Significant electricity load growth can be accommodated without a stampede to new gas generation while propelling the clean energy transition, writes John Quigley of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. One promising approach that Quigley cites is a new study from Duke scholars that finds planned load flexibility at data centers can minimize—or even eliminate—any near-term need to build new gas plants to meet load growth.

In this virtual briefing, three Duke University experts—Tyler Norris and Dalia Patiño-Echeverri (Nicholas School of the Environment) and Tim Profeta (Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability)—discussed their new national-scale analysis of how the existing U.S. power system can accommodate data centers and other large new loads without requiring major generation and transmission expansion.

Researchers from Duke University have said that integrating more flexibility into U.S. power grids could help provide the energy needed to power future load growth, particularly the electricity needed to support artificial intelligence and data centers, reports POWER. The group discussed the findings of their recent study in a Feb. 19 webinar.

In an op-ed for Utility Dive, energy policy experts Peter Freed and Allison Clements write that rational standardization of large load-side interconnection could help regulators across the country address the challenges and opportunities that new electricity demand poses for customer protection, grid reliability and economic development. Freed and Clements note that new rules may be needed to design opportunities for flexible interconnection subject to curtailment as described in a recent study by Duke scholars.

A new Nicholas Institute report has determined that data center operators could unlock up to 76 GW of new capacity in the United States by curtailing their energy use during periods of grid stress, writes Data Center Dynamics.

At a time of increasing power demand concerns in the United States, a new study from Duke University has found significant potential for load integration onto the power grid should flexibility measures be taken, reports Smart Energy International.

A new study from the Nicholas Institute finds that the U.S. power system has significant untapped potential to integrate new large electricity loads while minimizing the need for costly infrastructure upgrades. "Our study demonstrates that the existing US power system—designed to manage extreme peak demand fluctuations—could accommodate significant load additions with modest flexibility measures," lead author Tyler Norris told T&D World.

A new Nicholas Institute study finds the U.S. power system has extensive untapped potential to more quickly add data centers and other new large energy loads while mitigating the need for costly system upgrades—as long as those loads can occasionally cut their power use when the grid is most stressed.

Utilities in some states are proposing new natural gas plants to keep up with rising electricity demand. “I can’t recall the last time I was so alarmed about the country’s energy trajectory,” Tyler Norris, a power systems expert and PhD student at the Nicholas School of the Environment told The New York Times. Norris wrote a policy brief last year that provides an example of an innovative regulatory solution that could push utilities toward clean energy sources.

The Department of Energy and others are looking to the "connect and manage" process employed by Texas grid operator ERCOT to connect energy generators to the grid more quickly. Tyler Norris, a Ph.D. student at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, talked with Utility Dive about his Nicholas Institute policy brief exploring how lessons from ERCOT's experience could influence interconnection reform across the country.