The 200 GW Moment: Reinventing the Grid for the AI Economy

Global data center power demand is projected to exceed 200 gigawatts by 2030, driven by AI workloads that are pushing electrical requirements per rack from traditional levels of 10-30 kilowatts into 80-150 kilowatts or higher. This creates a fundamental challenge: data center developers operate on timelines of months to years, while utilities planning power infrastructure need 15-30 year commitments and financial certainty. The industry is responding with hybrid approaches combining grid power with on-site generation and storage, demand response programs, and flexible facility designs that can accommodate evolving cooling methods and chip densities as technology advances.