Data centre power use 'to surge six-fold in 10 years' due to boom in artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, National Grid predicts
Data centre power use 'to surge six-fold in 10 years' due to boom in artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, National Grid predicts
National Grid says "foundational technologies" like AI and quantum computing are driving power demand.
Chief executive John Pettigrew said the grid was becoming "constrained" and "bold action" was needed to create a network able to cope with "dramatically" growing demand.
"Future growth in foundational technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing will mean larger scale, energy-intensive computing infrastructure," Mr Pettigrew said.
due to [...] quantum computing.
[x] doubt
how come doubt? Amazon, IBM, Google, and Microsoft have already launched commercial quantum-computing cloud services.
so far there is no significant quanum advantage, i.e. most things you can do on a quantum computer, you can do cheaper on a regular computer. Therefor there is not much value in quantum computing. Therefor I doubt we will see a significant surge in power-use due to quantum computing in the next 10 years
Who owns our grid? Since the profits for the supply go private.
Is the grid private too or do we just pay to subsidise the profits of the energy companies?
National Grid PLC own the grid infrastructure, and are a private company cos Thatcher.
It's a little more complicated than that.
At Distribution level, there are a variety of companies that each serve a specific region. These companies own and operate the networks from LV to 132kV) WPD was brought back under UK ownership and is now called NGED - National Grid Energy Distribution - which is the only distribution operator that's a part of National Grid PLC. NGED cover south Wales and parts of England stretching east from there.
At Transmission level (132kV and above), it's owned by NGET - National Grid Energy Transmission - for England and Wales, with SPT and SSE owning the transmission infrastructure up in Scotland.
The operator is NGESO, National Grid Energy System Operator. They operate the entire transmission network of the mainland UK, covering England, Wales and Scotland. They manage generation and demand and ensure they match. Apparently they're changing their name to NESO, in line with being made fully independent of National Grid.
But yeah, all of these (including all the DNO's I didn't list) are private companies.
The bigger issue however is that our consumption market is completely detached from the generation market. With renewables taking over, our electricity should be getting much cheaper - generators no longer have any fuel costs to pay, which was always the dominant cost over the life of the plant. Instead, we get consumer sellers advertising "We use 100% renewable energy!" as if that's justification to pay a little more and go with them.
Add to this the increase of electric cars.
It includes that.
"Demand on the grid is growing dramatically, and forecast to double by 2050 as heat, transport and industry continue to electrify."
Thank you. I missed that part.