As data center-driven load growth continues to rise, hyperscalers are turning to natural gas – both in front of and behind the meter — to secure power. But whether the natural gas pipeline system has the bandwidth to support this surging demand remains far from certain.
In this episode, Shayle sits down with Eric McGuire, director of natural gas and LNG trading analytics at Wood Mackenzie, to unpack whether gas is in the midst of a capacity crunch of its own. Shayle and Eric consider how data center demand has collided with massive LNG exports in the United States, why regional pricing spreads are informing data center siting, and how winter weather creates extreme daily price volatility. They also discuss:
- How connecting large loads directly into interstate gas pipeline headers compares to filing an electric grid interconnection request
- Why data centers and LNG export contracts compete for baseload gas
- How placing data centers in the Permian Basin and Marcellus Shale helps developers bypass long-haul pipeline constraints
- How cold snaps cause wellhead freeze-offs that knock out tens of billions of cubic feet of gas supply
- Catalyst: Live from Transition-AI 2026: Inside Google’s massive AI capex
- Catalyst: The rise of flexible data centers
- Catalyst: AI scaling pathways: On grid, on edge, off grid, off planet
- Open Circuit: The off-grid data center fantasy
- Open Circuit: AI needs a different kind of power plant
- Latitude Media: Microsoft is embracing off-grid gas for West Virginia data centers
- Latitude Media: Building clean power for data centers in a gas-obsessed market
Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.
Catalyst is brought to you by GridBeyond. GridBeyond is the world’s leading technology platform for managing distributed and flexible energy resources. Learn more by visiting GridBeyond.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the strategic communications and marketing partner behind the biggest names in energy, climate, and infrastructure. For three decades, Antenna has helped breakout companies amplify their stories, build reputation, differentiate from the competition, define new categories and accelerate growth. Learn more at antennagroup.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 230 utilities to coordinate over 2.6 million DERs and more than 3.6 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at EnergyHub.com.
