Meta wants to get into the electricity trading business

In order to accelerate the construction of new power plants needed to provide energy for its data centers, Meta is looking to get into the business of trading electricity.

Bloomberg reports that both Meta and Microsoft are asking for federal approval to trade power (Apple has already received this approval). According to Meta, this will allow it to make long-term commitments to buy electricity from new plants, while mitigating the risk by having the ability to resell some of that power on wholesale power markets.

Meta’s head of global Urvi Parekh told Bloomberg that power plant developers “want to know that the consumers of power are willing to put skin in the game.”

“Without Meta taking a more active voice in the need to expand the amount of power that’s on the system, it’s not happening as quickly as we would like,” Parekh said.

As an example of the unprecedented energy needs underlying tech companies’ ambitious AI data center plans, Bloomberg notes that at least three new gas-powered plants will need to be built to power Meta’s Louisiana data center campus.