Power Generation: Fueling Innovation and Infrastructure Advancements

With rising demand and new concerns about reliability and transmission, companies and investors are grappling with the quagmire of power generation. Major outages, such as in Texas in 2021 and Spain and Portugal more recently, as well as rolling blackouts across the United States have impacted millions of customers, highlighting reliability standards in the public eye. In the background, technology companies scramble to source enough energy to power data centers nationwide, citing needs to upgrade power infrastructure at record rates. 

GLG recently hosted three top experts in the power generation sector to discuss how the grid can support the country’s evolving needs. 

The Experts 

• Rich Glick, Former Chairman and Commissioner of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
• Peter Kelly Detwiler, Principal at NorthBridge Energy Partners 
• Ryan Legg, Former Executive of Technology Partnerships at GE Vernova 

The Key Takeaways 

Power infrastructure: 

• While there is a real need to build new infrastructure to power data centers, the experts warned that some projections can be overblown. Speculative load requests often cite potential customers, which can lead some utilities to double and triple count actual power generation needs. 

Grid policy: 

• The experts highlighted that resource adequacy has become top of mind under current policies. The reliability of the grid has come into question more than ever, and every expert cited battery storage as a necessity to have more reliable power.  

AI and new technology: 

• While power generation is often discussed as a requisite to power AI, AI could also become crucial to maintain the grid. Ryan highlighted AI’s role in grid services and maintenance, where it could predict equipment failures based on sensor data, for example. Such a tool can be particularly helpful in volatile situations and can keep more power online, more often. 

What’s next: 

• Peter is evaluating the power infrastructure needs for data centers and is particularly interested in the evolution of microgrids. 
• Rich is eager to see how policy evolves between Federal and Regional Utilities oversight and the integration of distributed energy resources. 
• Ryan is watching how different technologies integrate with the grid to improve resilience. 

 

This event was part of Perspectives, GLG’s event series giving clients and experts insight on today’s most important topics from every key angle.