In an interview Tuesday with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Aaron Jagdfeld, CEO of the generator company Generache warned that pressure on the power grid will only increase, weighed down by a bumper crop of new data centers and extreme weather.
“This has become a very serious discussion,” Jagdfeld said. “This is going to get worse.”
Jagdfeld explained how the outage affects homeowners, businesses and other institutions, saying that in the first nine months of 2024, 1.2 billion hours were lost due to disruptions in US Commercial and industrial products that make up 40% of Generac’s business, continuing . such as backup for manufacturing plants, distribution centers, hospitals and data centers.
Although the US is adding more solar and wind power, Jagdfeld noted that these sources are “intermittent by their nature,” and growing demand for technologies such as artificial intelligence and electric vehicles will continue to weigh on the grid.
This year’s hurricane season has brought several major storms so far, including Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of the southeast two weeks ago. Another deadly hurricane, Milton, reached Category 5 on Tuesday and is forecast to devastate Florida’s Tampa Bay region on Wednesday. It could be the strongest hurricane to hit the area in 100 years, and some analysts say Milton has the potential to cost $175 billion in damages.
“I think the science is clear, right. I mean, air temperatures are warming, water temperatures are warming,” Jagdfeld said. “We can argue about what caused that, but I think the truth is, the result is extreme weather.”
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