Accenture Forecast
Scott Tinkler is Global Utilities Lead and Jim Mazurek is Utilities Strategy Lead at Accenture.
There is so much discussion these days about data centers driving enormous electricity demand growth. Though their specific impact nationally and especially on a region-by-region basis is rarely projected. That is until "Powering the Future of US Data Centers" was published recently by Accenture.
For example, the report showed the expected power supply required by transmission region, due to data center growth, based on Accenture Research modeling. For PJM, ERCOT, MISO, CAISO, SPP, and the grids in the west and southeast. In particular, the report projects that the southeast grid will account for forty-one percent of data center power supply during the period of 2024 to 2030, based on levelized cost of energy, and SPP for twenty-three percent.
The PUF team sat down with two of the authors of the report to hear more about these projections, how they were developed, and the implications and opportunities for our industry. The following is what we learned.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: This is a distinctive report for Accenture. What are the biggest takeaways, the headlines that you want to discuss?