2026 Event Schedule

The cost to upgrade the grid and the time for interconnection are two key factors that drive the decision-making on when and where a data center can be brought online. By performing actions like energy shifting or power limiting, interconnection obstacles can be overcome, and energy costs can be reduced. However, the time to market and economic values from these actions are hard to categorize without formalized grid service definitions.

Our team from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will explore how a data center can participate in grid services, evaluated using our economic impact assessment tool, which simulates the data center and its connection to the grid and reports the impact of different responses to grid conditions. By describing these impacts in the language of policymakers, the results are more likely to be accepted, and the plan operationalized. Critically, the scenario-based results are analyzed for all impacted parties including the data center owner, the grid operator, and the ratepayers. This lecture will convey a philosophy of how data centers may leverage their inherent flexibility to profit from the delivery of grid services that enhance grid reliability, speed up the interconnection process, and reduce or even eliminate costly grid upgrades.