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Would demanding that large spikey users of energy like data centers implement some sort of demand ramping/isolation from the grid in the form of a massive capac
by TOMDM 4mo ago
Would demanding that large spikey users of energy like data centers implement some sort of demand ramping/isolation from the grid in the form of a massive capacitor bank or flywheel generator between them and the grid help reduce the risk here?
- manarth 4mo agoThe data centres aren't inherently spikey, in general use their consumption is reasonably predictable. However, if a DC detects that the _grid_ is wobbly (voltage or frequency deviations) the DC will disconnect without warning, and switch to its batteries and generators. The grid complains because it's suddenly lost hundreds of MW of load. For the DC to have isolation capability, it would need a load-sink which can consume roughly the same power as the DC in normal operation, and can take in that load at a moment's notice. It's a hard problem to solve, and probably better managed at grid-level than DC-level.
- TOMDM 4mo agoMy intuition is that there would be a fairly stable base load, but doing something like switching on a new training run of a frontier model would be incredibly spiky, thousands of GPUs going from somewhat idle to 100% in seconds.
- cucumber3732842 4mo ago>it would need a load-sink which can consume roughly the same power as the DC in normal operation, and can take in that load at a moment's notice. Liquid rheostat. A big one.
- thelastgallon 4mo ago> The grid complains because it's suddenly lost hundreds of MW of load. For the DC to have isolation capability, it would need a load-sink which can consume roughly the same power as the DC in normal operation, and can take in that load at a moment's notice. Thats why always have all the EVs be connected all the time (except the 20 mins they drive). EVs can provide demand as a service and take excess power whenever its available (instead of solar curtailment), and also provide an immediate source of load when events like this happen. Its a shame US is anti EV, it has the best systems at scale that can be leveraged to transform the entire energy ecosystem.
- WarmWash 4mo agoThis is where a smart grid would really shine, because the utility could drop the electricity price to 0 or even negative and turn on 100,000 air conditioners/heaters to effectively give people free climate control to absorb the load imbalance.
- trogdor 4mo agoMinor note: when discussing electricity, abbreviating datacenter as “DC” is confusing
- manarth 4mo agoHaha good spot. And when the data centre is running on batteries, the DC uses DC. And if it's in the USA capital, it could be a DC using DC in DC.