Barriers to scaling grid-responsive data centers

AI is transforming everything, but what happens when it starts transforming the grid itself?

As data centers explode in scale and AI workloads surge, utility leaders are wondering when the power system might reach a a breaking point. But what if the next generation of compute didn’t just consume energy? What if it instead helped stabilize the grid?

In this episode of Power Perspectives, host Kinsey Grant Baker sits down with Arushi Sharma Frank, Senior Advisor on Power Utilities at Emerald AI and a senior associate at CSIS, and a technology  investor who has launched a massive ERCOT campaign for tech neutral dispatachability solutions. In the conversation, they unpack how her team is redefining the relationship between technology and electricity. Frank, whose career spans Tesla, Exelon, and the intersection of policy and physics, shares how AI data centers can evolve from grid stressors to grid assets through orchestration, curtailment, and smart market design.

As Emerald AI grabs industry headlines for its much-anticipated power-flexible AI infrastructure, Frank shares her deep technical insight with a visionary look at where AI and energy converge. It’s a must-listen for utility decision-makers, grid planners, and innovators who see the grid not as a limit, but as a launchpad.

Key Links:

Arushi Sharma Frank on Substack: https://arushisharmafrank.substack.com/

Rich Miller on Substack: https://substack.com/@richmiller

NVIDIA: How AI Factories Can Help Relieve Grid Stress: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-factories-flexible-power-use/

Two Bills in Texas for Data Center Speed to Power: (Guess Which One Investors Will Like More): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/two-bills-texas-data-center-speed-power-guess-which-1zabe/

Power Access for AI: The Flexibility Compact: https://www.csis.org/analysis/power-access-ai-flexibility-compact

ARUSHI SHARMA FRANK: What Should Be In The Strategic Blueprint For A 21st Century Grid?: https://dailycaller.com/2025/08/12/opinion-what-should-be-in-the-strategic-blueprint-for-a-21st-century-grid-arushi-sharma-frank/

AI requires a smarter grid — and so does everyone else: https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/ai-requires-a-smarter-grid-and-so-does-everyone-else/

How the world’s first flexible AI factory will work in tandem with the grid: https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/how-the-worlds-first-flexible-ai-factory-will-work-in-tandem-with-the-grid/

Aggregations and data centers: If a resource shows up when the grid is straining, make it count: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/aggregations-data-centers-grid-flexibility/756183/

Mainstreaming AI data center flexibility: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/mainstreaming-ai-data-center-flexibility/804103/

From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs: Rewriting the Grid Planning Playbook in the Southwest Power Pool and Texas: https://www.csis.org/analysis/bottlenecks-breakthroughs-rewriting-grid-planning-playbook-southwest-power-pool-and-texas

Signup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe