Big Tech Tests Data Center Flexibility

Three data center hubs in France and the United States will get outfitted with experimental methods to make them more flexible and adaptive to the needs of their local power grids, IEEE Spectrum has learned. The selected hubs will serve as test beds for solutions to the rising electricity demands of AI, which are expected to double in the next five years to reach around 3 percent of total global electricity consumption. The projections have sparked concerns about adequately meeting data center electricity demand without sacrificing reliability for everyone else, and prompted a global effort to innovate around the problem. The experimental hubs stem from a pioneering collaboration, called the DCFlex Initiative, composed of grid operators, utilities, and Big Tech companies including Google, Oracle, Nvidia, Meta and Microsoft. The group, spearheaded by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, California, announced the locations for their first three sites today, and expe