As artificial intelligence becomes part of everyday life, so do questions about the infrastructure that powers it. From electricity and water use to the rapid growth of data centers, communities across the country are grappling with what the AI boom means on the ground.
Ted Kury, director of energy studies at the University of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center, explains why data centers have suddenly become a public issue, what people misunderstand about their resource demands and how the technology may evolve in the years ahead.
Q: Haven’t data centers existed for a while? Why are people suddenly paying so much more attention to them?
Kury: We’ve had data centers as long as we’ve had the internet. What’s changed is the visibility of some of these new hyperscale facilities.
When data centers were just regular electricity customers sitting in buildings, people didn’t pay a lot of attention. But now you have some of these facilities with 50- or 100-megawatt demand. That’s different for folks, and it places different strains on the infrastructure.
The other difference is speed. If you were building a refinery, for example, it might take four or five years to build. The infrastructure could grow along with the project. With data centers, you’re often looking at development times of 12 to 18 months or less.
Utilities have always had to adapt to new forms of demand. What makes data centers different is not only the scale but the pace of development and the uncertainty around it. A company may be proposing facilities in multiple locations because it hasn’t chosen a final site yet. Utilities have to account for all of those possibilities even though only one project may ultimately get built.
Q: We all use the internet, streaming services and increasingly AI tools. Why do data centers seem to generate so much resistance?
Kury: People generally understand that if infrastructure such as power plants or transmission lines aren’t built it will affect their access to electricity.
Data centers are a little different because whether you’re doing a Google search or streaming a television show or talking to AI, you don’t really care which data center is processing that information. It could be in Miami, or it could be in Chicago.
For a lot of people, that reinforces the idea of, “Why does it have to be here? Why does it have to utilize our electricity grid or our water resources?”
Q: People usually think of AI as software and algorithms. How different does it look when viewed through the lens of electricity and infrastructure?
Kury: People are becoming much more aware of the resource costs. Companies have been using data and machine-learning tools for years, but now we’re seeing the technology scale up rapidly, and people are starting to think about what that requires.
They understand what AI can do. Now they’re asking about the electricity, the water and the infrastructure needed to make it work. They’re also asking broader questions about its impact on jobs, education and other parts of society. The scale of the technology has made those questions much more visible.
Q: One of your more interesting observations is that people often don’t appreciate the costs behind technologies they use every day.
Kury: Convenience has costs that aren’t always obvious.
Twenty years ago, you couldn’t order a product online and have it arrive the next day. That wasn’t the norm. Now people expect it. But that convenience requires distribution centers, transportation systems and infrastructure.
AI is similar in some ways. People focus on what the technology can do, but they don’t always think about what it costs to operate. That’s not an argument against the technology. It’s just a reminder that every convenience has a cost somewhere in the system.
Q: When communities debate data centers, what should they focus on?
Kury: They should focus on understanding all of the costs and benefits. There isn’t a universal answer that a data center is good or bad. It’s going to impact every community differently.
Communities need to understand what they’re getting, what they’re giving up and what trade-offs are involved. What are the impacts on electricity infrastructure? What are the impacts on water resources? What jobs are being created? What tax revenues are being generated?
The communities that do the best job are the ones that have a very clear understanding of what they want out of the deal and a very clear understanding of the trade-offs before the agreement is signed.
Source
Ted Kury
Director of Energy Studies, Public Utility Research Center
ted.kury@warrington.ufl.edu