Texas Poised To Become The Next Epicenter Of AI-Driven Builds

With data centers growing at unprecedented levels, the question remains: How will they be powered to fit future needs? This year, global power demand for data centers is estimated to reach 132 gigawatts, and by 2030, it is predicted to climb to 290 gigawatts.

Texas, in particular, is seeing rapid-fire growth in its data center footprint and could even surpass Virginia as the world’s largest data center market by 2030. 

However, as artificial intelligence workloads ramp up and rack densities increase, they also lead to challenges with power availability, grid reliability, energy storage and making sure infrastructure can handle the high power loads. 

Now is the time for developers, operators, investors and infrastructure leaders to prepare for what’s to come, especially when it comes to their power strategy.

On Aug. 12-13, Bisnow will bring together data center experts at its Data Center Investment Conference & Expo: South to discuss how data centers can become more power-ready. 

MPI Energy Vice President of Critical Power Solutions Chrissy Olsen will moderate a panel on Power Strategy: Securing Capacity in Constrained Markets, which will explore how today’s leaders are navigating increasing power demands, utility constraints, battery-storage innovations and the infrastructure requirements needed to support growth.

Attendees can expect to learn more about how AI is reshaping power requirements, how users can gain power amid constraints, the progression of battery technology and energy storage in mission-critical environments, how to plan for future growth and more.

As a Texas-based energy solutions provider supporting mission-critical environments across the country, MPI Energy is helping data center operators increase their uptime with backup power and energy-storage strategies.

Bisnow caught up with Olsen to discuss the contribution of data centers to the U.S. economy, the goals behind MPI Energy’s rebrand and what attendees can expect to take away from the event.

Bisnow: What data center market trends have been on your radar?

Olsen: The prominence and opinions about data centers has been a big trend. Data centers are moving into people’s backyards, and there’s a lot of concern about them using too much power and water and driving power costs up for the communities. 

Data centers get a bad reputation, but that’s a misnomer. They produce a lot of jobs, in construction as well as skilled labor, and build up the community around them. The industry provides a lot of work for mechanical builders, electricians and plumbers, and there’s good job security once you have experience. Data centers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, and workers can have some longevity there.

Bisnow: How is MPI Energy responding to the data center boom and technological advancements?

Olsen: We announced our rebrand from MPI Narada to MPI Energy on May 20. We rebranded so that we can open ourselves up to new technologies, new vendor partners and new suppliers to help us build out innovative products that support the future. 

Our engineering team is always thinking about what's coming next and looking at new technologies to serve the industry in the best possible way.

We’re hiring a lot of people and growing rapidly, and with the rebrand, we can expand our capabilities from a manufacturing and delivery standpoint.

Bisnow: What does your role as vice president of critical power solutions entail? 

Olsen: I am in charge of all sales-related tasks, business development and marketing responsibilities. Leading the sales team comes with understanding the logistics and capacities of what the company does and understanding all the deliveries that we need to do for our large customers. I want to make sure that our sales team can sell more broadly and strategically and that we're doing a great job for our customers and giving them the products they need to succeed.

I also represent the company at industry events and conferences with speaking opportunities, with all of them typically being data center- and mission critical-focused. Lately, the topics of conversation have focused around power and the importance of backup power and energy storage.

Bisnow: What do you think will be the hottest topics of conversation at DICE South?

Olsen: The growth of Texas, definitely. Texas will be the next Northern Virginia, if it isn't already. There's significant data center growth in the state and an openness to building data centers. Texas is huge, and there's a lot of remote locations. You could debate if that's a good thing or not, but technology is here, and we need to support it. The only way to do that is to build more data centers.  

I think we'll have a lot of different sources of power for future data centers — whether it be geothermal, nuclear, the grid or solar. A data center isn't going to look at just one source of power going forward.

Click here to learn more about Bisnow’s DICE South event.

This article was produced in collaboration between MPI Energy and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.