Meta wants to get into the electricity trading business
To accelerate the construction of new power plants needed to supply energy for its data centers, Meta wants to engage in electricity trading.
Bloomberg reports that both Meta and Microsoft are seeking federal approval to trade power (Apple has already received this approval). According to Meta, this will allow the country to make long-term commitments to buy electricity from new plants, while reducing risk by having the ability to resell some of that power on wholesale electricity markets.
Meta’s head of global energy, Urvi Parekh, told Bloomberg that power plant developers “want to know that energy consumers are willing to put their skin in the game.”
“Without Meta being a more active voice in the need to expand the amount of power on the system, this is not happening as quickly as we would like,” Parekh said.
As an example of the unprecedented energy needs underlying tech companies’ ambitious AI data center plans, Bloomberg notes that at least three new gas-fired plants will need to be built to power Meta’s data center campus in Louisiana.
