Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: It was a report in the Albany Times Union and
Speaker 2: they set over the weekend. National Grid and other utilities
Speaker 2: are spending billions of dollars to prep New York's electric
Speaker 2: grid for a generational shift. And it includes things like
Speaker 2: all those AI data centers that are being built in
Speaker 2: the state and across the country.
Speaker 3: Really yeah.
Speaker 1: The paper went on to note that New York utilities
Speaker 1: are spending that much money to modernize the grid for
Speaker 1: those facility facilities, their investments for New Yorkers, many of
Speaker 1: them are already struggling with utility costs, are gonna have
Speaker 1: to pay for that in the coming years.
Speaker 4: But the idea is that we're prepping it for the future.
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly, But so how uncomfortable as the buildout happens
Speaker 2: and the stress on the grid continues.
Speaker 3: Let's see what our next guest has to say. We've
Speaker 3: been looking forward to this.
Speaker 2: Sally Librera is President National Grid New York. It's a
Speaker 2: subsidiary that publicly held electricity, net gas and clean energy
Speaker 2: utility National Grid PLC, serving millions in New York and
Speaker 2: mass to choose its National Grid ADRs trade in the US,
Speaker 2: they've got about a seventy five billion dollar market cap.
Speaker 2: They're up more than twenty seven percent year to date.
Speaker 2: So nice to have you here.
Speaker 3: How are you great to be here?
Speaker 5: Thanks Carol and Tim for having me.
Speaker 3: Well, it's great to have you here.
Speaker 2: How would you describe power demand today and how that
Speaker 2: demand is growing surging? Use whatever word makes sense so
Speaker 2: that we understand what's the current situation.
Speaker 5: Sure so, at National Good in New York, we serve
Speaker 5: more than four million customers and we deliver natural gas
Speaker 5: and electricity to those customers, and our focus is on
Speaker 5: doing it safely, reliably and affordably. But the reality is
Speaker 5: there is increasing demand for energy across the entire state,
Speaker 5: and we serve through Upstate, we serve in Long Island,
Speaker 5: and we also serve in New York City. And it's
Speaker 5: our job to deliver that energy to meet that energy
Speaker 5: demand where, when and how folks need it.
Speaker 3: How would you quantify that demand? Though?
Speaker 2: Give us some idea, because we're talking NonStop about deals
Speaker 2: of AI data centers, whether it's New York or elsewhere.
Speaker 3: Give us an idea. How stressed is the situation?
Speaker 5: So we work with our New York Independent System operator
Speaker 5: the NISO, and NISO manages a what we call the
Speaker 5: large load Q. So it's essentially the companies that have
Speaker 5: indicated wanting to hook into the New York grid that
Speaker 5: have large power needs, and they estimate that the cumulative
Speaker 5: power need across those companies that are essentially in line
Speaker 5: to connect sometime over the next five or so years
Speaker 5: is about ten gigawatts of energy. And so just to
Speaker 5: give you some context, at our peak in New York,
Speaker 5: we demand about three times that across the entire state.
Speaker 5: And another really important point is that one year ago
Speaker 5: that Q was one third the size.
Speaker 3: It literally tripled.
Speaker 5: In just one year.
Speaker 1: All data centers, no, not all data what it's done,
Speaker 1: because it does seem like for many years we thought
Speaker 1: that power demand across the country would actually stay relatively glad,
Speaker 1: and it did stay relatively flat, But just in recent
Speaker 1: years we've seen so much of an uptick in demand.
Speaker 1: What are you seeing on your grids?
Speaker 5: Well, there's definitely there, definitely is the impact of data centers.
Speaker 5: But New York is also very attractive to manufacturing and
Speaker 5: large scale manufacturing, particularly some of the modern manufacturing we
Speaker 5: see around semiconductors and computer components, it's very energy intensive,
Speaker 5: and companies with big power needs are drawn to New
Speaker 5: York and we are working to make sure that they
Speaker 5: have the power that they need, not just today, but
Speaker 5: well into the future.
Speaker 2: So it's interesting, right, because we think about this White House,
Speaker 2: right and encouraging investment from foreign companies to build here.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess you know that's the good thing, right,
Speaker 2: We want to see other companies investing into the United States.
Speaker 2: But there's a power grab on that too, right, as
Speaker 2: a result of that, in order to meet that well,
Speaker 2: I think potentially, I.
Speaker 5: Think it is important to note that even if we
Speaker 5: weren't at this unique moment in time with rapidly increase
Speaker 5: demand for power, we still have a grid in New
Speaker 5: York and this is true across many places in the country.
Speaker 5: We have a grid that needs investment. We have assets
Speaker 5: that are close to one hundred years old.
Speaker 3: Why right, right?
Speaker 4: Tim?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: How many people like, why if it's one hundred years old,
Speaker 2: why are you twenty years ago?
Speaker 4: Right? Why didn't we make the investment? Then?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've been politics.
Speaker 3: I've part that that was a lot.
Speaker 4: Please you answer the question so I not.
Speaker 3: Understand, because it's important.
Speaker 5: We have been very careful about balancing the bill impacts
Speaker 5: which customers bear with the investments that we make in
Speaker 5: our infrastructure. And even today where we look at assets
Speaker 5: that are seventy eighty one hundred years old, we're very
Speaker 5: strategic and pinpointed about which of those assets, which of
Speaker 5: those parts of infrastructure we replace, because we want to
Speaker 5: keep customer bills low, So we look for those opportunities
Speaker 5: where we can do multiple things with an investment, where
Speaker 5: we can replace an aging asset with something that's more
Speaker 5: modern and something that can carry more energy, something that
Speaker 5: can unlock more energy that our generators have to connect
Speaker 5: into the grid, and something that's going to be more
Speaker 5: resilient to storms and better leverage technology so it's cheaper
Speaker 5: to maintain.
Speaker 1: Does more resilient too, storms mean bearing power lines?
Speaker 4: Is that the way to do it?
Speaker 5: In some cases we do that, but it's also the
Speaker 5: type of infrastructure that we put up. We are replacing
Speaker 5: in places sometimes wooden poles with steel poles, just much
Speaker 5: stronger infrastructure.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, and I think about how do you
Speaker 3: balance all of that?
Speaker 2: Like affordability, as you know, has become quite the word
Speaker 2: that we are hearing a lot, certainly in the political environment.
Speaker 2: So how do you keep your investors happy and the
Speaker 2: grid reliable without rising bills that make your customers furious
Speaker 2: and invite regulatory and political pushback.
Speaker 3: I mean, that is a hard mandate.
Speaker 5: It is It is a difficult balance, and it's one
Speaker 5: that we navigate every single day. We do it through
Speaker 5: a number of avenues. We certainly work closely with our
Speaker 5: customers to help them manage costs, and we do that
Speaker 5: through a variety of bill assistance programs and energy efficiency
Speaker 5: programs and rebates, and we work We have consumer advocates
Speaker 5: whose job it is to specifically work with folks in
Speaker 5: communities to help them manage their costs. We also, as
Speaker 5: I mentioned before, are very careful about where and how
Speaker 5: we invest in assets, and we make sure that if
Speaker 5: we're investing in an asset, that we're going to get
Speaker 5: more power from investing in that asset, that we're going
Speaker 5: to get more resiliency, and then we're going to get
Speaker 5: more efficiency from investing in that asset.
Speaker 1: The President has been outspoken about his disdain for certain renewables,
Speaker 1: especially wind power. Your investment in renewables, are sourcing energy
Speaker 1: from renewables? Has that changed under this administration.
Speaker 5: Well, we certainly support the all of the above energy
Speaker 5: approach and are pleased with the most recent version of
Speaker 5: the State Energy Report that's just come out today that
Speaker 5: leans into an all of the above approach. Given the
Speaker 5: rate at which demand for energy is increasing, we need
Speaker 5: to we need to be utilizing all of those opportunities,
Speaker 5: from renewables to natural gas to nuclear to make sure.
Speaker 1: Is that more difficult if the federal government is not
Speaker 1: supportive of certain renewables.
Speaker 5: We are working on the infrastructure to move power from
Speaker 5: point A to point B. So while we support projects
Speaker 5: like say the Nesti pipeline, that's a supply project. It's
Speaker 5: not our project, but we support it because we know
Speaker 5: how critical it is to the downstate community, and how
Speaker 5: reliant New York City and Long Island are on natural
Speaker 5: gas and how thin that reserve margin is and their
Speaker 5: energy demand for energy is growing as well. So we
Speaker 5: support NeSSI for those reasons. The other side of our
Speaker 5: business is about building transmission. It's about building the highway
Speaker 5: over which the power moves. So the sourcing as to
Speaker 5: where it's coming from isn't a national grid decision. We
Speaker 5: work with generators of all kinds.
Speaker 2: Bottom line, though, does this potentially as you guys are
Speaker 2: very careful about when you invest so that power prices
Speaker 2: don't go up, but are there going to be moments
Speaker 2: where prices are just going to go up just because
Speaker 2: of the environment. And it's hard to kind of predict everything.
Speaker 2: And forgive me just got about thirty seconds.
Speaker 5: There are moments, and now is one of those moments
Speaker 5: where customers are seeing increases on their bills. And that's
Speaker 5: for a number of reasons, but primarily it's to be
Speaker 5: investing in infrastructure that is necessary. Those investments are necessary
Speaker 5: to make sure that folks continue to have the safe
Speaker 5: and reliable energy that they need.
Speaker 2: And those investments include renewables, green all of it.
Speaker 5: Well, we're investing in the ability to unlock those energy
Speaker 5: sources and be able to bring them onto the grid
Speaker 5: and move them at a greater frequency.