________________________________________________________________________________________________ Behnam Zakeri
developers aim for.“ For some data centers, it was never intended to be involved in power markets
Behnam frames flexibility as a trade that can be quantified:“ Would a developer accept the grid cutting its power for ten or 20 hours a year at moments of peak stress in return for a connection two years sooner? Would it run on half the electricity it needs for another 50 hours? A developer that loses only 20 hours of power can often manage with its own storage and flexibility, or by shifting compute to another site. The point is to measure the system value a facility brings and what it wants in return, rather than take everyone through the same rigid process.” Texas is already moving in this direction. Under Senate Bill 6, ERCOT must develop a reliability service that can procure demand reductions from large loads of at least 75 megawatts, alongside new requirements for how large loads respond during system emergencies. The next step, in my view, is to define flexibility and turn it from an emergency obligation into something developers can actively trade for faster or cheaper grid access.”
With rapid access to power being a concern, big tech companies are investing in energy technologies like long-duration storage, geothermal, and nuclear.“ Although not all these clean technologies solve the speed problem, energy storage plus renewables does, and the wider effect is worth encouraging,” Behnam says.“ Google has backed a startup working on longduration storage using CO 2 and has also partnered on new battery technology. If these investments mature the technologies, the whole system benefits.” The key spillover is bankability and learning. Hyperscalers can sign contracts and fund demonstrations at a scale that emerging storage technologies rarely get from conventional customers. If that moves long-duration storage down the cost curve, utilities, industries and ultimately electricity consumers can benefit.
What’ s next?
For someone discussing a complex problem, Behnam is strikingly optimistic about where the AI and energy landscape is heading. In the year or so since he started work on this research, he has seen the conversation evolve.“ Flexibility was barely discussed when we started, but it’ s now a common theme,” he reflects.“ In some US states, hyperscalers are even looking at gathering flexibility from individual households in the kind of virtual power plant idea that has been talked about but never built. However, and increasingly 24 / 7 clean-energy matching.
“ The market is moving the same way. Solar paired with batteries has become the fastest route to firm power, and – when completed-the largest solar-plus-storage facility in the US recently made a power purchase agreement to power Google data centers 24 / 7 in Mississippi County, Arkansas.”
Over five-to-ten years, Behnam expects data centers to keep looking for ways to prove flexibility to the grid in exchange for faster connections. Following this research, he is working on developing tools that will help identify ideal locations for new data centers.“ We must remember that hyperscalers are typically some of the best-capitalized and most technologically sophisticated electricity customers in the world, and that should count for something; not as an excuse for preferential treatment, but as a reason to expect more from them in return for scarce grid capacity,” Behnam concludes.“ With the right policies and reforms, the data center boom could help the wider energy transition rather than hinder it. Handled well, the thing that looks like a strain on the grid could help resolve some of the grid’ s older problems.” ■
www. wu. ac. at / en / ideas / teams / behnam-zakeri
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