Webinar: Beyond Traditional Energy Infrastructure: Data Center Flexibility

Get the highlights of new Duke University modeling research on data center flexibility and its pivotal role in next-generation electric power systems. The new study by the GRACE Lab at the Nicholas School of the Environment focuses on PJM but its findings have broad relevance for the U.S. power grid.

During the webinar, experts from different sectors will delve into different physical and contractual/regulatory enablers of data center operational flexibility and how these can contribute to grid reliability. Speakers will address the inherent challenges, emerging opportunities, and practical constraints of implementing flexibility in real-world scenarios. This discussion will also explore how flexible demand-side solutions, while challenging traditional approaches, can become a key tool for utilities and regulators in managing burgeoning energy demands.

Speakers will include Allison Clements (804 Advisory, former FERC commissioner), Varun Mehra (Google), Dalia Patino-Echeverri (Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University), and Parag Mitra (Electric Power Research Institute). 

Audience Q&A will be available as time permits following the panel discussion.

The webinar is hosted by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability at Duke University, Georgetown Climate Center, and the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. 
 

Allison Clements

Allison Clements is a partner with digital infrastructure advisory firm ASG and Principal of 804 Advisory, where she focuses on the intersection of market design, policy and technological innovation. She advises clients in the data center development and energy sectors on the opportunities across the two industries. Allison served as a Commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from 2020 to 2024. There, she worked to reform regional transmission planning and cost allocation, began reform of grid interconnection queues, championed technological innovation, and focused on evolving market rules to more accurately reflect changing grid needs. Prior to FERC, Allison was a federal energy policy advocate and strategist after beginning her career in private legal practice. She has served as an energy expert in several capacities including currently with advisory committees at the National Academies of Sciences and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Allison lives with her family in Washington, DC. 

Varun Mehra

Varun Mehra serves as Technical Lead for Data Center Flexibility as part of the Advanced Energy team at Google. Since joining in 2022, Mehra has spearheaded building energy efficiency and demand response capabilities within data centers' IT load. To enable additional capacity and improve utilization of power systems, Mehra has focused on building demand response within Google's Machine Learning infrastructure—requiring co-design with Google infrastructure across hardware deployment planning and site operations time horizons and vertically from chips to workloads. Mehra has previously worked in electric vehicles, virtual power plants, and micro-grids, and holds a dual M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science and in technology and policy from MIT and a B.S. in mathematics/economics from UCLA. 

Dalia Patino-Echeverri 

Dalia Patino-Echeverri is Gendell Family Associate Professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Her research focuses on public policy design for energy systems, particularly on managing the risks arising from the uncertainties influencing the outcomes of government actions. Much of her current work focuses on the policies that affect capital investment decisions within the electricity industry and the corresponding costs to society of electricity and air-emissions levels. Her models explore the effects of different government policies by representing the industry’s decisions under uncertainty on future technological advancements, fuel prices, and emissions regulations.