The Power Problem

Commands like [map.highlight] are Stagehand directives — they control the map renderer and pass through schema validation before any visual effect reaches the public output.

[map.view lat=39 lon=-98 zoom=3.8]
[entity.propose id="country:united_states" type="country" name="United States" lon=-95.7129 lat=37.0902]
[entity.propose id="region:pjm_grid" type="region" name="PJM Interconnection" lon=-79 lat=40]
[entity.propose id="city:northern_virginia" type="city" name="Northern Virginia Data Center Corridor" lon=-77.4 lat=38.9]
[entity.propose id="city:phoenix_az" type="city" name="Phoenix" lon=-112.074 lat=33.448]
[entity.propose id="city:dallas_tx" type="city" name="Dallas" lon=-96.7970 lat=32.7767]
[map.highlight ids="country:united_states" color="#F6AD55" opacity=0.4]
[map.spotlight id="city:northern_virginia"]
Data centers now account for half of all new electricity demand in the United States. The AI buildout has turned what was a theoretical grid risk into an acute commercial barrier — the country is consuming power faster than it can generate or transmit it.

[chat.say source="fortune_datacenter_half_electricity_2026"]
[map.highlight ids="region:pjm_grid" color="#E53E3E" opacity=0.6]
[map.label ids="region:pjm_grid" text="Serves 65M people"]
PJM Interconnection — the largest US grid operator, serving sixty-five million people across thirteen states — projects it will be six gigawatts short of its reliability requirements by 2027. Capacity market prices for the 2026-27 delivery year jumped to three hundred twenty-nine dollars per megawatt — more than ten times the price from just two years ago.

[scene.title kind=chapter eyebrow="Clio Short" title="The Power Problem" subtitle="AI Is Eating the Grid"]
[scene.title kind=clear]
[map.view lat=37 lon=-100 zoom=4]
[chat.say source="belfer_ai_grid_watershed_2026"]
Data center electricity demand is projected to grow from one hundred seventy-six terawatt-hours in 2023 to between three hundred twenty-five and five hundred eighty terawatt-hours by 2028 — up to a twelve percent share of total US consumption. The grid was built for a different era: most US transmission infrastructure dates from the 1960s and 1970s.

[map.highlight ids="city:northern_virginia,city:phoenix_az,city:dallas_tx" color="#E53E3E" opacity=0.7]
[chat.say source="nzero_power_demand_highs_2026"]
The three dominant data center clusters — Northern Virginia, Phoenix, and Dallas-Fort Worth — are already pushing local grids to operational limits. Every new AI model requires more chips. Every new chip cluster requires more power. Speed to power is now the primary constraint on America's AI race.

[scene.title kind=outro title="The Power Problem" subtitle="Follow Clio for more."]