xAI has installed 168 Tesla Megapack battery energy storage units at its Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee.

The company has integrated the Megapacks to manage outages and demand surges, which xAI claims will bolster the reliability of the data center. It's unclear whether the batteries will remain for the duration of the data center's operational life or represent a stopgap solution for the data center.

DCD has reached out to xAI for further information. The company is known to have operated a number of Megapacks at the site since it launched.

The Tesla Megapack battery is a lithium-ion powered utility scale battery energy storage unit. According to the company, each unit can store more than 3.9MWh of energy and is deployed in containers, allowing for modular scalability.

xAI has caused significant controversy over recent months, after it was revealed that the company had installed 35 onsite methane gas turbines at the Memphis supercomputer. The turbines had a combined capacity of 422MW, more than double the permitted amount.

Following remonstrations from local community and environmental groups, who argued that the presence of the turbines was in violation of the Clean Air Act, xAI removed an undisclosed amount of the turbines, after a new substation came online.

According to the Greater Memphis Chamber, the turbines that powered the first phase of GPUs before the project acquired a grid connection will be removed over the next two months.

Half of the turbines are expected to remain to power the second phase of the project GPUs until a second substation, which is currently under construction, is completed. The substation is expected to be completed sometime during Fall 2025, at which time the gas turbines will be relegated to the role of backup power.

The Memphis data center originally went live in July 2024. It had a reported initial capacity of 150MW, and an 8MW grid connection with the local power operator TVA, which was increased to 150MW in November.

The data center, which supports the training and operation of the company's AI chatbot, Grok, is situated in an industrial area on Paul Lowry Road in southwest Memphis, occupying the site of a former Electrolux manufacturing plant. In October, Elon Musk revealed plans to double the center's capacity, including the installation of an additional 100,000 Nvidia Hopper GPUs to expand the computing cluster.

The company has announced plans for a second data center in the city, following the purchase of a one million sq ft site on Tulane Road, which is located in the Whitehaven area of the city. The site is located next to the Southaven Combined Cycle natural gas power plant, which generates 780MW of power.

Reports surfaced earlier this month that the new facility could be powered by a new 1.56GW natural gas plant. A report apparently produced for xAI by Trinity Consultants and obtained by environmental advocacy group the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) outlined a plan to install between 40 to 90 turbines at the data center site. xAI responded, saying there are no current plans to install gas turbines at the data center.

The local utility, Memphis Light, Gas, and Water, said that xAI has yet to submit a power request, but is exploring a range of options with the energy requirements of the data center expected to be around 1.1GW.