[CS] Peter Lin Candidacy Exam/Jan.17

[via cs]

This is an announcement of Peter Lin's Candidacy Exam.
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Candidate: Peter Lin

Date: January 17, 2025

Time: 1:00pm-2:30pm

Location: JCL 390

Remote Location:  https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/2674223059?pwd=VUVzZmdrV3NXWndKbFBTRzlDT2wzQT09&omn=95407067908

Title:  How to Make Datacenters Constructive Adaptive Loads in Renewable-dominated Grids

Abstract: Datacenters as rapidly growing constant loads conflict with variable wind and solar generation in decarbonizing grids, resulting in a balancing challenge. This harms both grid decarbonization and reliability. Flexing datacenter load temporally to match the variable power supply has been proposed but made little progress, as it sacrifices the resource/capital efficiency requirements of large-scale industrial computing. We study and create new coordination frameworks for datacenter load adaptation that can 1) enable constructive adaptation (for both the grid and datacenters) and 2) meet the cloud + AI computing's increasing need of stable power. Two aspects are involved:

Datacenter-grid Interface: Currently, datacenters draw constant power within a limit from the grid. We craft more interaction---fair information sharing, binding agreements, and even grid control of datacenter load---combined with datacenter load adaptation. These ensure predictable behaviors that benefit optimization for both the datacenter and grid.

Datacenter Infrastructure: We propose a "Middlebox" added to the datacenter power infrastructure. It employs power source/sink capability and intelligent management to decouple datacenter's grid load and power available for compute, enhancing datacenter's capability of load adaptation.

We have defined the properties of Middlebox, proposed an energy storage-based implementation, and evaluated it with representative existing designs of load adaptation interfaces, obtaining direct estimates of the datacenter TCO (total cost of ownership) increase required to reach a series of power stability goals under various settings  (e.g. grid generation mix, energy storage technology). We are exploring interface designs to co-optimize grid benefits and Middlebox cost, such as allowing the grid to modify datacenters' load plans.


Advisors: Andrew Chien

Committee Members: Andrew Chien, John R. Birge, Sanjay Krishnan, Haifeng Xu