DOE report warns of blackout risk soaring amid push to shut conventional power
By Paul Gerke, Kevin Clark | Power Engineering
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began the week following Independence Day with a bang, releasing a report that the status quo is unsustainable for the U.S. electric grid. According to DOE, blackout risks in 2030 could be 100 times higher if the U.S. keeps shutting down conventional power plants.
According to DOE’s analysis, the grid will not be able to sustain an estimated 104 gigawatts (GW) of baseload generation retirements by 2030 and isn’t prepared to meet the growth in electricity demand driven by data centers and artificial intelligence (AI). The DOE expects an additional 100 GW of new peak-hour supply to be needed by then; half of that growth is directly attributable to data centers.
The United States has more tha...