Can Data Centres Earn Their Power? EP.299

This week on Energy Unplugged, Oliver Kerr, Aurora Energy Research’s Managing Director for North America, is joined by Arushi Sharma Frank, Founder of Luminary Strategies and one of the leading thinkers shaping the future of power markets in the age of AI.

As data centre demand surges across the United States, electricity has become a critical constraint on growth. The challenge is no longer simply building more infrastructure - but finding new ways to use the grid more efficiently and connect large loads faster.

Drawing on her work at the centre of recent market reforms in Texas, Arushi argues that flexibility, not just new transmission and generation, will be essential to unlocking the next phase of AI-led growth. The conversation examines how large electricity users could become active participants in the power system, helping to relieve constraints, improve reliability, and accelerate access to power.

From regulatory innovation and grid planning to distributed energy resources and flexible computing, Oliver and Arushi discuss how power markets may need to evolve as electricity demand rises to levels not seen in decades.

You will learn about:

• Why AI is transforming the way power systems think about large-load interconnection.

• How flexible demand could help unlock grid capacity and accelerate access to power.

• Why Texas is emerging as a testing ground for new approaches to grid flexibility.

• How batteries, distributed energy resources, and workload shifting could reshape power system planning.

• What utilities, policymakers, and large customers need to do to support the next phase of electricity demand growth.

Interested in continuing the conversation? Join us at the Aurora Energy Transition Forum New York 2026, where 250 senior leaders from across the energy sector will debate the future of power markets, grid reliability, AI-driven demand growth, and infrastructure investment. Use code PODCAST20 for 20% off your ticket.

For more information on what has been discussed in today's episode, please see the below resources:

• Dispatchability, Not Vibes: What PJM Market Monitor Gets Right—and Misses—on Data Centers Flex

https://luminarystrategies.substack.com/p/dispatchability-not-vibes-what-pjm

• The Grid Provides the Floor. The Private Sector Must Firm the Rest.

Data Center "Flex" Needs New Language Fit For Purpose - Dynamic Firming is Speed to Power.

https://luminarystrategies.substack.com/p/the-grid-provides-the-floor-the-private

• PCLR Origin Story Part 1: Speed to Power for Large Loads in ERCOT

EPRI Summer Seminar, the Pacific Ocean, and the Public Good Nature of Championing Market Design Reform.

https://luminarystrategies.substack.com/p/origin-story-speed-to-power-for-ai

• PCLR Origin Story Part 2: Speed to Power for AI Loads in ERCOT

How to get ERCOT comfortable with "managing" controllable load in exchange for earlier "connection" - NPRR1188 as PGRR134 Foundation https://arushisharmafrank.substack.com/cp/192362539

• PCLR Origin Story Part 3: 60% of Data Center Load should be Dispatch-Ready https://luminarystrategies.substack.com/p/pclr-origin-story-part-3-60-of-data

• Global Capacity Alliance: https://globalcapacityalliance.org/

• Book recommendation: https://jeffreypfeffer.com/books/7-rules-of-power/