A white paper recently released by the National Laboratory of the Rockies evaluates the potential of a new energy system configuration that involves the strategic colocation of data centers -- on airport property or adjacent to airports -- in order to realize significant operational, economic, and environmental benefits to airports, data centers, and the communities they serve.
“Across the United States, airports are rapidly adding load from several sources: new gates and terminals, expanding tenant needs such as electrified rental cars and commercial kitchens, growing reliability requirements, and a shift to electric ground support equipment, buses, trucks, and potentially electric aircraft. Demand is rising just as commercial air travel is projected to grow more than 60% between 2019 and 2050—intensifying the pressure on airport energy systems,” the report, “Unlocking Synergistic Benefits of Colocation of Data Centers at Airports,” states.
The key to efficiently powering data centers and airports is to leverage the variability and flexibility of their loads to balance power needs between the two operations, the NLR report said.
Airports and data centers both require 24/7 reliable power 365 days per year. “While airports experience variable electricity demand depending on the weather, flight schedules, and operations tempo (e.g., the number of people moving through the airport at different times of the day and days of the week), demand is predictable.”
Airport peak loads typically occur on hot days in summer from air conditioning and busy travel periods, the report noted. Conversely, airport loads drop during off-peak times or cooler times of the year.
“The critical question is whether data centers have enough flexibility to offset peak load times at airports -- not to shut down, but to ‘slow down’ computing on demand. In other words: Do data centers have enough flexibility to handle load variability to complement airport operations?”
Could airports provide some of the capacity needed for rapid deployment of new data centers?
The report said that the intermittent nature of airport loads means that there is nearly always “headroom” to accommodate at least a portion of the demand from a data center, as long as the data center can lower its net load during peak airport demand times.
According to the report, in general, non-time sensitive AI training workloads could be curtailed or shifted, though AI inference (i.e., providing answers in real time) workloads would be harder to shift or curtail.
“Even if a data center is unable to shift its load, battery energy storage and other distributed energy resources provided by the data center could be used to help provide power during peak times and support grid stability by absorbing predictable -- and sometimes unpredictable -- airport peaks,” the report said.
“The benefits of this premise could include lower energy costs for both the airport and data center, a flat energy profile that is preferable to the grid/energy supplier, faster interconnection times for data centers, and a possibility of allowing the utility to defer some grid investments, thus insulating local communities from rising electricity costs,” NLR noted.
The report points out that some forecasts suggest that U.S. electricity demand could triple by 2030.
“If that proves true, it will significantly expand opportunities for data centers, airports, utilities, and other power providers to form new strategic partnerships. These collaborations can enhance energy security and resilience across critical infrastructure while also enabling smarter land use, reducing distribution and transmission spending, lowering development and operating costs, and even making productive use of waste heat,” the report said.
