Microgrid

A microgrid is a localized power system — combining on-site generation such as gas turbines, fuel cells, solar or battery storage with its own control system — that can run a data center while connected to the utility grid or "island" itself and operate independently during an outage. Hyperscalers and colocation operators have increasingly turned to microgrids as grid interconnection queues in markets like Northern Virginia, Ireland and Singapore stretch past three to five years, letting a campus energize early on behind-the-meter generation while a utility connection is still pending, or add capacity beyond what the local grid can deliver. A typical AI-era microgrid pairs gas turbines or fuel cells sized from the tens up to a few hundred megawatts with battery storage for fast response, and can be designed to sell excess capacity back to the grid or provide demand response during peak periods. Microgrids sit at the intersection of the stranded-power and behind-the-meter trends reshaping where AI data centers get sited.