08/16/2026
A week ago I was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio on the Lee Rayburn show. The topic was microgrids. I am sharing a link. It was a great experience because Lee is a great interviewer and was well studied on the topic. During the show there were a lot of questions about Data Centers and the role that microgrids can play there, which I wasn't super prepared to address. There were also some very insightful questions from the guests. I would like to add a few thoughts after the fact and hope that people get a chance to listen to this interview.
Of course many are concerned about the impact of data centers on their utility bills and that households in areas that host them are going to shoulder the costs as utilities must grow their capacity to support them. This is a valid worry assuming top down generation and power distribution model. The microgrid concept is to provide coordinated sources of power and energy local to the point of service. Microgrids that can be scaled to the service need and are a great solution to the problem of data center power consumption. The reality is that, because of the amount of power that data centers will require is so much that, at least in the short term, utilities supplied power to the data center will be necessary, but the microgrid can be used to smooth out the peaks and valleys of data center usage, as well as supplement the amount of power required, thereby minimizing the need to grow the distribution network to accommodate data centers. This is where the costs to utility power consumers can be alleviated somewhat. The future use of microgrids includes using them to strengthen distressed parts of the grid.
The bigger impacts of data data centers, and the power that they are going to require, which is on the scale of 10s of megawatts, is what really concerns people who don't want them in their backyards. We need to be concerned about that other resources that will be consumed by data centers, such as land and water. Bringing onsite generation into the picture, through the use of microgrids, will not alleviate these concerns. At the same time, these problems are solvable through the right mix of local spinning reserve power, renewables and energy storage. If microgrids become part of the solution, communities who live near data centers will benefit a smarter, more responsive power grid that can respond to unforeseen weather events, etc. and that can be used to strengthen the grid locally.
The reality is that data centers provide services that we all depend upon: large language models and AI queries that have accelerated the efficiency of how we do everything today, they are big part of our economy; businesses who want to move their IT infrastructure to cloud services to stay competitive; our increasing dependence on instant access to data; our appetite for high-definition video streaming and online gaming; and the convenience of using cloud services to do all of our daily tasks. Do we want to do without these things? So, here is the problem: If data centers are not close to the population centers that utilize them, then the effectiveness of these services become ineffective. The reason for the currently planned building of at least four major data centers in Wisconsin is because our usage of these services local is stressing and outpacing the capacity. Sounds a lot like the power generation and distribution problem....hmmm.
For my part, I am very interested in the possibilities that are on the horizon for all of us as we solve the power and energy delivery side of the problem. I don't know as much about the data side of the problem--that is not as much in my wheelhouse. I am excited by the prospects.
Rob Cuzner, professor, electrical engineering, spoke on the “Lee Rayburn Show” on Wisconsin Public Radio Rising about meeting the rising demand in Wisconsin for electricity and the future of the energy grid in the age of data centers. The discussion …
