Google will collaborate with PJM Interconnection and Tapestry to smartly manage and optimise interlinked power generation, making electric grids more reliable and affordable with the help of AI.
Google announced its new collaborative initiative on Apr. 10. The joint project of Google, PJM Interconnection, the largest grid operator in North America, and an ambitious Alphabet-incubated startup, Tapestry, aims to develop AI-driven data capabilities to enable a more intelligent, resilient, and efficient electricity infrastructure.
Tapestry, with support from Google Cloud and DeepMind, is creating new AI tools to help manage and improve how electricity is shared across the PJM power grid. This grid supplies power to 67 million people in D.C. and 13 nearby states. The goal is to connect energy sources more quickly, improving the reliability of the electric grids and lowering electricity costs for consumers.
AI can help improve and grow the U.S. electricity system while keeping it reliable and secure. That’s why Alphabet, through Tapestry, Google Cloud, and DeepMind, is working on AI tools to help PJM make faster, more confident business decisions.
These tools will speed up the approval of new, diverse energy projects, including those dealing with alternative energy sources like solar and wind. Their faster connection to the grid will enable developers and grid planners to reduce delays in the ecosystem expansion. By combining many tools and databases into one secure platform, Tapestry will also help everyone involved work together more efficiently and smoothly.
In 2024, federal energy regulators predicted that U.S. electricity demand would grow more than three times faster than expected just a year before. That means the country needs to produce 128 gigawatts (GW) of additional power by the end of the decade to keep up. This growth cannot happen without major upgrades to the national electricity system.
AI is one of the main reasons for the demand growth. Barclays’ recent report projects that data-centre usage will likely triple due to the rapid AI growth by 2030, increasing energy consumption from 150-175 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2023 to 560 TWh, or 13% of current U.S. electricity demand.
However, this innovative technology can also play a key role in the transformation. One of the biggest challenges for the industry is the growing backlog of new energy projects waiting to connect to the grid. By the end of 2023, over 2,600 GW of potential new power, more than double the current capacity of the total U.S. power system, was stuck in line for approval. Earlier, the energy grid operators faced a few dozen applications a year. Today, this number has grown into thousands.
Legacy systems can’t keep up with this surge in demand anymore. Therefore, grid operators are working to upgrade the tools and procedures they use to review and process these requests. AI automation can facilitate decision-making, speeding up the grid growth.
The collaboration between Alphabet, Tapestry and PJM is not a one-time project, but a multi-year cooperation targeting long-term stability, resilience and improved development for the national energy industry.
