Vitality Secretary Chris Wright agreed and took one other step, too. He licensed PJM and ERCOT – the corporate that manages the Texas energy grid – in addition to Duke Vitality, a serious electrical energy provider within the Southeast, to inform knowledge facilities and different massive power-consuming companies to activate their backup mills.
The purpose was to ensure there was sufficient energy obtainable to serve clients because the storm hit. Usually, these services energy themselves and don’t ship energy again to the grid. However Wright defined that their “industrial diesel generators” might “generate 35 gigawatts of power, or enough electricity to power many millions of homes.”
We’re students of the electrical energy trade who dwell and work within the Southeast. Within the wake of Winter Storm Fern, we see alternatives to energy knowledge facilities with much less air pollution whereas serving to communities put together for, get by way of and get better from winter storms.
The electronics in knowledge facilities devour massive quantities of electrical energy. RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Publish through Getty Pictures
Information facilities use monumental portions of power
Earlier than Wright’s order, it was laborious to say whether or not knowledge facilities would scale back the quantity of electrical energy they take from the grid throughout storms or different emergencies.
It is a urgent query, as a result of knowledge facilities’ energy calls for to help generative synthetic intelligence are already driving up electrical energy costs in congested grids like PJM’s.
And knowledge facilities are anticipated to want solely extra energy. Estimates range broadly, however the Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Lab anticipates that the share of electrical energy manufacturing within the U.S. utilized by knowledge facilities might spike from 4.4% in 2023 to between 6.7% and 12% by 2028. PJM expects a peak load development of 32 gigawatts by 2030 – sufficient energy to provide 30 million new properties, however practically all going to new knowledge facilities. PJM’s job is to coordinate that power – and determine how a lot the general public, or others, ought to pay to provide it.
The race to construct new knowledge facilities and discover the electrical energy to energy them has sparked monumental public backlash about how knowledge facilities will inflate family power prices. Different considerations are that power-hungry knowledge facilities fed by pure gasoline mills can damage air high quality, devour water and intensify local weather injury. Many knowledge facilities are positioned, or proposed, in communities already burdened by excessive ranges of air pollution.
Native ordinances, laws created by state utility commissions and proposed federal legal guidelines have tried to guard ratepayers from worth hikes and require knowledge facilities to pay for the transmission and technology infrastructure they want.
All the time-on connections?
Along with putting an growing burden on the grid, many knowledge facilities have requested utility firms for energy connections which are lively 99.999% of the time.
However because the Nineteen Seventies, utilities have inspired “demand response” applications, through which massive energy customers agree to cut back their demand throughout peak occasions like Winter Storm Fern. In return, utilities supply monetary incentives equivalent to invoice credit for participation.
Over time, demand response applications have helped utility firms and energy grid managers decrease electrical energy demand at peak occasions in summer time and winter. The proliferation of good meters permits residential clients and smaller companies to take part in these efforts as effectively. When aggregated with rooftop photo voltaic, batteries and electrical automobiles, these distributed power sources could be dispatched as “virtual power plants.”
A distinct method
The phrases of information heart agreements with native governments and utilities typically aren’t obtainable to the general public. That makes it laborious to find out whether or not knowledge facilities might or would briefly scale back their energy use.
In some instances, uninterrupted entry to energy is important to keep up essential knowledge techniques, equivalent to medical data, financial institution accounts and airline reservation techniques.
But, knowledge heart demand has spiked with the AI growth, and builders have more and more been prepared to think about demand response. In August 2025, Google introduced new agreements with Indiana Michigan Energy and the Tennessee Valley Authority to offer “data center demand response by targeting machine learning workloads,” shifting “non-urgent compute tasks” away from occasions when the grid is strained. A number of new firms have additionally been based particularly to assist AI knowledge facilities shift workloads and even use in-house battery storage to briefly transfer knowledge facilities’ energy use off the grid throughout energy shortages.
Giant quantities of energy transfer by way of elements of the U.S. electrical energy grid. Joe Raedle/Getty Pictures
Flexibility for the long run
One research has discovered that if knowledge facilities would decide to utilizing energy flexibly, an extra 100 gigawatts of capability – the quantity that will energy round 70 million households – could possibly be added to the grid with out including new technology and transmission.
In one other occasion, researchers demonstrated how knowledge facilities might put money into offsite technology by way of digital energy crops to satisfy their technology wants. Putting in photo voltaic panels with battery storage at companies and houses can increase obtainable electrical energy extra shortly and cheaply than constructing a brand new full-size energy plant. Digital energy crops additionally present flexibility as grid operators can faucet into batteries, shift thermostats or shut down home equipment in durations of peak demand. These initiatives may profit the buildings the place they’re hosted.
Distributed power technology and storage, alongside winterizing energy traces and utilizing renewables, are key methods to assist hold the lights on throughout and after winter storms.
These efforts could make an enormous distinction in locations like Nashville, Tennessee, the place greater than 230,000 clients have been with out energy on the peak of outages throughout Fern, not as a result of there wasn’t sufficient electrical energy for his or her properties however as a result of their energy traces have been down.
The way forward for AI is unsure. Analysts warning that the AI trade might show to be a speculative bubble: If demand flatlines, they are saying, electrical energy clients might find yourself paying for grid enhancements and new technology constructed to satisfy wants that will not really exist.
Onsite diesel mills are an emergency answer for big customers equivalent to knowledge facilities to cut back pressure on the grid. But, this isn’t a long-term answer to winter storms. As an alternative, if knowledge facilities, utilities, regulators and grid operators are prepared to additionally think about offsite distributed power to satisfy electrical energy demand, then their investments might assist hold power costs down, scale back air air pollution and hurt to the local weather, and assist everybody keep powered up throughout summer time warmth and winter chilly.
Nikki Luke, Assistant Professor of Human Geography, College of Tennessee and Conor Harrison, Affiliate Professor of Financial Geography, College of South Carolina
This text is republished from The Dialog beneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the unique article.
