Unpredictable energy generation: the drawback of renewables

While renewable sources like wind and solar energy represent a significant step toward decarbonization and energy independence, their intermittent nature poses a formidable challenge to grid stability and management.

In Europe, more than double the current amount of flexibility resources will be needed to accommodate the shifting demands of tomorrow.

The slow deployment of transmission lines adds further complexity to demand-supply dynamics, making innovative solutions crucial to ensure the reliability of power systems.

Why renewable energy needs flexibility

As we embark on the journey toward a greener and more efficient energy future, the need for flexibility within power systems becomes increasingly apparent. The concept of energy flexibility encapsulates the system's ability to navigate the variability and uncertainty inherent in electricity generation and consumption patterns across various time frames.

With the transition toward renewable energy sources gaining momentum, the dynamics of energy generation have become more diverse and, at times, unpredictable (EEA/ACER, 2023). Within the intricate balance of energy production and consumption, one persistent and complex challenge emerges: peak demand. Peak demand exacerbates the challenges inherent in integrating renewable energy sources and accommodating prosumers¹ into the grid.

Challenges of integrating renewables into the grid

The rise of renewable energy sources, particularly solar and wind power, further complicates peak demand management. Unlike traditional power generation methods, renewables exhibit variability in availability, influenced by factors like weather conditions and time of day.

This unpredictability undermines utilities’ ability to forecast demand accurately, leading to heightened challenges in balancing supply and demand during peak periods. Moreover, the geographical misalignment between renewable energy resources and population centers exacerbates the issue.

For instance, regions abundant in solar or wind energy may not coincide with areas of high electricity consumption, requiring extensive transmission infrastructure to transport energy to where it is needed most. This discrepancy amplifies strain on the grid, increasing the risk of outages and compromising the reliability of power systems.

Innovative approaches to energy flexibility

In response to these challenges, utilities are exploring strategies to enhance energy flexibility, enabling the grid to adapt to fluctuating supply and demand conditions. By incentivizing consumers to shift electricity usage away from peak periods through pricing mechanisms or demand response programs, utilities aim to alleviate pressure on the grid during times of high demand.

Additionally, advancements in smart grid technologies and energy storage systems offer opportunities to improve grid resilience and mitigate the impact of peak demand spikes. Existing programs include:

• Demand Response (DR)

• Virtual Power Plants (VPPs)

• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Energy Trading

However, there are still unexploited opportunities on the consumer side of energy flexibility. Sectors such as electromobility, refrigeration, the pharmaceutical industry, and especially data centers emerge as key candidates for load-shifting strategies.

Data centers as a key player in energy load shifting

Data centers’ relevance is explained by several factors:

• they exhibit very large loads for the grid, with energy usage projected to reach 98.5 TWh in the EU28 by 2030 (Kamiya, 2024);

• they possess highly flexible loads, enabled by advanced automation and monitoring systems;

• their concentrated, large-scale loads simplify energy management;

• they host a variety of on-site energy resources, including UPS, batteries, and cooling systems, capable of offering energy flexibility services;

• they exhibit delay-tolerant workload shifting capabilities.

In the dynamic landscape of modern energy management, the integration of data centers into the power grid emerges as a pivotal solution for enhancing energy flexibility and resilience.

Temporal and geographical workload shifts

Data centers, traditionally viewed as hubs of computation and storage, now stand at the forefront of a paradigm shift, offering not only computational prowess but also the ability to shape energy consumption patterns to align with the grid's needs.

This transformative capability relies on workload shift, where certain tasks within data centers can be temporally or geographically adjusted to alleviate strain during peak demand periods or in specific regions.

One facet of this versatility lies in the temporal dimension, where data centers can strategically postpone non-time-critical tasks during periods of peak grid demand. By orchestrating computational workloads to coincide with off-peak hours, data centers can significantly mitigate energy consumption spikes, thereby improving grid stability and efficiency. This workload constitutes approximately 30% to 50% of the total average workload of a data center.

In parallel, geographical workload shift represents a novel approach to energy optimization, leveraging the inherent flexibility of digital operations. By processing data in different locations, data centers can distribute computational workloads across geographically dispersed facilities².

In instances where the outcome of computational tasks remains unaffected by their physical location, such as in the training of artificial intelligence (AI) models, data centers can seamlessly shift workloads to regions with surplus renewable energy capacity.

This geographical redistribution parallels the movement of energy itself: just as electricity flows across transmission lines to meet demand in different areas, data traverses digital networks to reach computational nodes across the globe. Consequently, by relocating workloads to regions with abundant renewable energy resources or surplus capacity, data centers effectively act as conduits for the efficient utilization of energy. Depending on specialization and clientele, this workload percentage can range from 30% to 60% or higher.

A path toward resilient and sustainable power systems

While the energy transition brings complex challenges for power grid operators, new opportunities are emerging as transformative solutions, leading to a new era of energy flexibility and optimization.

Innovative strategies such as data centers’ workload-shifting capacity have the potential to become key contributors to the resilience and sustainability of the global energy ecosystem.

1. Prosumers are consumers who are also producers, using small-scale systems to generate renewable energy.

2. Unless forbidden by privacy policy requirements.