“In theory, yes, they’d have to wait a little bit longer while their queries are routed to a data center that has capacity,” said Lawrence.
The one thing the industry cannot do is operate like it has in the past, where data center power was tuned and then forgotten for six months. Previously, data centers would test their power sources once or twice a year. They don’t have that luxury anymore. They need to check their power sources and loads far more regularly, according to Lawrence.
“I think that for that for the data center industry to continue to survive like we all need it, there’s going to have to be some realignment on the incentives to why somebody would become flexible,” said Lawrence.
The survey suggests that utilities and load operators expect to expand their demand response activities and budgets in the near term. Sixty-three percent of respondents anticipate DR program funding to grow by 50% or more over the next three years.
While they remain a major source of load growth and system strain, 57% of respondents indicate that onsite power generation from data centers will be most important to improving grid stability over the next five years.
One of the proposed fixes to the power shortage has been small modular nuclear reactors. These have gained a lot of traction in the marketplace even if they have nothing to sell yet. But Lawrence said that that’s not an ideal solution for existing power generators, ironically enough.
