The Daily Mine — Tuesday, March 24, 2026

NVIDIA AND UTILITIES LAUNCH GRID-FLEXIBLE AI FACTORIES
EE News Europe
Announced at CERAWeek, NVIDIA and Emerald AI are partnering with AES, Constellation, NextEra, and Vistra to build AI infrastructure designed to throttle down when the grid is stressed.

SPAIN-PORTUGAL GRID COLLAPSED IN UNDER 90 SECONDS
Power Magazine
ENTSO-E's final report on the April 2025 Iberian blackout traces a cascade failure that toppled the grid in less than 90 seconds. Every grid operator facing rising renewable penetration should read this.

DOE CHIEF WRIGHT: AMERICA NEEDS MORE BASELOAD POWER
RTO Insider
Energy Secretary Chris Wright opened CERAWeek praising fossil fuels and demanding more baseload generation. The message was aimed squarely at AI-driven load growth that intermittent sources can't reliably serve.

SOFTBANK EYES 10GW DATA CENTER ON OHIO DOE LAND
StateNews.org
SB Energy is proposing a 9.2 GW natural gas plant to power a 10 GW data center on former Department of Energy land in southern Ohio. AEP would get $4.2 billion in new transmission to support the project.

POLICYMAKERS URGED: DATA CENTERS ARE NOT REAL ESTATE
World Economic Forum
Governments must treat data centers as essential national energy infrastructure. Grid readiness, not capital, is now the primary constraint on future capacity growth worldwide.

FERC APPROVES NEW CYBERSECURITY RULES FOR POWER GRID
FERC
FERC unanimously adopted updated CIP reliability standards on March 19, hardening rules for virtualized bulk electric system infrastructure at a moment when grid-connected data centers multiply the attack surface.

AI DEMAND REVIVES ELECTRICITY RESTRUCTURING DEBATE IN STATES
RTO Insider
Hyperscale load growth is reigniting a decades-old fight in state legislatures over whether to deregulate electricity markets. The old arguments are back, with new and much larger numbers attached.

APPLIED DIGITAL BETS $75M ON NORTH DAKOTA POWER BUILDOUT
Minot Daily News
Applied Digital is self-funding $75 million in power infrastructure upgrades in eastern North Dakota for its Polaris Forge AI campus, which will draw roughly 280 MW. Developer-funded power is the new playbook.

220 GIGAWATTS OF DATA CENTER DEMAND IN U.S. PIPELINE
Wood Mackenzie
Wood Mackenzie puts 220 GW of data center power demand in the U.S. pipeline, with 183 GW already commercially committed. That figure equals roughly 22% of the entire U.S. peak demand in 2025.

DATA CENTERS COULD SPIKE ERCOT POWER PRICES 79 PERCENT
Utility Dive
EIA modeling shows data center load growth could push average ERCOT wholesale power prices up 79% by 2027 under a high-demand scenario. Texas ratepayers and industrials are watching this number closely.

AUSTRALIA REQUIRES ENERGY REVIEW FOR AI DATA CENTER PERMITS
Data Center Knowledge
Australia's new framework requires demonstrated energy, water, and economic impact assessments before data center permits clear. The bottleneck has shifted from capital to compliance. U.S. states are paying attention.

FLEXIBLE DATA CENTERS COULD FREE 100 GW OF U.S. GRID
The Energy Mix
New analysis finds that demand-response programs for AI data centers could unlock up to 100 GW of effective capacity across the U.S. grid without building a single new power plant.

VINELAND NJ RESIDENTS MARCH AGAINST 350 MW AI CENTER
WHYY
About 100 residents protested a proposed 350 MW hyperscale AI data center in Vineland, NJ. A congressional candidate has now called for a national moratorium, putting the issue on a federal political track.

TOP DATA CENTER OPERATORS TO SPEND $750B IN 2026
BloombergNEF
Combined capex for the 14 largest publicly owned data center operators is projected near $750 billion this year, per BNEF. That is not a trend line anymore. That is a structural shift in the global economy.

DATA CENTER BOOM PUSHES UTILITY AFFORDABILITY TO THE EDGE
Utility Dive
Affordability is now the top concern for U.S. utilities in 2026. Data center load growth is forcing utilities to choose between serving big tech and keeping electricity affordable for everyone else.