Accelerated Community Energy (ACE) - a new model to channel AI data center capital into local grid flexibility

At New York Climate Week, I was testing a new concept we have developed - Accelerated Community Energy (ACE). A new approach designed to channel AI data center investment into local energy flexibility, strengthening U.S. grids and delivering direct financial and energy benefits to communities.

With U.S. power systems under mounting pressure from rising demand, extreme weather, and costly transmission bottlenecks, ACE offers a scalable way to align the rapid growth of AI-driven data centers with grid and local community needs. By redirecting just 3% of data center investment, ACE could unlock more than $40 billion for virtual power plants (VPPs) and flexibility programs, accelerating grid connections and deployment timelines for operators while delivering affordability and reliability for consumers and households.

The electricity grid is under strain:

• U.S. connection queues stretch five years or more, leaving gigawatts stranded.
• Electricity prices keep rising while transmission projects stall.
• Communities face higher bills as data centers are cast as reliability risks and cost burdens.
• Flexibility programs are being cut just as they are most needed.

ACE delivers its solution by leveraging Piclo’s auction-based marketplace to transform data center capital into community-scale flexibility:

• Publish: Data centers post flexibility needs on Piclo’s open marketplace platform.
• Auctions: Flexibility providers bid competitively for multi-year capacity contracts.
• Connections: Procured flexibility feeds into utility processes to speed up connections.
• Outcomes: Utilities call on flexibility as needed, while DER owners monetize their assets for use outside these commitments

Together, ACE creates a transparent, scalable mechanism: faster deployment of data centers, added reliability for utilities, and direct financial benefits for consumers and households.

Illustrative Impact

A 100 MW data center with a $1.275 billion build cost could unlock $38 million for flexibility programs by setting aside just 3% of capital.

• Communities would see incentives equal to $76.5/kW-year for 5 years – comparable to California’s successful DSGS VPP program.
• Data center operators, losing an estimated $18.4 million in revenue for every month stuck in queues, could achieve ROI in just two months through ACE.

At a national scale, ACE could add 100 GW+ of flexibility capacity to the U.S. grid, creating over $40 billion in new VPP revenues.

A call to action

AI is driving one of the largest capital surges in U.S. energy history. ACE ensures that this investment delivers shared value - accelerating grid connections for data centers while creating new revenues for DER providers and real cost savings for consumers and communities.

We’re assembling an alliance of data center operators, utilities, VPPs, regulators and technical specialists to prove the model ahead of a national rollout in 2026. If you want to help shape the biggest idea in flexibility markets in a generation, get in touch.

References

Data center costs – Average cost of $1.275B for a 100 MW facility, based on forecast data center infrastructure costs under McKinsey’s Constrained Momentum and Accelerated Demand scenarios (2025 study).  Source: McKinsey

Flexibility incentives – California’s DSGS program provides incentives ranging from $60.58/kW-year to $82.80/kW-year.  Source: Olivine

Lease rates – U.S. national average data center lease rates are $184/kW/month (2025).  Source: CBRE

VPP market size – As of 2025, U.S. VPP capacity is 37.5 GW, growing at 13.7% annually.  Source: Wood Mackenzie

Data center capacity forecasts (2030) –

• McKinsey: 205 GW globally, with the U.S. holding ~40% share (~80 GW).
• RAND Corporation (2024): 130 GW in the U.S.
• Cleanview: 145 GW high-confidence pipeline from the top 10 U.S. utilities.
• Working estimate: A conservative 100 GW U.S. build-out by 2030.

Potential ACE fund – Using the average DC infrastructure cost ($12.75B/GW) and the conservative U.S. forecast (100 GW), allocating 3% of investment would create a pool of roughly $40 billion.