The Data Center Power Forum provides member companies with reliable insights into energy supply, grid operations, load management, the built environment, and electricity market design and regulatory policy for data centers.
About
At MITEI, we are strongly positioned to address many of the most intractable data center power issues, building on our nearly two decades of delivering energy sector research rooted in MIT’s world-leading expertise in engineering, science, and policy. We support research on data center energy challenges, including zero- and low-carbon solutions, efficient power electronics, and energy storage. MIT researchers are using artificial intelligence to optimize electrical distribution and data center placement, while conducting economic analyses of power schemes. The Data Center Power Forum complements deep MIT expertise in adjacent areas including low-power processors, photonic devices, and research on computing and the societal consequences of data center expansion. The Forum leverages our reputation as a respected provider of impartial scientific and policy advice, a catalyst for technology breakthroughs, and a leader in techno-economic analyses and lifecycle assessments for energy sectors. Participation in the Forum builds on membership in the Future Energy Systems Center and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR).
Value
MITEI’s Data Center Power Forum membership provides access to all content from MITEI’s Future Energy Systems Center and CEEPR, and inclusion in a unique quorum of leading industry stakeholders. Topics relevant to data center energy demand are being funded through the Future Energy Systems Center as part of the Forum's early efforts. We work with MIT researchers to formulate projects that address challenges of critical interest to Data Center Power Forum members. Our oversight ensures that these projects provide relevant economic, policy, and technical analyses.
Forum members:
- Attend quarterly webinars with MIT experts and forum-funded researchers on latest technology, policy, and engineering topics related to data center power and energy research• Participate in an industry-academic advisory board to guide data center research directions at MITEI
- Attend an annual hybrid meeting on data center power, with an opportunity to interact with MITEI members who have expertise across many sectors related to energy and energy policy
- Have access to a Data Center Power Forum program manager at MITEI
- Receive members-only technology summaries that synthesize the results of Future Energy Systems Center-funded cohort of projects relevant to data center power challenges
Through MITEI, Data Center Power Forum members may also arrange additional, targeted sponsored research in any MIT unit or may collaborate with other Forum members to jointly sponsor pre-competitive MIT research. The opportunity to meet and hold discussions on key data center challenges with other Forum members across relevant sectors is a key benefit of this MITEI-led activity. Our rich experience convening leaders from sectors that supply, generate, transport, build, rely on, or manage energy or energy systems make participation in the Data Center Power Forum a valuable way to understand the interests and concerns of other businesses in a low-pressure and collegial setting.
One of MIT's roles is that we can convene the technical conversations. We bring in the companies, the academics, the national labs and government researchers, the policy leaders because everyone has a stake in the whole system working well. We need the system to work so that everyone gets the power they need.
Addressing data center power demand
Energy demand from data centers is growing rapidly as their numbers grow—there are now more than 11,000 worldwide. U.S. data centers consumed more than 4% of the country's total electricity in 2023, and within the next few years that usage is expected to increase to 6.7-12%. A single hyperscale data center can consume as much electricity as 50,000 homes. Without rapid action, communities face higher electricity bills, increased outage risk, and added strain on power grids.
