The Impact of Grid Congestion and Energy on the Data Center World

One of the biggest challenges facing the data center industry is grid congestion. This occurs when the demand for electricity exceeds the capacity of the electrical grid, which up time and reliability of data centers. FHI spoke with Brendan de Graaf, plenary speaker at the IT Infrastructure event on November 16, about the influence of a stable energy supply on businesses in the Netherlands.

De Graaf is the founder and director of Lyv Energy Management Solutions, a company that develops integrated systems that support the energy transition. He advises companies to look proactively at their power supply and not wait until things go wrong. “If you suddenly run out of electricity, the financial consequences are enormous. While most problems around grid congestion can easily be prevented by smart planning and looking ahead.”  

Peak load
“The demand for energy is not constant,” De Graaf explains, “there is a peak load. This means that the demand for energy is extremely high at certain ‘peak times’ and low at other times. You can compare it to the situation around traffic jams: we all know when we are most likely to end up in a traffic jam. If you are smart, you try to leave before or after rush hour. It is the same with grid congestion: smart companies try to avoid the ‘energy traffic jam’ by aligning their business processes with the current load on the grid.”

“The solution often lies in changes to the business process, which solves a major problem,” says De Graaf. “By switching on devices just a little earlier or later, when the load on the grid is low, you prevent capacity problems without disrupting production processes. Another nice example: one of our customers recently purchased a robot that performs certain tasks at night. Then the energy demand is low and the chance of grid congestion is virtually zero. And you also save on personnel costs.”

Influence of AI, big data and bitcoin
Waiting for the government is not an option, De Graaf believes. “Improving and expanding the energy grid is a complex long-term project. Companies cannot wait for that. They now have a problem that needs to be solved now.” Electricity is a critical prerequisite for the functioning of companies in the Netherlands and this certainly applies to the data center industry where the need for energy is only increasing due to the popularity of AI, big data and bitcoin.

De Graaf: “These technologies consume power and can further burden the existing electricity infrastructure and cause grid congestion. We all know that the consequences of grid congestion for data centers are significant. Firstly, it can lead to service outages. Power failures and voltage fluctuations can also damage electronic equipment.”

Paradox
According to De Graaf, this results in a strange paradox: “On the one hand, we stimulate sustainability and want to reduce power consumption. On the other hand, the demand for energy-guzzling technologies is increasing explosively.” De Graaf wants to address this ethical dilemma in his presentation. “A lot is possible in technical terms, but we have to seriously ask ourselves: can we facilitate these new technologies at this time and do we want to?”

To prevent grid congestion, it is important that data centers keep a handle on their energy consumption so that they are not overwhelmed by supply problems. De Graaf: “I therefore always recommend drawing up an energy profile, based on current measurements of energy consumption within the company. This is the only way to find out where, when and how much power is being used. Accurate insight is the basis for using energy more efficiently and sustainably.”

Searching for opportunities
“I prefer to look at opportunities rather than problems,” De Graaf continues. “By stepping off the beaten track, more is often possible than people initially thought. For example, if a battery is used to solve a capacity problem at certain times, you can use that same battery on an energy market at times when the problem does not occur. That can be very attractive financially. To give an example: the imbalance price recently rose from 34 euros per megawatt hour to 77,000 euros. That is a staggering increase. If you had anticipated that as a company, you could have made a lot of money in a short time.”

Of course, it remains important to carefully consider what a battery is used for, warns De Graaf. “If you have made a nice deal and the battery is empty when you need it to solve congestion problems, things will go wrong.”

Want to know more? Register for the lecture for free
Do you also want to know how to prevent grid congestion and power problems within your company and how to deal with energy more intelligently? Then come to the lecture by Brendan de Graaf on November 16 in 's-Hertogenbosch. Register for the lecture and the event free of charge via the website.