The AI boom has driven a huge surge in energy demand across the US, and critics warn the wave of new grid connections is stress-testing aging infrastructure. Fears include higher electricity bills in the near term and, further out, outages or other technical problems.

At TechCrunch Disrupt this month, industry insiders pushed back with optimism. Apoorv Bhargava, founder and CEO of WeaveGrid, Tim Heidel, CEO of Veir, and Kristin Eberhard, VP of policy at Rewiring America, argued the flood of new connections also opens the door to grid modernization.

Bhargava described a grid contending with new variables - renewable energy plus new load from electric vehicles, data centers and heat pumps - and said managing and orchestrating it all is what utilities now grapple with. WeaveGrid's software aims to help organizations deploy energy efficiently and optimize connections to lower utility payers' bills.

Heidel's Veir is expanding physical grid infrastructure while targeting efficiency: its superconductive power lines can carry power five times farther than traditional cables using 20 times less space, according to the company, which raised $110 million in a Series C round this month. He said the scale of AI infrastructure investment is driving innovation, and that adopting new technologies quickly can help data centers be good community neighbors.

Eberhard called the era of AI and load growth "a very improv era," with industries ready to try new things - pursuing more transmission lines and centralized power plants while tapping options previously left on the table.

Source: TechCrunch