Horizons Live: Breaking the speed limit | Webinar replay

This month’s Horizons report explores one of the defining infrastructure challenges of the AI era: whether US power systems can scale quickly enough to support explosive data centre growth. Our Horizons Live brought together an expert panel that debated the key points from the report and answered your questions live. 

The US power sector is under mounting pressure. Surging AI investment and intensifying geopolitical competition are driving unprecedented demand for data centre capacity, while transmission bottlenecks, generation shortfalls and regulatory uncertainty threaten to slow development. As hyperscalers race to secure power, grid operators and developers are being forced into difficult trade-offs between speed, reliability and cost.

Transmission expansion is underway across major US power markets, with tens of billions of dollars committed to new infrastructure. But even under accelerated timelines, many projects remain five to ten years away from completion. For data centre developers seeking near-term capacity, waiting for firm grid power may no longer be commercially viable.

In response, a growing number of operators are pursuing alternative pathways to power. Conditional grid interconnections, onsite generation and large-scale collocation strategies are emerging as interim solutions to bridge the gap between AI demand and grid readiness. Yet these approaches introduce significant operational, technical and regulatory risk.

More than 90 GW of collocated generation is now moving through US interconnection queues, signalling how rapidly the industry is shifting toward bring-your-own-generation models. But powering hyperscale AI workloads alongside generation assets at this scale remains largely untested. Concerns around system stability, equipment performance, interruption risk and evolving market rules are creating uncertainty for developers, investors and grid operators alike.

This Horizons Live session brought together our experts to examine how US electricity markets are adapting to unprecedented data centre demand growth, and what the implications could be for infrastructure investment, power prices, reliability and the future competitiveness of AI development.

Key themes included:

• The race for grid power: how transmission build-outs and generation shortages are shaping data centre development timelines across US power markets
• The limits of deregulated markets: why PJM, ERCOT and other regions face growing tension between affordability, reliability and investment incentives
• Conditional interconnection and collocation strategies: how developers are using onsite generation and flexible load arrangements to accelerate deployment
• Technical and operational risks: the engineering challenges associated with collocating volatile AI workloads with gas generation and battery systems
• Regulatory uncertainty and market intervention: how evolving grid rules could reshape project economics, asset valuations and long-term infrastructure planning
• Implications for developers and investors: which business models are best positioned to scale as the AI-driven power demand boom accelerates

The panel:

• Chris Seiple, Vice Chairman, Energy Transition and Power & Renewables
• Ben Hertz-Shargel, Global Head of Grid Transformation & Large Load
• Nina Sadighi, Founder of Eradeh Power Consulting

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