ENERGY & POWER
“Data centre operators who get this right will have competitive advantages in both cost and reliability”
BEN PRITCHARD, CEO, AVK
centres will more than double to 35 gigawatts( GW) in the same period.
This surge is rooted in the hardware. Next-generation GPUs are increasingly power-hungry, driving up power density at the rack level from an average of 36 kilowatts( kW) in 2023 to a projected 50 kW by 2027.
Consequently, a single hyperscale facility can now require over 100 MW of power – comparable to a small city.
This creates a massive, constant and rapidly growing baseload demand that ageing grid infrastructure was simply not designed to handle.
The subsequent dramatic rise in energy consumption translates directly into a significant environmental footprint, with the data centre industry’ s greenhouse gas emissions now on par with the aviation sector.
“ As AI applications multiply, data centres are steadily claiming a larger share of the world’ s electricity, prompting a fresh look at how we source and manage power,” says Ben Pritchard, CEO of AVK.
“ At AVK, we see this as a defining moment for the sector, one that demands practical, scalable solutions rather than wishful thinking.
“ The key from our perspective is designing for tomorrow’ s demands today. Modular power systems that scale with requirements, combined with intelligent energy management that can shift loads based on renewable availability, create the foundation for
134 September 2025