As the issue of power shortages in data centers, the 'heart' that drives artificial intelligence (AI), comes to reality, a practical diagnosis has emerged that the current metropolitan power grid cannot handle the power requirements needed for AI operations. Therefore, there is a claim from the industry that the proactive investment in infrastructure and the expansion of incentives by the government are urgent, with the distribution of AI data centers to the provinces set as a constant.
During the 'Sustainable AI Data Center Establishment Strategy Seminar' held on the 7th at the National Assembly Hall in Yeouido, Seoul, industry, government, and academia gathered to discuss power supply measures for the stable growth of the AI industry. Han Min-yong, vice president of SK Telecom's AIDC division, who participated as a discussant that day, emphasized that 'the ability to build AI data centers capable of large-scale power supply can determine the success or failure of a business' and stressed that consumer-centered power infrastructure support must be backed.
The power crisis of data centers has emerged as a national task because AI technology is developing at a rapid pace, leading to a geometric increase in power consumption. Lee Dong-su, an executive at Naver Cloud, explained, 'Agent AI, which infers on its own, consumes 30 to 200 times more power compared to existing chatbot models,' and added, 'If all traffic at the level of Google searches were to be handled by agent AI, it would require half of the total electricity used in the United States.' The high-performance GPU (graphics processing unit) servers needed for AI operations consume enormous amounts of power, making AI data centers have a power density—power usage per unit area—dozens of times higher than that of existing data centers.
In this situation, a chronic issue with domestic data center infrastructure is the concentration in the metropolitan area. While data centers have been built mainly in the metropolitan area, where demand corporations are concentrated, assessments indicate that the power consumption in the metropolitan area is already close to saturation. Choi Sung-jun from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's Power System Innovation Division stated, 'The power required for a large-scale data center of about 100 megawatts (MW) is equivalent to the total power consumption of an entire mini new town with about 50,000 households,' and diagnosed, 'Currently, there are plans to build dozens or hundreds of such new towns in the metropolitan area, but that is physically impossible.'
The industry has suggested that the distribution to the provinces is essential to expand the already scarce AI data centers in the country, and a bold role from the government is necessary for this. Vice President Han stated, 'In order for the government to encourage corporations to disperse to the provinces, policies must provide practical economic incentives, such as electric rate discounts, reductions in local government taxes, and subsidies.' He continued, 'The most important thing is support for integrated infrastructure construction,' saying, 'Even if we secure power, it is difficult to attract global corporations' data centers without basic infrastructure like communication networks or roads.' He also raised the need for partnerships with local universities to secure specialized human resources and to improve residential and educational environments.
The need for regulatory easing was also raised. Chae Hyo-geun, executive director of the Korea Data Center Federation, pointed out, 'Cloud or AI data centers don't necessarily have to be in the metropolitan area, but even if they try to move to the provinces, there is no incentive to impose the same 'power system impact assessment' standards as those applied in the metropolitan area.' He further argued, 'For the sake of data sovereignty, AI data centers are essential in Korea,' adding, 'Since the government monopolizes the transmission network, it has an obligation to invest first in transmission and transformation facilities in regions that are necessary to activate the AI industry.'
There were also suggestions for a fundamental shift in power policy towards a supply-side focus. Park Jong-bae, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Konkuk University, stated, 'Korea's power industry has traditionally been operated on a supply-side basis by the government and public enterprises,' and urged, 'It must evolve into a structure that guarantees consumers the choice to select and purchase the required power, whether it is for AI data centers or others,' pushing for a bold move toward marketization. Jeong Dong-wook, a professor in the Energy System Engineering Department at Chung-Ang University, went further, suggesting, 'We should also consider granting local governments the authority to determine regional electricity rates,' asserting that this could activate competition and incentives between regions to attract data centers.