Imagine that a data center is like a grocery store. Demand is constant, but supply is limited to when the trucks can arrive with produce.
Harry Godfrey at Advanced Energy United says storing the bananas in a refrigerated truck outside the grocery store will prevent that truck from getting stuck in a traffic jam at peak hours.
"With battery storage what we are able to do is actually roll that truck up to the grocery store in the middle of the night and have it ready to be unloaded when demand peaks. This is about getting ahead of that," Godfrey says, "and shaving off those peaks that otherwise create a lot of congestion and a lot of cost in our electricity system."
That's why he says Virginia will benefit from tens of millions of dollars from the Infrastructure Act to a data center in Manassas to finance energy storage.
Steven Haner at the Thomas Jefferson Institute says the money will could end up reducing the cost of electricity.
"The data centers are the ones creating a lot of this load, and the data centers are the ones who promised their customers they'd use only solar power or wind power and clean energy. So if these grants are directed at solving that problem and solving it for them and taking the burden off of me as a ratepayer, then that makes sense," Haner argues.
Supporters of clean energy are hopeful this program in Manassas will show how new technology can address the rising demand from data centers without the need for new energy generation from fossil fuels.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
