TL;DR
X sees data centers as a land grab; the FERC record asks how software forecasts who gets power.
MSM Perspective
MSM writes data-center growth as energy demand and infrastructure strain.
X Perspective
X frames AI load growth as utility capture, blackout risk, or tech privilege.
The data-center power fight has a meeting room.
The Federal Register notice for FERC docket AD10-12-017 says Commission staff will convene a July 7-8 technical conference on market and planning efficiency through improved software. The first day includes a panel on load forecasting, and the notice says load forecasting has become more important because the bulk power system faces historic demand growth driven in part by data centers and other large new loads. [1]
That sentence is why this is a technology story, not just an energy story. X sees data centers as either the prize of national AI supremacy or a private burden dumped on public grids. Mainstream coverage tends to ask whether utilities can build enough wires and generation. FERC's public notice asks a prior question: whether the software and assumptions used to forecast load are good enough to decide what gets built and who pays.
The agenda is not anti-AI. It is full of AI. The March notice says the second day may include software applications, including artificial intelligence or machine learning, to improve efficiency and affordability of the bulk power system. It also lists software for operations affected by interconnection of large loads, resource adequacy, and energy adequacy modeling. [1]
The June 10 supplemental notice narrows the calendar. It says the technical conference will discuss grid-enhancing technologies, load forecasting, and improved software, with panels on July 7 and individual presentations on July 8. It also says slides for the second day are due by 5 p.m. EDT on June 30, and that timely submissions will be posted before the conference. [2]
That deadline is a receipt. If a vendor, grid operator, or academic wants to claim that software can make new AI load cheaper, faster, or safer to serve, the claim should appear in the docket's conference materials. If a utility wants to claim that data centers make forecasting impossible, the assumptions should be visible there too. [2]
The public argument has been about whether AI deserves power. The institutional question is colder: which forecast gets believed. The answer will shape transmission, rates, reliability, and the next generation of industrial siting. It belongs in the Federal Register before it belongs in anyone's victory thread.
-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco
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