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.

The world’s largest technology companies are running up against the realities ‌of the ‌country’s slow-moving power system as they race to access vast amounts of electricity for the expansion of energy-intensive ‌data centers, which are increasingly being used to train and roll out artificial intelligence.