The Power Connection Digest logo in full color
July 9, 2026

Peter Cook, Editor

The content from this week’s Power Connection Digest makes clear that natural gas remains the default answer to AI’s power problem — from Kodiak’s 1.8 GW turbine order to Trump’s fast-tracked gas plant approvals to WoodMac’s warning that cheap Henry Hub gas may be ending just as hyperscalers lean on it hardest.  We all saw this coming.  Natural gas is still the best solution for speed to power, while an uptick in gas prices will incentive additional energy development.

 

Two quick opportunities for you to build the right relationships to succeed in the rapidly changing industry:

 

  • The Marcellus Power Conference will be October 21-22 in Pittsburgh.  I’m excited about replicating in Pittsburgh the experience we had in Midland this past June.  Please join us.
  • The Data Center Energy Industry Update is going to be held at The Houstonian on November 2.  This one-day executive update is going to sell out fast (only about 15 sponsorship spots will be available!).  We just posted the draft agenda on the event website too.

 

Check those out and contact Pete Cook (pete@the-power-connection.com or text 540-222-2742) to talk about speaking or sponsorship opportunities.

 

And now, the news…

The Power Connection Digest Issue #63

Trump Says He’ll Fast-Track Private Gas Plants to Power AI Data Centers

“They can’t believe it, that they’re approved in a period of a matter of weeks.”

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Kodiak Gas Services, Baker Hughes Announce Multi-Year Turbine Order Agreement

The Strategic agreement establishes framework for deployment of up to 1.8 GW of power generation capacity.

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Solaris Energy Infrastructure Acquires GESA

"As we look forward at growing market needs, the GESA acquisition is another key step in establishing Solaris as a recognized full service power provider," said Bill Zartler, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, and Amanda Brock, Co-Chief Executive Officer.

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Honda scrapped its EVs and turned its $4.4B Ohio factory into an AI data center battery plant

With consumer demand for EV batteries plummeting, Honda pivoted to the data center power opportunity.

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PJM opposes waiver for $2B gas-fired plant in fast-track interconnection review

Gas turbine backlogs prompted Advanced Power Services to seek changes to its project in PJM’s fast-track interconnection review, but the grid operator said granting a waiver would be unfair to others.

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As Data Centers Come to More Northeast States, Natural Gas Market Prepares for Growth

A number of states have been early movers in the data center world, but several in the Northeast — while not yet major data center hubs — are laying the groundwork for a much bigger role.

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Pa. faces data center boom as dozens of massive projects emerge

The legacy of Pennsylvania’s industrial past, including decommissioned power plants, shuttered steel mills and other brownfield sites “leaves a lot of great redevelopment (opportunities) of sites that are currently not doing anything for the economic growth of the state or the jurisdictions that they’re in.”

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AEP's Texas unit secures up to $3.26 billion US loan to boost power grid

American Electric Power said on Wednesday it has secured a loan of up to $3.26 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy to help boost electricity transmission on the Texas grid.

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National Grid Ventures invests $1.75bn in Joulent for construction of gas plant powering 2GW Microsoft data center in West Texas

NGV acquired the stake for $1.75 billion, with the investment expected to support the development of Project Kilby, a 2.67GW co-located natural gas facility being developed in partnership with Chevron. The plant will power Microsoft’s planned 2GW data center in West Texas.

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Galaxy Digital completes first phase of pivoting cryptomine to AI hosting

Facility ready for CoreWeave to move in, work continues on future phases.

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Google-linked Housebound Group files for two data center projects in Haskell, Texas

Located between Abilene and Wichita Falls, each data centers will see $400 million invested.

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Texas Gov. Abbott says AI data centers must bring their own power, water, or stay out of rural Texas

Governor Greg Abbott is pushing to prohibit AI data centers from being built in rural Texas neighborhoods due to concerns about costs and disruption.

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Not Every Rural Texas Community Is the Same—The Permian Is Built for AI

Kirk Edwards takes issue with Gov. Abbott's concept of blocking data centers in rural Texas.

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Pecos AI center scrutinized amid governor’s strict requirements

"If this model proves successful, I believe the corridor from Pecos through Odessa and Midland has the potential to become one of the premier AI data center locations in the country."

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West Texas Cowboys Are Cashing In on the AI Land Rush

Land in Abilene's corridor stayed cheap grazing country for nearly twenty years after the wind boom; in the last year alone, West Texas posted the sharpest regional price jump in the state, and TRERC now ties it directly to data center demand.

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Texas energy infrastructure could get a boost under new federal proposal

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) would modernize FERC's blanket certificate program by significantly expanding the types of natural gas infrastructure projects eligible for streamlined federal approval.

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Podcast: Permitting Reform, Grid Reliability and the Future of Natural Gas Infrastructure

In this episode, Pipeline & Gas Journal sits down with Dena Wiggins, President & CEO of the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA), to discuss the policy and infrastructure challenges shaping the future of U.S. energy.

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Land Is Becoming a Power Asset

Investors recognize that controlling the pathway to electricity may create more long-term value than simply owning another building.

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Power vs. progress: How canceled energy projects are threatening the AI boom

In this article, ProLift examines the growing deficit in energy supply and electrical grid capacity affecting data center expansion.

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Hyperscale vs. Modular: Two Different Capital Stacks

When investors discuss AI data centers, they often envision billion-dollar hyperscale campuses consuming hundreds of megawatts of electricity. At the same time, another market is quietly emerging around modular deployments, retrofit facilities, and regional inference infrastructure measured in megawatts rather than gigawatts. Both markets are growing rapidly, but they are governed by very different financial models.

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New Coalition Hopes to Streamline Cleaner Power for AI

The Data Center Power Coalition brings together 12 partners spanning on-site solar and storage, load flexibility software and accelerated grid interconnection. Not sure if this is a real coalition or a nice marketing partnership.

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Data Center Executives Say Islanding Important, Expect Onsite Generation to Cut Grid Reliance

Eighty-eight percent of data-center executives interviewed in North America see islanding during outages as a competitive advantage, said a new report from Capgemini Research Institute.

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Reinventing Power Purchase Agreements For The AI Era

Having an understanding of the current and future landscape benefit power users and providers, as well as policymakers, utilities and investors seeking to understand how AI growth is reshaping electricity procurement and grid reliability.​

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Decade of Cheap Henry Hub Gas Coming to End, WoodMac Warns

Henry Hub price stability “underpinned the buildout of U.S. LNG export infrastructure and the expansion of gas-fired power generation now supporting AI-driven data center growth across the country”.

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Manufacturers and Data Centers Compete for Megawatts

A factory expansion and a hyperscale campus can now be bidding for capacity on the same substation, and the data center usually has the better contract terms, the faster capital, and the louder political backing.

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Sunrun Launches Distributed AI Data Center Pilot Backed By Existing Home Energy Generation

Sunrun is expanding the pilot to place numerous compute nodes in homes equipped with Sunrun solar and battery storage systems. Kind of the exact opposite of NIMBY.

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The Data Center Arc Isn’t Fracking. It’s Worse.

Tisha Schuller compares public opposition to data centers with public opposition to fracking. There is a major difference.

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Hyperscalers Taking Steps to Mitigate the Impacts of Their Skyrocketing Use of Natural Gas

The need to rapidly ramp up the availability of around-the-clock electricity to power their new data centers gives companies like Amazon Google, Meta and Microsoft little choice but to rely heavily on natural gas-fired generation, at least for the near term.

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$12.6M, 40K-Square-Foot Training Center Preps Veterans for Data Center Jobs

As the demand for data centers grows, so does the need for trained professionals.

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How a third-generation Texas oilman transformed an organic farming company into a leading advanced nuclear startup at a small Christian college

Nearly a decade ago, third-generation Texas oilman Doug Robison was plotting his retirement and the sale of his petroleum company when a trip to his children’s alma mater, Abilene Christian University, changed his career trajectory—at an atomic level.

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