Despite rapid growth in data center power demand, global grid capacity has failed to keep pace, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.
Global data center power demand is forecast to grow 31 percent to 161 gigawatts (GW) this year from 122.9GW last year, and further increase by more than 30 percent to 211.1GW next year, the Taipei-based researcher said in a statement.
TrendForce attributed the growth to rising power demand from general servers, artificial intelligence servers, other information technology equipment, and non-information technology equipment such as cooling and power supply systems.
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The researcher said grid deliverability was sufficient to meet growing data center power demand through last year, but supply and demand began to diverge this year, with the gap expected to widen markedly after 2028, it said.
By 2030, global data center power demand is forecast to reach 490.7GW, while grid capacity available to data centers would total 222.6GW, it said.
Assuming all other electricity demand is fully met, the gap would still total 268GW, it added.
In the US, where data center deployments are the largest, operators’ self-built power supplies and existing facilities are expected to meet a significant share of demand through 2028, TrendForce said.
This would allow most grid-scheduled projects to be energized on time, it said.
However, grid-delivery delays are expected to become more pronounced from 2028, widening the gap between data center power supply and demand, it added.
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