Battery Energy Storage Systems for AI Data Centers

Data Center Power Playbook: Solving AI transient loads and Multi-Asset Orchestrations

Since 2024, data center developers and operators have faced four prominent challenges. While a separate white paper outlines these four challenges at a high level, this paper focuses on architecture evaluations, simulation results, and commercial guidance for Challenges 2 and 3 (AI-driven transient power swings and multi-asset orchestration).  In particular, we examine:

• The use of campus-level BESS for AI data center load smoothing, including standard grid-forming, line-interactive, and back-to-back architectures.
• The implementation of Energy Management Systems (EMS) as the campus-level control plane, leveraging microgrid controls and algorithms to coordinate BESS, utility interconnection, and multiple generator assets.