WS4: Planning & Portfolio Readiness

This report provides an overview of current European long-term electric system resource planning in the context of growing data center demand. It examines data center loads, existing and new trends in growth, highlights electricity system planning frameworks and market-based coordination mechanisms, and reviews evolving trends in how data centers are powered. Insights are synthesized from an analysis of European planning frameworks, data, policies, and examples. The findings show that, in Europe, the relationship between data center growth and electricity system planning is co-evolving. Power system constraints, planning practices, and policy frameworks are shaping the scale, location, and characteristics of data center investments in both established and emerging markets. Large-scale data center demand is also influencing where and how generation, networks, and flexibility resources are developed to serve it. Planning approaches that emphasize cross-sector coordination and the use of demand-side efficiency and flexibility from both the grid and large electricity users are increasingly central to managing this interaction.

This report synthesizes insights from structured EPRI interviews with three utilities—Duke Energy, Nebraska Public Power District, and Salt River Project—focused on their strategies for supporting data center growth. The interviews capture candid perspectives on demand forecasts, capacity expansion, grid impacts, policy and regulatory drivers, transmission constraints, supply-chain and workforce considerations, and decarbonization pathways. Data center flexibility emerged as a cross-cutting theme, with each organization outlining implications and research needs relevant to EPRI’s DCFlex Initiative.

This discussion paper introduces a practical framework to help power system planners assess how much additional load, particularly from rapidly growing data centers, can be integrated without expanding generation, storage, or transmission infrastructure. As large loads provide new opportunities for the electricity industry to plan for unprecedented growth, the framework defines and quantifies “technical headroom” through a staged analytical approach: probabilistic resource adequacy assessments to capture uncertainty, hourly nodal simulations to reflect operational constraints and transmission limits, and sub-hourly modeling to capture fast dynamics such as load variability and ramping. At each stage, the analysis compares inflexible and flexible data center operations, demonstrating how demand flexibility and on-site resources can mitigate reliability risks and unlock additional capacity. The paper also highlights practical considerations for realizing this headroom—including co-simulating the potential effect of grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and following on with more detailed ac power flow simulations to analyze locational constraints—positioning the framework as a complementary tool to traditional hosting capacity and load interconnection studies, and a transparent method for planning for faster, reliability-conscious load integration.

This white paper investigates how electric companies across Canada are planning for emerging large loads and data centres. It analyzes recently submitted Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs) and long-term energy planning outlooks to assess projected load growth, planned generation capacity additions, and provincial strategies for accommodating large-scale new loads. The report also explores opportunities for system benefits through data centre flexibility and discusses strategies to advance long-term resource planning practices to support emerging needs.

This white paper examines how ISP can guide the design of future power systems with significant DC growth, outlining the phases of ISP and showing how each phase addresses the specific planning challenges and opportunities introduced by these large, complex loads. ration potential.

This study evaluates supply-side technology pathways to meet DC demand through 2035 under varying scenarios of DC demand growth, federal policy, and carbon-free electricity (CFE) procurement targets. The analysis incorporates updated demand projections, recent changes to federal energy policy under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and current technology cost trends.

This report introduces a two-part framework for forecasting data center load for planning timescales at higher spatial and temporal resolutions within a region. The first part analyzes the geographic drivers of development, such as land suitability, infrastructure readiness, and local market maturity. The second part focuses on temporal granularity, leveraging historical trends to anticipate short-term variability. Together, these analyses offer a foundation for planning future grid capacity and infrastructure needs.

Regions across the globe are expecting significant load growth from data centers. A prior EPRI white paper presented a framework for forecasting regional data center load growth. This report provides case studies on using the framework to create forecasts for three regions: New York State, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southeastern United States. The results illustrate how electric system planners can apply the framework using data available from their load interconnection queues and the DCFlex project. Additionally, the results highlight the importance of forecasts accounting for not only uncertainty regarding how projects in the load interconnection queue will enter electric service, but also uncertainty related to differences in requested capacity versus actual demand and load ramping schedules.

This white paper describes an analysis comparing recently filed U.S. electric company integrated resource plans (IRPs) depicting planned generation supply, with both IRP and EPRI DC-informed load projections. Findings explore how these projections compare and the landscape of existing and planned resources, and recent trends in energy supply to power DCs, opportunities that DC flexibility may afford to the system, and approaches to advance long-term resource planning practices are explored.

This report addresses the rapidly increasing energy demand of data centers (DCs), driven primarily by hyperscale facilities supporting artificial intelligence workloads, with global electricity consumption projected to nearly double by 2026. It evaluates a comprehensive range of energy supply options suitable for DCs over the next 5 to 10 years, focusing on performance, cost, and integration potential. The report provides detailed reviews of power generators including gas turbines, reciprocating engines, solar, wind, nuclear, long-duration energy storage, geothermal, linear generators, fuel cells, and carbon capture and storage systems. Results are presented as a comprehensive compendium designed to inform decision-making for DC owners and energy providers by highlighting key technical insights, project examples, and future trends in energy supply tailored to the evolving needs of DCs.

This report examines critical workforce issues over the next 5 to 10 years on a regional basis, including talent shortages in skilled trade roles, retention difficulties, and the need for apprenticeships and resource allocation to keep pace. Multiple case studies are presented along with feedback from energy suppliers on workforce issues seen in the field. The report assesses the potential implications for DCs and provides recommendations for ways to minimize issues and better prepare to keep DC growth on track.

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the energy supply chain challenges confronting the rapidly growing data center (DC) sector over the next 5 to 10 years. It examines the increasing demand for electricity and its implications for infrastructure development, technology deployment across energy generators, and the availability of critical grid electrical components.