Google, Nvidia and the startup Emerald AI have launched the AI Energy Management Alliance (AEMA). The coalition wants data centres to cut their power use when the electricity grid is under strain. In return, it wants grid operators to connect those data centres faster.
The three companies are the founding members, according to the launch announcement on 16 September. Eighteen launch partners have joined them, including Anthropic, Analog Devices, National Grid, AES, RWE, Constellation and NRG.
The other launch partners are Calibrant Energy, Camus, ClearPath, Encoord, Fluence, Generate Capital, GridUnity, PassKey, Splight, Verrus and Voltus. Frank Lacey, an energy industry executive, will be AEMA’s executive director.
What the alliance wants
AEMA says power, not capital or chips, is now the main limit on building data centres in the US. Grid connection rules suit facilities with flat, steady demand, according to the announcement.
The alliance wants faster connections for data centres that can adjust their demand when the grid needs it. They could do that by shifting or pausing computing work, using batteries, or running their own power generation on site.
AEMA says it is technology-neutral. It wants data centres judged on what they deliver, such as how fast they can cut demand, Nvidia said in a blog post. Its principles include:
- setting rules for curtailment and emergency response before a facility connects
- standardising technical requirements, performance metrics and data sharing
- faster connection routes for credible flexibility commitments
- sharing connection costs according to a facility’s real impact on the grid
The group plans to press its case with federal and state regulators, regional grid operators and utilities.
“A good citizen of the grid”
Varun Sivaram, chief executive of Emerald AI, said in the announcement:
“The most effective way to accelerate American AI is to make every data center a good citizen of the grid.”
Data centres that flex their power use can connect faster and at greater scale, Sivaram said. Host communities would gain a more reliable grid and protection from rising bills, he added.
Josh Parker, Nvidia’s head of sustainability, said Nvidia wants “technology-neutral, performance-based standards”. Those would judge flexible data centres on measurable grid reliability metrics, he said.
Google has committed 1GW of power demand that it can reduce when needed, through utility agreements across the US. Tyler Norris, its head of advanced energy market innovation, gave the figure, Axios reported.
On a call with reporters, Sivaram said data centres should get faster connections only if their ability to cut demand is “verifiable and enforceable”. “Power-flexible data centers are a wonky topic,” he added.
The numbers behind the pitch
On its website, AEMA says flexible AI could unlock an extra 100GW from the existing grid. It also points to a 5 to 10 year backlog for connecting new AI facilities.
Sivaram wrote in a Fortune commentary that the US grid runs at only 50% of its capacity on average. He cited a Brattle Group estimate that each 10% gain in utilisation lowers electricity rates by about 3.4%.
Emerald AI and Nvidia have completed six demonstrations of flexible data centres around the world, Sivaram wrote. Later this year, Nvidia, Digital Realty and Emerald AI plan to switch on a power-flexible AI factory in Virginia, he added. It will draw nearly 100MW. Emerald AI raised $150m in August.
A new name for an old group
AEMA is a relaunch of the Advanced Energy Management Alliance. That group was founded in 2014 to work on demand flexibility and electricity policy. That group had become largely inactive, Sivaram said, according to Axios.
GridUnity, which makes grid connection and planning software, said it will sit on AEMA’s board. Its chief executive, Brian Fitzsimons, said in a separate announcement that the company wants “to make the coalition’s ambitions actionable.”
A public backlash over power bills
The launch comes as concern about data centres grows. New polling from AP-NORC and the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute came out on Wednesday, Axios reported. It found that 84% of Americans worry about data centres’ impact on local electricity prices.
Around 79% of Democrats and 76% of Republicans back requiring data centre developers to pay for the grid upgrades they need, the poll found. AI data centres are already driving up power bills at Rust Belt factories.
Regulators are moving too. In June, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed regional grid operators to look at options for connecting large, flexible power users. Texas, which has 474GW of data centre requests, is finalising rules to let controllable data centres connect sooner, Sivaram wrote. Silicon Valley Power, a California municipal utility, has launched a flexible-load connection programme, he added.
Some local authorities have also pushed back. One city paused new AI data centres earlier this year.
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