Flexible Power Accelerates Data-Center Projects, Princeton Says
(Bloomberg) -- Big data centers equipped to supply their own power during heatwaves and other emergencies can begin operations much more quickly than those reliant solely on traditional utility hookups, according to a new study.
Installing onsite natural gas turbines, solar panels or batteries means data centers can achieve a speedier connection to the grid because they will represent less of a demand stress when electricity is tight, according to a study Princeton University’s ZERO Lab carried out in conjunction with energy software firms Camus Energy and encoord.
In some cases, the wait time can be cut by as much as five years — a significant difference in an industry where grid hookups can stretch up to seven years.
“If you can connect your data center years earlier, that’s a lot of revenue and a lot of compute time,” said Jesse Jenkins, the Princeton associate professor who leads the ZERO Lab.
Flexible data centers also are cheaper because they require less new infrastructure, he added.
“It doesn’t make sense to build a whole new transmission line that sits there 365 days a year when you only need it for a few hours a year,” Jenkins said.
Lowering costs are a key issue because data-center projects have driven up power bills in some parts of the US, angering neighbors and drawing political pushback. After years of relatively stable US power consumption, demand is rising quickly thanks to the artificial-intelligence boom, new factories and electrification of the broader economy.
The new research builds on a Duke University study that said in February the grid could handle another 76 gigawatts — about 10% of current peak demand — if large users such as data centers would curtail their demand during the rare periods when the system is stressed. Bitcoin miners, which also have voracious appetites for electricity, have employed that strategy for years.
However, the idea that data centers can shut down when demand soars has drawn criticism. The independent market monitor for PJM Interconnection LLC, the 13-state power grid stretching from the mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, called the idea that data centers will interrupt the operations and not require new generation “a regulatory fiction.”
The new analysis released on Thursday addresses that critique by modeling how data centers would replace grid power with their own sources, rather than by interrupting computing operations. “There’s a lot of other ways you can provide site flexibility that aren’t just reducing demand,” said Astrid Atkinson, chief executive officer of Camus Energy.
The research was funded by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which said in an August blog post that it was making data centers more flexible to benefit power grids.
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