Policy Tool

Policy Tool

The Utility of the Future: Where Digital and Energy Infrastructure Combine

Energy utilities and data centers can integrate to create value by recycling waste heat, providing grid stability through demand response, utilizing prime urban locations, and sharing expertise to address operational challenges and workforce shortages, advancing sustainability goals.

Details

This comprehensive report explores the transformative partnership potential between energy utilities and data centers as both industries reach crucial inflection points. The study reveals how these traditionally separate infrastructures can integrate to create new value and solve pressing challenges.

Key Insights:

  • Heat Recovery: Data centers generate significant heat that could be recycled into district heating networks, providing CO2-free heat while solving waste heat challenges for data centers.

  • Electricity Flexibility: As intermittent renewables increase, data centers can provide valuable grid stability through demand response - shifting workloads to balance electricity demand during peak periods.

  • Strategic Locations: Energy utilities own prime urban real estate (particularly as coal plants are decommissioned) that could serve as ideal locations for data centers, offering power, fiber connectivity, and expandability.

  • Shared Expertise: Both industries face similar operational challenges and talent shortages, creating opportunities for shared workforce development and operational synergies.

The report presents a blueprint for how energy and digital utilities can collaborate, highlighting how the electricity grid's development provides a template for the evolution of digital infrastructure. It offers practical recommendations for policymakers, utilities, and data center operators to capture these opportunities while advancing sustainability goals.

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