From the source
OpenAI is launching the Grid Protectors Program, a national effort to make its future compute campuses reduce electricity demand when the grid is under strain, starting in Georgia.
- The company says it will work with utilities, regulators and policymakers to agree on how much demand can be reduced, how quickly and for how long, with arrangements differing by location.
- For its planned Effingham County campus, OpenAI has committed to pay the full infrastructure and electric-service costs required to serve the project.
- Its agreement with Georgia Power includes up to 1,000 megawatts of flexible demand response, which OpenAI says is equivalent to the average electricity demand of roughly 700,000 households, more than Washington, D.C., and Boston combined.
- Georgia Power says this flexibility can reduce the amount of new generation it needs to build, and projects approximately $950 million in annual customer savings beginning in 2029 from its portfolio of large-load agreements and expected growth, including Project Camellia.
- OpenAI says flexibility cannot replace investment in new energy supply and transmission, and that long-term contracts and financial assurances can protect other customers if a project is delayed, reduced or canceled.
