Structuring Gigawatts: The Economics of Speed-to-Power and Data Center Flexibility
AI data centers want power now, and the grid often can’t deliver it on their timeline. One way through is flexibility: agreeing to curtail or shift load in exchange for a faster interconnection. That can be worth a lot. It also comes with costs and risks that look very different depending on the workload and the project.
Hans Royal of RP Energy and Christian Okoye of Occam Edge will walk through their joint research, Structuring Gigawatts, and how to evaluate that trade-off in practice. They’ll cover compute economics, what development delays really cost, and how data centers, utilities and investors can structure arrangements that hold up over time.
Expect about 35 minutes of presentation and discussion, then 25 minutes of open Q&A. Everyone who registers gets a copy of the paper after the session.
Who should attend:
Anyone working where power meets data centers. That includes utility and RTO teams handling large-load interconnection, transmission planning or rate design. It also covers data center and hyperscaler power and procurement leads, developers and IPPs, infrastructure investors and lenders, and companies building grid flexibility technology.
Speakers:
Hans Royal, Co-Founder & President of Royal Powers Energy (RP Energy) and creator of the Compute Heat Rate (CHR), a pioneering economic framework for quantifying the value of AI compute relative to electricity prices. His research is helping shape the emerging intersection of artificial intelligence, electricity markets, and energy infrastructure.
Building on CHR, Hans has developed research examining the economics of AI data center flexibility, speed-to-power, clean energy investment, wholesale electricity market impacts, and ratepayer protection. His work explores how the extraordinary economic value of AI compute can be translated into better decisions around energy procurement, infrastructure investment, grid reliability, and community benefits.
His research has been cited across the industry, including by PJM Interconnection, the Grid 2.0 Task Force, and in testimony before the Texas House Committee on State Affairs, and has been featured in The Information, RTO Insider, and New Project Media. Prior to founding RP Energy, Hans spent nearly two decades building and leading businesses in renewable energy and corporate sustainability, including senior leadership roles at Schneider Electric.
Christian Okoye is co-founder and CEO of Occam Edge. He co-authored the Structuring Gigawatts research with Hans Royal of RP Energy, looking at how data centers can get power sooner through flexible arrangements with utilities and investors. He recently spoke on the Infrastructure, Hardware, and Data Centers panel at Grid Innovation Hub’s Global Capital in Energy Tech forum in San Francisco.
Meet the Host:
Adam Shaw, Founder @ Grid Innovation Hub & CMO @ Integ
Integ is the creator of PowerSuite. The power generation industry's #1 plant automation and AI solution for compliance, performance, predictive maintenance, and outage management.