Hyperscalers and data center developers are in a pickle: All of them need to add computing power tomorrow, but utilities regularly play hard to get, citing years-long waits for grid connections.
“All of the AI data centers are struggling to get connected,” Amit Narayan, founder and CEO of Gridcare, told TechCrunch. “They’re so desperate. They’re in search of solutions, which can or may not occur. Definitely not within the five-year timelines they cite.”
That has led many data centers to pursue what’s called “behind the meter” power sources — principally, they construct their very own power plants, a costly endeavor that hints at just how desperate they’re for electricity.
But Narayan knew there was loads of slack within the system, even when utilities themselves haven’t discovered it yet. He has studied the grid for the last 15 years, first as a Stanford researcher then as a founding father of one other company. “How will we create more capability when everyone thinks that there isn’t a capability on the grid?” he said.
Narayan said that Gridcare, which has been operating in stealth, has already discovered several places where extra capability exists, and it’s able to play matchmaker between data centers and utilities.
Gridcare recently closed an oversubscribed $13.5 million seed round, the corporate told TechCrunch. The round was led by Xora, Temasek’s deep tech enterprise firm, with participation from Acclimate Ventures, Aina Climate AI Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Clearvision, Clocktower Ventures, Overture Ventures, Sherpalo Ventures, and WovenEarth.
For Narayan and his colleagues at Gridcare, step one to finding untapped capability was to map the present grid. Then the corporate used generative AI to assist forecast what changes may be implemented in the approaching years. It also layers on other details, including the supply of fiber optic connections, natural gas, water, extreme weather, permitting, and community sentiment around data center construction and expansion.
“There are 200,000-plus scenarios that you might have to contemplate each time you’re running this study,” Narayan said.
To make sure that it’s not running afoul of regulations, Gridcare then takes that data and weighs it against federal guidelines that dictate grid usage. Once it finds a spot, it starts talking with the relevant utility to confirm the info.
“We’ll discover where the utmost bang for the buck is,” Narayan said.
At the identical time, Gridcare works with hyperscalers and data center developers to discover where they need to expand operations or construct recent ones. “They’ve already told us what they’re willing to do. We all know the parameters under which they’ll operate,” he said.
That’s when the matchmaking begins.
Gridcare sells its services to data center developers, charging them a fee based on what number of megawatts of capability the startup can unlock for them. “That fee is critical for us, but it surely’s negligible for data centers,” Narayan said.
For some data centers, the value of admission may be forgoing grid power for a number of hours here and there, counting on on-site backup power as a substitute. For others, the trail may be clearer if their demand helps green-light a brand new grid-scale battery installation nearby. In the long run, the winner may be the developer that’s willing to pay more. Utilities have already approached Gridcare inquiring about auctioning access to newfound capability.
No matter the way it happens, Narayan thinks that Gridcare can unlock greater than 100 gigawatts of capability using its approach. “We don’t have to resolve nuclear fusion to do that,” he said.
