Today’s Q&A is with Adib Nasle, CEO of Xendee Corporation. Xendee is a microgrid software company that advises large power users on how best to distribute energy over small-scale localized power projects. It’s been working with a lot with data centers as of late, trying to provide algorithmic solutions to alleviate some of the electricity pressures involved with such projects.
I wanted to speak with Nasle because I’ve wondered whether there are other ways to reduce data center impacts on local communities besides BYO power. Specifically, I wanted to know whether a more flexible and dynamic approach to balancing large loads on the grid could help reckon with the cost concerns driving opposition to data centers.
Our conversation is abridged and edited slightly for clarity.
So first of all, tell me about your company.
We’re a software company focused on addressing the end-to-end needs of power systems – microgrids. It’s focused on building the economic case for bringing your own power while operating these systems to make sure they’re delivering the benefits that were promised. It’s to make sure the power gap is filled as quickly as possible for the data center, while at the same time bringing the flexibility any business case needs to be able to expand, understand, and adopt technologies while taking advantage of grid opportunities, as well. It speaks to multiple stakeholders: technical stakeholders, financial stakeholders, policy stakeholders, and the owner and operator of a data center.
At what point do you enter the project planning process?
From the very beginning. There’s a site. It needs power. Maybe there is no power available, or the power available from the grid is very limited. How do we fill that gap in a way that has a business case tied to it? Whatever objective the customer has is what we serve, whether it’s cost savings or supply chain issues around lead times, and then the resiliency or emissions goals an organization has as well.
It’s about dealing with the gap between what you need to run your chips and what the utility can give you today. These data center things almost always have back-up systems and are familiar with putting power on site. It must now be continuous. We helped them design that.
With our algorithm, you tell it what the site is, what the load requirements are, and what the technologies you’re interested in are. It designs the optimal power system. What do we need? How much money is it going to take and how long?
The algorithm helps deliver on those cost savings, deliverables, and so forth. It’s a decision support system to get to a solution very, very quickly and with a high level of confidence.
How does a microgrid reduce impacts to the surrounding community?
The data center obviously wants to power as quickly and cheaply as possible. That’s the objective of that facility. At the same time, when you start bringing generation assets in, there are a few things that’ll impact the local community. Usually we have carbon monoxide systems in our homes and it warns us, right? Emissions from these assets become important and there’s a need to introduce technologies in a way that introduces that power gap and the air quality need. Our software helps address the emissions component and the cost component. And there are technologies that are silent. Batteries, technology components that are noise compliant.
From a policy perspective and a fairness perspective, a microgrid – on-site power plant you can put right next to the data center – helps unburden the local grid at a cost of upgrades that has no value to ratepayers other than just meeting the needs of one big customer. That one big customer can produce and store their own power and ratepayers don’t see a massive increase in their costs. It solves a few problems.
What are data centers most focused on right now when it comes to energy use, and how do you help?
I think they’re very focused on the timeframe and how quickly they can get that power gap filled, those permits in.
At the end of the day the conversation is about the utility’s relationship with the community as opposed to the data center’s relationship with the utility. Everything’s being driven by timelines and those timelines are inherently leaning towards on-site power solutions and microgrids.
More and more of these data center operators and owners are going off-grid. They’ll plug into the grid with what’s available but they’re not going to wait.
Do you feel like using a microgrid makes people more supportive of a data center?
Whether the microgrid is serving a hospital or a campus or a data center, it’s an energy system. From a community perspective, if it’s designed carefully and they’re addressing the environmental impact, the microgrid can actually provide shock absorbers to the system. It can be a localized generation source that can bring strength and stability to that local, regional grid when it needs help. This ability to take yourself out of the equation as a big load and run autonomously to heal itself or stabilize from whatever shock it's dealing with, that’s a big benefit to the local community.
