 |
The POWER PodcastThe POWER Podcast provides listeners with insight Author: POWER
The POWER Podcast provides listeners with insight into the latest news and technology that is poised to affect the power industry. POWERs Executive Editor Aaron Larson conducts interviews with leading industry experts and gets updates from insiders at power-related conferences and events held around the world. Language: en Genres: Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
211. How Corporate Energy Buyers Are Reshaping the U.S. Grid: CEBA CEO Rich Powell on Data Centers, Nuclear, and Permitting Reform
Thursday, 23 April, 2026
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.
