America's artificial intelligence boom requires a lot of energy. NPR's Scott Detrow talks to Wall Street Journal reporter Jennifer Hiller on workers building the electrical grid one transformer at a time.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
America is in the midst of an artificial intelligence boom, and this artificial intelligence boom requires a lot of electricity, and all of that energy goes through a transformer at one point or another. These key pieces of infrastructure are difficult to create. The work requires patience, skill and people. And like many other key cogs in the entire system, the workers making transformers are now under enormous demand. Jennifer Hillier covered this at length in a recent Wall Street Journal profile and joins us now. Thank you for coming.
JENNIFER HILLER: Thanks for having me.
DETROW: Let's start with the simplest question. Let us remind you what a transformer is and what it does.
HILLER: Transformers are kind of the basic equipment for the network. They can be as small as a trash can on a utility pole or even as large as buildings. But what they do is essentially change the voltage, meaning they either increase or decrease the voltage so that electricity can move around the country.
DETROW: You describe in great detail how the copper is wound and wound and wound, and you end up with 9 miles or more of copper in each one. I think it's a skill that takes time to learn. What are the companies that force them doing to find the workers they need right now?
HILLER: There's been quite a bit of investment over the last few years. I think somewhere around $3 billion has been invested in trying to manufacture more transformers in different sizes in the US. But for this, you know, you need to build your capacity. You need to hire a lot of people. They take special materials. It's not just steel, so it's difficult for them to simply expand their supply chain.
And you'll have to hire and train a lot of people. And most of the big manufacturers do a really good job of working closely with their local colleges and things like that to try to get workers into the system. But it's really difficult to ramp up as quickly as demand for equipment grows.
DETROW: You talked to a lot of factory workers. Overall, were they happy working there?
HILLER: Yes, I think so. I mean, it's a good job, highly skilled, and I think they take pride in their work. This is a very interesting job. At the same time, they also kind of all said that this job might not be for everyone. It's so detail oriented, and you probably have to be the right kind of person to be able to follow these engineering plans to a tee.
DETROW: With all the new material coming out and demand increasing and more people being hired, does this industry expect demand to continue to grow or is there any thought that there might be a crash in a couple of years?
HILLER: I think there's a lot of debate about this in the electric utility industry right now. There was a very low level of growth for about 20 years until around 2020 and then the demand for electricity started to rise a bit, meaning you need more equipment. But it's hard to say exactly where this is all going. There are some startling predictions about changes in US electricity demand. So over the next few years, you could see data centers using roughly 12% of the country's electricity, which is just phenomenal growth in a short period of time.
They clearly see a period of growth and realize that it is worth investing billions of dollars in new and expanded factories, as well as more employees. And so they see that over a long period of time these investments will pay off. But no one knows exactly what is happening with the demand for AI power or what exactly that demand will look like. They simply see enough of a demand signal that they feel they can confidently make this investment.
DETROW: Jennifer Hiller covers the energy industry for the Wall Street Journal. Thank you very much for talking with us.
HILLER: Thank you.
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