Rising AI workloads are expected to drive higher data centre energy use, costs and emissions. Some experts even predict data centre energy consumption could double by 2030, placing added strain on already burdened power grids. As a result, reliable, resilient and affordable energy has become a top priority for data centre operations worldwide.
To address this challenge, Dell Technologies has been asking – what if AI could help improve power use, enhance grid flexibility and streamline industrial processes, turning today’s challenges into solutions?
Rethinking data centre operations to align with power demand and supply
At Dell Technologies, it starts with improving efficiency across its AI portfolio – from next-gen servers that lower CPU power consumption by up to 65%,[i] pioneering cooling innovations and advancing software management systems to improve optimisation. Customers like Verne, Fulgent Genetics and Emirates NBD have been able to rethink their infrastructure and power strategies, significantly reducing their footprint.
Dell is also looking for where it can push boundaries and go beyond infrastructure innovation to uncover smarter ways to align power demand with supply at the workload level.
One of its latest explorations, Concept Astro, uses agentic AI, digital twins and automation to spur smarter decision-making to improve IT operations and energy consumption. Consider an interconnected, adaptive AI factory that can forecast the time it’ll take to complete a task and predict the energy requirements to do so. Imagine it’s grid-aware, pulling in real-time grid data and forecasts to identify the ideal moment, location and resources needed to run the job, prioritising workloads based on business needs, energy availability and/or cost. Users could choose from a menu of options and recommendations or workloads could be set to run automatically within preconfigured parameters.
Now add in the ability to access all this information through a simple dashboard or by requesting reports customised to your role – from researcher or data centre operator to CFO, CIO or facilities. For those running workloads, Concept Astro could help you make smarter decisions as it pulls in real-time insights for a comprehensive view across – and beyond – your data centre(s). For facilities and the CFO, it’s a way to see how your teams are lowering costs by running energy-intensive workloads at optimum times and locations without compromising business outcomes.
This capability is exciting, but right now just a concept, with Dell engineers pushing the boundaries of what is possible to deliver at scale. In this iteration, the company is using digital twins to simulate workloads so it can extract insights and identify ways to use available data centre power more effectively with power grid awareness. Concept Astro builds on the Dell AIOps monitoring suite and features the capabilities offered today through Dell’s AIOps Assistant – including customers being able to ask context-aware questions about their connected infrastructure and receive tailored recommendations based on their current system configuration.
Real-world impact through public-private collaboration
To test how far Concept Astro can go, Dell has been working with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego to expand their laboratory capabilities for coral reef research. Using the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, the team is converting millions of underwater images into high-resolution 3D models to assess the health of coral reefs across the world. With around 350GB of images collected per dive and the team completing anywhere between 300-400 dives a year, processing these images requires significant compute and storage.
During a recent pilot, Concept Astro helped Scripps identify the best times and location to run workloads based on cost, speed, emissions or a combination of all. The team was able to schedule workloads during optimum energy windows, reducing strain on the grid without disrupting research continuity. This enabled Scripps to achieve cost savings of 20% and lower emissions by 32%.[i] In addition, by upgrading their legacy data centre equipment to the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, including Dell’s latest generation of servers, Scripps can now process twice as many images in the same amount of time.
Building a more resilient energy ecosystem
Dell is helping customers unlock the full potential of enterprise AI while minimising energy consumption and operational costs. The company is pushing itself to continually innovate, refine and enhance its offerings to deliver even greater business and societal value.
What drives Dell is helping its customers overcome their biggest challenges. With energy-efficient technologies already transforming operations and forward-thinking concepts like AI-powered workload scheduling, Dell can help enterprises to reduce costs, enhance grid resilience and drive meaningful progress.
Dell will continue to share updates as it explores making data centres more grid aware and efficient. In the meantime, check out Chief AI Officer John Roese, and Chief Strategist, Vivek Mohindra’s latest discussion on AI, power & cooling – and watch this space for exciting updates from Dell Technologies World, 19-22 May 2025.
[i] Based on Dell Technologies Concept Astro pilot with Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. Data collected December 2024 – March 2025.
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