May 21, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) in Applewood, Colorado has launched “Agora,” a data center grid integration test bed aimed at improving grid reliability. Funded by the DOE’s Office of Electricity and industry partners, it is described as the only dedicated large-load grid integration test bed in the U.S. National Laboratory Complex.
“We built a 20th-century grid - but today we serve a 21st‑century, data‑driven, AI‑enabled economy,” said Katie Jereza, assistant secretary of DOE’s Office of Electricity. “Through innovative test beds, we are not just experimenting, we are creating confidence in a powerful new capability - one that delivers affordable, reliable, and secure power that our homes, businesses, and overall economy need.”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s test bed aims to help data centers adopt flexible designs and cost-saving operations that support the grid during peak demand periods. It will bring together utilities, developers, researchers, and technology providers to develop best practices for improving grid flexibility. Industry participants include Schneider Electric, Compass Datacenters, and Verrus.
“Very few facilities in the country can study both the grid and interactions with large loads under real-world conditions and at this level of detail,” said Martha Symko-Davies, laboratory program manager for the Office of Electricity at NLR. “That integrated detail is essential as energy demand is growing exponentially and data centers need to establish themselves as good grid citizens - energy users that share responsibility for keeping the grid reliable.”
The U.S. Department of Energy said it will continue expanding partnerships with utilities and data center operators to evolve the capabilities of its Agora test bed. The initiative reflects a broader industry shift toward more flexible data center operations. One example is Emerald AI, which has developed an AI-driven platform called Emerald Conductor to coordinate data center workloads with grid conditions in real time. Backed by Nvidia, the system acts as an intermediary between power grids and data centers to improve energy efficiency and reliability.
