Data Centers

The requests flooding interconnection queues come from data center developers, private equity funds, land brokers, and shell companies, many of whom lack site control, a construction timeline, or even a signed customer. They secure a queue position, bet that powered land will attract a buyer, and wait. The industry calls them “phantom data centers,” and the grid isn’t prepared to handle them.

How industrial middleware unlocks the full value of operational data AI and why most AI programs fail without it   Power companies are being asked to deliver higher reliability while their operating environment becomes more dynamic. Conventional power generation: must run with greater flexibility, grid assets must absorb new load patterns, renewable portfolios must operate […]

Behind even the smallest convenience powered by AI is a massive surge of computing power for training models and inference. All that computing power requires energy.

There has never been a time when so much power was needed so fast. Driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, more data center capacity is in development or under construction now than has been built in all of history. According to analyst firm Industrial Info Resources (IIR), each month of 2025 saw at least […]

Grid capacity and the interconnection queue aren’t the only constraints on U.S. data center growth. Community acceptance is becoming the toughest bottleneck to break through, and a hot political topic with the approach of the midterm elections.

After decades of stagnation, nuclear power is firmly back in the energy discussion. Surging electricity demand, hyperscale data centers hunting for firm round-the-clock power, and growing pressure to decarbonize industrial heat have converged to revive interest in both new reactor construction and lifetime extensions of the existing fleet. The resurgence is broader than a single […]

With many hyperscale data centers requiring hundreds of megawatts of reliable, uninterrupted power, contractors often find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Khalid Mandri is president of ABB Installation Products. Mandri recently provided POWER with his insight about how electrification supports decarbonization, and how it aligns with optimizing power infrastructure, including the grid.

As artificial intelligence (AI) training reshapes data center power system design, early adopters using battery energy storage systems (BESS), microgrid control, and unified automation are positioning

Why megawatts, siting, firm generation, and power-aware design are becoming the real inner loop of the artificial intelligence (AI) race. “We are knocking on the door of these incredible capabilities. The ability to build basically machines out of sand.” Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, used that phrase at Davos this January to describe how silicon […]

A power paradox is emerging in the hyperscale era: while computing demand is accelerating, power availability is increasingly becoming the constraint that determines where data centers are built, how quickly they can be energized, and how large they can become. In this age of hyperscale data centers, campuses using 300–600 MW of electrical capacity, equivalent […]

On April 7, the Maine House voted 82–62 to advance Legislative Document (LD) 307, a bill sponsored by Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, that would impose a moratorium on artificial intelligence (AI) data

Powering data centers is receiving significant attention at the federal level with the Department of Energy’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or ANOPR, on large-load interconnections, and with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gathering input on the proposal.

By installing optimal components, finetuning utility processes, and partnering with the right suppliers, hyperscalers are improving data center cooling loop performance, which is increasing operational uptime, equipment safety, facility reliability, sustainability, and profitability. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an increasing staple in daily routines, data centers today are undergoing significant architectural shifts. Driven by the […]

The U.S. electrical grid is aging and under increasing strain from rising energy demand driven by technologies like data centers and electrification, making modernization urgent. Much of the current infrastructure is outdated, with many transmission lines nearing the end of their lifespan and relying on less durable materials like wood. Modernizing this infrastructure requires stronger, […]

The energy industry keeps talking about a shortage of power generation. In reality, this is a control problem.

I have spent my entire career working at the intersection of infrastructure and power. Collaborating with colleagues in the utility industry has been an enormous part of my job for almost three decades. So much so, that I have been humbled by how many familiar faces have come up to me at recent power-focused conferences […]

Ultra-long duration energy storage group Noon Energy announced an agreement with technology company Meta Platforms to reserve up to 1 GW/100 GWh of energy storage capacity. Noon on April 21 said the initial phase of the deal will be for a 25-MW/2.5-GWh project, set for completion by 2028.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has set a June 2026 deadline to act in a high-stakes rulemaking that could redefine how massive new power users—including AI-driven data centers—connect to the U.S. interstate transmission system. In an April 16 order in its “Interconnection of Large Loads to the Interstate Transmission System” docket (RM26-4-000), the commission […]

After decades of relatively flat electricity demand, the U.S. power sector is suddenly racing to keep up—and rural electric cooperatives, which serve 42 million people across 54% of the nation’s land mass, are feeling the squeeze as acutely as anyone. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric […]

The data center industry is having a power problem. The problem is at the rack. Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving rack power into ranges where conversion losses are no longer background noise. Every piece of equipment in a data center rack—graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), storage—runs on direct-current (DC) power. Most facilities […]

Cassidy DeLine has spent more than 16 years developing renewable power plants. Now, as the founder and CEO of Linea Energy, she’s building an independent power producer that she believes can do the work better, not by tearing up the playbook, but by running every play better. As a guest on The Power Podcast, DeLine […]

Energy resilience solutions provider Rehlko said that it has entered into a multi-year strategic engine framework agreement with INNIO Group, securing the supply of about 1.25 GW of gas engine capacity over the next three years.

Social media group TikTok said it would invest €1 billion ($1.16 billion) to build the company’s second data center in Finland. TikTok on April 7 said the new facility would be in Lahti, in southern Finland, and would have capacity of 50 MW, scalable to 128 MW.

Dr. Dario Gil, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Under Secretary for Science, lays out a bold vision to double the productivity of U.S. research and development (R&D) within a decade—and explains why energy and artificial intelligence (AI) are two sides of the same coin. After 22 years at IBM, where he rose to senior vice […]

A once-predictable industry is moving at hyperscale speed. Here are five trends defining the biggest gas power buildout in a generation. Natural gas power is in the middle of its biggest buildout in a

The rapid growth of data centers in recent years is increasingly causing angst among power operators. Power industry leaders want assurances that the electric grid is reliable, protected, and sustainable for businesses and the public alike.

In 2011, I published an article in the Boston University Journal of Science & Technology Law examining space-based solar power (SBSP) and the issue of property rights in space, and more specifically, in geostationary orbit (GEO), under the current regime of international treaties and policies.  Today, as the demand for computing power grows, that question […]

The conflict in Iran has rekindled a debate that was already building quietly for 24 months in technology circles: energy. Not as a footnote to the artificial intelligence (AI) story, but as a structural constraint at its center. There is an important structural fact about current AI pricing that rarely surfaces in business conversations: the […]

Tech giant Google has announced what the company calls “A new milestone for smart, affordable electricity growth.” Here’s the text of a blog post from Michael Terrell, Head of Advanced Energy for the company.