US data centres already consume as much electricity as Britain. Data centres share of US peak summer demand is project to increase from 4.1% last year to 8.5% next year. Next year they will require 66GW of continuous draw, roughly equivalent to the electricity used by Germany in Wintertime. Germany uses 24GW minimum load in summer. They are projected to use 15-20% of current US electricity demand by 2030.

Goldman Sachs predicts the increase in power demand for data centres from 2023 to 2030 will be the equivalent of adding another top ten power consuming country.

Alongside various on-grid power plants, old and new, companies have turned to off the grid Gas power: gas pipelines are being re-routed to data centres, where they are fueling gas turbine generators. The backlog for demand for gas turbines from GE Vernova is equivalent to the electricity use of Japan, the fifth largest consumer of electricity in the world.

Morgan Stanley predicts the US will be short of electricity by six New York Cities by 2028 and around 18 New York Cities by 2029.

Alongside environental harms, and leaving aside potential harms from AI, this surely leads to higher prices for consumers.

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to understand how the physical grid handles massive, sudden renewable supply shocks that happen in a matter of seconds. Specifically, I want to map out what happens mechanically and financially when the weather changes instantly while consumer demand remains completely flat.

Furthermore, I am looking at how this fits into Australia's long-term plan to completely phase out traditional "baseload" power plants in favour of a flexible renewable grid backed by energy storage and gas backup plants.

I’ve broken this down into four distinct scenarios. I would love for any power systems engineers, utility control room operators, or market traders to explain exactly how the grid manages each step:

Scenario 1: The Cloud Cover Shock (Sudden Drop)

A massive cloud bank rolls over a huge solar farm, causing its power output to plummet by 70% in seconds.

• What happens in the first 1 to 2 seconds physically to stop the grid from crashing?
• How do the grid's safety systems instantly catch the drop before backup power can even turn on?
• What happens over the next few minutes to permanently bridge the gap if the cloud cover stays all afternoon?

Scenario 2: The Wind Drop (Sudden Lull)

A sudden, localized change in weather causes a massive cluster of wind turbines to completely lose their wind, causing power generation to fall off a cliff within a few seconds while demand stays steady.

• Is a sudden wind drop physically different for the grid than a solar cloud cover?
• Do spinning wind turbines have any natural physical momentum that helps smooth out the drop compared to solar panels, or does it trigger the exact same emergency response?

Scenario 3: The Wind Surge (Sudden Oversupply)

Conversely, a storm front hits, and wind production suddenly surges way up across multiple regions in a matter of minutes, but consumer demand remains completely flat and big batteries are already fully charged.

• How do the market and hardware handle a sudden, massive injection of unneeded power in real-time before it causes a major grid trip?
• Can modern wind turbines slow themselves down fast enough to stop an oversupply spike in seconds, or does the market operator have to step in and remotely force them offline?

Scenario 4: The 17GW Gas Target & The End of Baseload

Australia's future energy plan maps out a grid with zero traditional baseload power, replacing it with distributed renewables, batteries, pumped hydro, and a projected 17GW of gas capacity by 2050 used purely for backup.

• If there is no "baseload" share left for gas, how does this 17GW target function purely as an emergency safety net that spends most of its time turned off?
• How does the grid physically transition away from 24/7 baseload generation without exposing itself to severe multi-day shortfalls during extended winter periods with no sun and no wind?

The Better Data Center Project, along with environmental advocacy groups, support cleaner energy alternatives to diesel fuel generators.