Jamare Bates’ Post

Data centers done differently. Power generation veteran Clift Pompee and Compass Datacenters are rethinking energy strategies to address AI-driven demand and power constraints. https://lnkd.in/eYA6Hg68

📢💡 With the Data Center Industry constantly growing and evolving! It is important to acknowledge the Trends and implications of the industry! An interesting insight being: To build a resilient backbone that can support the AI revolution, the DC and power industries must collaborate to forge new solutions in providing power to DC development and expand into new markets. One promising potential strategy: repurposing of legacy sites by exploring a different operating paradigm, one that unlocks synergies from the existing grid and fiber interconnections of the retiring assets to meet the growing energy demands of the AI revolution. #projektmanagement #projektentwicklung #bau #construction #projectmanagement #projectdevelopment #datacenter #rechenzentren #sustainability #ESG #edgedatacenter #hyperscale #europe #londondatacentre #ParisDataCentre #Paris #France

AI and data center growth create grid infrastructure issues - typical grid demand of 10-30 megawatts for an industrial park expansion are now being eclipsed: one industry client was tasked design a 500 MW datacenter. "That’s not an industrial park. That’s a significant city." #electricalgrid #infrastructure #datacenter #economicdevelpoment #AI https://lnkd.in/e8C9Ned2?

There has been so much chatter over AI and how their data centers are driving energy concerns, and rightly so. They are HUGE energy consumers (hundreds of TWh) and their main goal is to never go down. Over the years I have seen private investment in energy to become the solution to our grid issues, whether with multifamily or data centers. I have spent many years working around data centers all over the world. Data centers are paid a ton of money to stay operating -it is the life blood of many businesses. However, that means energy is critical. Roughly 50% is to keep servers and data equipment working and 30% is for cooling etc. Imagine if the data centers supporting online businesses went down for even an hour. There would be huge implications. Data centers often invest in their own infrastructure and energy controls in addition to using the grid. However, in order to be more efficient, they need partners and rules that don’t impede their private investment in demand management. If data centers are without the technology to manage their demand, they can run into big, costly, grid-draining spikes. As is ever the case, we need a technology to manage our technology and a clear path for that private investment. The grid depends on it. https://lnkd.in/gZPRRfrZ

Here are the main points: Data centers will need 3x energy by 2030 if they are to keep pace with demand. $500B in data center infrastructure investment will be needed. US has the fastest growing market for data centers Limitations in interconnecting to the grid is the primary cause of unavailability. There is a labor shortage in electrical worker trades for required projects. There are investment opportunities with energy companies. Check their financial reports to know where they are steering their efforts to meet the growing energy demand.

𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 It’s no secret that #datacenters and the surge in #AI are driving increased energy demand and further straining our grid infrastructure. But did you know those same data centers can also be part of the solution? By equipping data center facilities with multi-purpose #microgrid systems, they can become distributed energy resources (#DERs) capable of reacting to grid conditions in real time and help mitigate the grid stress that can cause outages. Our microgrids allow data centers to island themselves from the grid, "flexing" during periods of constrained capacity and enabling existing capacity to quickly serve new large customers. As a result, data centers can bring their own power and eliminate the long wait times for grid interconnection. Download our white paper, “Power Gridlock: Navigating the Challenges and Solutions to Securing Power for High-Demand Industries,” and learn how data centers can power growth. 👉 https://lnkd.in/gqy3bcqc #datacenterflexibility #flexiblecapacity #generators #energytransition

In today’s AI-powered digital economy, data centers are the backbone of everything we do online, and the demand for these facilities is skyrocketing. But for landowners looking to attract high-value data center tenants, location alone isn’t enough—power availability is now the game-changer. 🌐 As global internet traffic is projected to triple by 2030, data center developers are prioritizing sites with reliable, scalable power. That’s where on-site power generation comes in, transforming properties into prime real estate for hyperscale development. 🔑 Key Benefits for Landowners: -Speed to Market: Ready-to-go power can fast-track data center development. -Enhanced Property Value: Power-ready properties command higher lease rates and sale prices. -Sustainability Compliance: Natural gas generators and hybrid systems align with tenants’ environmental goals. 💡 Case Study: A 10-MW natural gas-powered microgrid in Texas reduced development timelines by 40%, securing a long-term data center tenant and additional revenue streams through energy market participation. With flexible, engine-agnostic solutions, landowners can also future-proof their properties for emerging tech like nuclear microreactors and advanced battery storage. The bottom line? Energy-ready land isn’t just an asset—it’s a strategic advantage. Let’s power the digital future, one data center at a time. ⚡️https://lnkd.in/gpVjExYb #RPower #DataCenters #EnergyInfrastructure #NaturalGas #OnSiteGeneration #PrimeRealEstate #DigitalEconomy #PowerSolutions #LandDevelopment #Sustainability

CNBC: Data centers powering artificial intelligence could use more electricity than entire cities. My thoughts: I wrote about this topic in a Spring 2024 blog, but more details are coming out regarding more power-hungry data centers. What do you think about this topic? Where is this heading? Are more near-term brown-outs coming? #ai #GenAI #artificialintelligence #power #electricity #cities #powergrid #grid #datacenters https://lnkd.in/e-VB_kHZ

✅Power Constraint: The primary issue facing data centers is not power generation but transmission and distribution. Current power grids struggle to meet demands, especially with AI's rapid growth, significantly increasing data center power consumption. ✅Dire Predictions: Marc Ganzi initially foresaw a power shortage in five years during the Berlin Infrastructure Conference. He revised this, saying data centers might run out of power in the next 18 to 24 months. ✅Permit Delays: In the US, obtaining permits for new data center power can take up to two-and-a-half years in Dallas, six years in Atlanta, and seven years in Silicon Valley. Europe faces longer lead times, with Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin seeing up to eight years. ✅Global Electricity Usage: Data centers consumed 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2022, about 2% of all global electricity. This is expected to double by 2026, driven by computing and cooling functions. ✅Solutions: Addressing this requires creative solutions, like placing future data centers closer to renewable power sources for energy or grid independence. ✅Takeaways: These points underline growing challenges and the urgent need for innovative solutions in the data center industry to cope with rising power demands due to AI's rise.

DEEPLY DISTURBING - 30GW interconnect agreement??? We should rely on the datacenter's neighboring farmers to finance AI growth and protect US economics and security? : "...under the nearly century-old legal doctrine of “duty to serve”, ...public utilities...provide non-discriminatory service to all customers in their monopoly territory. ....Hyperscalers have highlighted ...problem, ...a single facility can dwarf all other demand growth that a utility faces, and cancellation of such a facility can completely change a utility’s demand outlook. ...in Ohio.. American Electric Power, has proposed...new large data centers would need to commit to purchasing 85% of their forecast load for up to 12 years, regardless of whether their demand actually materializes. This would protect other AEP ratepayers from being on the hook for new infrastructure needed for the connection if the large load doesn’t actually show up.  The developers – who have filed 30 GW of preliminary service requests with AEP (an amount that exceeds the peak load of almost any utility in the country) – are predictably unhappy, saying that they are being targeted for disparate treatment by AEP without a cost justification. But it’s hard to think of another industry in which an input supplier would invest hundreds of millions of dollars to serve a specific customer without any financial assurance that the customer will be there to buy their product. ... AI companies [argue] that any delays in connecting these servers could slow down economic growth and put the US at a competitive disadvantage. ...they are the ones who will get the a huge share of the upside returns and bear little of the infrastructure costs if their electricity demand doesn’t materialize. ...a public good argument for supporting AI development, ... the federal government should absorb the risk of stranded investment, not neighboring electric customers. ...Load growth is generally good news for ratepayers, because it allows spreading of fixed costs over more MWh, lowering the average cost. (A separate, but important, issue is the extent to which this rapid load growth ends up extending the life of high-polluting generation sources.) But spreading fixed costs only works when the new loads pay at least the incremental cost of serving them. If hyperscalers are given a free option to force utilities to prepare for them and then decide later whether they need the electricity, we are likely to end up with high rates and a lot of inefficient investment." https://lnkd.in/gkPAPTJ8