Design/Engineering

Factoring in The Demand Side: Microgrid Knowledge Speakers Say that Understanding Load Shows the Way Forward

April 16, 2025

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The data center boom has sparked both excitement and dread all around the world.

Utilities marvel over the future electricity sales but stress now about how they will meet that demand through hugely expensive power plant and transmission system construction.

It’s not just a U.S. issue, In Dublin, Ireland, the overwhelming tide of rising data center demand caused leaders to put a multi-year moratorium on new data centers within that city district. Elsewhere in that island nation, however, the expansion of data centers and resulting energy demand is overwhelming the grid.

And it's not just AI and hyperscaler. Electrification across multiple sectors, from food processing to manufacturing, is pushing power generation past the comfort zone with no easy answers.

What gives? Well, it might be the grid as we know it in a power industry which historically has focused on efficiency and delivery but perhaps lost sight of the main driver—truly understanding customer demand.

“The demand side is all we’ve got to fix the issue, and that’s with microgrids,” James Richmond, founder and CEO of e2 Companies, said in Tuesday’s opening keynote at the Microgrid Knowledge Conference at the Sheraton Dallas in the heart of Texas. “If we get microgrids everywhere, we’ll have plenty of power.”

In years past, many conferences focused on new technologies around digitalization and efficiencies, including how artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing power delivery, operations and maintenance. AI, of course, is also a massive energy sucker and is a huge theme at Microgrid Knowledge because of the dozens of GWs which will be needed to meet the forecasted load growth from data centers.

Perhaps a key focus which could re-set the equation on meeting and taming this tidal wave is to understand the wave itself, speakers said.

“We have not spent enough time understanding the loads,” said Chris Griffen, founder and CEO of Dallas-based rooftop wind power startup Hover Energy. “We must become experts on what we need to do from a consumption level.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers recently released its once-every-four-year scorecard on the condition of various infrastructural sectors. Energy graded at a lowly D+, one of the worst marks nationally.

The ASCE noted that more than $1 trillion investment is needed to deal with antiquated electric transmission and distribution systems while also facing the specter of enormous data center, transportation and industrial electrification growth.

AI is both the culprit and cure for some of this. Some of the Microgrid Knowledge attendees joined a tech tour at IBM’s Innovation Center near Dallas, getting a closer look at how digital tools can remake asset lifecycle management and improve operations and maintenance for distributed energy resources.

“The microgrid, if you can get it right, is going to make a lot of economic sense,” said Janki Vora, distinguished engineer and chief technical officer for Data and AI For Industry Edge at IBM, during the technical tour at the Innovation Center.

Indeed, while trillions of dollars may be needed for upgrading vast macro infrastructure, many microgrids built at the edge can help achieve these goals at a relative fraction of that cost.

Scott Campbell, also of IBM, used Microgrid Knowledge host state Texas as an example of how grid reliability can diminish even with good intentions. The rise of intermittent renewable energy capacity, particularly wind power and increasing amounts of solar, has negatively impacted the inertia, or spinning reserves, on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid.

This lack of inertia also causes a lack of flexibility in dealing with energy crisis and was deeply felt during Winter Storm Uri in early 2021. Deep freezes, peak demand and lost generation forced the ERCOT grid into rolling blackouts and came with a few GW of possibility of losing its frequency and shutting down the entire system.

The inertia needs to be revived and re-invigorated through decentralized generation, noted Campbell, who is global leader of product management for IBM’s Maximo Application Suite and other tools. Power project developers should prioritize interaction with customers and craft reliable energy generation based on the demand side equation.

“I think it has everything to do with microgrids,” Campbell said. “The key to all of this is understanding consumption. It all starts with looking at it from the client outward.”

Among mission critical energy customers who will be participating in sessions at Microgrid Knowledge include healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente and the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Microgrid Knowledge continues through Thursday at the Sheraton Dallas.

About the Author

Rod Walton, Managing Editor | Managing Editor

For Microgrid Knowledge editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

I’ve spent the last 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.

I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 33-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.

Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.