📰 Key Takeaways

The AI boom is sending electricity demand soaring across the US. Critics say the flood of new grid connections is stress-testing an aging grid, likely pushing up power bills in the short term and possibly causing outages or other technical problems in the long term. But at TechCrunch Disrupt this month, WeaveGrid founder and CEO Apoorv Bhargava, Veir CEO Tim Heidel, and Rewiring America VP of policy Kristin Eberhard argued that this wave of new connections also opens up an opportunity to modernize the grid. Bhargava pointed out that today’s grid looks very different: beyond renewables, there’s now a huge set of new loads like EVs, data centers, and heat pumps, and figuring out how to manage and dispatch them is the core challenge utilities face. His company, WeaveGrid, provides load coordination and management software that helps utilities get the most out of their existing systems, allocate power effectively, and lower customers’ bills by optimizing connections. Heidel’s Veir starts from the physical infrastructure, selling superconducting power lines that transmit far more efficiently than conventional ones. The company says its cables can carry power five times farther while taking up twenty times less space, and it closed a $110 million Series C earlier this month. Heidel believes the massive investment in AI infrastructure is driving a lot of innovation, and many new technologies have moved out of the lab and started to scale. Used together, they can make data centers good neighbors for their communities, and should be adopted quickly to ease the pressure of the next phase of growth. Eberhard’s organization advocates for household electrification. She said the surge in data center power use makes modernization more urgent and makes industries willing to try new approaches, and she described this era of AI and load growth as a very “improvisational” one, where everyone keeps building on each other with a “yes, and” attitude, and we need both more transmission lines and more centralized power sources. The second half of the original article was cut off; see the source link for the full details.

💬 JudyAI Lab Take

Electricity demand is soaring across the US because of the AI boom, and critics worry the aging grid can’t keep up, with higher power bills in the short term and maybe even blackouts down the road. But at TechCrunch Disrupt, three industry voices argued that this wave of new connections is actually a chance to modernize the grid. It’s an angle AI watchers should pay attention to.

AI’s bottleneck is moving from chips and models to physical infrastructure like power. The two companies in the article come at it from very different directions. WeaveGrid uses software to coordinate and manage new loads like EVs, data centers, and heat pumps, so utilities can get the most out of their existing systems. Veir goes after the hardware side, selling superconducting power lines that reportedly carry power five times farther in twenty times less space, and it closed a $110 million Series C earlier this month. Rewiring America’s Kristin Eberhard called this era a very “improvisational” one, with everyone building on each other in a “yes, and” spirit, and said we need both more transmission lines and more centralized power sources. For AI builders, this means the places where the pressure shows up are often the same places where new approaches are easiest to adopt. Software optimization and low-level innovation aren’t mutually exclusive, and you can push both forward at the same time.

Next time you evaluate your own AI application, add a line item for compute and energy costs, and think about which parts you can save on first through scheduling and load scheduling.

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