<\/p>\n
The progress so far shows that flexibility can work, at least in some situations, but only a small fraction of operators have pursued it as yet. \u201cWe\u2019re just in the beginning innings of the game,\u201d says Jesse Jenkins, one of the authors of the 2025 Princeton study and cofounder of Firma, a startup that works on data-center flexibility. \u201cPeople are recognizing that this is a potential solution. The motivation is there; there are some bespoke examples. But there\u2019s no uniform solution set that\u2019s the default option, which is where we need to get.\u201d<\/p>\n
While data centers are going up across the US, no place on Earth comes close to the accumulated computing muscle in Northern Virginia\u2019s Data Center Alley. The region is home to around 500 compute-crunching facilities, which represent 13% of the entire world\u2019s capacity; the next two hot spots, Beijing and Oregon, contain 6% each.<\/p>\n
There are proposals to build hundreds more facilities in Virginia, but a government study found that the state\u2019s electricity demand will increase 183% (around 26 gigawatts) by 2040 if they all go forward, and supporting even half would be difficult. The power-flexible data center that Emerald AI, Nvidia, Digital Realty, and their partners are building in the suburb of Manassas could demonstrate how data centers can squeeze the power they need out of existing capacity. The facility, slated to come online later this year, is intended to give Conductor the chance to manage power at the largest scale yet and to respond to conditions on a live grid for the first time. In the UK demonstration, Conductor managed a 130-kilowatt AI cluster; in Manassas, it will pull the strings of a 96-megawatt hyperscale AI factory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nSome degree of flex will play a key role as we transition away from fossil fuels and toward a future that has to juggle technologies like solar and wind power, batteries, and electric cars.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
For PJM, the Manassas facility points to a potential path through the current power crunch. \u201cWe think data-center flexibility, in different forms, will be essential for the reliable integration of data-center load over the short to mid term,\u201d says Scott Baker, who manages demand-side markets at PJM.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But not all grid experts are so sanguine. PJM\u2019s market monitor, which oversees the grid operator, says there are no workarounds when it comes to adding capacity. \u201cThe notion that large amounts of data-center load can be added without adding new generation is magical thinking,\u201d says Joseph Bowring, an economist and the head of PJM\u2019s market monitor since 1999. <\/p>\n
One problem, he says, is that there\u2019s no way to guarantee that a data center will actually take less power when demand is high. That is, absent any legal or regulatory push for flexibility or compliance, the utility won\u2019t be able to step in to help prevent, say, a blackout. Utilities can rely on resources like power plants, but they can\u2019t control or rely on data centers. \u201cThey do not want to be fully interruptible,\u201d Bowring says of the facilities.<\/p>\n
Stephen Empedocles, an advisor for technology companies, views flexibility as more of a tool than a silver bullet. \u201cThese approaches are excellent for improving grid reliability and getting more out of the infrastructure we already have,\u201d he says, \u201cbut they are optimization tools.\u201d They\u2019re not substitutes for the \u201cgeneration, transmission, and distribution expansion that will still be required,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n
Flexibility advocates agree that over the long term, whether or not AI continues to boom, electrification will drive a need for more generation and transmission. Some degree of flex will play a key role in using grid infrastructure better as we transition away from fossil fuels and toward a future that has to juggle technologies like solar and wind power, batteries, and electric cars. A report published by the International Renewable Energy Agency in January 2026 found that grids around the world will need three times as much flexibility in 2030 as they had in 2019\u2014and 10 times as much by 2050\u2014to balance increasing demand with fluctuating supplies of renewable energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The challenge of powering AI could provide just the spark we need to do the work of designing and building smarter, more flexible grids, says Coskun. \u201cI think with a crisis like this, there\u2019s no quick solution,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes a crisis like this creates an opportunity to do something differently.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amos Zeeberg is a freelance science and technology journalist based in Bucharest. He\u2019s developing a book about technology networks, including electric grids.<\/em>