Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios.
Power sector officials sounded alarms to the Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday about rising energy demand from AI and electrification.
Why it matters: The Energy Subcommittee hearing was this Congress' first formal attempt to tackle the issue.
- Democrats and Republicans still fundamentally disagree about the exact role of state and federal regulators in connecting projects to the grid; the definition of "dispatchable" power; and the IRA tax credits.
The big picture: Republicans focused on getting more fossil fuel and nuclear generation on the grid. They frequently framed wind and solar as "unreliable."
- "In the short term, wind and solar, because of supply chains and [other factors], we're going to need it. But we also need to make sure we don't disincentivize building power to win this battle," said full committee Chair Brett Guthrie.
Zoom in: The GOP's opening bid is Rep. Troy Balderson's bill to prioritize "dispatchable" generation in interconnection queues currently loaded up with wind, solar and batteries.
- Balderson noted during the hearing that PJM has its own initiative, similar to his legislation, to expedite interconnection of "shovel-ready" projects that can boost reliability.
- But PJM official Asim Haque told the committee that the initiative includes storage and nuclear projects.
- "There's been a misnomer out there that these are going to be effectively fossil resources, and that is actually not true," Haque said.
By the numbers: Haque said the grid operator expects summer peak electricity use to grow to 220,000 megawatts over the next 15 years, potentially shattering its 2006 record of 165,563.
- Todd Brickhouse, CEO of Basin Electric Power Cooperative, said the nonprofit is projecting 3.3% load growth over 10 years, but that "could nearly double" if new data centers and crypto operations come online as expected.
Between the lines: Rural electric co-ops are a prime example of how politically fraught this conversation can be.
- Brickhouse told the panel that he supports repealing EPA's power plant greenhouse gas emissions rules — a President Trump priority — as well as keeping the IRA's tech neutral energy tax credits and direct pay options.
- And here's something that could ring in GOP ears: "If there is a repeal of the IRA tech-neutral tax credit for nuclear, or any impact on the Loan Programs Office, there will not be a nuclear renaissance in the United States," Duke university grid researcher Tyler Norris told the panel.
Our thought bubble: This hearing was quite substantive. But AI's rise hasn't done much to change the intractable politics of the grid over the past few years.
- If anything takes a bite out of this issue during this Congress, it might be an environmental permitting overhaul.
