Oregon energy conference revealed emerging 'Frankenstein microgrids' combining flexible interconnection, renewable, and storage to serve AI datacenter loads.
Creative interconnection models—including an agreement between utility Portland General Electric (PGE) and five data centers in Hillsboro, Oregon—were the focus of panel discussions at The Great Transformation conference in Bend, Oregon, July 6–10. The event drew speakers from Google, GridCARE, and Think Microgrid, and centered on how distributed energy resources are reshaping grid management.
Pascal Van Hentenryck, head of the AI Innovation Lab at Gurobi Optimization, outlined the core challenge during the July 9 panel on interconnection. While centralized generation was traditionally simple to manage, the proliferation of distributed resources has complicated risk management. "How do we connect the many, many, many different resources that are not so easy to control anymore so that we maintain the stability of the system, and at the same time, get a system which is sustainable and much cheaper?" he asked.
Shanna Brownstein, head of utility partnerships at GridCARE, a grid intelligence platform, described how her company unlocked 400 MW of capacity for PGE. GridCARE identified unused capacity by helping utilities understand the flexibility available at particular interconnection points while simultaneously helping data center operators quantify their own flexibility. The critical challenge was building mutual trust: utilities needed to rely on the flexibility commitments, while data centers required assurance their power wouldn't be cut off arbitrarily.
For PGE, the bottleneck was uncertainty about available capacity for the congested cluster of data centers in Hillsboro, where Intel operates. GridCARE found that PGE had been planning for worst-case scenarios—simultaneous battery charging at peak demand, transmission line maintenance, and severe weather. While theoretically possible, such scenarios occur rarely. In reality, the grid reaches capacity constraints only a handful of hours annually; the rest of the time, ample capacity exists. "How can we utilize that spare capacity more? I think that's the fairest thing to do for all ratepayers. It drives down rates for all ratepayers when you increase utilization," Brownstein said.
GridCARE identified 400 MW of existing infrastructure to serve five data centers without requiring new substation or transmission buildout. The resulting flexible interconnection agreements will unlock more than 80 MW in 2026 and 400 MW by 2029. According to GridCARE's description, these contracts will reduce rates for utility customers while yielding over $13 billion in value for data center developers.
Google is pursuing a different approach through clean transition tariffs. David Namura, heading Google's Pacific Northwest government affairs and public policy efforts, explained that his company is developing these tariffs in utility territories where its data centers operate. The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada approved Google's 2025 partnership with NV Energy to deploy clean capacity under such a tariff. The structure allows utilities and large energy users to invest jointly in clean, reliable electricity and advanced technologies. The specific agreement will add 115 MW of geothermal power from Fervo Energy to Nevada's grid, supporting Google's data center and cloud region operations. Participating large energy users cover the incremental cost while receiving credits for the energy and capacity value provided.
On the operational side, Greg Castle, commercial leader for Schneider Electric's North American power and grid segment, introduced the concept of the "Frankenstein microgrid"—ad-hoc systems assembled from whatever generation is available. Supply chain constraints have forced developers to acquire heterogeneous generating assets and piece them together rapidly. "We've seen this with a lot of these large projects. It was kind of a gold rush. Everyone went out, secured whatever they could, airplane engines and pretty much every engine that can be bought, every turbine," Castle said. With turbine procurement now stretched to 2033, developers have accumulated hundreds of gigawatts of disparate generating assets that must be orchestrated together.
This integration is extraordinarily complex. Developers must not only assemble these microgrids quickly but also optimize them across multiple stakeholders—utilities, data centers, and others. Castle emphasized that the software layer has become essential for knitting together these diverse components. Over the coming years, energy management and protection control systems will be critical for optimizing performance and managing operations and maintenance costs.
Cameron Brooks, executive director of advocacy group Think Microgrid, highlighted the benefits of delivering power locally through distributed resources. He drew a parallel to telecommunications, which decoupled its physical infrastructure by replacing switchboards with digital packets that can be broken up, routed, and stored dynamically. The electric system faces a similar opportunity, particularly with storage: energy could move in manageable packets rather than relying solely on the synchronous grid.
These discussions reflected a broader conference theme: How can utilities, policymakers, and developers integrate distributed energy resources into the existing grid while leveraging them to meet current power demand? As Namura framed it: "How do you make the utility framework acceptable or workable for the 21st-century needs currently facing the market?"