Grid-Interactive Data Centers Enabling Energy Transition: Data center’s hidden potential to provide essential grid services of a future power system

Abstract

The intermittent nature of power generation from variable renewable energy sources is a well-understood and discussed topic in public. When an increasing number of variable renewable energy sources become connected to the electricity grid, more assets for balancing and flexibility are required to level out the variations in production of electricity. These variations are typically predictable based on wind and solar radiation forecasts and typically last for hours or days. Therefore, this long-term balancing relies on energy-intensive assets that can provide flexibility or balancing for long durations, while the speed of response is not critical.