The Electric Power Research Institute has launched its “DCFlex” initiative that will explore how data centers can support the grid, enable better asset use and support the clean energy transition.

The initiative’s founding members include Compass Datacenters, Constellation Energy, Duke Energy, ERCOT, Google, Meta, New York Power Authority, NRG Energy, NVIDIA, Pacific Gas and Electric, PJM Interconnection, Portland General Electric, QTS Data Centers, Southern Company and Vistra.

DCFlex will coordinate real-world demonstrations of flexibility in a variety of existing and planned data centers and electricity markets, creating reference architectures and providing shared learnings to enable broader adoption of flexible operations that benefit consumers.

The EPRI initiative announced Oct. 29 will set up five to 10 flexibility hubs, demonstrating strategies that enable operational and deployment flexibility, streamline grid integration and transition backup power solutions to grid assets. Demonstration deployment will start in the first half of 2025 with testing running through 2027.

“One of the key areas where people are talking a lot, but not doing a lot, is the area of understanding how flexible data centers can be, and how we actually make that happen,” EPRI’s Principal Technical Executive Tom Wilson said in an interview. “And so that was the motivation.”

EPRI is a nonprofit that works to address challenges in the energy industry. The DCFlex initiative was born out of discussions at the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board about how it could help power data centers. EPRI spoke with 50 experts from the power industry and the data center industry, Wilson said.

Data centers can respond to signals in the grid in two ways — some of their computational tasks can be shifted around in time and to other data centers, and backup power generation at the facilities can be used instead of the grid, Wilson said. Diesel generation dominates their backup power now, but cleaner options more regularly could respond to grid signals without violating state air permits.

“In terms of computational flexibility, I’d say, you know, if you’re at an ATM trying to get money out, and you get the answer that you can’t get your cash until the electricity prices are lower or there’s more electricity available, you won’t be happy,” Wilson said. “And so, there are a lot of functions of data centers that you do have to have real time. Basically the customer-facing things that data centers do. Other things like indexing the web and activities like that are potentially more flexible in where they occur and when they occur.”

The customer-facing aspects of artificial intelligence also need to be ready for use whenever, but AI models require training, and that energy-intensive process can be shifted in time, Wilson said.

Google, for example, has shifted computing demand to where cheap, clean power is available at its different data centers for the past five years, he added.

“At Google, we see this moment as a generational opportunity for the public and private sector to work together to meet energy demand responsibly and unlock significant benefits for people, the economy and the planet,” Google’s Global Head of Energy Market Development and Innovation Caroline Golin said in a statement. “Through the leadership, expertise and convening power of EPRI, DCFlex will be an important collaboration vehicle to align our common goals, as we work together to build a stronger electrical grid for all.”

Data centers have helped transform the demand for power. The U.S. had flat growth for roughly two decades, but with data centers being added in the hundreds of megawatts, reshoring of industry and efforts to electrify other uses of energy, that has changed dramatically in the past year, Wilson said.

It used to be easy to plug a data center into the grid, but the growing demand has slowed the process. In 2022, Dominion put a moratorium on new connections in its territory, which includes the largest concentration of data centers in the world, called Data Center Alley in Loudon County, Va., Wilson said.

A 500-MW data center is equivalent to tens of thousands of homes being added to the grid much more quickly than more granular demand growth from an expanding population or a growing economy. Flexibility can help the grid absorb major new loads more quickly.

“In many cases, if you have transmission issues, it may just be that I can provide the power you want for 350 days a year,” Wilson said. “For 15, I can’t guarantee it for every hour in those days because of congestion, peak temperatures or higher, low — different issues. And if you have that response, is there a way to get around providing that powerful 15 days for the data centers in order to connect it now?”

When it comes to data flexibility, being able to dial back the demand from a 500-MW data center offers a significant source of demand response for the grid, he added.

“Or if it’s able to turn on backup generation and take its load entirely off the grid, that’s a huge amount of capacity that can come online,” Wilson said. “Historically, we’ve seen this with aluminum smelters and other large industry right where they’ve traditionally gotten a phone call that said, ‘can you guys turn off these hours, these days?’”

Another key is better planning around when and where data centers want to connect to the grid, said Wilson. It takes time to stand up a new data center.

“Better coordinating those ramp up schedules is really important for an understanding where both parties really are in terms of their needs and ability to respond,” Wilson said. “Because, you know, if you’re talking a gigawatt data center or 500-MW data center that’s a large amount of load, and it can be in over eight years or three years or two years. It makes a big difference.”

Constellation, which has worked with Microsoft to reopen a Three Mile Island nuclear plant to serve a Microsoft data center and has discussed co-locating data centers at its other nuclear plants, welcomed EPRI’s initiative.

“Data centers are integral to our daily lives, economy and national security,” Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez said in a statement. “Our energy system is built to handle the extreme demands of our hottest summer days and coldest winter nights but is often underutilized. The real challenge isn’t a lack of energy for data centers but managing the peak demand hours. The ability of data centers to flex during these critical periods is crucial.”