East coast could soon get rolling blackouts during summer because data centers have pushed electric grid to the limit

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Tuesday 13 January 2026 12:51 EST


The East Coast of the United States could soon experience rolling blackouts as AI data centers gobble up more and more electricity, pushing the grid to the limit, according to a new report. PJM, the organization that services nearly 70 million people in a 13-state corridor stretching from Kentucky to New Jersey, may be forced to trigger power outages during high demand periods, such as summer heat waves or winter freezes, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Mark Christie, a former head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said he used to believe the threat of blackouts was distant. “Now I’m saying that the reliability risk is across the street,” he said.

The AI boom has seen data centers cropping up across the U.S. but they are heavily concentrated in Northern Virginia, increasing demand for power and leading to soaring energy bills. “It’s killing my pockets,” a Maryland resident told Bloomberg in September. Another added: “You wonder, ‘what is your breaking point?’”

PJM has projected that power demand will increase by an average of 4.8 percent annually for the next 10 years — an unprecedented pace of growth. And ICF, a consulting firm, forecasts that demand in 2030 will surge 25 percent above 2023 levels, largely as a result of data centers.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/east-coast-blackouts-ai-data-centers-b2899669.html

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Link to WSJ (msn/no paywall) report - America’s biggest power grid operator has an AI problem—too many data centers

Link to PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection) REPORT - 2025 Year in Review: Planning Prepares for Burgeoning Electricity Demand

[FalloutShelter]

1. Swell.

[hueymahl]

2. We are going to need a lot more power

I have read we could use double the power generation we have now.

[EarthFirst]

3. I'm guessing that another 40% delivery increase is in order?

…which will do nothing but hey! -more money for National Grid!

[Multichromatic]

5. I know who should pay!

How about A.I. data centers have to pay a mandatory 50% tax on all their energy usage.

[thought crime]

12. That's who should pay. But guess who's going to pay...

With energy prices driven sky high. Us.

[LisaM]

18. How about taxing ChatGPT users?

People seem to use it for everything. We have clients who use it to write emails. College students use it to cheat on papers. It's ubiquitous and in a lot of cases people use it as a crutch.

[Multichromatic]

4. Alternatively...

Instead of having rolling brown outs or rolling blackouts; how about we have A.I. data centers shut down when the electrical demand on the grid is high. Why turn off power for business and residential customers when you could just kill power to these totally WORTHLESS A.I. data centers.

[chowder66]

6. Rolling black outs so assholes can undress your children and sisters, wives, girlfriends, mom's, aunts, etc.

Rolling black outs so assholes can steal your art, music, writing, etc.

Rolling black outs so the President of the United States can post a meme of him flying a plane that shits on the citizens of the U.S.

Rolling black outs so "influencers" can gum up youtube and social media with crap.

[Linda ladeewolf]

11. That's a sore spot!

All that AI drivel on YouTube now. Crap written by chatbots. They can’t spell, don’t know the difference between wood or would, don’t know decent grammar. It drives me bananas! I’ve been listening to it, trying to determine which users are real and which are fake. I guess I’ll go back to librivox, at least there the bots are reading human written books.

[thought crime]

13. The current Captains of Industry

You've got the sounding brass
You've got the triumph of the will
You do what you want to
And we pay the bills
you hype the need for sacrifice
but people see through you
-Bruce Cockburn

[dalton99a]

15. +1

[ffr]

7. The time to worry will be when the data centers don't participate in the rolling blackouts

A.I. figured it out.

[Puppyjive]

8. Cut the cord

We don't need them. We were just fine without them.

[gfwzig]

9. Well, they could just kill power to the worthless AI crap instead of punishing hundreds of thousands of customers

[angrychair]

10. Hahahahahahahaha

Hahahahahahahaha....*deep breath*...Hahahahahahahaha...Hahahahahahahaha...*deep breath*...Hahahahahahahaha...Hahahahahahahaha

Gee, I wonder what voters will think of that.

[WestMichRad]

14. Gotta keep data centers powered up

… so they can feed us more and more propaganda.

[Wicked Blue]

16. Data centers use enormous amounts of air conditioning

to keep the computers cool enough to function properly. They need that cooling the most during the hottest part of a warm day, putting severe strain on utility companies' generating capacity. This is also the time of day when homes, businesses and other utility clients require the most electricity for cooling. Result: rolling blackouts.

But I wonder, are data centers subject to those rolling blackouts as well?

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

17. I better get the generator carb cleaned!

[raccoon]

19. That's what happens when you spend all your money on the military and neglect the country's infrastructure.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. Well now they're spending all their money on ICE goons.

[perdita9]

21. Very glad we invested in solar panels and batteries

We saw this threat coming years ago

[Miguelito Loveless]

22. Good thing I invested

in all that unreliable solar and batteries.