Episode #33 - “The AI Power Surge: What Comes Next for Retail Energy?”

AI is creating an unprecedented surge in electricity demand. But could AI also fundamentally transform the way energy is priced, sold, managed—and even purchased?

In this episode of The Energy Insider, Jack Doueck sits down with Keith DeZern, Chief Digital Officer of NextVolt and co-founder of VoxLayer, for a provocative conversation about the collision of artificial intelligence, technology, energy markets, and the future of retail energy.

Keith explains how dramatically rising capacity costs are changing the economics of retail electricity, particularly in PJM, where capacity auction prices have surged from roughly $29 to $325 in just a few years. What does that kind of volatility mean for suppliers trying to offer fixed-price contracts while protecting their margins?

But that may be only the beginning.

Jack and Keith explore how AI could reshape virtually every part of the retail energy business—from customer acquisition and call centers to pricing, forecasting and risk management. Keith discusses the potential for AI voice agents to dramatically reduce customer-service costs and envisions AI agents eventually helping suppliers make faster, more sophisticated pricing and risk decisions.

At the same time, AI itself is creating an enormous new energy challenge. The explosive growth of data centers is putting increasing pressure on electricity grids, while new data centers can sometimes be built far faster than the generation and transmission infrastructure required to power them. Keith examines this growing mismatch and what it could mean for grid reliability, generation development, microgrids, private grids and on-site power.

He also makes a fascinating prediction: by 2030, roughly one-third of new data centers could incorporate co-located generation.

And then comes an even bigger question for the competitive energy industry:

What happens when the customer isn't making the electricity-purchasing decision anymore?

Keith believes that within the next three to five years, personal AI agents could begin managing electricity decisions for consumers—continuously monitoring markets, analyzing pricing and potentially making purchasing decisions with minimal human intervention.

If that happens, the retail energy industry may need to rethink not only how it sells energy—but who, or what, it is selling to.

Is AI creating an energy crisis—or forcing the innovation needed to solve one?

Tune in to this fascinating episode of The Energy Insider for a look at what may be coming next for AI, data centers, the power grid—and the future of competitive retail energy.