Data Centers Crushing the Grid | Irvine News

Presented by The Plant Daddies — rare specimen trees, living art, and hand-carved limestone vessels and fountains for extraordinary spaces. Showrooms in Los Angeles and Irvine. Listeners of Irvine News Today receive 10% off with code LANEWS10. theplantdaddies.com/lanews PJM, the U.S.’s largest electric grid, just hit a record $16.4 billion in power auction costs—mostly fueled by data centers, which alone paid $6.3 billion. Over the past three auctions, data centers have already cost consumers nearly $30 billion, and the latest auction failed to secure enough future power, equivalent to removing seven nuclear reactors from the grid. With AI demand soaring, officials warn the current system is unsustainable and are pushing for a separate grid for data centers to avoid shifting costs to regular consumers. PJM’s emergency plan aims to make hyperscalers pay for the power they consume, as the grid braces for thinner margins and higher risk. Listen in comfort:Get a discount on a Soli Pillow: http://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/44f01424de92e4f1