AI Data Centres and Power Quality — A New Category of Grid Disturbance
AI training clusters create a load type that did not exist when power quality standards were written: synchronised GPU operation producing oscillatory load signatures with 10+ MW/second ramps, harmonic THD exceeding 5%, and simultaneous UPS disconnection risk of 2+ GW in dense data centre corridors. A real Dominion Energy grid event was triggered by a data centre producing a voltage sag at precisely once per second. Three open-access papers from 2025–2026 document the scale of the problem and the mitigation approaches now being required by grid operators.