Microsoft Datacenter Batteries To Support Growth Of Renewables On The Power Grid

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Global software giant, Microsoft has announced that it will deploy its ‘grid-interactive UPS technology’ at the datacenter maintained by the company in Dublin, Ireland later in 2022. The objective is to demonstrate that these kinds of technologies can help decarbonize power grids across the world.

Microsoft holds that the renewable energy from 400 wind farms accounts for more than 35 per cent of power supply in Ireland. This capacity will reach 80 per cent by the end of this decade. The tech giant says that high variation in power generation needs grid-stabilization services and its grid-interactive UPS technology makes it possible for facilities such as datacenters to feed some power back to the grid from their backup energy storage systems. The power storage systems are actually large banks of Lithium-ion batteries that are managed by a UPS system, stated Microsoft.

Christian Belady, Vice President, Microsoft, mentioned, “We have this battery asset in the datacenter that is just sitting there. Why don’t we offer it to the grid and come up with a dynamic way of managing it as a dual-purpose asset and thus drive more efficiency and asset utilization?”

Microsoft has shared that it is working closely with EirGrid, which is Ireland’s electricity grid operator. The entity runs a market for grid services that prioritizes non-carbon emitting solutions. Microsoft is engaging in this market through Enel X, an energy services provider. Enel X turns the industrial and commercial organizations like Microsoft into ‘virtual power plants’ on power grids.

This system was not possible with the traditional technologies like lead-acid batteries. The UPS systems and Lithium-ion batteries have created new possibilities. At the same time, the UPS systems are needed to be intelligent enough to interact with the energy grid as well as the datacenter’s energy management systems as this will help in coordination of the flow of electricity.

Microsoft also stated that grid-interactive UPS systems instead of the grid services currently provided by fossil fuel power plants in Ireland will aid the elimination of carbon dioxide emissions by 2 million metric tons. The software company says that this is about 20 per cent of the emissions that the power sector of Ireland is expected to generate by the middle of this decade.