Data Center Demand Spurs U.S. Grid Modernization — SkimNews
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- The AI boom has driven a surge in energy connections that critics say is stress-testing America’s aging grid, with higher electrical bills a short-term concern and outages or other technical problems a longer-term one.
- Apoorv Bhargava said utilities are grappling with new grid variables including renewable energy, electric vehicles, data centers and heat pumps, making load orchestration and management a central challenge.
- Weavegrid says its software can help organizations deploy energy efficiently and optimize new connections to reduce utility payers’ bills.
- Veir sells superconductive power lines that the company says can transfer energy five times farther than traditional cables while requiring 20 times less space.
- Veir raised $110 million in a Series C earlier this month; CEO Tim Heidel said AI infrastructure investment is driving innovation and bringing new technologies to scale.
- Kristen Eberhard said the data-center-driven surge in load has created new urgency for grid modernization, calling it an “improv era” in which more transmission lines, centralized power plants and previously sidelined technologies can be adopted.
Why it matters: Veir raised $110 million in a Series C while selling superconductive cables that the company says carry power five times farther and require 20 times less space than traditional lines. For utilities under pressure from data-center load, those specifications make advanced transmission a more space-efficient option for connecting new demand.
Ask SkimNews
