Crusoe and ON.energy to Deploy 5 GW of AI UPS(TM) at Multiple Hyperscale Campuses. MIAMI and DENVER, July 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Crusoe, the AI factory company, and ON.energy today announced a partnership to power the next generation of AI infrastructure: deploying 5 gigawatts of AI UPS(TM) technology across multiple hyperscale campuses. Commissioning will commence in 2026 and extend into 2027. AI data centers present new dynamics the grid hasn't encountered before. During training, many thousands of GPUs ramp up and down in synchronized bursts, creating fluctuations in power demand. From the grid's perspective, a large AI training facility may produce load patterns unlike traditional facilities, switching between high and low power use, with variability occurring hundreds to thousands of times a day. If unmanaged, those fluctuations can propagate back through the point of interconnection into the transmission system, placing additional demands on grid equipment and limiting grid operators' ability to manage other changing variables across the system. ON.energy's AI UPS(TM) is a patented, medium-voltage uninterruptible power system that sits inline between power sources and AI data centers. By decoupling the facility from the grid, the system rides through voltage faults, protecting data center equipment, without disconnecting while simultaneously preventing internal GPU load swings from affecting the grid. "We evaluated the full landscape of power solutions with one priority in mind: reliability at hyperscale for the data center while ensuring stable, predictable behavior for the grid and the communities around these campuses," said Chris Dolan, Chief Data Center Officer of Crusoe. "ON.energy stood apart because it solves a set of key technical problems at the system level. This technology protects our infrastructure, it protects our generation assets, and it aligns with where grid requirements are heading. That combination is what enables us to build and operate at scale with confidence and turns data centers into part of the solution to support long-term grid stability and flexibility." The AI UPS(TM) has been validated against ERCOT's Large Load Interconnection requirements, meeting the grid stability and voltage ride-through standards that ERCOT has proposed as the baseline for responsible large-load interconnection in Texas, including compliance with NOGRR 282 and ERCOT's Low Voltage Ride-Through (LVRT) protocols. The AI UPS(TM) stores enough energy to power an entire campus for extended durations, significantly reducing variability on the grid during peak hours. The result is a data center that actively supports the grid. "Hyperscale AI is introducing power quality dynamics the grid was never designed to handle," said Alan Cooper, Co-Founder and CEO of ON.energy. "AI UPS(TM) is built for this moment. It keeps data centers online through disturbances while ensuring the grid sees stable, predictable behavior. Together, we're proving that Crusoe's energy-first approach is more than just a slogan, it's a true competitive advantage." About Crusoe As the AI factory company, Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. The company provides a reliable, scalable, cost-effective, energy-first solution for AI infrastructure. By harnessing large-scale energy sources, building AI-optimized data centers, and delivering a powerful AI cloud platform, Crusoe empowers its customers and partners to build the future faster. About ON.energy ON.energy is building the backbone of energy and AI infrastructure powering grid-safe data centers and mission-critical facilities. The company supplies and operates hyperscale power systems that solve the toughest resilience challenges, delivering custom solutions for AI data centers, mission-critical facilities, and front-of-the-meter assets. Its track record spans industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, transportation, and grid-scale storage. With patented technology and proprietary software, ON.energy develops projects worldwide that set new benchmarks for resilience. Media Contacts Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. Africa Finance Today do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.

NLR tests AI system to stabilize power grids. * 26/04/2026 The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) has launched a pioneering testing program for ON.energy's "AI UPS" technology, a system designed to bridge the gap between volatile data center energy demands and power grid stability. As hyperscale data centers continue to expand, their rapid power fluctuations pose significant risks to electrical infrastructure. By utilizing the unique ARIES simulation platform, researchers can evaluate how this specialized uninterruptible power supply manages extreme energy spikes and grid disturbances in a controlled environment, ensuring that these massive facilities become "good grid citizens" without threatening local power reliability. The rapid expansion of data centers is placing unprecedented pressure on the power grid, with a single facility often consuming as much electricity as a small city. Unlike traditional urban loads, however, a data center's power consumption can fluctuate wildly in less than a second, creating sharp energy spikes that can destabilize local infrastructure. To address this, ON.energy has developed an AI UPS specifically engineered to manage these compute-driven swings and protect the grid from sudden surges while providing backup during blackouts. To validate this technology, ON.energy is collaborating with the NLR using their Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform. This facility is unique in the Western Hemisphere for its ability to simulate both a hyperscale data center and a complex power grid simultaneously. This "virtual sandbox" allows engineers to subject the AI UPS hardware to extreme scenarios - such as energy demand surges of up to 100% occurring in millisecond intervals - without risking actual power outages for the public or critical services like emergency response and air traffic control. The testing, which began in early 2026 at the NLR's Flatirons Campus, aims to demonstrate that data centers can maintain steady, reliable loads even at gigawatt scales. Grid operators are increasingly imposing strict requirements on new facilities before allowing them to connect to the system. By proving that the AI UPS can handle grid anomalies, storms, and faults, the partnership seeks to streamline the integration of new data centers while safeguarding the energy supply for nearby businesses, hospitals, and residential areas. Beyond immediate hardware testing, the NLR team is utilizing digital modeling to create computational "building blocks" of energy architectures. This allows researchers to predict how the AI UPS will interact with various technologies, including nuclear facilities and hydropower plants. This multi-year partnership provides a blueprint for future energy management, offering a scalable way to identify and implement solutions for the evolving challenges of global energy demand and the growth of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Could a new kind of power supply help make data centers grid-friendly? Inside the First Data Center-Grid Simulator Built To Test the Promising New Technology As demand for data centers continues to rise, many center operators, utilities, and American communities are asking: Can the U.S. power grid handle these energy elephants? The answer depends on just how many elephants the country adopts. But in the meantime, companies like ON.energy are developing technologies that could help the grid handle the influx of data centers. Their uninterruptible power supply (called AI UPS) can store and manage energy to protect grids from data center power spikes, help facilities ride through grid disturbances, and keep facilities running during blackouts and other disruptions. But ON.energy's AI UPS is an entirely novel design. To demonstrate its potential in a safe, low-cost, low-risk environment, the company is partnering with the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). NLR recently built a one-of-a-kind testing platform that can simulate a data center and a power grid. Now, the laboratory's experts have connected the AI UPS to both simulators to explore how well the tech mediates spikes, powers through grid anomalies (including voltage hiccups), and more - and it can do all that without interfering with actual grids and data centers that people rely on for everything from lights and artificial intelligence to military operations and air traffic control. "With our new capability, ON.energy can test a variety of scenarios that they can't do on the live grid," said Andrew Hudgins, the acting program manager for NLR's Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (or ARIES) testing platform. And, Hudgins continued, "NLR is the only place you can do this type of work." How to soften Data Center power spikes. A single data center can consume as much energy as a small U.S. city, like Boulder, Colorado, or as much as 30 airplanes in flight or 1.5 million laptops charging simultaneously. And yet, unlike Boulder, airplanes, or laptops, a data center's energy consumption can spike or plummet in less than a second, ping-pong from one extreme to another multiple times in under a minute, or zero-out without warning. And that is just a single data center. About 70% of future demand will be for hyperscale data centers, which are hyper-massive. Their potent computing power is necessary for artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data processing for financial transactions, healthcare, defense, and more. If these gigawatt-scale centers lose power, that would affect lots of people and systems - from casual cloud users to emergency services. But not to worry. "AI UPS is designed to help hyperscale data centers be good grid citizens," said Dax Kepshire, the president of ON.energy's data center division. "The goal is to smooth out those fast, compute-driven swings so the grid sees a steady, reliable load, even at gigawatt scale." As of 2025, NLR's ARIES platform can simulate those hyperscale data center clusters. ARIES can virtually replicate single-energy technologies (such as a battery), industrial campuses (such as an airport), and even global energy systems containing millions of technologies, including nuclear facilities, hydropower plants, and smartphones. ON.energy only needs a simulated data center and simulated power grid - but that is still difficult to come by. "I don't know anyone in the Western Hemisphere that has two big grid simulators and such a high level of controllability where you can just reconfigure them for various types of test conditions," said Shahil Shah, a principal engineer at NLR who is leading the project with ON.energy. Just six months after NLR's experts built the new data center simulator, ON.energy brought an AI UPS tailored specifically for data centers to the NLR campus. In early 2026, NLR technicians installed the hardware and began to subject the device to simulated spikes in energy demand to evaluate how well it responds. So far, ON.energy's AI UPS has weathered surges from 30% to 100% of its energy capacity that occur in 10-millisecond to 1-second intervals - as rapid as a blink of an eye. The NLR team will also explore how well AI UPS handles grid disturbances like faults, storms, or a blackout. "If the grid is going to have some fault, we want to test the capability of this equipment to manage highly dynamic data center loads," Shah said. That is why NLR's two-simulator approach is so valuable - it can demonstrate both sides of a potential blip and reassure grid operators that a new data center is unlikely to disrupt service to other nearby grid technologies, businesses, hospitals, and homes. "Grid operators are coming up with a lot of requirements on data centers before they can connect to the grid," Shah said. If NLR can help ON.energy demonstrate how their technology could meet those requirements, more data centers could potentially come online sooner. And, Shah added, "it helps make data centers more friendly to the grid." A model for utilities, data centers, and beyond. For at least a couple years, starting in January 2026, the AI UPS will live just inside the gate at NLR's Flatirons Campus. It is one of the first things visitors see. And this installation is just the start of the ON.energy/NLR partnership. Even after the company's testing period ends, if the developers have a question about how their technology reacted to a specific grid disturbance or fluctuation, the NLR team can replicate that exact scenario on campus in real time and identify ways to mitigate, prevent, or improve the device's functionality. "This longer partnership allows us to dive into even more research questions," Hudgins said. "We can tackle existing issues and provide an efficient way to identify and implement solutions for anyone." The partnership is also likely to broaden to include utilities and data center operators who might want to explore how AI UPS could support their operations. The NLR team is ready to field questions both granular and grand. "The advantage of having both this testing platform and the digital modeling capabilities is that these are like building blocks," Shah said. For example, Shah can build a computational model (or a "building block") that simulates a specific technology, like ON.energy's AI UPS. He then tests that model against the actual hardware to confirm accuracy. Finally, he plugs those simulated building blocks into bigger systems to test how the tech performs in various energy architectures, reacts to other technologies, or serves different customers, like utilities. NLR's testing platform also includes the laboratory's Grid Impedance Scan Tool, which assesses risk for potential adverse interactions between data centers and power grids. "We're not just saying, 'Hey, look at this cool thing,'" Hudgins said. "We're addressing real research for real-time concerns." In other words, NLR's experts are not just simulating grids and data centers - they are also finding ways to protect them. Want to test your technology's prowess in our fast, low-risk virtual sandbox? NLR has the expertise, facilities, and data-driven insights to help move your company forward. Discover how we can help. By Caitlin McDermott-Murphy. Article by NLR. Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here. CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.