Gridlock

America's grid runs at about half its capacity. AI needs more power. What’s the problem?

Every new data center waits on a connection study, and the studies are still run by hand. The turbines and transmission lines that would add capacity take five years or more to arrive. Jackie Snow traces the wait through roughly three thousand utilities, each working the problem alone.

CREDITS: 

Power Play is a production by Quartz and The Capitalist Hippie. 

Reported by Jackie Snow, Catherine Baab, and Joseph Zeballos-Roig. 

Hosted by Marco Pimentel. 

Produced by Simon Litt. 

Edited by Georgina Kemp Walker.