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Google says US transmission system is biggest challenge for connecting data centers

At an American Enterprise Institute event on Wednesday, Marsden Hanna said connecting to the U.S. transmission system is Google's main obstacle, with wait times reaching 12 years.
Permitting delays and constrained transmission capacity are behind the growing interconnection backlog, with permitting authorities for new transmission and existing transmission capacity on the U.S. grid limiting progress amid rising demand from large technology companies.
Google is exploring colocation beside power plants to sidestep lengthy transmission waits, but this raises concerns among cost-allocation stakeholders about who pays and diverting output to a single customer.
Federal and regional regulators are weighing rules to address costs and reliability for colocation, while Google prefers grid connection and urges permitting reform and technologies to boost power flows.
Utilities and grid operators now confront planning choices that could reshape data-center growth, as transmission constraints threaten Google's expansion and regulators weigh permitting and cost allocation decisions.

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Google says US transmission system is biggest challenge for connecting data centers

Connecting to the U.S. electrical transmission system has become the biggest problem for powering up Google data centers on the grid, as the wait times to connect surge to more than a decade in some parts of the country, an energy executive with Google said on Wednesday.

22 hours ago·United Kingdom

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