Utilities, hyperscalers join effort to turn AI datacenters into flexible loads

A new research project will unite Constellation Energy Corp., NVIDIA Corp., hyperscalers and other stakeholders to redesign how datacenters work within the power grid, helping to temper the growing energy needs of artificial intelligence.

Led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the initiative aims to show how AI datacenters can help stabilize demand by ramping down and sending electricity to the grid, according to project lead David Porter.

"The primary premise behind it is that datacenters have the ability to be a flexible grid resource as opposed to a more standard offtaker of energy from the grid," said Porter, EPRI's vice president of electrification and sustainable energy strategy.

The project, called DC Flex, is expected to launch Oct. 29 amid growing electricity demand from datacenters, particularly those driven by AI. Earlier this year, hyperscalers including Google LLC parent Alphabet Inc. — a DC Flex participant — reported year-over-year emissions increases due to their AI investments.

However, "there is some inherent flexibility within the artificial intelligence datacenters that may be very different than how a streaming datacenter operates," Porter said.

Datacenters that provide streaming or communications services must be online around the clock, but the creation and training of AI models can be postponed, Porter said in an interview. AI datacenters can "move those operations to times when there's no stress on the grid, which gives them some flexibility to support the grid."

However, AI datacenters would not be able to switch "on and off," Porter noted. "You really only want to call on that load flexibility when the grid needs it — when generation goes down somewhere."

Backup power opportunity

Compared with other large loads, datacenters also have the advantage of access to fully redundant backup power, typically from diesel generators. At present, the facilities can only use these generators during emergencies due to air quality regulations, among other factors. One item on DC Flex's agenda is to explore how alternative fuels could be substituted to allow datacenters to produce power for the grid.

The easiest option would be to burn hydrotreated vegetable oil, according to Porter. The biofuel, also known as "renewable diesel," can be made from food byproducts, though such resources are limited in the US, according to a 2022 International Council on Clean Transportation report. Other options include renewable natural gas and hydrogen, Porter said.

DC Flex also aims to design an incentive for datacenters to come offline to support the grid. Demand response programs already provide large loads with some incentive to go offline during peak grid usage, but EPRI is exploring "more lucrative" approaches, Porter said.

"We've got to do some work to pull all this together, and a lot of the work that we've got to do has to do with how the datacenters and the grid operators communicate, and how they would control those loads," Porter said.

Among the project's participants are the utilities Duke Energy Corp. and PG&E Corp.'s operating arm Pacific Gas and Electric Co. — both of which are seeing datacenters proliferate in their service territories — as well as Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and grid operators PJM Interconnection LLC and Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc.

The research nonprofit plans to test its concept over the next three years on up to 10 datacenters, both new and existing, Porter said.