The pace of data center development accelerated in 2024, raising questions about how to power these energy-hungry behemoths. Natural-gas-fired plants are a go-to approach to helping local utilities provide the reliable, around-the-clock electricity that large-scale data centers need. Now, two giant oil and gas companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron, want to do something they’ve never done before: build gas-fired plants and sell power exclusively to data centers. And some utilities are partnering with big-tech companies on power plants of their own. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss data center power needs and the unusual notion of building big gas plants to serve those customers.