---
title: "Bridge power: what it means · The AI Compute Race · DRYBURGH"
source: https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/bridge-power
description: "Bridge power: Electricity bought in to run a campus while its own plants are late."
---

# Bridge power

What does “Bridge power” mean?

Bridge powerElectricity bought in to run a campus while its own plants are late. In the four futures the rationed utility runs half its hours on bridge power at an assumed $95 a megawatt-hour; in Entergy’s architecture for Hyperion the minimum bill covers the plants’ full cost, overruns and bridge power. *Chapters 6, 14.*

From *The AI Compute Race*. [Read the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#buy)

## Where the book uses it

- [Chapter 6 — Firm, Around-the-Clock](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-6)Where the electricity comes from: grid queues, transformers, turbines and the firm power a datacenter needs every hour of the year, on calendars the buildout does not control.
- [Chapter 14 — The Convergence](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-14)One campus, Meta’s Hyperion, run through four possible futures to show how science, power, money and permission meet in the price of an accelerator-hour.

## Related terms

- [Rationed utility](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/rationed-utility)
- [Megawatt-hour](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/megawatt-hour)
- [Four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/four-futures)
- [Minimum bill](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/minimum-bill)
- [Hyperion](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/hyperion)
- [Accelerator-hour](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/accelerator-hour)
- [B200](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/b200)
- [Backstop](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/backstop)
- [Batch Zero](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/batch-zero)
- [Behind the meter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/behind-the-meter)
- [Beignet](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/beignet)
- [Break fee](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/break-fee)

From the glossary of The AI Compute Race.

- [Campuses](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger)
- [Tests](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests)
- [Scorecard](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard)
- [Data](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/data/releases)
- [Chapter by chapter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/companion)
- [The record at a glance](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/observatory)
- [The machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/machine)
- [One campus, four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/hyperion)
- [Glossary](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary)
- [People](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/people)
- [Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources)
- [Notes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes)
- [Where the book was wrong](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/corrections)
- [Where its sources were wrong](https://dryburgh.com/corrections?book=vol1)
- [The Paper](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/paper)
- [Consent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/consent)
- [Who builds and pays](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/parties)

*The AI Compute Race: Five Races, One Machine* is a book by Lee S. Dryburgh, the first volume of THE COMPUTE ECONOMY, published by Dryburgh, an imprint of Contestra OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; its record closes on 8 November 2026.

[About the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1)[Tell me when it is out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#notify)