Study Suggests Utilities May Be Overbuilding and Overspending to Accommodate New Data Centers

US-based Duke University has conducted a study indicating that electric utilities can handle the demand growth from data centers for most of the year. The coauthor, Dalia Patiño-Echeverri, noted that by shifting the timing of power requests during critical hours, utilities can accommodate increased loads without the need for new generation or transmission infrastructure. This approach could prevent unnecessary overbuilding and overspending by utilities.