When wanting information, it’s so simple to pull out a phone or laptop and quickly ask for AI assistance without thinking about the search process and the energy it uses.
Data centers, the facilities that house servers and data storage, require significant power for operations and cooling. They are projected to use 12% of all power by 2028, Tony Foster, Richmond Power and Light’s general manager, told his board during its April 6 meeting.
“I didn’t realize how much power was used when using AI for searches,” Foster said.
Data center power requirements were discussed during the Indiana Municipal Power Agency’s annual meeting that Foster attended. A Google search uses 0.3 watt-hour of power, according to data Foster provided. An artificial intelligence search uses 3 watt-hours, a tenfold increase, and an AI picture search uses 30 watt/hours. That’s 100 times more power than the Google search.
Indiana provides a popular location for data centers because it offers affordable land, available water resources, low energy costs, is not overly regulated and is a tax-friendly state, Foster said. Should a data center seek to locate in RP&L’s service area, IMPA must generate extra power and transmit it to RP&L, but Foster said finding additional resources can be difficult because constructing gas-fired generation plants takes years longer than data center construction.
In other business, board members approved accepting Wetzel Ford’s $145,815 bid to provide an extended-cab dump truck. The bid included $11,000 trade value for a 2011 dump truck.
Foster also opened a $229,764 bid from Altec Industries to supply a 70-foot bucket truck for the line department. The bid was taken under advisement for future action.
A version of this article appeared in the April 15 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.