Want to get a data center online quickly? Give it some flex.

Want to get a data center online quickly? As the data-center boom puts pressure on the grid, some companies say the answer isn't just more power plants but software that dials down centers' energy-guzzling ways when demand spikes. At the end of a tense and scoreless first half of a soccer match between the English men's team and rival Germany, millions of Brits let out a collective sigh and did what they so often do in moments of stress: They made tea. That wave of electric kettles clicking on, however, caused a different kind of stress: a huge and sudden increase in demand for electricity. But National Grid, which operates the local transmission network, was ready. Just as those kettles started heating up, an AI program sent instructions to a data center in London to slow down some of the facility's power-hungry chips. This reduction helped make sure there was enough supply to match demand, staving off potential blackouts or damage to electrical hardware.