TT26 Energy Seminar – Week 4: AI Data Center Growth: Challenges and Opportunities for Electric Power Systems
Pramod Khargonekar, UCI
- Start Tuesday 19 May 2026 5:00pm
- Finish Tuesday 19 May 2026 6:15pm
- Venue Diversity Room - ECI, OUCE
- Postcode OX1 3PY
- Register for event
Summary: The main goal of this talk is to provide a current overview of the challenges and opportunities for electric energy systems resulting from the build-up of AI data centers. The talk will begin with the latest data on ongoing and projected growth in electric power load growth along with a discussion of key uncertainties and barriers. Next, the impacts of this growth on reliability and costs of electric power and energy will be discussed. This will be followed by emerging strategies to facilitate and manage this growth and minimise negative impacts. Discussion will be based mostly on the developments in the US but will include some discussion of the situation in other parts of the world.
Speaker: Pramod Khargonekar was Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 1997 to 2001, and held the position of Claude E. Shannon Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Michigan. From 2001 to 2009, he was Dean of the College of Engineering and Eckis Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida till 2016. After serving briefly as Deputy Director of Technology at ARPA-E in 2012-13, he was the head of the Directorate of Engineering at the National Science Foundation till June 2016. He was Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Irvine, from 2016 to 2025, where is currently Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He has received numerous honors and awards including IEEE Control Systems Award, IEEE Baker Prize, IEEE Control Systems Society Bode Lecture Prize, IEEE Control Systems Society Axelby Award, and NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award. He is a Fellow of IEEE, IFAC, and AAAS.