Powering the UK’s artificial intelligence sector

Powering the UK’s artificial intelligence sector

The Centre for Net Zero explores a framework for energy flexibility.

Flexibility can help data centres reduce their impact on peak demand by shifting compute workloads during periods of system stress, using onsite generation and battery storage, or supporting distributed solar and batteries in nearby homes and businesses.

The Centre for Net Zero identifies three priorities for the UK’s artificial intelligence (AI) data centres: strategic planning and cost-reflective connections, support for voluntary flexible and phased connection agreements, and enabling markets for flexible demand.

The framework suggests integrating data centre siting and energy flexibility assumptions into the UK’s Strategic Spatial Energy Plan and Clean Power 2030 strategies, as well as supporting cost-reflective connection and tariff arrangements.

The centre also recommends identifying areas on the network that could benefit from solar and battery deployment and reporting a data centre’s capacity for all types of flexibility.

Finally, it encourages data centres and linked virtual power plants to participate in wholesale markets, ancillary services and the capacity market, alongside ensuring market rules are compatible with data centre operations.

These recommendations seek to address the increasing power demand from data centres due to the UK’s AI ambitions. This is estimated to grow from 6GW in the near term to an estimated 50GW in future.

The Centre for Net Zero identifies the main challenge is how to connect strategically important new demand quickly, without increasing costs for consumers, worsening network constraints, or undermining clean power goals.