YiDC in EnergiWatch: no ceiling on compute

EnergiWatch interviewed chair Olaf AB Styrmoe and board member Rikard Schuitema Lappegård of Schjødt on 8 September, written and photographed by Anders Lie Brenna. The piece covers the founding of YiDC by Bulk Infrastructure, NDI, Metier and Schjødt and how the network intends to work.

The angle is energy, which suits us. Much of what YiDC will cover sits in fibre, grid and power generation, alongside grid access and how to secure enough new production. The interview also covers the people who run a data centre once it is built, in electrical, IT and cooling, and the role data centres can play in flexibility markets.

Lappegård describes a sector that has grown substantially since 2021, driven by digital infrastructure, AI and data storage, and one that largely stands on its own commercial feet without subsidy.

On whether this is a bubble, both take the question seriously. Parts of the AI application layer may struggle as software gets commoditised. The underlying demand does not. Compute translates into Norwegian as regnekraft, and as Styrmoe puts it, there is no ceiling on human imagination, so no ceiling on compute. The product is intelligence.

The parallel drawn is to oil. Norway can build services and industry around data centres in the way the offshore supply sector grew around oil and gas, rather than simply selling the power.

The point we care most about is load profiles. Grid capacity is allocated on annual peak, and housing peaks in winter while data centres peak in August. That inverse correlation is under-communicated, and explaining it calmly is exactly the kind of ambassador work this network is for.

Read the article (subscription): https://energiwatch.no/nyheter/nett_teknologi/article19616641.ece
Photos: Anders Lie Brenna, EnergiWatch; Daniel Zega, NDC TV

Anders Lie Brenna is one of Norway’s most influential energy journalists