How Incomplete Electricity Industry Restructuring Threatens the AI Revolution
Join us for a talk with Frank A. Wolak, Professor of Economics and Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University.
AI’s rapid growth is colliding with wholesale and retail electricity market designs and state and federal energy policy goals poorly suited to support it. As data centers multiply, headlines warn of an “energy crisis.” Wolak argues the real crisis isn’t energy demand or supply by themselves. Instead, the crisis is in wholesale and retail market designs. In a world where an increasing share of electricity production depends on wind and solar energy availability, a regulatory rulebook written for dispatchable natural gas and coal generation sources no longer works.
He’ll explain:
- How misaligned U.S. federal and state regulation raises costs and reliability risk.
- Why intermittent renewables exposed, rather than caused, market failures.
- How data centers and AI workloads could enhance the stability of the grid.
- What wholesale and retail market reforms could support an AI boom in the U.S.
- How to minimize AI infrastructure cost spillovers to retail prices of other customers
Date | Time: Wednesday, November 19 at 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
Location: 1800 M St NW #800n, Washington, DC 20036
RSVP required
Frank A. Wolak is the Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies in the Economics Department and Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University. His research and teaching focuses on design, performance, and monitoring of retail and wholesale energy and environmental markets.
Wolak has worked globally on the design and regulatory oversight of retail and wholesale electricity markets and transmission planning, expansion, and pricing protocols to enhance wholesale electricity competition and support the expansion of renewable energy resources.
He has been Chair of the Market Surveillance Committee of the California Independent System Operator, a member of the Emissions Market Advisory Committee for California’s Market for Greenhouse Gas Emissions allowances, a member of the development team for the California ISO’s Transmission Economic Assessment Methodology and participated in the design of the National Grid’s transmission use of system charges for the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets of the United Kingdom electricity supply industry.
