Fracker Could Help U.S. Data Centers Overcome Strategic Challenges

Written by John Egan for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

Summary

Liberty Energy Incorporated, a longtime provider of fracking services to oil and gas operators, is building a distributed power business to meet the "need it yesterday" electricity needs of companies developing data center.

Planned Data Centers Could Drive Up Electric Demand

U.S. electric utilities provided about 50 gigawatts (GW) of power to data centers in 2025, and that number could exceed 150 GW by 2030, Ron Gusek, chief executive at Liberty Energy Incorporated, told attendees at The Energy Investment Conference in Denver, Colorado, on August 18. Utilities would be hard-pressed to meet that large an increase in demand in such a short timeframe. That's why Gusek touted the company's newest "bright shiny thing" -- a distributed power business customized around the needs of commercial and industrial customers, specifically data centers.

Industrial Info Resources is tracking the planned construction of more than 4,600 data centers across the U.S. valued at roughly $4.9 trillion. Readers can view a detailed list of proposed data centers here.

Speaking at an oil and gas industry conference sponsored by EnerCom Incorporated, Gusek positioned his company's "Power-as-a-Service" (PaaS) offering as a way to future-proof energy planning for data centers. He said the company aims to have 3 GW of PaaS contracts by 2029. The initiative, launched at the start of 2026, is named Liberty Power Innovations (LPI).

The company said LPI would provide "advanced distributed power, energy management and storage solutions for the commercial and industrial, data center, energy, and mining industries."

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a big deal for us," Gusek told about 500 attendees. In less than nine months, Liberty has struck partnerships with SLB, PowerBridge, Bergen Engines and Vantage Data Centers to meet the energy infrastructure needs of energy-gobbling data centers.

Big Growth Plans Bring Big Challenges

Plans by Big Tech companies and hyperscalers to build a significant number of enormous data centers, some larger than 1,000 football fields, has triggered a backlash on several fronts, including with state utility regulators and state lawmakers. For more on that, see July 7, 2026, article -- Money, Votes and Data Centers: Will Political Spending Overcome Rising Public Opposition to Data Centers?

By the Numbers

• 50: Gigawatts of electric power demand from U.S. data centers in 2025
• 150: Projected electric demand, in GW, from U.S. data centers in 2030
• 3: Number of GW in distributed electricity contracts, by 2029, that Liberty Energy is seeking to provide to U.S. data centers

Across the nation, regulators and elected officials are trying to find ways to make sure that residential customers don't cross-subsidize the construction of electric infrastructure needed to serve large computer campuses.

Data centers can more rapidly move forward with their planning if they were assured that a reliable source of power would be there when they needed it, Gusek told the conference attendees. The company's LPI offering was designed to be modular and scalable.

"LPI serves as a long-term energy infrastructure provider, delivering flexible solutions that prioritize speed to market, reliability, and predictable power prices," Gusek said.

Liberty will own and operate the mobile generation assets, delivering electric power as a service. The company's "vertically integrated model enables control over engineering, design, development, construction, ownership and long-term operation of distributed power assets tailored to each customer's needs," he said.

Gusek added the power would be reliable and cost-competitive with, or even cheaper than, grid-delivered power. And by not having to permit and build a stationary power source on a data center campus, developers would be spared the permitting and construction headaches as well as the capital costs of that construction.

And developers would not have to ask utilities to build generation or infrastructure to meet the computer campuses' needs -- keeping both parties out of lengthy, and possibly contentious, public hearings.

"The grid will get there, eventually," Gusek said. He left no doubt that Liberty, which has been certified as a power provider in PJM as well as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), would get there far faster.

Company Brings Experience in Stakeholder Engagement

Years ago, confronted by citizen protests over the noise of hydraulic fracturing, Liberty introduced an all-electric fracking service that remove one sticking point between an operator and the community.

"Over the years, we have had to work through a variety of stakeholder challenges," Gusek said. He suggested, but did not state, that Liberty could bring its experience in defusing angry stakeholders to its data center customers, potentially alleviating another factor that could limit planned construction of data centers. For more on the widespread resistance to data centers, see July 20, 2026, article - Data Centers Face 'Arc of Outrage,' But Consultant Has a Plan.

While Liberty's offering today is powered by natural gas, Gusek said power from small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) or advanced geothermal coupled with batteries, was not out of the question. He made it clear that his company's mission was to find solutions for customers, some of whom have made net-zero or other sustainability commitments.

"Energy powers the computing infrastructure that enables new breakthroughs in productivity, healthcare, education, science, and economic opportunity," Gusek said, underscoring the company's commitment to bettering human lives. Liberty's former chief executive officer, Chris Wright, now U.S. Energy Secretary, called AI "the next Manhattan Project."

While Gusek's remarks focused on Liberty's LPI initiative and data centers, the choice of venue -- before hundreds of oil and gas executives, bankers, analysts and consultants -- likely was designed to expand attendees' understanding of Liberty's business and service offerings. Oil and gas drillers, particularly those operating in remote areas, have for years complained about the lengthy delays they have faced when seeking grid-connected power for their drilling sites.

Key Takeaways

• Liberty Energy Incorporated introduced a distributed electric generation business at the start of 2026 that is designed to meet he electric power needs of data centers and other commercial and industrial customers.
• The dramatic increase in plans to build large data centers across the U.S. has triggered widespread pushback as well as concerns from state utility regulators and elected officials over whether homeowners will be asked to disproportionately pay for the power generation and electric infrastructure needed to being electricity to those computer campuses.
• The new Liberty offering could also find traction in the Oil Patch, where operators have complained for years over slow utility hookup practices.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).