Overview
- EPRI, which released a new flexibility playbook this week, won backing from Nvidia, Meta, Duke Energy, Southern Company, and others to curb or shift data center power use during peaks.
- Tech firms are starting pilots that move energy‑hungry AI jobs or switch to on‑site generators, with Google signing utility contracts to lower use on request and Nvidia launching a workload‑shifting effort with Emerald AI.
- A winter directive from the U.S. Energy Department told PJM‑area data centers to run backup generators, showing regulators will tap large users to free grid capacity during stress.
- Texas regulators are drafting rules to guide interconnections and cost sharing as ERCOT projects data center demand reaching about 24 gigawatts by 2031, a scale that complicates planning for plants and power lines.
- Consumer advocates warn about rising bills as Texas residential prices climbed roughly 30% in five years with another similar jump projected, even as industry groups say demand response could defer $40 billion to $150 billion in new grid spending.