Featured Keynotes

When: Tuesday, September 22 | 8:45 am to 10:00 am
Location: Longhorn Hall B

The data center industry is approaching a historic inflection point. By 2030, global data center power demand is projected to exceed 200 gigawatts, rivaling the electricity consumption of major industrial nations. At the same time, AI workloads are driving rack densities from 20 to 30 kW into the 80 to 150 kW range, with individual campuses scaling into the hundreds of megawatts. The pace of growth is unprecedented. The real challenge is how to power this expansion in a way that strengthens grid reliability, protects ratepayers, and accelerates economic development.

In this keynote, we explore how deeper coordination between data center developers and grid operators is reshaping the energy landscape. From campus-level power innovation and transmission planning to market design and long-term contracting strategies, this discussion will examine how collaboration can reduce volatility, unlock new infrastructure investment, and ensure that AI scale benefits communities rather than burdening them. This is a conversation about leadership, accountability, and building the grid required for the next era of intelligence.

Key Takeaways

• How 200 gigawatts of projected demand can become a catalyst for grid modernization
• Why structured partnerships between utilities and data centers can lower long-term electricity costs
• How hyperscale and AI operators are innovating in power architecture and deployment strategy
• What grid operators are doing to manage reliability amid rapid load growth
• How coordinated planning protects both economic development and ratepayer interests

When: Wednesday, September 23 | 8:45 am to 10:00 am
Location: Longhorn Hall B

AI infrastructure is exploding. Google now processes over 3 quadrillion tokens per month, a 7x jump from May 2025 to May 2026. Meeting this velocity requires new innovations in energy efficiency and power delivery. Tom Garvens, Vice President of Data Center Technology and Systems at Google, presents a keynote demonstrating how Google is addressing this scale responsibly through a full-stack approach that ensures data centers act as proactive, stabilizing partners to local grids.

To close the gap between rapid AI growth and the slow expansion of the utility grid, Google is engineering infrastructure for extreme agility. The focus is on dynamic energy strategies: turning clean backup assets into grid-support resources during peak demand, intelligently shaping loads, and smoothing power ramps. These moves reduce disruptive power swings and actively strengthen utility resilience.

Beyond these operational strategies, Google is co-designing solutions from chip to utility to boost efficiency end-to-end. The work includes optimizing liquid cooling, adopting Low Voltage Direct Current (LVDC) architectures where they make sense, applying intelligent control algorithms, and refining facility design to better integrate power, cooling, and controls. A core pillar is open ecosystem innovation: publishing standardized power and facility specifications through communities like OCP so the industry can build interoperable, efficient, and sustainable infrastructure.