Solving the AI and sustainability crunch with good grid citizenship

Data centre operators are at an interesting inflection point. How do they best handle the performance and power demands of AI workloads and keep an eye on the need for sustainability?

NTT Global Data Centres (GDC) may have a better grasp on this question than most. CEO Doug Adams, in the company’s most recent Global Sustainability Report, wrote that the industry “must align technological progress with conscientious environmental and social care,” and that NTT GDC was “committed to ensuring the AI revolution is a sustainable one.” The company’s sustainability ethos, of ‘people, planet, prosper’, epitomises this.

Neal Kalita is senior director power and energy at NTT Global Data Centres, and has spent 20 years in various roles in real estate and renewable energy. The data centre industry is, therefore, an obvious home for his skills; one in which data centres are becoming increasingly prominent in even the mainstream media. “That cognitive leap, I think, is a really interesting thing that we as a sector need to get in to all of the stakeholders that meet us, and that we interact with, both in development and operation,” he says.

Goldman Sachs posited in February that AI will drive a 165% increase in data centre power demand by 2030. Yet Kalita notes the difficulty with AI is in its unpredictability. “I think we’re going to move into a much more volatile world, and I think that’s going to present both challenges and opportunities for how the grid develops and responds to those AI loads,” he says.

With sustainability a non-negotiable for many businesses, closer interaction between data centre providers and network grid operators will be key. In the EMEA region, Kalita notes the legislative landscape has hardened, and points to Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG), of which data centres were a key part, as a market which is “trying to bring some semblance of control and […] responsibility” to data centre operators.

“I think that needs to be applauded,” says Kalita. “We need to be more engaged with governments in helping set that agenda and what works for our business model, and what works for the country.”

NTT GDC has various innovations in place to help customers’ needs, from liquid cooling and direct-to-chip cold plates, to AI-optimised operations. These innovations can “close that feedback loop and provide greater response to the variability of AI loads themselves,” Kalita says.

“We’re doing some interesting stuff around smart grid partnerships, and looking at modular design of data centres,” Kalita says. “How do we actually become a good grid citizen and support that in terms of demand-side response? How can we use some of our respondent infrastructure to help with that?”

Kalita is speaking at the Data Centre Expo Europe on the topic of the AI ‘tsunami’ transforming the modern data centre. He cites as key themes the “pivot from predictability to volatility,” and the need for collaboration & resilience – “resilience that we can bring to the local community and to the infrastructure networks we’re plugging into.”

“It’s exciting times,” says Kalita. “I think this is probably one of [those] fundamental changes. The data centre sector has these step changes, and I think we’re in one of those right now.”

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