{"id":65378,"date":"2024-11-22T10:31:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T18:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energi.media\/?p=65378"},"modified":"2024-11-22T10:31:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T18:31:58","slug":"power-hungry-data-centres-can-become-grid-assets-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energi.media\/news\/power-hungry-data-centres-can-become-grid-assets-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Power-hungry data centres can become grid assets: Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was published by The Energy Mix<\/a> on Nov. 22, 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Christopher Bonasia<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Energy analysts and policymakers concerned about the growing electricity demand driven by data centres may find a solution in transforming the facilities into assets that support the grid, suggests a recent policy brief.<\/p>\n

The promise lies in flexible demand powered by carbon-free electricity,\u00a0states<\/a>\u00a0a report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Data centres can reduce their energy consumption during periods of high grid demand, ramp up usage during renewable energy surpluses, and store excess electricity to feed back into the grid.<\/p>\n

Future electricity demand was already projected to rise in an energy transition where fossil fuel-powered technologies\u2014like cars and furnaces\u2014will be replaced by electrified alternatives like electric vehicles and heat pumps. But the projected demand has become more significant as a growing number of data centres in North America become more energy-intensive to support developing artificial intelligence technologies.\u00a0<\/a>According to<\/a>\u00a0the Canada Energy Regulator, global data centre power use is expected to increase 160% by 2030 because of AI.<\/p>\n

While a traditional data centre consumes around 7.5 kilowatts per rack of servers, just one new server for high-performance AI tasks requires over 10 kW.\u00a0 \u201cThe power and heat density of a GenAI centre is at least four times that of a comparable cloud-computing facility,\u201d ACEEE writes.<\/p>\n

This is affecting regions seeking to encourage data centre development for economic gain. For instance in Ontario\u2014which forecasts that 16 new data centres will be in service by 2035\u2014new projections have electricity demand\u00a0rising<\/a>\u00a070% by 2050, compared to a 60% forecast last year.<\/p>\n

And in Virginia, which began attracting data centres in 2010, peak electricity usage of the state\u2019s largest Utility\u2014Dominion Energy\u2014is expected to rise from almost 2.8 gigawatts in 2022 to roughly 13.3 gigawatts by 2038,\u00a0<\/a>reports<\/a>\u00a0Inside Climate News.<\/p>\n

But, given the right incentives, those centres can help cut emissions and lower energy costs,\u00a0 ACEEE says. Instead of seeing AI data centres as a threat, \u201cit is possible to transform them into valuable grid and regional assets\u201d that can avoid renewable energy curtailment and defer the cost of grid expansions.<\/p>\n

To accomplish this, regulators will have to encourage data centre developers to employ smart meters and other technologies to forecast and manage energy supply, or to invest in battery storage. Rate structures can also be adjusted to encourage data centres to reduce their energy consumption when grids are strained.<\/p>\n

ACEEE adds that some companies are already developing technologies to do this. Enel X, for example, has developed\u00a0<\/a>uninterruptible power supplies<\/a>, backup generators, and battery storage that can allow data centres to manage energy supply while participating in grid services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile new technologies like these show promise, using data centres as grid assets is still an emerging field,\u201d writes ACEEE.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was published by The Energy Mix on Nov. 22, 2024. By Christopher Bonasia Energy analysts and policymakers concerned about the growing electricity demand driven by data centres may find a solution in transforming [Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":65379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2435,103,528,41,14,2586],"class_list":{"0":"post-65378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-electricity","10":"tag-electrification","11":"tag-energy","12":"tag-featured","13":"tag-grid-security"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\ndata centres - Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Data centres can reduce their energy consumption during periods of high grid demand and store excess electricity to feed back into the grid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/energi.media\/news\/power-hungry-data-centres-can-become-grid-assets-experts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"data centres - 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