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September 10, 2026

Peter Cook, Editor

I love working on conference agendas.  We work on what we think would be an ideal agenda, with the right topics and flow.  Once we get inside of 60 days from an event, the conference calls with speakers and moderators start.  And these are the people in the trenches, doing the work, directing the industry.  They are the real experts.  And they share insights on trends and topics that are popping up for their team or clients, and the agenda starts getting adjusted.  They identify which of their contacts would be the right fit and suggest others who could bring unique insights to a panel.  It’s so fun.  My favorite part of the job, by far.

 

So keep an eye on the ever-shifting agenda topics and speakers are our upcoming events:

 

The Marcellus Power Conference in Pittsburgh on October 21-22 and the Data Center Energy Industry Update in Houston on November 2.

 

And let us know if you have a suggestion for a great speaker to add to any of our panels!  Happy to continue having these great conversations!

 

And now, the news…

The Power Connection Digest Issue #72

NextEra Energy, Inc. has staked a spot in Pennsylvania for its $13B, 3.75-GW gas plant

The mega-plant is set to land near Pittsburgh in Fayette County, and will include three combined-cycle facilities. It's expected to hit the strained PJM grid in phases from 2030-2032.

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Ohio, PJM to Use State Agreement Approach for 10-GW Data Center, Gas Plant

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has requested PJM initiate the State Agreement Approach under FERC Order 1000 to facilitate the interconnection of the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, a 10-GW data center and co-located gas generator.

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Aligned Data Centers and Shippingport, PA Community Mark Revitalization of Legacy Energy Site with Groundbreaking of 2 GW “Project Phoenix” Campus

Spanning three facilities in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, the development will meet robust regional demand for digital infrastructure while anchoring an estimated $10B in regional economic investment.

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Alpha Compute Secures $47 Million in Seller Financing for Planned 200MW Pennsylvania AI Data Center Campus

The transaction covers approximately 350 aggregate surface and pore-space acres, together with approximately 1,800 net unleased Marcellus mineral acres in Tioga County.

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‘We’ll pay for everything’: Company pitches $10.5B data center plans in Dauphin County, PA

The 121-page land development plan for Corscale Data Centers’ complex in south central Pennsylvania was submitted to Swatara Township Tuesday night.

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Groups call on PJM to improve transparency, consumer relations

A group of elected officials from Pennsylvania, advocates, and environmental groups gathered at the PJM office near Philadelphia last week to speak out as energy costs rise and demand is forecasted to increase.

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What is So Hard About Behind-The-Meter Power For Datacenters?

Very interesting deep dive on real behind-the-meter projects.

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Oil and gas electrification: why the sector’s big shift has a power problem

Nice overview of oilfield electrification offshore, upstream, midstream, and downstream.

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Beyond renewables: Microsoft and Meta turn to nuclear energy for AI data centers

Because conventional wind and solar generation are inherently intermittent—dictated by weather patterns and daylight—tech giants are increasingly turning to natural gas and nuclear energy to secure the uninterrupted baseload power required for computational supremacy.

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Time to power is becoming the new measure of AI infrastructure readiness

As AI moves from experimentation to deployment at scale, technology leaders face another infrastructure challenge that could be just as consequential: securing enough reliable power, quickly, to keep that compute running.

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Galaxy gets conditional ERCOT classifications for 4.23 GW of Texas data center projects

Galaxy said five Texas data center projects received conditional classifications under ERCOT's Batch Zero large-load interconnection process. The projects represent 4.23 GW of approved, requested or gross power capacity.

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Data center developers in Texas plan massive gas power plant projects

The 12 largest gas power projects planned in Texas are all specifically intended to run data centers, according to data from Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit that maps and tracks energy infrastructure. That's what we are going to be talking about on November 2 at The Houstonian!

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Permian gas has been worth less than nothing for 118 days this year

A behind-the-meter data center changes that without anyone laying new pipe...

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Net Power Closes Acquisition of EMPower’s Position Under EPC Agreement for 123 MW of Power Generation

The transaction brings Net Power's total potential power generation capacity to nearly 200 MW for the first phase of Project Permian, its inaugural powered land project in West Texas.

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Podcast: Why Land Is Not Enough

In this 11-minute clip, Suhail Tayeb breaks down why land is only the starting point of a data center opportunity, not the opportunity itself, and explains why deliverable power, connectivity, approvals, and timing determine what a site is actually worth to a customer.

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AI Data Centers Are Driving an Energy Revolution

Rather than straining America’s existing energy infrastructure, AI may create economic incentives necessary to transform it. Natural gas projects are being developed at unprecedented scales. Nuclear technologies that struggled for decades to attract investment are receiving billions of dollars. Companies are even exploring solar-powered data centers in space. The AI energy challenge could ultimately help spark an American energy revolution.

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US Bitcoin miners face power squeeze as AI data centers devour the grid

Bitcoin’s network hashrate has dropped from over 1.14 ZH/s to somewhere between 868 and 900 EH/s by mid-to-late 2026. That’s a decline of roughly 15-21% from the peak, driven largely by public miners repurposing their facilities for AI and high-performance computing workloads.

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This enhanced geothermal project aims to unlock gigawatts of power to fuel the data center boom

After an initial public offering in May and a new offtake agreement with Google, Fervo must prove it can provide cost-competitive enhanced geothermal at scale.

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Podcast: How Utilities Think About Data Centers

In another short podcast, Suhail Tayeb explains how utilities actually prioritize large-load requests, revisits GTSQT from the utility's side of the table, and looks at where Bring-Your-Own-Power changes who's asking whom for permission.

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How the Data Center Power Crunch Is Reshaping the Talent Market

Two executive search experts were asked how power constraints are changing data center hiring, where talent shortages are becoming most acute, and what companies are paying to secure people with the right combination of power and data center experience.

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