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May 28, 2026

Peter Cook, Editor

We’re 10 days from the best power conference of the year.  It’s called the 2nd Annual Permian Power Connection Conference, but you don’t have to be operating in West Texas to benefit from attending.  Leading players from power infrastructure, oil & gas (upstream, midstream, oilfield services, etc.), data center operators and developers, investors, and other supporting companies will be there.  Check out the speaker & sponsor line up and you’ll just get a taste of what we have in store.  Fantastic speakers.  Topics that matter. 100+ sponsors.

 

Attendees include Google, Chevron, Crusoe, Core Scientific, QTS, Hanwha Data Centers, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell, BP, Evolve Data Centers, Pacifico, New Era Energy & Digital, Tenaska, Kinder Morgan, FO Permian, Western Midstream, Apache, Diamondback, Permian Resources, WaterBridge, Kinetik, Maribou, Eradeh Power Consulting, and others who are doing big deals and looking for the right partners.  You want to be there.

 

We’ll have gensets and other large equipment on display, plus a lot of fun (BBQ, live music, espresso carts, food trucks, axe throwing, putting greens, open bars, and a live auction to raise money for the Bettering Human Lives Foundation).  It’s going to be great.

 

Join us.  You won’t regret it.  Register here.

 

Those registered will get access to the conference app (and the attendee list!) early next week.

 

And now, the news…

The Power Connection Digest Issue #57

IREN partners with NVIDIA to develop AI-ready architecture for West Texas data center

IREN, a digital infrastructure company, has partnered with NVIDIA to help build out its Sweetwater data center campus in Fisher County.

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The shadow grid is real, and it's filed under names you've never heard of

Data center and energy infrastructure campuses with capital aren’t waiting. They’re going behind the meter — building their own gas turbines, on-site fuel, battery storage. Filed under names that don’t connect to their operators in any public registry.

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Can Texas' power grid handle the demands of data centers?

NPR's Morning Edition does an interview regarding Texas' grid and data center power needs.

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Liberty Energy opens new location in Odessa

Ron Gusek, CEO of Liberty Energy, said “I think the Permian Basin’s going to be home to quite a number of data centers going forward just given to abundant supply of gas here. And so, we’re going to be growing a power generation business here alongside our core oilfield services business."

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Power, Labor And Supply Chains Will Shape The Next Era Of Data Center Growth

Securing reliable power, including access to natural gas and nuclear, is increasingly influencing site‑selection decisions and pushing development into secondary markets.

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Permian County Judge Fawcett on Data Centers

Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett went on Newstalk 550 KCRS to discuss the data center controversy and how the Permian Basin is uniquely positioned to become the energy and water hub for the next revolution in technology, jobs, and infrastructure.

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Why Texas Needs 765-kV Lines

The Texas grid is hitting its limits. The 765-kilovolt transmission lines authorized under the state’s Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan (STEP) are how Texas can keep the Miracle going — for three reasons that matter equally.

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The Data Center Boom Is Reshaping Texas — and Every Business Needs to Understand Why

From server closets to gigawatt campuses: how digital infrastructure became one of the most consequential forces in American energy, real estate, and public policy.

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Texas is Quietly Becoming the Global Capital for Geothermal Energy

The narrative of Texas as a fossil-fuel-only powerhouse is rapidly becoming obsolete. As of mid-2026, the convergence of high-tech drilling, advanced mineral extraction, and an insatiable demand for carbon-free electricity from AI data centers has positioned the Lone Star State as the nascent global capital of geothermal innovation.

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PowerBridge Appoints Scott Hanna to Drive Revenue Strategy for Gigawatt‑Scale Powered AI Data Center Campuses

Hanna brings experience from Talen Energy Corp., Cumulus Data, and CyrusOne to accelerate hyperscale and AI customer deployments through PowerBridge’s integrated powered-campus digital infrastructure platform

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Shapiro unveils standards for data center projects in Pennsylvania

The voluntary program, known as the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development Standards, or GRID, looks to address concerns over the strain data centers could place on the power grid.

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Ohio Suspends Data Center Tax Break as Tech Firms Face Pressure to Pay the Cost to Power AI

Ohio is suspending a tax break that has been critical to its competition with other states to attract the massive new facilities that power and train artificial intelligence chatbots.

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Podcast: The Texas Power Grid, AI, and the Race for Data Centers

In this episode, the host sits down with John McQueeney, State Representative for House District 97 in Tarrant County, Texas and member of the State Affairs Committee covering power grid and electric policy.

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The next generation of AI data centers look nothing like the giant AI data centers being built last year.

The public conversation is still largely debating yesterday’s data center model while the infrastructure itself is already evolving into something very different.

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Interior Sec. Doug Burgum on rapidly rising Data center opposition

"Some of this is foreign source dark money coming in and the people that used to fight on climate change have shifted. They don't talk climate change because they realize it's a losing argument. They can't get people excited about one degree of climate change. But man, they can lie to them about why their electric bill went up."

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Texas agriculture commissioner calls for pause on AI data center projects

Due to the strain data centers are placing on Texas’ power grid and natural resources, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has proposed a temporary pause on data center projects. He'll be at the Permian Power Connection Conference on June 8 & 9 if you want to chat with him about that.

Read More

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