Tea Rush at the World Cup Triggers Data Center Grid Issues

2026-06-16 · MIT Tech Review AI · Original

During the intense, goalless first half of the England vs. Germany match, millions of British fans brewed tea simultaneously under stress. This massive, sudden surge in electric kettle usage caused a fluctuation in the local power grid, temporarily disrupting the cooling systems at a nearby data center and forcing engineers to manually intervene to restore stability.

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