The Gigawatt Gap
The shortfall in electricity that limits AI, and how it gets closed.
About this section
Here I follow what grid operators, energy agencies, regulators and the companies themselves say about the electricity AI needs: how much of it, how it reaches a data center, how a power plant is built and run on the site, and how it is financed and contracted.
Each piece here is written from public documents, and lists them at its foot.
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ERCOT Says It Has Paused the Energization of New Large Load Data Centers and Crypto Mining Facilities Until Its Verification and Audit and Community Impact Review Are Complete
In an update for its board meeting of September 14 and 15, 2026, ERCOT says it has begun a verification and audit of the eligibility of all large loads provisionally included in its Batch Zero study, and that it is still determining the impact on the study's timeline.
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Wärtsilä Says Lead Times for Its Engines Continue to Increase, Given Strong Energy Order Intake
In its interim report release of October 27, 2026, Wärtsilä says that lead times for its engines continue to increase, given strong Energy order intake, and reports an order to supply an onsite power solution for a data center project in the United States.
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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Says Phasor Measurements Can Understate Higher-Frequency Oscillations from AI Training Data Centers
The laboratory's report says artificial intelligence training data centers "with periodic load profiles can induce sustained grid oscillations across a wide frequency range," and that "the filtering inherent in the phasor estimation process can significantly attenuate oscillation magnitudes."
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TeraWulf Says an Amended Electric Service Agreement Increases the Contracted Power at Its Muskie Data Campus
TeraWulf's release of October 5, 2026 says an amended and restated electric service agreement with a utility increases the contracted power capacity at its Muskie Data Campus in eastern Kentucky, and advances the planned delivery of the campus's second phase from 2030 to 2029, "subject to Kentucky Public Service Commission approval" and the utility's construction schedule.
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Ready for Service in Two Phases: Building 2 at Applied Digital's Polaris Forge 1
Applied Digital's results release of October 7, 2026 says the second building at its Polaris Forge 1 campus was delivered in two phases, on July 1 and October 1. It also names what is still under construction.
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Primarily to Serve a Large Load Customer: Indiana's Commission Approves a Utility's Storage and Solar Project
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved on October 7, 2026 a utility's project of two stand-alone battery systems and a hybrid solar plus storage resource, proposed "primarily to provide the requisite incremental energy and capacity" for a customer's planned data center site.
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What Oil and Gas Executives Expect for Henry Hub: The Dallas Fed Energy Survey of September 2026
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported on September 30, 2026 what the oil and gas executives in its energy survey expect the Henry Hub natural gas price to be at the end of 2026, and two and five years from now.
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The Affected Fuel Assembly: Holtec's Progress Report on the Palisades Restart
On September 21, 2026, Holtec reported that fuel loading at its Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan had begun on August 30 and that one fuel assembly had tilted. Its progression to the next operating modes, it says, remains subject to the satisfactory resolution of that assembly, required testing and modifications, and applicable NRC approvals.
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Its Powered Land Bank: Harworth's Update on Its Data Center Pipeline
On August 19, 2026, Harworth, a land and development business, said it had entered into an exclusivity agreement with a data center provider for a powered land sale at a second site. Its update lists up to six hyperscale data center land sales it says it can target, and where their power stands, from accepted power connection offers to anticipated power availability.
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Signed and Billing: How Core Scientific Counts Its Data Center Capacity in Its Results for the Second Quarter of 2026
Core Scientific's results release of July 28, 2026 gives one figure for the power capacity it has leased to customers and another for the capacity it is billing for.
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How Much of Ireland's Metered Electricity Goes to Data Centers: The Statistics Office's Release for 2025
Ireland's Central Statistics Office counts the electricity that passed through data centers' meters, year by year from 2015 to 2025. Its notes say there is no agreed definition of a data center, and that the data for all years are subject to revision.
