On 29 October EPRI the Electric Power Research Institute, launched a new initiative – DCFlex – to explore how data centres can support the electric grid, enable better asset utilisation, and support the clean energy transition. The initiative’s founding members include Constellation Energy, Duke Energy, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and Google, the New York Power Authority and many other prominent organisations.
After years of flat load growth on the US grid, electricity demand is rising across the economy as numerous factors – including industrial onshoring, electrification of transport, digitisation, and the adoption of AI – converge. According to a recent EPRI white paper, electricity usage by hyperscalers (large cloud service providers) more than doubled between 2017 and 2021. This increase is expected to continue, with data centres projected to consume 5% to 9% of US electricity generation annually by 2030, up from 4% today.
This growing demand, says EPRI, presents unique opportunities in the journey toward net zero and ensuring reliability across the electric grid. Technology companies have historically been a key driver in accelerating commercialisation of clean energy and innovative collaborations throughout the energy ecosystem. Their efforts and ambitions toward net-zero and clean energy in collaboration with electricity providers sharing these goals can be a driving force in addressing the growing demand and building a more reliable, resilient, affordable, and sustainable electricity grid of the future.
Led by EPRI, DCFlex plans to co-ordinate real-world demonstrations of flexibility in a variety of existing and planned data centres and electricity markets, creating reference architectures and providing shared learning to enable broader adoption of flexible operations.
Specifically, DCFlex will establish five to ten flexibility hubs, demonstrating innovative data centre and power supplier strategies that enable operational and deployment flexibility, streamline grid integration, and transition backup power solutions to grid assets. Demonstration deployment will begin in the first half of 2025, and testing could run through 2027.
This initiative is an outgrowth of discussions with the US DoE and many in the data centre, technology, utility, and research communities that informed the development of recommendations to DoE from the Secretary’s Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) ‘Powering AI and Data Centre Infrastructure Recommendations July 2024’ earlier this year. The recommendations highlighted the need for closer collaboration among all key stakeholders in powering the data centres that support our growing economy and underpin advances in AI technology.
For the electric sector, AI advances are key to managing the grid more efficiently by effectively integrating distributed resources, demand response, variable renewables, and energy storage with utility-scale grid resources. This can accelerate the energy transition while keeping electricity reliable and affordable.
“Data centres play a critical role in today’s interconnected global information-sharing environment and economy, but along with increased manufacturing and movement towards electrification, they are placing additional power needs on the electric grid,” said EPRI president and CEO Arshad Mansoor. “Flexible data centre design and operation is a key strategy for accelerating AI development and realising its benefits while minimising costs, lowering carbon emissions, and enhancing system reliability.”
To learn more about DCFlex, visit: DCFlex | EPRI Micro Sites
