AI Data Centres: Power Burden or Future Grid Flexibility Backbone?
At the end of September 2025, 17 GW of data-centre capacity was under construction in the US. UK data-centre capacity could rise to between 3.3 GW and 6.3 GW by 2030.
This event will focus on the challenge of deploying data centres within capacity-constrained power grids, and the implications for energy costs and carbon emissions. The panel will explore opportunities for data centre power flexibility to support faster grid connections, lower system costs, and clean energy integration. The discussion will bring together perspectives from power systems engineering, data centre development, AI infrastructure, sustainability, and grid operation, and will cover practical questions around connection queues, flexible operation, workload management, and energy efficiency.
Panellists
Yihong Zhou, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford
Vince Colby, Director of Energy & Utilities, Pure Data Centres Group
Frederik Drewes, Founder, Loadwise
Ethan Tiao, Product Leader for Conductor, Emerald AI
Panel chair: Thomas Morstyn, Associate Professor in Power Systems, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford
The event is informed by recent Oxford research on AI data centre flexibility and the ARIA funded SAGEflex project on safeguarded AI for grid-edge flexibility. Policymakers, industry partners, investors, researchers, and others interested in AI infrastructure, clean energy, and climate action are warmly invited.
Hosts: The ZERO Institute and the Power Systems Architecture Lab, University of Oxford
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This event is likely to be oversubscribed, therefore please only register if you intend to come. We will reallocate seats if places are unclaimed by 5 minutes prior to the event start.
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