October 24, 2025
In an industry first, a data center developer is using a large-scale battery to accelerate its connection to the power grid, offering a potential blueprint for overcoming one of the biggest bottlenecks in the artificial intelligence boom.
Aligned Data Centers announced on Wednesday that it will fund a new 31-megawatt/62-megawatt-hour battery system to enable the faster launch of a forthcoming data center in the Pacific Northwest. The project, developed by energy-storage firm Calibrant Energy in partnership with the local utility, is now under construction and is expected to be operational next year.
The key advantage is speed. According to the companies, this arrangement will allow the data center to come online "years earlier than would be possible with traditional utility upgrades."
This model directly addresses a critical conflict: AI companies are eager to spend hundreds of billions on new, energy-intensive data centers, but their rapid timeline far outpaces the typical speed of electric utility infrastructure projects. A solution gaining traction, endorsed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright in a recent rulemaking proposal, is to allow data centers to connect faster if they agree to reduce their power draw during periods of peak grid demand.
While the concept of using on-site batteries for this flexibility has been discussed, few commercial projects have materialized—until now.
"There’s so much chatter right now about the potential to use energy storage in this manner... But there hadn’t really been evidence of that theory being reality,” said Phil Martin, CEO of Calibrant. “It is possible, and it is being done — not as a proof of concept in a lab somewhere, but really a commercial project.”
The strategy represents a shift in thinking. Batteries, which are typically used for short-duration energy shifting, are not an obvious match for data centers that require near-constant power. However, the urgent need to power AI development is driving innovation. The Aligned battery provides a real-world example of research suggesting the grid can handle more data centers if they can temporarily reduce consumption during high-demand periods.
The utility conducted an interconnection study to determine the battery size needed to mitigate the data center's impact on the local grid. Due to the localized nature of the power constraint, the battery had to be built adjacent to Aligned's facility, with the company providing the land for the installation.
In a significant move for consumer protection, Aligned is financing the battery itself. This contrasts with some utility approaches where ratepayers foot the bill for new power plants built in anticipation of data center demand, a strategy that risks leaving consumers with costs if the projected AI growth fails to materialize.
Because Aligned is covering the cost, other utility customers are shielded from the expense. Furthermore, the battery will be located on the utility side of the meter, allowing the utility to use it for other grid services, such as frequency management, when it is not being used to ensure power for the data center.
Martin believes this model is poised to become standard practice. “Whereas right now, we think this is unique, I think over a relatively short time horizon it’s going to be much more common,” he said. “It’ll start to look surprising if we don’t see projects like this at the largest loads as they connect [to the grid].”
The deal arrives as the AI industry actively seeks energy solutions. In a related development, battery-recycling startup Redwood Materials recently launched a business line that repurposes old EV batteries for data-center power needs. On Thursday, Redwood secured $350 million in new funding, including from AI-chip leader Nvidia, signaling strong investor confidence in the convergence of energy storage and computing.
SOURCE canarymedia
