OpenAI on Monday, Nov. 2, launched what it calls the Grid Protectors Program, a national effort to have its future data center campuses use less electricity when the power grid is under strain, such as in a cold snap or a heat wave. OpenAI says it will work with utilities, regulators and policymakers on the terms for each site, and that families and small businesses should not have to subsidize the electricity its campuses need. Depending on local needs, it says it may also supply power from generators or storage on site and use batteries to smooth its demand.
Utilities have to build enough power plants and lines for the year's busiest hours, such as a heat-wave afternoon, and pay for that equipment all year. In what utilities call demand response, a big customer agrees in advance that the utility may cut its power when demand peaks. Georgia Power says that lets it build fewer new power plants. OpenAI also argues that its campuses draw power all year, so with the right contracts they can spread the fixed cost of power lines and substations across more electricity sales. It says that can help keep bills down for other customers.
The program builds on a deal OpenAI struck in July for Project Camellia, a campus it is developing in Effingham County, Georgia, about 45 minutes outside Savannah. The campus is expected to need about 3,200 megawatts, delivered in phases between 2028 and 2032. Under the 25-year agreement, Georgia Power will be able to cut the power it delivers to the site by up to 1,000 megawatts at times of high demand, which OpenAI says equals the average use of roughly 700,000 households. That is a little under a third of the campus's expected power. OpenAI has also agreed to pay the full cost of the infrastructure and electric service the campus needs, and the contract was approved in August through the Georgia Public Service Commission, the state's utility regulator. OpenAI says it intends the campus to be the program's pilot.
Georgia Power expects its contracts with large power users, OpenAI's among them, along with growth in the state, to save its customers about $950 million a year from 2029, or at least $15 a month for a typical home. Georgia Power says those savings come from the new customers' payments.
OpenAI's head of energy policy, John McCarrick, said that in a meeting about a year ago another large data center operator was defending the idea that data centers must be available 99.999% of the time, about five minutes of downtime a year, and that he doesn't think anybody is doing that now, according to a news report.
OpenAI says the flexibility cannot replace investment in new energy supply and power lines. It has not named any other campus with such an agreement, and says it will share more commitments as they are finalized. For future sites, OpenAI has not said how much power they would give up, how quickly or for how long; it says those terms will be agreed with each utility. The Georgia campus is still being developed, and OpenAI says it will be able to reduce its power draw once the campus is operating.