CPower, Bentaus, and Supermicro Complete AI Data Center Energy Orchestration Pilot Project in California

 In collaboration with Supermicro, US virtual power producer (VPP) CPower Energy and AI orchestration platform Bentaus have completed a joint demonstration project aimed at improving how AI compute interacts with the power grid. 

 As part of the trial, CPower transmitted real-time wholesale electricity market signals from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) through the Bentaus energy orchestration platform to GPU infrastructure managed by Supermicro. 

"The ability to use AI compute loads to help the grid keep up with rapid load growth has been largely unrealized until now. This successful end-to-end test is a breakthrough, accelerating flexible compute's emergence as a controllable, grid-interactive load, and moving it from the theoretical to the actual," said Michael D. Smith, CEO, CPower.

The partners have said that following the test, they will collaborate with data center operators and market participants across multiple US wholesale power markets

"Demonstrating that GPU workloads can react to market signals in the blink of an eye is an important step toward aligning the growth of AI with the operational realities of the grid," said Robert Davidoff, CEO, Bentaus.

"AI factories can evolve from passive consumers of electricity into active participants in wholesale power markets."