Google’s data center power playbook comes into focus

Google may have signed on to President Trump’s toothless power pledge, but it’s clear the company started working months ago on a framework to power its data centers.

On Thursday, Google said it will work with Michigan utility DTE to add 2.7 gigawatts of “new resources” in suburban Detroit to power a new data center in the region. Some specifics are still fuzzy at this point, but the deal mimics one signed last month with Xcel Energy to build a data center in Minnesota. This is how Google will develop new capacity for its future data centers.

The new plan includes 1.6 gigawatts of solar power, 400 megawatts of four-hour energy storage, 50 megawatts of long-duration energy storage, and 300 megawatts of “additional clean resources,” which is a squishy way of saying anything from wind and hydro to nuclear and geothermal. 

TechCrunch sent Google’s PR people a number of questions, and while they responded with some details, it’s clear there’s a lot to the proposal that either isn’t fleshed out or isn’t fully public yet. To wit: does “clean resources” include natural gas? We haven’t received a reply on that one yet.

The remaining 350 megawatts of the 2.7 GW deal will be covered by demand response, which is when large electricity users curtail their use for brief periods of time. What shape that takes remains to be seen. Google may be looking for companies that are willing to dial back their electricity needs at certain times, or it will turn off its own data centers when the grid is strained.

The DTE deal will also use Google’s Clean Transition Tariff, which it has been refining over the past year or so. The tariff was previously used in Google’s deal with Xcel Energy. It’s intended to allow Google to pay a premium to specify the types of power it wants deployed while also encouraging utilities to incorporate such technologies into their long-range planning. Previous instruments like power purchase agreements were often treated by utilities as one-offs.

Google also said it is introducing a $10 million Energy Impact Fund intended to reduce utility bills, including by insulating homes. It sounds a lot like energy efficiency programs run by utilities, just with Google’s name on it. Whether $10 million is enough to assuage regular people’s concerns about rising electricity prices remains to be seen.

This is the second “bring your own power” package that Google has touted, though it’s unlikely to be it’s last. In many ways, it’s not that different from the way the company has operated in the past. Sure, the tariff is relatively new, but Google has been investing in or developing new generating capacity ever since it vowed seven years ago to use 100% carbon free power.

The difference is that those projects tended to be announced on their own timelines. Now, we’re seeing the inverse — power projects that are in the works get announced along with the new data center. Smart marketing or something more? We’ll know in a few years.