
- The AI Economy: Future growth, services, jobs, e-commerce, and U.S. leadership in AI hinge on abundant, reliable power.
AI’s potential extends beyond permitting reform, driving advancements in R&D and operational efficiencies to build a smarter, more resilient grid. We're witnessing AI applications that identify materials to enhance energy storage, optimize transmission and delivery, and manage the complexities of renewables and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). Utilities are also leveraging AI for dynamic line rating and disaster and outage prevention.
AI: An Efficiency Engine for Federal Government
We’ll have to accept some risk in leveraging AI for grid reliability and performance upgrades. The White House’s Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan is a great first step and marks a strategic shift from a risk-averse regulatory approach to AI to one that prioritizes U.S. innovation, leadership, and national security.
The administration has already started using AI in government permitting, simplifying interagency workflows and providing real-time updates to stakeholders. Current Department of Energy (DOE) programs like PermitAI and CITAP illustrate how AI can reduce bottlenecks without sacrificing due diligence:
- PermitAI: Uses AI to transform decades of siloed documents into publicly available, machine-readable data and then leverages AI tools to accelerate search, summarization, data validation, analysis, and drafting.
- CITAP: Halves permitting and authorization timelines for transmission line developers (from an average of four years down to two) through a portal that streamlines complex multi-agency workflows.
These efforts show AI’s potential to find efficiencies, cut red tape, and enhance the modern grid and economy.
Public-Private Partnerships and Rapid Deployment
While our government has signaled its willingness to leverage AI for its part in grid modernization, to bring our grid into the 21st century, we must build public-private partnerships that speed up approvals and drive down costs. We need to quickly iterate and implement new grid technologies and management solutions, while squeezing AI for all it’s worth. That’s how we’ll speed up grid planning, testing, and permitting, and scale an infrastructure that can keep up.
AI alone won’t clear the grid backlog. We need stakeholders aligned and conversations real to overcome the bureaucratic barriers that have long slowed permitting reform.
Energy isn’t something we can outsource. We must fix America’s power puzzle on our own.
High Time for Permitting Overhaul
Grid permitting has remained a bottleneck for far too long. This isn’t just inconvenient; it’s a strategic failure. AI puts a new set of wheels under the whole system, promising to make our workflows faster and smarter. But without a system that can deliver reliable power, we won’t have the AI capability or the grid hardware to compete with China.
We can’t let our country’s energy future be held hostage by outdated processes. Our grid—and everything that depends on it—hinges on how fast we harness AI, build consensus, and accelerate the modernization of our nation’s most critical infrastructure.
Read the original post here: https://www.tdworld.com/distributed-energy-resources/demand-side-management/blog/55325072/how-ai-is-reshaping-grid-permitting-and-why-america-must-act-now