Fast demand response with datacenter loads

This paper shows how datacenters can provide value to the electric grid by functioning as fast and precisely-controllable loads. We discuss the substantial grid-side benefits available from high-penetration, finely-controllable, and fast controllable loads like datacenters. We then measure the power ramp rate and power control precision of an example compute cluster, and last experimentally demonstrate realtime power setpoint tracking with a simple distributed algorithm. These results are an important step toward implementing datacenter demand response at a sub-minute timescale.