South Central US Data Center Market

PowerUp Data Centers - Infrastructure is a three-day conference organized by Infocast (a Clarion Events company) focused on the power, transmission, and regulatory challenges behind surging data center demand. The 2026 edition runs July 14 to 16 at the Hyatt Regency Austin, with 95 speakers across 21 content sessions. The 2025 edition drew more than 440 participants.

Programming Focus

• Hybrid facilities and behind-the-meter generation
• Interconnection queue reform
• Generation technology selection: gas, nuclear, and BTM options
• Transmission planning and tariff design
• Financing structures for large-scale data center power through 2028 and 2029

Featured Speakers

Regulators and former regulators:

• Commissioner Kelsey Bagot, Virginia State Corporation Commission
• Commissioner Tricia Pridemore, Georgia Public Service Commission
• Commissioner Stacey Paradis, Illinois Commerce Commission
• Commissioner Jesus "Rene" Lopez, Jr., Arizona Corporation Commission
• Rich Glick, Principal, GQ New Energy Strategies (former FERC Chair)
• Allison Clements, Partner, ASG Group (former FERC Commissioner)

Utilities and ISOs:

• Bill Blevins, Director, Grid Coordination, ERCOT
• Marc Keyser, Regional Director, MISO
• Raj Bazaj, VP, Energy & Sustainability Solutions, Constellation
• Sharon Midgley, VP, Regulatory Policy, Constellation
• Caroline Mead, SVP, Power Marketing, ENGIE North America
• Jennifer Galaway, PE, Senior Manager, Transmission Strategy, Portland General Electric
• Rafael Wilches, Director, Transmission Development, PSEG

Data center operators and customers:

• Audrey Copeland, VP, Power Development, Compass Datacenters
• Sean Farney, VP, Data Center Strategy, JLL
• Ghassan Saroor, Director of Power Generation and Transmission, CyrusOne
• Samantha Robertson, Director, Global Energy Strategy, Bitdeer
• Cameron Poursoltan, Senior Manager, Energy Policy (Texas), Data Center Coalition

Generation and technology:

• Benjamin Reinke, SVP, Global Business Development, X-energy
• TJ Winter, VP, Strategic Technologies, Fluence

Sponsors

Gold: Fluence Energy, Davies, Husch Blackwell, Morgan Lewis, Norton Rose Fulbright

Silver: BDO, CFO Services, EDP, PIQ Energy

Other: Pike (lanyard); Brown & Brown and Sieyuan Electric (hospitality)

Who Should Attend

• Data center developers, owners, and operators
• Utilities and power generators
• Transmission planners
• Engineering and consulting firms
• REITs, lenders, and infrastructure investors
• Renewable energy developers
• Law firms
• Policymakers and state regulators
• Corporate data center customers

Logistics

Hyatt Regency Austin room rate: $199 (cutoff June 22, 2026).

DICE South is a two-day data center investment and development conference organized by Bisnow, focused on Southern U.S. markets. The 2026 edition takes place August 12 to 13 at the Live! by Loews Hotel Arlington, TX.

Programming covers Southern market positioning, site selection and utility engagement for power-ready projects, capital underwriting for AI-era workloads, AI-density design with liquid cooling and white space innovation, onsite generation and hybrid energy, compressed construction delivery, and operations automation for high-density facilities. Speakers include Dave Ferdman (Primary Digital Infrastructure), David McCall (QTS), Jeffrey Moerdler (Haynes and Boone), Hani Noshi and Andy Kirby (Microsoft), Jake Ring (PDM), and Steve Altizer (Compu Dynamics), among 30+ others.

The audience includes developers, operators, investors, construction firms, utility partners, technology providers, and policy stakeholders. Registration starts at $499.

Advancing Data Center Electrical Innovation is a three-day forum focused on end-to-end electrical systems for high-density, AI-ready data centers. The 2026 edition is held at The Highland Dallas, Curio Collection by Hilton, August 17-19.

Content spans utility interconnection through rack-level power delivery. Stated focus areas include grid constraints and interconnection lead times, redundancy tradeoffs, and emerging power architectures for AI workloads. The program includes a pre-conference workshop on designing flexible, AI-ready electrical systems, plus two main conference days built around case studies and peer discussion, with 25+ hours of networking.

Target audience is 100+ electrical engineering leaders from hyperscalers, colocators, engineering firms, and contractors. Confirmed attending companies include Oracle, AECOM, Arup, Skybox, Marathon, Black & Veatch, McCarthy Building Companies, Tetra Tech, and Gresham Smith. Speaker roles include principal engineers and senior technical engineers from firms such as Gresham Smith, SEL, and Interstates.

Official partners: 3M, MP, SEL, and EAE. Organized by Advancing Construction (Hanson Wade Group).

DCAC USA 2026 is the flagship US edition of the Data Center Anti-Conference, held August 24 to 26 at ACL Live at The Moody Theater in Austin. DCAC was founded by Kirk Offel in Austin in 2015 and is led by President David Isaac; the series expanded to Europe in 2024. The global DCAC footprint draws 3,000+ attendees across 1,000+ companies, with 200+ industry partners.

The 2026 theme is "Operation Full Throttle: Forging the 5th Utility," positioning data infrastructure alongside water, electricity, gas, and telecom as essential infrastructure. DCAC deliberately breaks from traditional conference format, emphasizing networking, interactive content, concerts, and celebrity appearances over panel-heavy programming.

Programming Focus

• Data infrastructure as the 5th utility
• Industry collaboration, innovation, and community building
• Networking-first format (35+ hours of networking at recent editions)
• Concerts, entertainment, and experiential programming

Named Partners

Nvidia, Microsoft, Intel, IES, Rosendin (more partners to be announced)

Who Should Attend

• Data center owners, operators, and developers
• Hyperscalers and cloud providers
• Design, construction, and engineering firms
• Electrical and mechanical contractors
• Power, cooling, and infrastructure technology vendors
• Investors and capital partners in digital infrastructure

Logistics

Venue: ACL Live at The Moody Theater, 310 Willie Nelson Blvd, Austin, TX 78701.

Datacloud USA is the U.S. edition of the Datacloud series, combining Datacloud USA, Metro Connect Fall, and Datacloud Energy USA under one roof. The 2026 edition runs September 2-3, 2026 at the Austin Marriott Downtown, with pre-event activities on September 1. Organizers project 3,000+ senior digital infrastructure leaders.

Programming Focus

• U.S. data center site selection and power procurement
• AI infrastructure buildout and hyperscale demand
• Nuclear and behind-the-meter power for data centers
• Metro fiber, dark fiber, and interconnection markets
• Neocloud and specialized AI cloud architectures
• Digital infrastructure finance, M&A, and capital markets

Co-Located Summits and Programming

• Digital Infrastructure Leaders' Summit
• Nuclear for AI Summit
• Datacloud Energy USA
• Metro Connect Fall
• Women in Digital Infrastructure Lunch
• Neocloud and Design meetups

Sponsors

Diamond: PowerBridge

Platinum: Kent Data Centers, Langley Holdings PLC

Who Should Attend

• Data center developers and operators
• Hyperscalers and cloud infrastructure buyers
• Utilities, generation partners, and energy developers
• Carriers, dark fiber providers, and interconnection operators
• Investors, lenders, and infrastructure fund teams
• Corporate AI leaders evaluating compute capacity

Logistics

Venue: Austin Marriott Downtown, Austin, TX. Pre-event activities on September 1, main conference September 2-3. Organized by Datacloud (techoraco Limited, London).