Hardware Podcasts

Under the hood of data center power demand

Catalyst · 13 Jun 2024 · 42m

What this episode covers

Brian Janous, former VP of Energy at Microsoft and co-founder of Cloverleaf Infrastructure, explains how the AI boom has transformed data center power demand from a regional constraint to a systemic grid challenge, with some utility queues showing speculative 'zombie requests' masking tens of gigawatts of real load. He argues that efficiency gains will not curb growth because hyperscalers simply build larger, more powerful facilities when capacity allows, making decarbonization targets increasingly difficult to meet on original timelines. Janous details how data centers can mitigate grid impact by leveraging behind-the-meter assets like UPS batteries and generators to become dispatchable, as seen in Dublin, and by supporting grid-enhancing technologies to avoid long interconnection delays.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Microsoft, Cloverleaf Infrastructure, Open AI, AEP, PJM, Energy Hub, Bloom Energy, NVIDIA, Meta
Products
Azure, AWS, ChatGPT
Also
UPS

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