Energy Department will spend $2 billion to squeeze more electricity from aging power grid

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Energy Department is set to announce it will spend almost $2 billion to try to squeeze more electricity out of the nation’s aging and stressed power grid, as President Donald Trump’s administration steps up efforts to avoid blackouts amid skyrocketing energy demand spurred by artificial intelligence. The money will go toward 31 projects across 26 states that are expected to produce more than 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity — enough to power 16 million homes. The projects will use new technologies such as sensors and other devices to measure real-time weather conditions to ensure safe transmission or direct power away from congested or overloaded paths, the department said.

The upgrades could improve power reliability and lower electricity costs for about 100 million Americans, officials said. “These investments will get more out of the infrastructure we already have, move more electricity across the grid, and help deliver affordable, reliable and secure power that will fuel American prosperity for decades to come,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. Wright was set to announce the grant program Thursday in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Associated Press obtained program details before its public release. The announcement comes amid warnings that AI’s voracious demand for power is threatening to overwhelm U.S. power supplies, as massive new data centers come online faster than new power plants can be built.

It also comes as electricity bills rise faster than inflation in many parts of the U.S., blamed in some areas on demand from data centers. The snowballing opposition to data centers in communities across the country has thrown a wrench into the plans of the world’s richest companies and transformed the midterm election landscape. Trump continues to stick up for data centers, even as politicians from both major political parties criticize them and many communities try to block them.

Trump, a Republican, said last month that U.S. communities that don’t have data centers will “end up being backwards and poor.” In the meantime, Congress and some states are trying to push regulators to require utilities to use technology and new components to make grids more efficient and better able to serve new customers without additional power sources. Utilities — which have seen rising profits and share prices during the …