Two bills in the Utah Senate create new guidance for supplying energy to large load users like data centers, which house servers for artificial intelligence software like ChatGPT. One proposal that looks to work with Rocky Mountain Power, Utah’s largest utility, has made it through a Senate committee, while another considering a range of energy options awaits approval in the Senate Rules Committee.
Data centers can use as much energy as 200 households and possibly as much energy as an entire city, CNBC reported.
A single data center in Utah could use 1.4 gigawatts of power, Gov. Spencer Cox told The Salt Lake Tribune in December. “The entire state runs on four,” Cox said. “These AI data centers, their energy consumption is insatiable. It’s insane.”
Cox’s Operation Gigawatt aims to double Utah’s energy generation in the next decade to meet the state’s rising energy demands. Data centers, specifically, aren’t a priority, Cox said, as they “use a lot of resources and don’t create a lot of jobs.” But they are a reality, he added, and if Utah can increase its energy capacity “and that attracts AI data centers, I’m fine with that.”
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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.