I’m working on an article to explain why I believe the UK and Irish governments are telling households to stockpile water and food that doesn’t require electricity. TL;DR: I believe governments are preparing to prioritise AI data centres over their own citizens. The electricity consumption figures and government policies point to a serious problem. Both countries are preparing households for prolonged power outages while giving energy hungry AI data centres preferential treatment. Are these warnings really about extreme weather, or do governments already know their electricity grids won’t be able to cope with the expansion of AI data centres?