[ Glossary ]
Behind-the-meter data center
A data center whose generation or storage sits on the customer's side of the utility meter, so its power never crosses the grid. Behind-the-meter siting avoids the interconnection queue and retail tariffs, which is why existing mining sites convert to AI compute faster than greenfield builds.
A data center whose generation or storage sits on the customer's side of the utility meter, so its power never crosses the grid. Behind-the-meter siting avoids the interconnection queue and retail tariffs, which is why existing mining sites convert to AI compute faster than greenfield builds.
The trade-off is that the operator owns the generation risk. A behind-the-meter site is only as reliable as the plant behind it, and moving from a mining load to an AI load raises the bar on both availability and cooling.