US lab's new facility to tackle rising grid strain from data centers

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has launched the Next-Generation Data Centers Institute (NGDCI) to address the rapidly increasing energy demands of AI data centers. Currently, data centers consume over 4% of U.S. electricity, but this figure is projected to rise to as much as 17% by 2030, largely driven by the intensive power requirements of AI workloads. NGDCI aims to develop innovative science and technology solutions—including advanced cooling, power management, and integrated grid operation—to ensure that future AI infrastructure remains secure, efficient, and reliable without compromising grid stability. Building on ORNL’s existing MEGA-DC project, which models the economic and technical impacts of data center growth on infrastructure, NGDCI envisions data centers as adaptable national assets that can enhance grid resilience. The institute will collaborate with major industry partners such as AMD, NVIDIA, and Carrier Energy to co-design power-aware architectures and grid-supportive systems. Lever