Powering data centers in the US: a discussion with Astrid Atkinson and Jesse Jenkins
Robbie Morrison
Hello everyone
The following interview with Astrid Atkinson, CEO of Camus, and Jesse Jenkins, head of Zero Lab at Princeton University and CTO of Firma Power might be of interest:
- Roberts, David (25 March 2026). For data centers, a little flexibility goes a long way — a conversation with Astrid Atkinson and Jesse Jenkins. Volts interview 01:07:46. Transcript included.
This background study underpins their discussion (which I haven't looked at yet):
- Brancucci, Carlo, Dylan Cutler, Emma Elgqvist, Jesse Jenkins, Nathan Case, Scott Burger, Steven Brisley, Wallace Kenyon, Will Frazier, and Wilson Ricks (December 2025). Flexible data centers: a faster, more affordable path to power. USA: Camus, encoord, and Princeton ZERO Lab.
Jesse works with the GenX open‑source energy system framework and is part of this community.
Jesse began with remarks on our zeitgeist: the 85 GW of new gas generation being floated in the US and the data centers that are now installing behind‑the‑meter truck‑mounted gas plant — also in violation of EPA air quality rules but now with no enforcement under the Trump administration. The discussion moved to grid issues, opportunities around flexibility, and the roles and attributes of on‑site and grid‑connected measures. For those not familiar with data center operations, really interesting coverage by Astrid on compute load flexibility about two‑thirds through (starting 00:41:53). Also data center cooling loads and temporal displacement. Then distributed energy resources (DER). Then accredited supply capacity versus load interconnection capacity. Then the orchestration problem. Jesse suggested a range of new and often novel resources are required, and quickly, which should be funded by the data centers themselves through bilateral arrangements, while simultaneously addressing or working around transmission constraints. The last part of the interview looked at implementation issues. Astrid talked about the numerical analyses required to identify and refine these latent opportunities and eventually distill them into engineering works and connection and supply agreements. Very different from the simple calculations historically used by utilities for assessing network connection requests. Indeed, a new mindset for all parties is needed.
I want to expand on that final point regarding the role of sophisticated software in identifying and evaluating these opportunities — which often requires running large ensembles of scenarios to adequately explore the solution space and evaluate the kinds of tradeoffs that can facilitate rapid grid connection. One of those tradeoffs is exposure to limited interruptibility — meaning some hours a very few times in a year where the power grid just cannot supply.
On that note, I attended the Agora Energiewende hybrid event on Monday (URL below) on infrastructure planning for Europe. And I asked a question on that same theme of system analytical software as "virtual glue" and how to support its development. My question was unfortunately not selected and presented to the panelists. I agree fully with Astrid. And I would like to suggest that the European energy system also needs its own suite of common software and that open‑source provides the obvious development model. That suite can range from decades‑long planning analysis to near realtime probabilistic evaluation of system adequacy margins. Given that much of the energy system classes as regulated industry, there needs to be some institutional mechanism to ensure both the uptake of these shared numerical methods and also to provide revenues for the software maintainers. Absolutely trivial numbers in terms of the system at large and also offering very high paybacks. I am not sure what those support levers might be, but something that the openmod might like to discuss.
The Agora event I mentioned was recorded and should be online soon:
- Agora (23 March 2026). Planning Europe's energy infrastructure: unlocking benefits through deeper cooperation and cross-sectoral assessment — Hybrid event. Agora Energiewende. Berlin, Germany. Webpage.
Enjoy the interview if you decide to listen to it. And especially recommended for those working on "digitalization" in the context of energy systems.
best, Robbie
-- Robbie Morrison Address: Schillerstrasse 85, 10627 Berlin, Germany Phone: +49.30.612-87617
santiago.p...@gmail.com
That hypotetical software, so far is VeraGrid.
We've already used it for hyperscaler calculations and has most of what you need, including proper reliability calculations (essential for datacenter layouts), proper ac-dc, multi-year investment planning, scenario handling, and very soon RMS and three phase EMT.
This is not, by chance, but because as a someone comming from industry I've always pushed it to be a software to really work with to replace the PowerFactory/PSSe/Plexos etc.
Best,
Santiago
Mark Howells
Very cool [!!] Love the ‘coming from industry’ perspective. Mark
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Robbie Morrison
Hi Santiago
I recall discussing VeraGrid with you in the past. Good luck with your project. Clearly not hypothetical!
Another software in this general space was presented at a recent RGI webinar:
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RGI (5 December 205). Smart forecasting for resilient grids / Arne Brufladt Svendsen, was CTO at Infinigrid AS. Renewables Grid Initiative. Berlin, Germany. Webinar.
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Best practice webinar: smart forecasting for resilient grids (Renewables Grid Initiative) (9 December 2025) (01:24:39) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfdydYMZrIs
Currently proprietary but the copyright holder would consider open‑sourcing given a suitable business model.
So that comes back to my original question: how to provide resources for VeraGrid and GenX and PyXYZ and all the other bits of the puzzle? The usual go‑to opencore model doesn't really work in this setting, as far as I can see.
best, Robbie
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Fabion Kauker
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