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Electricity customers hope to cut wait times to connect to

grid

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The first time AI will be used to manage grid connections

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US power demand jumps as Big Tech rolls out data centers

for AI

By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK, April 10 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's ( GOOG )

Google unit is partnering with the largest electrical grid

operator in North America, PJM Interconnection, to roll out

artificial intelligence technologies aimed at getting new power

supplies connected faster, the company said on Thursday.

The collaboration is the first time AI would be used to

comprehensively manage an interconnection queue. Electricity

demand has been rising as Big Tech builds more data centers to

train and deploy artificial intelligence.

"The industry has been talking about building smarter grids

for well over a decade, and now with AI, we have a real

opportunity to turn discussion into action," Amanda Peterson

Corio, Google's data center energy lead, said at a press

conference.

Wait times have grown to historic lengths in recent years

for connecting the country's grids to new electricity supplies

generated from sources like wind, solar and natural gas.

Those delays have worsened an electricity supply crunch in

many parts of the country, pushing up power bills and raising

the risk of blackouts, as old power plants retire faster than

new supplies connects.

Google, in partnership with the Alphabet-backed Tapestry,

says it can help eliminate at least some of the wait by using

artificial intelligence to synthesize information and automate

parts of the review and planning processes for projects in line

to connect to PJM.

"This is really about automating a lot of the things that

are being laboriously reviewed," said Page Crahan, General

Manager of Tapestry, which will work with PJM to develop AI

tools and models that will be rolled out in 2025 and phased in

over the course of several years.

Initially, the technology will be used to automate parts of

processes currently done by hand by grid planners, including a

review of applications to determine whether a project seeking to

connect to the grid is viable.

Over time, the collaboration between Google, Tapestry and

PJM will develop a model of the PJM grid like a Google Maps for

grid information, "bringing in different layers that planners

might need to see in a single toggle on and off view to guide

faster decisions, introduce new insights, hopefully find

efficiencies in those ways," Crahan said.

It remained too early to say how working with Google would

cut down on times to add new power plant supply to the system,

said Aftab Khan, executive vice president of operations,

planning and security for PJM.

PJM controls the electrical system that covers 67 million

people in the U.S. PJM's territory includes northern Virginia,

the world's largest data center hub.