Exploring Data Center Planning, Politics, and Energy Demand

Exploring the complexities of data center planning, procurement, and the impact on electricity demand, prices, and Bitcoin mining operations, with a discussion on accountability in scenarios of rising electricity demand before new capacity is built. Listeners are encouraged to subscribe to the premium feed for more insights on this topic.

Transcript

chevron_right

Play full episode

chevron_right

Transcript

Episode notes

In Episode 368 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Brian Janous. Brian is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Cloverleaf Infrastructure. With over 20 years of experience in the electricity and data center industries, Brian is the perfect person to talk to about the growth in electricity demand being forecasted by North American grid planners as they try to get ahead of several converging trends in the energy space, including the rapid buildout of AI data centers, the onshoring of new industrial capacity, and the introduction of more intermittent sources of energy like wind and solar onto the grid.

The first hour begins with a conversation about electric power and what we mean when we talk about “The Grid.” What are the important pieces—both in terms of operating concerns, like private utilities and regulatory bodies, as well as physical systems like power stations, electrical substations, and transmission lines—that comprise the electric grid? How do all of these pieces come together to support the functioning of a modern economy and what are the challenges inherent in trying to update and expand such a complex and interconnected system?

In the second part of their conversation, Kofinas and Janous discuss what the planning and procurement process for new data centers looks like from the perspective of tech companies and what sorts of opportunities may exist to invest around this anticipated boom in data center development and operations. We also discuss how a precipitous rise in electricity demand driven by a boom in data center usage without a concurrent increase in new capacity to service it could lead to substantial cost increases for households and a series of hard choices for policymakers and politicians facing angry constituents in the years to come.

You can subscribe to our premium content and access our premium feed, episode transcripts, and Intelligence Reports at HiddenForces.io/subscribe.

If you want to join in on the conversation and become a member of the Hidden Forces Genius community, which includes Q&A calls with guests, access to special research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners, you can also do that on our subscriber page at HiddenForces.io/subscribe.

If you enjoyed listening to today’s episode of Hidden Forces, you can help support the show by doing the following:

Write us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify

Subscribe to our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/

Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

Subscribe and Support the Podcast at https://hiddenforces.io

Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod

Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas

Episode Recorded on 06/17/2024