ECE, FREEDM, M.C. Dean Host Workshop on Energy Needs for AI Data Centers

The workshop, held at Hunt Library, convened experts from utilities, data center developers, tech companies, government and academia to build a shared understanding of data center challenges and to identify practical solutions.

The NC State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in conjunction with the FREEDM Systems Center and the M.C. Dean Engineering Hub, recently hosted a workshop on energy needs for AI Data Centers. 

Artificial intelligence is transforming computation at a historic pace. AI data centers now represent a rapidly growing class of energy-intensive infrastructure with unique load profiles and cooling needs. Their development has major implications for planning, reliability and sustainability across the electric grid. The workshop, held at NC State’s Hunt Library, convened experts from utilities, data center developers, technology companies, government and academia to build a shared understanding of data center challenges and to identify practical solutions.

Keynote addresses were given by Sasha Weintraub, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Duke Energy; Bill Dean, CEO of M.C. Dean; and James Smith, President at PowerSecure. 

Of the top 10 companies in the world, by market cap, nine of them are technology companies. “This is the modern economy,” Weintraub stated in his opening keynote. “These are the engines of a modern economy, and the data centers are what they’re going to be using to fuel that.”

Weintraub also emphasized that the current AI boom is more than just a tech trend, stating, “this is going to be the highest impact technology revolution in history.”

Dean focused his talk on the energy demands that artificial intelligence requires, noting that data centers could consume 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028. Despite computing efficiency increasing at a rapid pace, server energy demand is tripling, with new AI projects needing 1-3 gigawatts, and some projects exceeding 10 gigawatts. 

“Energy has been at the core of all industrial revolutions, specifically, energy transformation as an enabling technology,” said Dean in his address. “And this revolution’s no different.”

Dean addressed a number of technical innovations in the AI space, from utilizing high-voltage DC distribution instead of AC in facilities, to cooling chips with liquid instead of air. He emphasized that this is not just an energy problem, this is a systems engineering problem.

NC State researchers, in partnership with M.C. Dean, are working to solve the infrastructure and energy challenges that come with the growing need for data centers. The M.C. Dean Engineering Hub, which brings together industry and academia, will drive interdisciplinary research in several key areas, including: grid innovation, energy storage and demand-side management, advanced manufacturing for large scale infrastructure, and workforce development.
Learn more about the hub here.

“We're doing a number of things with the folks here at NC State on modeling and simulations,” said Smith in his address, “and we’re very, very appreciative of all the smart minds and the research that exists here at this campus.”

Events like these, where researchers and industry members are brought together to learn and collaborate, are especially important when it comes to the challenges and possibilities that AI offers.

“I don’t think we should think about it as a problem,” said Smith. “I think we should think about this as an opportunity.”

ECE Department Head Veena Misra closed the workshop with an eye toward the future.

“To meet the needs of the growing data center demand, we will need to work on many fronts, including generation, storage, transmission, smarter architectures from the grid to the chip, cooling breakthroughs, power electronics and responsible deployment,” said Misra. “It’s systems engineering at national scale, with very real human impact. To meet this challenge we have to build, partner and move fast. Here at NC State, this is exactly the kind of challenge we want to help solve together with industry. Because the real competition isn’t just about who builds the biggest data center. It’s about who builds the smartest, fastest, most resilient energy system to power it.”