Corporate energy buyers have quietly become one of the most consequential forces shaping the U.S. electricity system. By the end of 2025, members of the Corporate Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) had procured more than 130 GW of carbon-free electricity in the U.S.—a footprint comparable to the combined generating capacity of California and Texas—and roughly double that globally.

In this episode of The POWER Podcast, CEBA CEO Rich Powell joins POWER Executive Editor Aaron Larson for a wide-ranging conversation on how hyperscalers, manufacturers, retailers, and other large electricity users are responding to unprecedented demand growth and reshaping corporate procurement in the process.

Topics covered include:

• Why CEBA is "big tent" on clean technology, and how solar, nuclear, wind, geothermal, hydro, gas with carbon capture, and even fusion PPAs all figure into the mix

• How AI-driven data center growth—and the chip fabs supplying them—are layering onto existing trends in electrification and internet expansion

• The four-pronged nuclear revival: reactor restarts, license renewals, uprates, and advanced reactor bets on X-energy, Kairos, TerraPower, Oklo, and light-water SMRs

• The Ratepayer Protection Pledge and how large buyers are addressing concerns that data centers push costs onto residential customers

• Why ERCOT remains CEBA's "North Star" market, and how hybrid deals combining firm capacity with clean energy attributes are changing PPA structures

• The rise of flexibility as a corporate procurement category, including demand-side management, on-site storage, and virtual power plants

• How rising tariffs and supply chain inflation are squeezing solar, wind, and gas project economics

• Powell's top policy ask: fundamental, legislatively codified reform of federal permitting and transmission planning

A candid look at where the corporate clean energy market stands today—and what it will take to keep pace with the AI era.

After decades of flat electricity demand, the U.S. power sector is suddenly racing to keep up—and rural electric cooperatives are on the front lines. In this episode of The POWER Podcast, Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), joins executive editor Aaron Larson to discuss how roughly 900 co-ops serving 42 million people across 48 states are navigating surging data center load, supply chain pressures, and a shifting regulatory landscape.

Matheson explains what makes the co-op model distinctive—not-for-profit, consumer-owned, and locally governed—and why affordability isn't a talking point but an operational imperative for utilities that serve 92% of America's persistent poverty counties. He then digs into the generation debate, drawing a key distinction between always-available sources like coal, gas, and nuclear, and intermittent resources like wind and solar, and makes the case for local flexibility over federal one-size-fits-all mandates.

Other topics covered in the conversation include:

• Why Matheson believes viable power plants shouldn't be retired before replacement capacity is in place.

• The long-term outlook for nuclear, the status of small modular reactors, and a notable Michigan plant restart driven by two co-ops.

• Where energy storage fits today—and what a true long-duration breakthrough would unlock.

• How global supply chain pressures and tariffs are driving up costs on everything from turbines to meters.

• NRECA's 2026 policy priorities, including EPA rule rollbacks, permitting reform, raising the USDA Rural Utilities Service lending cap, and FEMA reform.

• The contractual and operational complexity of onboarding hyperscale data center loads, and why existing consumers shouldn't subsidize them.

• How roughly 200 co-ops are now bringing broadband to underserved rural areas—a modern echo of 1930s rural electrification.

Whether you're tracking the AI-driven load boom, policy developments in Washington, or the unique role cooperatives play in the U.S. electric sector, this conversation offers a clear-eyed view from someone who represents member-owned utilities covering 54% of the nation's land mass.

Cassidy DeLine has spent more than 16 years developing renewable power plants. As the founder and CEO of Linea Energy, she's built an independent power producer with a pipeline exceeding 7 GW in roughly two years—a pace she calls "a bit unrivaled" for a company of its size and age. On this episode of The POWER Podcast, DeLine sits down with executive editor Aaron Larson to explain how Linea got there and where it's headed next.

At the core of Linea's approach is a commitment to better information, earlier. Most developers don't get detailed site data, such as wetland boundaries, topography, and transmission characteristics, until after leases are signed and field teams are deployed. Linea has built proprietary simulations to surface that information before a single landowner conversation takes place, giving its team a sharper picture of risk before committing capital.

That discipline extends to how the company handles offtake. Unlike most developers, Linea is comfortable advancing projects without a power purchase agreement (PPA) locked in. DeLine explains why signing a PPA too early can actually create risk, particularly in a market where tariff volatility and shifting capital costs have burned developers who fixed the revenue side before they had certainty on expenses.

The conversation also covers Linea's growing role in the data center space. The company is doing bespoke energy development for data center operators and, in some cases, developing the data center itself. But DeLine is candid about the engineering challenges: artificial intelligence (AI) inference workloads cause demand to swing on a microsecond basis, which is fundamentally different from what the grid was built to handle. Linea has developed battery-and-inverter solutions to smooth those rapid fluctuations, guided by a simple principle: the lights have to stay on.

DeLine shares her perspective on battery storage as a grid resource, the maturing but still incomplete renewable energy capital markets, the interconnection queue bottleneck, and what it means to commit to communities for a 40-year ownership horizon. She also discusses why Linea is evaluating small modular reactor technology—not because the economics work today, but because projects started now won't come online until the 2030s, and she wants to be ready for where the market is heading.

Whether you're in development, finance, policy, or just following the energy transition, this is a conversation worth hearing.

After 22 years at IBM, where he rose to senior vice president and director of IBM Research, Dr. Dario Gil now leads one of the most ambitious science and technology initiatives in a generation. As the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Under Secretary for Science and director of the Genesis Mission, Gil is orchestrating a convergence of high-performance computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing aimed at transforming how America does science and engineering.

The Genesis Mission rests on a straightforward premise: a computing revolution is underway, and the U.S. should harness it to double the productivity of its trillion-dollar-a-year research and development engine within a decade. The initiative is built on three pillars: a platform for accelerating discovery anchored in high-performance computing, AI supercomputing, and quantum computing; a portfolio of national challenges in energy, physical sciences, and national security; and a university engagement effort to rethink how future scientists and engineers are educated in the age of AI.

Gil offered fusion energy as a prime example of how AI can compress timelines. By training neural networks on validated simulation data, researchers can build surrogate models that run thousands to tens of thousands of times faster, allowing engineers to iterate on reactor designs in hours rather than months. AI is also being applied to real-time plasma control through collaborative work involving Google DeepMind and Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

On the grid, Gil shared two striking examples. The DOE's Office of Electricity is developing AI agents to help developers fix deficient interconnection applications—which account for 80% to 90% of submissions—potentially accelerating studies by up to a year. Meanwhile, Brookhaven National Laboratory's Grid FM emulator can speed power flow calculations by 100x, compressing what would be 20 years of conventional analysis of the Texas transmission grid into roughly two months.

Gil was candid about the tension between AI as an energy solution and AI as a source of surging electricity demand, noting that planned data centers now reach gigawatt scale. The path forward, he said, involves optimizing the existing grid, accelerating nuclear energy, investing in fusion, and driving major efficiency gains in AI hardware.

New supercomputing infrastructure is already being built through the Genesis Consortium, a partnership of 27 industrial players. Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories are each standing up large GPU clusters this year, with a 100,000-GPU system planned for Argonne in 2027—the largest science-oriented cluster in the world.

Asked what success looks like, Gil pointed to the AlphaFold story: 50 years of work produced 200,000 protein structures, then AI predicted 200 million in two years. Success, he said, will mean 50 to 100 comparable breakthroughs across all domains of science within three to five years.

With federal tax credits under threat and regulatory stability in short supply, Bala Nagarajan, managing director of the energy investments team at S2G Investments, explained what he looks for in a company. "Is the product or the solution sold by this business cheaper, faster, better than the incumbent solution?" he asked. If so, it's worth considering. If not, the investment may not be a fit. His team heavily discounts any business case that depends on policy incentives. The message for entrepreneurs: build something that wins on its own economics first, and treat incentives as upside rather than a foundation.

Speaking as a guest on The POWER Podcast, Nagarajan introduced the concept of "anti-fragile businesses"—companies whose value propositions can withstand geopolitical shocks, policy reversals, and economic downturns. His showcase example was Aerones, a portfolio company that uses robots to repair wind turbine blades. The thesis: there is an enormous existing fleet that needs maintenance, qualified technicians are scarce and expensive, and the work is dangerous. A robotic solution that is cheaper, faster, and safer represents exactly the kind of durable opportunity S2G seeks.

For most of Nagarajan's 17-year career in energy, demand growth was gradual, tied to long-horizon electrification trends in homes, transportation, and manufacturing. AI data centers have compressed that timeline dramatically. The demand for new electrons "is knocking on our doors today," he said. This surge, combined with constrained supply, has created a dynamic that many believe will keep power prices high for a long time. S2G prefers skepticism. "What if things change?" Nagarajan asked. "How well will our underwrite hold up in the midst of potential changes?"

Where is investor enthusiasm strongest? Grid-enhancing technologies. Rather than building new generation capacity, the market wants solutions that make the existing grid better—advanced conductors, grid-enhancing software, and solid-state transformers. Conversely, the "power-to-X" sector—green hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, and similar products relying on cheap clean electricity—is struggling as rising power prices undermine their economics.

The gap between well-capitalized developers and smaller players is also widening. Only developers with deep balance sheets can afford to "Safe Harbor" equipment—purchasing materials early to lock in expiring tax credit incentives. Smaller developers are being forced to sell projects or abandon them, driving capital toward established brands.

Nagarajan also suggested natural gas is no longer a bridge fuel. Given demand for gas turbines from hyperscalers and the signals from manufacturers like GE Vernova and Siemens Energy, gas is firmly embedded in the energy mix. The consequence, he argued, is that emissions will rise, driving significant demand for high-integrity carbon credits—a space he is personally bullish on.

His overarching message is one of disciplined optimism. The energy sector is experiencing a rare convergence of rising demand, constrained supply, and deep pools of capital. But the winners will be those who resist underwriting to today's enthusiasm and instead back businesses that can thrive regardless of which way the policy winds blow.

The power industry's workforce crisis is well documented — an aging labor force, too few new recruits, and a surge of infrastructure investment that's only widening the gap. But on this episode of The POWER Podcast, two guests offer a practical blueprint for closing it.

Derek O'Connor, Workforce Development Manager in the Office for Research and Innovation at Stony Brook University, and Rosalie Drago, Vice President for External Affairs and Strategic Engagement at Haugland Group, discuss the suite of workforce programs they've built together — from a paid summer experience for high school students called Taste of the Trades, to drone piloting certification, HVDC power systems training, an energy cybersecurity program, and EmpowerHER, a program designed to bring young women into the construction trades.

Their model is built on a simple but powerful insight: many high school students need to earn income over the summer, which steers them toward retail and food-service jobs instead of career-building experiences. By braiding together government youth employment funding, industry sponsorship, and university research expertise, the Stony Brook–Haugland partnership pays students to explore energy and infrastructure careers — and then offers them a clear pathway from that first exposure all the way through college and into the workforce.

O'Connor and Drago share real student success stories, explain how they've adapted their curriculum to a shifting energy landscape, and make the case that every community in the country already has the building blocks to replicate what they've done. They also discuss why investing in teacher training and community education delivers returns that go well beyond filling open positions.

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The event returns at a pivotal moment for the energy sector. With national energy policy undergoing rapid transformation, federal incentives shifting, and geopolitical pressures reshaping global trade, the stakes for market participants have never been higher. From new tax structures to tariffs and a renewed emphasis on baseload generation, decision-makers are navigating profound changes that will impact the U.S. and global power markets.

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Be a part of the conversations shaping the future of power markets.

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Operators of aging F-class units face a narrowing window to plan for rotor life extensions as supply chains tighten and demand surges.

The late 1990s and early 2000s marked a frenetic period in American power generation. Deregulation opened the floodgates for independent power producers racing to bring quick-build gas turbine plants online. GE’s 7FA and 7EA units became go‑to resources for this expansion, with the manufacturer more than tripling its annual heavy‑duty gas turbine production capacity to meet surging demand.

Now, a quarter-century later, those turbines are approaching critical end-of-life thresholds—just as an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven surge in electricity demand is pushing them harder than ever. Industry experts warn that operators who fail to plan for rotor life extensions could find themselves in serious trouble.

“If you’re not thinking two to three years down the road on your rotor, then you’re already behind, because that’s how long it’s going to take to manufacture those wheels,” Jason Wheeler, General Manager of Gas Turbine Rotor Repairs at MD&A, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast.

A Perfect Storm of Constraints

The urgency stems from a confluence of factors that have compressed the window for action. The 7FA fleet, which was deployed en masse during what industry veterans call “the bubble,” is now reaching the hour and cycle limits that the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) established for critical rotor components. At the same time, the power generation sector is experiencing a demand renaissance driven by data center construction and electrification.

Dave Fernandes, MD&A’s Gas Turbine Program Manager, experienced the original boom firsthand as a GE field engineer specializing in 7F and 9F units from 1996 to 2001. He sees important differences between then and now.

“There seems to be a lot more concrete reasons and a much stronger foundation for this current bubble than the previous one that took place two and a half decades ago,” Fernandes said. “There are a lot of things that are all stacking up at the same time that put more of an emphasis on getting out in front of extending the life of your current assets now, probably more than ever.”

Supply chains have become particularly challenging. The specialized superalloy forgings required for turbine wheels are produced by a limited number of facilities worldwide, and those forging houses are simultaneously serving aerospace, military, and new power generation equipment markets.

“You’re going to be competing with those new unit sales across various industries in an attempt to get in line with what is perceived from some angles as higher priorities,” Fernandes explained. “That further complicates the scenario that the customer base is facing when they’re trying to extend the rotor life of their existing assets.”

Rayburn Electric Cooperative faced three years of power costs in five days during the 2021 storm. The experience transformed the organization’s approach to risk, generation assets, and long-term planning.

When Winter Storm Uri swept across Texas in February 2021, Rayburn Electric Cooperative found itself staring down a crisis that would reshape the organization’s entire operational philosophy. The generation and transmission cooperative, which serves approximately 625,000 Texans across 16 counties northeast of Dallas, incurred three years’ worth of power costs in just five days.

“Bankruptcy was certainly one of the options on the table,” David Naylor, president and CEO of Rayburn Electric Cooperative, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “We were thankful we didn’t have to go that route. We were able to come up with a solution where we paid everything we owed—and then we took a hard look in the mirror and asked ourselves what we needed to do differently.”

That self-evaluation led to strategic decisions that fundamentally shifted Rayburn’s power supply operations, transforming the cooperative from an organization with minimal owned generation resources into one that now owns and operates a major power plant—with another under construction.

From Crisis to Acquisition

Within two years of Uri, Rayburn acquired the Panda Sherman Power Plant, a 758-MW natural gas–fired combined cycle facility located just outside the cooperative’s service territory. The acquisition doubled Rayburn’s balance sheet, but Naylor said the plant checked critical boxes that emerged from the cooperative’s post-Uri analysis.

“When we looked at who benefited from Uri—or at least came out of it in a solid situation—it was the people who owned generation assets, and whose units ran,” Naylor explained. “The Panda Sherman plant performed great during Winter Storm Uri. It had room for additional capacity if we wanted to expand in the future. And for someone that was staring bankruptcy in the face a couple years earlier, winning that auction over several private equity companies was a tremendous success.”

Building for Growth

One concern Rayburn had when acquiring the Panda Sherman plant—now called Rayburn Energy Station (RES)—was its size. Leadership initially projected the cooperative wouldn’t grow into the plant’s capacity until 2030 or later. That timeline proved wildly optimistic.

“We’re projecting 25% growth over the next 10 years, and that’s not counting any data centers or large loads—just normal organic growth,” Naylor said. “We grew into Rayburn Energy Station a lot faster than we anticipated.”

That rapid growth prompted Rayburn to begin construction on a second gas plant at the same site. The cooperative secured turbines and transformers under contract in late 2024, with a commercial operation date targeted for June 2028. According to Naylor, the timing proved fortuitous: suppliers indicated that waiting just a couple more months would have resulted in significantly higher costs and delivery dates pushed out by three to four years.

The project is supported in part by the Texas Energy Fund, a $10 billion pool of low-cost loans created by the Texas Legislature after Uri to incentivize new dispatchable generation. Of more than 125 initial applicants, only 17 were selected to advance—and Rayburn is the only cooperative among them.

As electricity demand from data centers continues to surge, a persistent question has dogged the industry: Are residential ratepayers footing the bill for massive tech infrastructure? According to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and an independent study it commissioned, the answer is a definitive no.

As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Mandy Ulrich, senior manager of energy and water for Americas East at AWS, outlined the company’s energy strategy and discussed findings from a study by Energy and Environmental Economics Inc. (E3) that examined how Amazon data centers impact local power systems.

Study Finds Data Centers Generate Surplus Revenue

The E3 study evaluated Amazon data centers across a diverse set of utility territories, including large investor-owned utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Dominion Energy, mid-size utilities like Entergy, and cooperatives such as Umatilla Electric Cooperative in the Pacific Northwest.

“The simple answer is that Amazon data centers are not being subsidized by other utility customers,” Ulrich said. The study projects that Amazon’s data centers will generate $33,500/MW of surplus value in 2025, increasing to $60,650/MW by 2030.

For a typical 100-MW Amazon data center, that translates to $3.4 million in surplus revenues in 2025 and approximately $6.1 million by 2030. These surplus funds—revenues above the utility’s regulated rate of return—can be used by utilities to modernize grid infrastructure, improving reliability for all customers.

Grid Investment Benefits All Customers

The study found that Amazon data centers are driving investments in grid infrastructure that support not just their own operations but also local residential and commercial growth. Ulrich pointed to Entergy Mississippi as a prime example, where the utility is using investments from Amazon and other large customers to fund a $300 million “Superpower Mississippi” grid reliability campaign—at no cost to residential customers—targeting a 50% reduction in outages within five years.

Innovative Rate Structures Prevent Cost-Shifting

While the E3 study validates that existing rate policies have been effective in preventing cross-subsidization, Ulrich emphasized that AWS continues to work with utilities on innovative approaches to ensure large industrial customers pay their fair share.

She highlighted a Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) project as a “groundbreaking model.” Under this first-of-its-kind agreement, Amazon is investing in 3 GW of electrical capacity, with 2.4 GW dedicated to data center operations and 600 MW reserved specifically to support grid reliability for all NIPSCO customers.

The structure creates a separate generation company (GenCo) that operates under a “commercial contract term,” Ulrich explained. By operating as a separate entity, GenCo isolates the cost of new growth to data centers. “The data center companies that drive new demand for electricity will fund the generation and transmission infrastructure they require, ensuring that regular customers don’t shoulder those costs, even if the customer leaves before contract completion,” NIPSCO said in a Nov. 24 press release.

“NIPSCO’s existing customers will have no financial responsibility for powering Amazon data centers,” Ulrich said. NIPSCO said, “This structure is expected to provide value to customers by generating approximately $1 billion in cost savings that will be returned to current NIPSCO customers as credits on monthly electric bills over the project’s 15-year duration.”