AI compute,
dispatchable by the grid.
Data Joule turns OpenADR 3.0 demand-response events into measured inference curtailment on a Raspberry Pi — and mints each curtailed kWh as a Joule Credit on Polygon via Chainlink. Flexible AI load that is measured, auditable, and on-chain provable.
AI load is becoming grid load.
It needs to become flexible.
Data centers and inference workloads are becoming material grid demand. Adding generation and wires takes years; demand flexibility can make today's capacity work harder during constrained hours.
Most AI compute treats power like a constant. It doesn't have to. Inference workloads can expose graded response: slow down, suspend, or recover based on a grid signal while preserving a measurable service trade-off.
Projected data center power demand growth by 2030
U.S. electricity load share from data centers: 2023 actual to 2030 high estimate
Cold-boot to inference-ready after a Tier 4 hard cutoff — measured on real hardware
How it works
Signal → control action → measured watts → public dashboard
Response ladder
Four progressive tiers — measured on real hardware, not theoretical.
TIER 0Baseline—
ondemand governor, full inference active
TIER 1Throttle−20%
conservative CPU governor, inference continues
TIER 2Power-save−40%
powersave CPU governor, inference continues
TIER 3Suspend−70%
SIGSTOP sent to llama-server process
TIER 4Halt−95%
controlled shutdown path — node goes offline
Joule Credits (JLC)
Each completed demand-response event triggers a Chainlink Functions call. Multiple independent oracle nodes fetch the physical wattage measurement and reach consensus before minting. No single party — not the VEN operator, not Chainlink — can falsify the result.
The node is running right now.
Live telemetry from mtl-edge-01 in Montréal. Wattage, tier, and LLM status updated every 5 seconds. Watch a DR event arrive and the load drop in real time.
Why this matters
Demonstrates that AI loads can become controllable grid resources. Several regulators have signaled intent to mandate OpenADR 3 — the standard this project already runs.
Connects power flexibility to SLA impact, making curtailment a measured operating mode instead of a vague sustainability claim.
Open-source testbed for grid-interactive compute, reproducible on commodity hardware and inspectable end to end.
Each completed DR event mints a Joule Credit (ERC-20) on Polygon, verified by Chainlink's oracle network against the real wattage drop. Physical-world energy settlement on-chain, without a trusted intermediary.
About this project
Data Joule is an Internet of Energy portfolio project built to demonstrate that AI edge compute can participate in real-time grid flexibility — and that curtailment events can be settled on-chain without a trusted intermediary. The full stack — from VTN deployment on a VPS to Chainlink oracle verification on Polygon — was designed, deployed, and tested as a working proof point.
The hardware runs 24/7. The telemetry is real. The OpenADR signals come from a production-grade VTN reference implementation. When a DR event completes, the measured curtailment is settled on-chain: Chainlink's oracle network verifies the kWh reduction and mints a Joule Credit on Polygon. Nothing here is simulated or claimed — it is measured, recorded, and provable.