Alaska Energy Conference 2026-05-19 - part 3

It's not enforceable, right? So we don't audit utilities to it the way we would a reliability standard. But it does lay out a very clear expectation of what utilities should be doing in terms of modeling, commissioning loads, making sure that there's good interchange of information between the load and the utility so that as the the load operates, the grid operators know what's going on and can manage the load and the rest of the system to, again, promote reliability. Great, thank you. Senator, appreciate you joining us.

So please tell us about the mission and structure of the AI Infrastructure Coalition. I think it was set up, was it November of this past year? Yes, so we did our big launch last fall, but we actually started the AIIC, AI Infrastructure Coalition, In February of 2025, a friend of mine who works at Microsoft approached me literally on my last night in the United States Senate, and he said, you know, we've got this challenge that we're facing nationally in that there's no one who's brought together the entire tech stack from the funders to the hyperscalers and the modelers and the data center companies themselves, the energy companies. And then, you know, the cable guys and the staffing. Like, we need everyone together in the room to create an ecosystem for the AI infrastructure buildout in our country.

And he said, will you help? I said, yeah, call me back on January 3rd after 12 noon when I'm a private citizen and I will help you build this. And so I recruited former Congressman Garrett Graves of Louisiana, who retired at the same time as me. And I said, we're going to chair this and work on this together. So we formed a first of its kind trade association.

And our goal is to create the national, the national ecosystem to advance American AI dominance. So we want to ensure that the policies that the administration and Congress are putting forth are the policies that support and propel American AI dominance. And what we found was that while there are a whole host of policy issues that are important to be decided, the number one bottleneck that we faced is energy. And so we work really close with the National Energy Dominance Council, which is housed inside the White House, helmed by the very capable Jared Agin. We work closely with Secretary Burgum, who I know is presenting later this afternoon.

And our goal is to, again, again, help shape the federal landscape to ensure that American AI can, can be built and can operate and is the dominant AI force in our, in our globe. So, it's really fun and exciting work, and we are really excited about Alaska entering that conversation and growing to be an AI data center powerhouse. Right, because you know that we have at least one data center here already. You could have so many. Exactly.

And I am here to help that. It's very exciting. Um, and I'm just going to give a quick plug to your fantastic governor who is on point and understands how important this is for Alaska's future, not just from an economic perspective, from national security, for long-term innovation and growth. Like, it's super exciting for for you to have a governor and your senators who are leaning in so, so forward-thinking on this, which is again a huge contrast to what we're seeing in some other parts of the nation. So, well, and speaking of politics on the national level, and thank you for taking it down to the state as well, but we're going to move quickly back up to the national level because President Trump and 7 major tech companies recently signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

So tell us briefly what that means and what we can So this is fantastic. This really started, again, with Microsoft. So Microsoft reached out to the White House and said, we want to do a big kind of splash to share with America about our commitment as we're moving forward on this innovation agenda. And part of that commitment is that we will cover our own energy costs, not just what it— not just the ratepayer protection to ensure that your costs don't go up as consumers, but we also want to be a part of building out the grid and increasing resiliency and ensuring that there's long-term, you know, strength and health in the system. And the president, of course, was like, this is fantastic.

The president and Microsoft launched this effort. Most of the other hyperscalers joined in, and they've announced that they intend to help build out the grid, increase resiliency, and ensure that average consumers are not paying more for this buildout of AI and tech and innovation. And this is a really, really important endeavor because Americans are being fed misinformation that is being driven by China, convincing Americans that the increase in their energy costs is due to AI data centers, when the fact is the opposite, that the growth of AI data centers in states where we've seen the biggest growth, like Virginia, has actually decreased costs for consumers and has provided tax revenue that has dramatically changed the landscape for these communities, funding additional fire and police services and schools and building more roads. It's actually increasing the value for homeowners and decreasing their energy costs. Companies like Georgia Power have announced, for instance, that when they finish their energy grid buildout and their increase, it's going to lower costs for every consumer across the state.

But the misinformation train is running fast, and we know this. It is fueled by the People's Republic of China, and it is convincing Americans wrongly that their costs are going up because of data centers, when in fact it's either neutral or actually lowering costs. And so the Ratepayer Protection Pledge is a really important part of the president's agenda and the major hyperscalers' agenda. To make sure that Americans know your costs are not going to go up. But what is going to go up is the convenience of your life.

You know, the average American accesses a data center 100 times a day. Now, they don't know that, but your phone is basically the remote control to access the data center, and the data center is the cloud. So sometimes people will say to me, well, I don't like data centers. I keep all of my data in the cloud. Well, yeah, honey, that's what a data center is.

We should just repaint them to look like clouds, right? Senator, I'm giving you 5 seconds. Oh, I'm done. That's it. Sorry.

It's, it's hard to cut off a former senator, but I know we've got a lot of great things to talk about. Here we go. Appreciate that. So going back to the state level, we have David Terry and he's with an organization that I call NASIO, but that's only because I've been in the industry a long time. And I understand that you have a board member in the audience.

We do. We're very fortunate to have Curtis Thayer from the Alaska Energy Authority here in the audience, one of our 56 state and territory members. Wonderful. Well, David, tell us briefly about the National Association of State Energy Offices and its role in supporting energy offices and maybe about working with the Alaska Energy Authority on this topic. You bet.

Happy to. NASEO has been around for decades. We have all 56 states and territories as members. Governors in each state designate the office. As I'm fond of saying about states, when you've met one, you've met one.

They're all different, but that's what makes the job great, and it's what makes the country great, I think. We focus on all energy issues. It is truly all of the above. It's oil, gas, nuclear, geothermal, critical minerals, major industrial efficiency, building efficiency items, certainly data center, but especially especially the grid. We work with NERC a lot, certainly.

Jim and his team are critical to this operation. Every state has a set of policies that's a little bit different, but most of them are really similar to what the governor outlined earlier. They're around economic development from an energy perspective and thinking about what the community needs, about affordability. So many things that the senator just mentioned in terms of the grid are complicated. I think they're being— many people are being misinformed.

One of the things that our office has helped do is really be able to level set, provide a good neutral set of information, inform their governors, inform their legislators in all of these areas. One place in particular I would point out, we have activities around grid optimization, growing power on the grid, etc., but energy security as well. And I think the importance of AI both in helping with security and insecurity is really critical. So there are a lot of pieces here that are beyond the nuance and beyond the sort of misinformation you see, and I think we have a lot of great opportunity— really once-in-a-generation opportunity here. Well, I will say, as a utility person, it gives me comfort to hear you raise the energy security issue.

So I do have a follow-up question for you, and you touched on this in your comments. In your view, which states have successfully developed policies and economic development frameworks that support data center load growth? Which states might we consider to look toward? Sure. There are a lot.

It's a fast-moving target. I think Virginia, because the preponderance of data centers, you've certainly all read about that. Once you see it in person, you really get a flavor for that. We've learned a lot. I think Governor— former Governor Youngkin took major steps in terms of power addition and also thinking about the protection of consumers.

Now Governor Spanberger, I think, is making really important steps here around load flexibility and utilization of the grid. Those are important, both policies and legislation that have been passed in Virginia over the last 2 years. We can learn a lot from them. Similarly, Indiana, I think, has taken really similar steps. The governor and the legislature have moved around utilization issues in terms of load flexibility across major large loads that really utilize the grid to a greater degree than it is.

It's an unusual— a machine, if you will, and that we underutilize it, which goes to some of the opportunity to lower cost. The other place that they're working, though, is advancing new power additions, advanced nuclear, reconductoring of transmission lines with advanced conductors. Both legislatively and the policy front, you see that. Really distinct from regulation. Regulation is critically important in terms of protecting consumers for regulated power, but the policy direction the Governor said are critical.

I would name two other quick states to note. In Louisiana, the governor's worked really steadily on not only nuclear and power additions, but what they can do here and now to lower costs. I think those are three good examples, and certainly the kind of siting and permitting issues that Governor Dunleavy just raised a moment ago, those are front and center. We see that at the state level. Federal permitting reform is the number one policy priority for our organization, in fact.

And we testified recently on that. Very good. Thank you. So Venkat, back to you. You have been to Alaska several times in your work with NRECA, and you're very familiar with our unique electric energy landscape.

What opportunities might we consider as we look toward a future of potentially having more data centers in the state? Yeah. And Alaska, you know, to start with what Governor Dunleavy as he said in his opening speech, it's blessed with a lot of natural resources and a lot of infrastructure. He gave a lot of illustrations as to, you know, examples of that. And that is really the starting point.

You know, when you look at a data center, there is a must-have— 4 things are must-have: land, water, power, and fiber, you know, connections. So obviously, you know, Alaska is blessed with a lot of abundant land and water, and the fiber connections are also growing. Power, of course, is based on demand. So that is something that needs to be brought in. But one of the— couple of things here.

One is Alaska, most of Alaska's are independent microgrids, right? So you all, by far, when compared to the rest of the nation, have planning and operating experience for microgrids. Look at a data center. They have onsite generation and they have grid connected. So microgrid, yes.

Microgrid possibilities, yes. So that is a— that is some huge experience that you can leverage as an opportunity to do so. And then, of course, the first data centers, a lot of data centers were done in Scandinavia for a reason, cooler climate, and Alaska, I learned, can get tad cold. So I— so that is another opportunity there in terms of cooling efficiencies and things like that. The other thing I want to go back to, the Senator said there's an economic boost that comes in with data centers, right?

Construction, hospitality industry, you know, food service, professional employment, tech workforce, you know, all of that comes in. So that is an opportunity again to attract data centers and be able to do that. Now, there are some challenges. Workforce is a challenge, attracting workforce. I know there's a panel after this on workforce, and, and certainly it will be discussed there also.

But then the question is, how do you attract that workforce to do so? One thing I do want to say is that going back to the AI, I think the question was asked of the earlier panel on what is the AI use cases, right? So, so if you look at AI from a data center perspective, yes, data center— one of the big reasons for data centers is the growth in AI, but then you can turn around and use that AI to better serve the data centers, more efficiencies, right? And then automation in lieu or augment the workforce as needed. You know, there are a lot of use cases in AI that will both serve the data centers and make the utilities operate more efficiently.

So I think that's another opportunity that comes with it. So I'm gonna stop there for now, but I do have other things we can talk about. Wow, you got us thinking about a lot of things though in a short amount of time. Thank you. So, kind of switching gears a little bit, we'll move to Jim.

Uh, Jim, what do you see as the next steps related to data centers and crypto mines from a reliability perspective? Yeah, so it's, it's very clear to us that, and as everyone on the panel has said in the previous panel, this is a generational opportunity, and the, the, the, the transformational benefits from society really dictate that we need to be in leadership role in bringing this— bringing these resources online. Here's the issue with data centers. So we have, in our long-term reliability assessment, we project something like 200 gigawatts of new load coming on the system related to a data center. That rolls off the tongue until you think that a gigawatt is a city the size of San Francisco.

So this is an enormous amount of power that's going to need to to be developed. And the loads themselves are extraordinary. You know, many data center campuses being talked about today by the hyperscalers may start at a gigawatt and may have plans to grow up to like 5, 10, even 15 gigawatts. That's like 15 nuclear units, right? So their behavior is very, very important to the reliability of the grid.

We've seen issues in Virginia, where— which is the largest concentration of data centers in the country, where small disturbances on the grid can cause the data centers to, in Elon Musk's words, freak out and trip offline and create a real imbalance in the grid that the grid operator needs to scramble to be able to restabilize. So our goal here is, over the course of this year, to develop the criteria that would say a data center— our proposal is over 20 megawatts with a megawatt of computational load connected at 60 kV or higher, a little geeky— would have to be registered with us. And then we're going to start working with them on developing the right sort of performance requirements so that they can, in, you know, layman's terms, kind of ride through these disturbances, because these disturbances happen all the time on the grid. And it's important that the data centers be able to ride through those as opposed to trip offline and then create an issue for the operators to manage. So that's our number one commitment, right, is to try to get those requirements identified by the end of this year and then work with them to kind of develop the mandatory requirements, if you will, so that not just the big hyperscalers who can do this and who will do this stuff, but every data center that meets that criteria threshold will have to have that same kind of capability.

And I think that's one of the most important things as we commission these loads, that we know how they're going to behave and that we can kind of make them behave in a way that doesn't create issues for the rest of the system. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Senator, what types of agreements are emerging between developers, utilities, and communities to address concerns that we've touched on in this panel, such as electrical infrastructure needs, water use, and overall project footprint?

It's so complicated. As I mentioned earlier, there's this well-funded misinformation campaign that has led to a significant rise NIMBYism, right? So not in my backyard. And we're seeing this kind of flow across the country right now, and it's highly problematic. You know, just earlier when we were talking about some of the great stuff that Virginia has done in the last couple of years, that is really great news.

However, the Virginia legislature is right now considering legislation that would really restrict and roll a lot of that forward thinking back. And it would be devastating not just to the movement towards innovation and a more efficient economy. It would, it would be horrible from a tax perspective for the local community. We saw that Maine, for instance, just passed legislation to ban data centers. Thank goodness Governor Mills vetoed that legislation.

But you're seeing this, this nimbyism that's fueled by misinformation rise in communities all across the country, even in my home state of Arizona. Which is a wonderful place for data centers from an environmental perspective in particular. So, so there's kind of a two-pronged effort that's happening. The first is to combat the misinformation and the infiltration of this misinformation from the Chinese Communist Party, which, and which is being picked up and supported by kind of populist efforts across the country. So the first is to combat that nimbyism and that misinformation.

And then the second thing to do is to tell a proactive message around what is best practice. And so the reality is, is there are lots and lots of things to do that are best practices. Ensuring, for instance, that you've got some standards around where data centers are located, right? Ensuring that they're in industrial communities, that there's, you know, setbacks from major roads, that they have, noise issues, that you're addressing the water issue. You know, the old school data centers did take a lot of water, but the new data centers either rely on zero water or less water than a traditional office building.

Now, that is not as much of an issue here in Alaska, but in my home state of Arizona, that is a very important issue, and it's important to know the facts. So creating standards about best practices and implementing those standards in city councils and state legislatures across the country will make a huge difference. Addressing the energy issues, you know, each jurisdiction handles their energy issues differently. In some parts of the country, like in Arizona, the energy utilities, which are vertically integrated, they, they sell energy to data center and other tech companies in a separate bucket than they sell to consumers. So it's impossible to push the cost onto consumers.

But that's not true in all parts of the country. And in some jurisdictions, the hyperscalers can do behind-the-meter, creating their own energy, which can be helpful in the short term but also complex in terms of managing their overall grid. Some are on-grid or off-grid. And so really having conversations about not nationalizing, because that would never work in our country, but really thinking strategically about how to make a one-size-fits-one kind of message for each locality or state or region is really how we're going to get through this and create long-term energy reliability and overcome the political nimbyism that's happening in communities across the country. Thank you.

David, from NASIO's perspective, you know, what do you see happening in the next, say, 3 to 5 years? I think we'll keep moving down this path. I just want to follow up on the comments that the senator just made. I think that's absolutely correct. One of the challenges here is that if you think about— if you were around when the internet really evolved in the late '90s, early 2000s, that was actually kind of slow moving.

It was 8 or 10 years. This is 2 years. I think the speed of policy at the state level, local level is important. The speed of communication and good neutral sort of factual communication that we're talking about here, the energy offices play a central role in that from an energy perspective. So I think what we'll see is moving— I'm fond of what Assistant Secretary Herrera from the Department of Energy always says, stabilize, optimize, and grow the grid.

I think we do all three of those at the same time. I think you see more and more states taking that approach all at wants to answer the mail, but also to reach out to the hyperscalers early and reach out to the local communities earlier to make sure they have the right information about the benefits for them and sharing of best practices about how those centers are developed. That's the trend we're seeing already. One last point I would make just in the interest of time, we had tracked last legislative season at the state level a lot of bills that were passed around developing new power on the Grid New Generation. This summer, we'll end up— most of the state legislatures will wrap up shortly.

We see over 300 bills. Most of them are around affordability and cost. So I think we're going to see these come together in a positive way, I hope. Wonderful. Well, I know I'm running close to the break, but I'm looking at Andrew.

I'm going to give— I feel bad because I feel like I knew what was going to happen. We would get on stage, we would blink, and this wonderful panel would would be over. But I'm not going to let that happen. So I'd like to give each of you just about a minute or so for closing comments. And if you could focus on those comments, what are some takeaways that you would like Alaska to know?

Thank you. Okay, I'll start. And I want to double down on the comment made earlier, David. It's the communication is key, you know, whatever you're doing. But in these data centers, remember, the folks who are coming in from on the data center side are not grid experts.

So they— even the terminology needs to be said in a way that's mutually understandable and vice versa, right? So the frequent early communication is key, and once the expectations are set, then it becomes a far easier process. I don't want to double down on Jim's comments. When data centers grow bigger and bigger, your single largest contingency may not be a generating unit. Be a load failing.

So planning and operating, understanding that and planning the operating the grid accordingly is very, very important. And then finally, from an affordability perspective, just making sure that the— that becomes one of the prime importance, you know, when you look at data centers and their impact and making sure the messages are clear. To me, that is the other a point that I want to make. Thank you. So I'd make a couple points.

One, for those of you who are actively engaged in the operation of the utilities up here, you should read our materials, right, and adapt them as appropriate to your own situation on commissioning these kinds of loads. The most important thing, and I kind of foot-stomp with the senator and I think what we've all said here, this dynamic creates an an incredible opportunity both to improve the infrastructure of the country. If you think back to the electric infrastructure in the country, most of it was developed by— through the industrialization process that occurred post-World War II. That's why we have such an aging infrastructure problem in the lower 48. This is an opportunity to leverage some ginormous balance sheets to be able to reinforce the grid.

That'll pay dividends for for years to come. The other thing is that the opportunity to improve affordability through better utilization of the network that exists is also an extraordinary opportunity for the country. I do agree with the senator, right? The amount of misinformation and disinformation being sowed, whether from China or Russia or any of our other national adversaries, is extraordinary, extraordinarily hard to combat, but it's It's very important that we do that because this is absolutely a generational opportunity with tremendous benefits both for society as well as economic well-being for the country. So let's approach this with a let's get it done attitude.

Senator. So I think the first thing I would say is to make sure that we're communicating to Alaskans how AI makes a difference in their everyday lives. I said earlier that your phone is your remote control to the data center, and the average American uses it 100 times a day. Most people don't know that, right? What we're seeing is that 35-and-under individuals in the country are specifically concerned about AI.

They are also the highest utilizers of AI. But translating that to folks is really important. People in your lives will get their breast cancer detected 22% sooner and faster because of AI. Children who are on a bus route to school will get there faster and safer because of AI. If there is a fire in your community, the fire folks will come to your home to protect you faster because of AI.

So making sure that people understand how AI makes a measurable difference in your daily life is number one. And number two, Alaska is a prime location for the growth of this innovation and technology that makes all of our lives better. You've got the space, you've got the energy— not only energy online, but the coming energy to be a star in this area. And this is going to transform all of our lives for the better. So combating the misinformation, making sure that people understand what AI is doing in their everyday lives, and then working together as a community so that Alaska capitalizes on this incredible step forward on innovation is absolutely key to your future.

Take us home, David. Happy to. I think a couple of things. One, focusing on reliability and affordability, um, I think that's key. We will make a huge misstep.

Two, the automated load management opportunities we have for load flexibility, not just of data centers but of all major energy resources and aggregated loads in the power sector, is there. Technically, we have it. We need policy and regulatory change at the state and federal level to deliver lower cost. Third, this is not a new investment in the grid, um, that's, that's being done just because data centers— we have underinvested in the grid for 30, 40 years, and this was coming with or without data centers, and that's important. Lastly, there's a lot of hand-wringing in different parts of the country over what this means, a lot of times incorrectly.

I would say the glass is not just half full, it is overflowing, and we have to jump and take advantage of it now, do it thoughtfully, much as they're doing here in Alaska, and I think we'll be very pleased with the result. All right. Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, let's please have a round of applause for our panelists.

You can stay seated there for a minute. We are going to take a short break, but before we do that, um, I would like to give a huge thank you to all of the conference sponsors. So please join me in recognizing our top sponsors: Glenfarn, Alaska LNG LLC, Polar LNG, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, Repsol, POSCO International, Blexit, the National Laboratory for the Rockies, Worley, Idaho National Laboratory, Alaska Airlines, Ameresco, ConocoPhillips Alaska, Santos, Oklo, Electric Power Systems Incorporated, and HDR Engineering Incorporated. And you're seeing all the sponsors up on the screen. So like I said, we will take a short break And then the different breakout sessions will start at 11:15.

The agenda will be on the screen and it is on your mini data center that you're all carrying. So I'm going to talk about that a lot, Senator. You'll also find that the full schedule and the room assignments are in that app. And lunch will start at 12:15. Our lunch program featured speaker is Secretary Doug Burgum.

It is going to begin at 12:45. The lunch seating is first come, first serve, so please get here appropriately early for the seat that you would prefer. So I hope you enjoy your break. Get some coffee or soda, make some new connections, and we'll see you back shortly for the next round. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, please do us a favor. The Denaina staff needs to set for our lunchtime presentation today. So if you could please continue your conversations in the foyer. Again, please allow for the Denaina staff to clear and set for our lunchtime program and continue your conversations in the foyer.