At the moment, one of the biggest demands is data centers. The big tech companies of Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft all have announced they will continue to spend billions of dollars on chips and data centers to bring AI to everyday items. While the capital expenditures or capex spending is very good, one of the requirements for data centers is relatively low cost electricity and lots of it.

In an article by Marc Levy of the Associated Press, there are many actors in the demand sphere including big tech arranging its own power projects.

Todd Snitchler, President and CEO of Electric Power Supply Association, which represents independent power plant owners, agrees there is big spike in demand.

President Trump has passed legislation that makes it easier to use fossil fuels in power plants either oil, gas or LNG. The other side is the states.

The people that greenlight power plants are largely state regulators and regional grid operators. Governors are doing their bit by seeking action to make it easier and faster to build power plants.

States including Pennsylvania want to fast track the approval process and dangle hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for projects providing electricity to the grid.

Indiana, Michigan and Louisiana are exploring ideas to attract nuclear power.

With every increase in demand, comes many projects out of the woodwork, some which are beneficial to the consumer, some which need taxpayer dollars to justify and others that would have been built to satisfy demand anyways and receive additional tax breaks.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in many dividend stock portfolios are utility companies because they are regulated which tends to ensure projects get built to meet demand; every year prices rise at or above inflation and given everyone needs electricity, the companies make a profit and continue to pay dividends.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.