As Power Providers Face Increasing Data Center Demand, Digital Substations Accelerate Interconnection While Ensuring Reliability and Affordability

After decades of relatively flat demand curves, power providers are facing unprecedented increases in power demand driven by the increasing scale and speed of data center construction. Not long ago, interconnection requests for data center projects were typically in the 10-50 MW range per project. Today, data center developments are in the 500 MW to 3 GW range, with one recent development projected to require 9 GW of power upon full build.

ABB is pioneering groundbreaking advancements in power systems on both sides of the meter to meet the needs of this digital infrastructure. We recently wrote about some of our innovations in behind-the-meter solutions for higher-voltage data center environments in an article for Data Center Frontier. Today, we will discuss an important area of ABB’s innovation for the other side of the meter: digital substations that enable power providers to increase capacity and accelerate interconnections for data centers while simultaneously meeting critical goals for reliability, affordability, and more.

• Reduce Interconnection Timelines: There is intense pressure on power providers to reduce interconnection times for large load customers, but analog substations have complex installation processes that are slow and labor-intensive. ABB’s digital substations dramatically accelerate interconnection timelines by reducing wiring up to 80%. They also eliminate the need for point-to-point wiring connections, which are labor-intensive aspects of traditional substation construction. By replacing point-to-point wiring with Ethernet-based digital communication, power providers can cut installation time by up to half while also simplifying commissioning and testing and increasing worker safety.
• Lower Costs and Protect Affordability: Rising demand is not the only pressure on power providers. They must also juggle intense demands from regulators and the public to protect reliability and affordability while meeting the requirements for large-load interconnection requests. ABB’s digital substation solutions, either for indoor or outdoor substation applications, are designed to meet all of those goals at once. The simplified installation of ABB’s digital substations reduces project costs by 10-15% through significantly lower labor costs. And our digital switchgear lowers operating costs by up to 30%. Digital substations also continue to deliver savings through lower ongoing maintenance costs and cost-effective future expansion and upgrades. A great example of this is ABB’s magnetically actuated R-MAG circuit breaker, which has very few moving parts and requires less maintenance than breakers with traditional spring mechanisms — an advantage that provides significant OPEX savings. The digital version of this breaker also provides significant CAPEX savings by using deterministic Ethernet based digital communication instead of point-to-point copper wirings in outdoor substations.
• Accelerate Installation and Increase Reliability of Substations with Digital Switchgear: For power providers racing to energize GW-scale data center loads, the digital switchgear at the heart of ABB’s digital substations—technology that ABB pioneered as the first company to bring to market—delivers faster installation, higher reliability, and lower maintenance needs. Unlike conventional equipment, ABB’s digital switchgear enables continuous self-monitoring for proactive maintenance, increasing reliability and reducing maintenance requirements. These advantages are further enhanced by our digital switchgear, paired with ABB's AMVAC circuit breaker, which delivers exceptional reliability and reduced maintenance costs thanks to its single moving part.
• Maximize Current Infrastructure: One of the most important ways to protect affordability is to extend the performance of current infrastructure. ABB’s digital substations are designed to do exactly that by integrating with analog substations, enabling power providers to add incremental capacity that modernizes their infrastructure in steps while continuing to derive value from past investments. By using a mix of digital and analog substation equipment, power providers can reduce the scale of capital investments required to support large load projects like data centers.
• Support Higher-Voltage Environments: To support the increasing density of GPUs, data center companies are shifting to higher-voltage power systems in their facilities. ABB’s digital substations are designed to simplify the process of delivering higher-voltage distribution to data centers, enabling power providers to support these interconnection requests more quickly and cost-effectively. Because ABB works with both data center operators deploying higher-voltage MV systems and the power providers serving them, we can ensure protection coordination and optimize the full electrical architecture from grid to rack.
• Ensure Grid Flexibility for Renewables and New Technologies: Digital substations also deliver flexibility that is critical as the grid evolves to use more renewables, link to microgrids, incorporate battery storage, and adapt to other new technologies. ABB’s digital substations are designed to simplify integration with new technologies and to ensure adaptability in the future — both of which protect investments and reduce costs. ABB’s digital substation also acts as an enabler for implementing centralized and virtualized protection, control and automation strategy instead of IED-driven decentralized protection, control and automation in traditional substations. ABB’s digital substations also ensure future flexibility by using 50% less physical space than analog equipment — maximizing the ability to use limited equipment yard space for future needs.
• Increase Reliability with AI-Powered Fault Prediction: ABB’s digital substations go beyond basic digitization to deliver truly intelligent grid operations. ABB’s solutions incorporate AI and ML capabilities that transform substations from passive infrastructure into predictive assets capable of anticipating problems before they cause outages. ABB's anomaly detection technology continuously monitors voltage and current patterns to identify abnormal behavior before faults occur, triggering alerts and enabling power providers to take preventive action rather than respond reactively to equipment failures. ABB’s AI-powered fault prediction system, which leverages data already collected by protection relays without requiring additional sensors, can forecast potential failures with over 90% accuracy up to a week in advance. This predictive capability fundamentally changes maintenance economics for power providers. Instead of costly scheduled maintenance cycles or emergency repairs after failures, power providers can implement targeted, condition-based interventions that reduce truck rolls, extend equipment life, and minimize customer-impacting outages. These analytics also support broader grid resilience efforts, from prioritizing vegetation management based on actual risk data to enhancing storm preparedness and wildfire monitoring with predictive insights.
• Eliminate Supply Chain Bottlenecks for Critical Equipment: Long lead times for substations are a frustrating obstacle to reducing interconnection timelines globally. However, ABB eliminates that bottleneck with robust manufacturing operations in North America that can deliver digital substations at scale on the rapid timelines. ABB’s global supply chain has also been built with redundancy and resiliency to prevent shortages of key components. This enables ABB’s customers to scale with confidence.

The unprecedented growth of data centers poses major challenges to power providers, but ABB’s digital substations solve multiple challenges simultaneously — proving that increased capacity, reliability, and affordability are not mutually exclusive goals.

Digital substations are now a cornerstone of modern grids, accelerating capacity upgrades and reducing interconnection times. Digital substations also significantly reduce costs through simplified installation, more efficient ongoing operations, and the maximization of the value of investment in existing equipment. ABB’s solutions also increase grid flexibility and leverage data-driven insights to optimize grid operations and efficiency. With innovations like digital switchgear, AI-powered fault prediction, and the industry's most reliable circuit breaker technology, ABB is helping power providers meet the demands of the AI era while protecting the grid for all customers.

To learn more ABB’s digital substation solutions and how ABB can help achieve goals for increasing capacity, protecting reliability, and maintaining affordability, visit the ABB website or contact a power expert here.