Pacific Northwest aluminum smelters (1942-1945)
The US government built the Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams and directed their hydropower to giant new aluminum smelters to supply wartime aircraft production. The smelters ran around the clock as single-purpose industrial loads, and the federal government funded the transmission to reach them.
Aluminum output soared, enabling the wartime aircraft buildout.
The smelters and the Bonneville Power Administration's grid anchored the Pacific Northwest's industrial economy for decades.
Like Google's data centers today, a massive new customer class justified building dedicated power infrastructure on a scale nothing else could command.
