To speed up the building of new power plants required to supply energy for its data centers, Meta is considering entering the electricity trading market.
Bloomberg indicates that Meta and Microsoft are both seeking federal authorization to trade electricity (Apple has already obtained this). Meta states that this will enable it to make long-term pledges to purchase electricity from new facilities, while reducing risk by being able to resell a portion of that power on wholesale markets.
Meta’s global head, Urvi Parekh, informed Bloomberg that power plant developers “want assurance that power consumers are prepared to invest.”
Parekh stated, “Without Meta actively advocating for the expansion of power available on the grid, progress isn’t as rapid as we desire.”
Bloomberg points out that, as an illustration of the exceptional energy demands fueling tech companies’ ambitious AI data center strategies, Meta’s Louisiana data center campus will require the construction of at least three new gas-powered plants.
