Machine Readable 

Much like Janet Jackson, we like to have a lot of control — and in information-dense arenas, like energy, we absolutely love it. So today, we’re excited to share the love and introduce some new controls that allow Alerts subscribers (sign up here) to customize their Alerts preferences via an updated console (you must have a Halcyon account to view).

In December 2024, the State Corporation Commission of Virginia held a conference on how the state might manage years (or decades) of data center expansion. Virginia already hosts more than 300 data centers, which together consume about as much electricity as Massachusetts, or Iowa, or Colorado.

End-of-year wraps often recap what happened over the last 365 days and make predictions about what will happen over the next 365. In our world at the intersection of energy and AI, we’ve seen enough to know that even the most well-informed predictions can fall short — and, much like a bad email, the world doesn’t need another “what we learned” post. Instead, for our concluding edition of Machine Readable, we’re going to anchor on the state of play in energy right now.

US electricity demand hit its all-time high in 2021, at more than 4,200 terawatt-hours. The US has never used more electricity than it does right now.