As data centers multiply across the country, so do concerns of grid equipment damage and rolling blackouts.
That’s because these facilities' designs make them super sensitive to incidents like transmission faults and lightning strikes, which can cause them to trip offline—and potentially disrupt entire regions. And they’re prone to sudden load shifts during AI training sessions, which can harm surrounding power infrastructure.
“We power system engineers hadn’t seen anything like this before,” Sergey Kynev, a business development manager at Siemens Energy, told Energy Central. “It really caught the industry by surprise.”
An emerging tool, known as an E-STATCOM, could tackle these problems. It isn’t cheap, and there’s only one major system in use worldwide. But soon, it could be headed to grids around the globe.
The background: Today’s grid isn’t prepared for massive load drop-offs. Exhibit A: This summer in Virginia, a transmission line fault prompted nearly 4 GW of data center load to suddenly disconnect (it took Dominion around 10 minutes, glacially slow in grid time, to stabilize the system). And in Texas, ERCOT has identified over 26 similar events since 2023.
The solutions: Tailored standards from grid operators and utilities. These are currently in the works across the country, and most direct data centers to ride through system disturbances.
But “it's not enough just to update your interconnection requirements,” Kynev said. Data center developers and utilities need the right tech to help them comply—that’s where E-STATCOMs come in.
How E-STATCOMs work: Utilities have long relied on voltage-regulating STATCOM tech. But E-STATCOMs are different. These devices come with storage to absorb and release power when needed—a helpful feature to balance sudden load shifts.
Power pioneers: Siemens Energy built the world’s only operating E-STATCOM device in Germany, where it helps stabilize the grid as the country transitions to renewables. Now, the firm is bringing the tech to projects around Europe and North America, including multiple sites in the US. Siemens isn’t alone—other major players like Hitachi Energy are also getting in on the E-STATCOM action.
“Customer interest for E-STATCOM is high,” Kynev of Siemens said. “We will see a big wave of these devices being deployed for many data centers in and outside the US.”
This includes Oracle’s 1.3-GW data center in Wisconsin, where ATC wants to wield an E-STATCOM to control for load variation.
The tech could keep the facility’s load fluctuations under 25 MW during any five-second span, the company wrote in a filing with the Wisconsin PSC. This would protect surrounding grid equipment from “accelerated aging and potential damage.” Other options, like battery storage systems, can’t charge and discharge quickly enough, ATC noted.
Oracle is on board with the plan, and has agreed to foot the hefty bill ($1.1B). Right now, ATC is waiting on PSC approval to build the associated transmission project.
Why other utilities should pay attention: “There are not many solutions that exist on the grid side to mitigate these problems,” said Kyle Thomas, COO at Elevate Energy Consulting. “This is the first public filing I’ve seen where they talk about this,” he said, and it serves as a “good model” for other utilities looking to solve the same problem. ✍️
This story has been edited to clarify Sergey Kynev's quote.