2 Day Congress Live & Online: February 2027
Real Lessons In Balancing Water, Community & Power Trade-Offs
February 2027, Dallas Tx.
Real Lessons In Balancing Water, Community & Power Trade-Offs
February 2027, Dallas Tx.
As AI-scale data centers continue to expand, water is rapidly emerging as one of the most important — and least understood — factors shaping long-term growth, resilience, permitting, community confidence and infrastructure planning.
The conversation is often reduced to simple headlines around water consumption, water recycling, or cooling technologies. In reality, the challenge is far more interconnected. Decisions around cooling, power consumption, reclaimed water, drought resilience, permitting, regional infrastructure capacity and community expectations are increasingly influencing one another, often in ways that are not yet fully understood.
On 3 August 2026, Governor Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT to halt new data center grid interconnections until every pending project completes a full audit of its water use, power demand, cooling technology and community impact.
It is the clearest signal yet that water has moved from a technical footnote to the centre of the conversation.
Some argue that recycling and reclamation will solve the problem. Others point towards dry cooling, hybrid cooling or emerging technologies. Some regions are experiencing increasing scrutiny over water availability, whilst others — including a growing number of Permian Basin operators — are exploring entirely new approaches to sourcing and treating water. Including the reuse of produced water from the onshore oil and gas industry.
Yet despite the growing importance of the issue, there are still relatively few opportunities for all parties to openly discuss the trade-offs, practical realities and long-term implications together. This event has been designed to address that gap — and to do so at the exact moment the state itself is asking the same questions.
Bringing together data center developers, hyperscalers, co-location providers, water utilities, municipalities, regulators, infrastructure planners and technical specialists, the programme examines water not as an isolated issue, but as part of a connected operational system.
Using Texas as an important reference point — whilst drawing lessons from across North America and beyond — discussions will explore both the audit process now underway and the longer-term infrastructure decisions it is forcing into the open.
We very much look forward to welcoming you to Dallas this October.
For years, water was the assumption operators made once, early, and rarely revisited. That changed in a single summer.
Following Governor Abbott's directive, the PUCT and ERCOT are now reviewing every pending interconnection request against standards covering water sourcing, cooling technology, reuse commitments and community impact. For developers and hyperscalers with projects still in the queue, the practical questions this raises are no longer strategic. They are immediate.
Attendees will hear directly from operators, utilities and — wherever we can secure it — regulators, as they discuss:
Attendees will also hear directly from utilities, planners, and operators as they discuss:
Which Community Engagement Models Actually Reduce Resistance?
"Communities don't like surprises." — Infrastructure Developer
That shift became impossible to ignore this summer. A rally at the Texas Capitol brought together ranchers, farmers and community groups from across the political spectrum, united behind a single demand: pause new development until clearer rules exist.
Whatever side of the debate an attendee sits on, the lesson is the same — community concern is no longer a local planning issue that stays local. It reaches the state Capitol, and it reaches it fast.
At the same time, the industry is still learning.
What constitutes meaningful transparency? Which engagement approaches genuinely build trust? How early is early enough? And what can be learned from previous infrastructure expansions that encountered resistance?
This discussion moves beyond broad statements about stakeholder engagement and focuses on practical implementation experiences.
Attendees will gain insight into:
Water Reuse, Non-Potable Water & Operational Readiness
"Everybody talks about recycled water. Far fewer people talk about how to scale it quickly and what happens on a difficult operational day." — Data Center Operator
As AI infrastructure expands, the industry is increasingly moving beyond individual water solutions and towards a broader discussion around long-term water resilience.
Water reuse, reclamation, non-potable supplies, advanced treatment technologies, storage infrastructure, and contingency planning are all attracting significant attention. Yet operational experience remains relatively limited compared to the scale of growth being anticipated.
This is where many of the most valuable lessons are now emerging.
By bringing together strategic planning perspectives and real-world implementation experience, attendees will gain insight into how leading organizations are evaluating more resilient long-term water strategies through a combination of sourcing, treatment, reuse, storage, and contingency approaches.
Discussions will explore:
The conversation will also examine a less-discussed but highly important issue: water quality variability.
Differences in water chemistry can significantly influence corrosion rates, fouling behaviour, maintenance cycles, filtration requirements, equipment lifespan, and overall operational reliability.
As one engineering specialist told us:
"The water source matters. The treatment matters. But consistency matters just as much."
Attendees will therefore gain practical insight into:
Real Lessons On Operational Water Resilience Under Stress Conditions
Perhaps the most important question facing the industry is no longer whether a site can secure access to water.
The more important question is whether the broader water strategy can remain resilient over the next decade and beyond.
Case studies and Q&A will address the following questions:
Can AI-scale facilities continue operating under drought restrictions?
How do supply assumptions change without creating operational disruption?
Can operators maintain confidence among regulators, communities, and investors as scrutiny increases?
"Water access gets a project started. Water resilience keeps it operating." — Utility Planning Lead
As demand grows and climate pressures evolve, resilience is increasingly becoming the defining measure of infrastructure readiness.
Attendees will hear how utilities, developers, regulators, and operators are preparing for:
Discussions will focus on practical lessons from regions already living with these challenges and the approaches beginning to strengthen operational resilience before stress conditions occur.
AI Density, Future Cooling Assumptions & Water-Energy Trade-Offs
The assumptions underpinning AI infrastructure are changing rapidly.
Density expectations continue to evolve. Cooling requirements are shifting. Infrastructure planning horizons are extending. And many traditional design assumptions are being reassessed.
The implications extend well beyond cooling technology alone.
They influence power demand, water consumption, redundancy requirements, infrastructure design, operational flexibility, and long-term expansion options.
This creates a growing need for facilities to build greater optionality into future infrastructure strategies.
Attendees will hear operators discuss:
Because ultimately, the challenge is no longer simply choosing the right cooling technology. You explained that it is about understanding how water, power, resilience, growth, and future infrastructure requirements interact over the lifetime of the facility.
As one reduced-water cooling technology entrepreneur told us:
"Many of the most important infrastructure conversations begin long before there is industry consensus. I'd argue that's exactly where next-generation cooling technologies sit today."
Of course, the next question raised repeatedly throughout our research was equally predictable:
"That's great. But what are the power trade-offs?"
And that's precisely where the discussion becomes interesting.
The sector is still building practical experience.
Approaches vary significantly between regions. Assumptions continue to evolve. Yet the strategic importance of the topic is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Our objective is therefore simple: to create a conversation where the industry can openly discuss what is working, where uncertainty remains, and what lessons may help shape more resilient infrastructure decisions in the years ahead.
From long-term water planning and drought resilience to alternative sourcing strategies, treatment frameworks, community engagement, and infrastructure coordination, this conference has been designed to accelerate industry learning at a time when assumptions are evolving rapidly.
Register early to take advantage of discounted delegate rates.
