Helping Utilities Define, Not Just Defend, How Data Centers Connect, Consume, And Coexist

This agenda hasn’t been designed as a series of bolt-on “grid sessions” tacked onto a data center conference. Instead, grid integration has been woven throughout the entire program. Every talk title reflects your priorities—ensuring that data centers, utilities, and grid operators all approach the challenges of AI demand and grid capacity from the same page. The goal is to frame discussions where requirements are clear, aligned, and actionable.

Managing the Collision of AI Growth and Urban Demand

Sessions will address not only AI workload design but also resilience, demand flexibility, and how to manage the scale of a 300-megawatt campus. The discussions will prioritize how alternatives—particularly on-site generation—fit into planning models, and how interconnection and permitting can be streamlined. For utilities, these issues are central to managing the collision between exponential AI demand and the realities of local industrial and urban growth.

Closing the Gaps in Gulf Coast Grid Resilience

Texas exemplifies this challenge. In Houston, utilities must serve AI data centers while also meeting the load of refineries, LNG, and heavy industry. Several sessions will explore the idea of “grid harmonies”—how to meet the needs of both AI and the city without tipping into overload. Utilities have emphasized during our research that transformer lead times and supply chain constraints hit Gulf Coast markets hardest, where industrial overlaps are weakest.

Aligning Local & Renewable Transmission with AI Load Timing

The agenda also considers the broader picture: how to balance AI data center growth with local and renewable integration. For electricity providers, this means ensuring that renewable transmission capacity is not just available, but aligned lear, need-to-know briefing that gives everyone, from grid operators to developers, the practical insight to act with confidence. 

Storm Risk as a Planning Assumption, Not an Afterthought

Storm risk adds another layer. Gulf Coast facilities must integrate on-site generation and backup systems robust enough for AI loads in hurricane-prone areas. Everyone accepts that Texas will face major storms in the next decade—likely on an annual cycle. Sessions will focus on ensuring that data centers and grid providers design with this inevitability in mind, not as a contingency but as a core planning assumption.