> Is the problem essentially that too much of the load on the grid is AC->DC converters that are drawing power only at the peak of each cycle? No, large power

> Is the problem essentially that too much of the load on the grid is AC->DC converters that are drawing power only at the peak of each cycle? No, large power supplies used for AC/DC conversion don’t do this. They even already do power factor correction to correct the AC power factor. The issue is that power factor can only be corrected so well (0.95 is typical best case), so if you keep adding more and more loads of the same type it will lead to excessive capacitive loading on a grid. In comparison, industrial stuff (things that use lots of motors) have an inductive loading on the grid. Basically, if you have equally paired inductive and capacitive loads you can cancel out the “imbalance”. Industrial plants already do this with large capacitor banks. Essentially all this means is that the power companies probably need to start forcing power factor requirements on data center customers. They’re already billed for it, but if it’s causing grid issues they can require it (or, implicitly dictate it through pricing structures).