Energy is transforming.The playbook is not written yet.
Escend is a growth strategy firm for the energy transition. Utilities, solution providers and energy innovators bring us their hardest growth decisions; we bring market insight, regulatory fluency, deep relationships and a record of results.
Data centers are asking utilities for 100 MW to 50 GW at a time, and new generation and transmission cannot be built at that scale on that timeline. At the same time, utility customers are more price sensitive than ever.
The challenge is not demand. It is that no single model works across markets that differ in regulation, resource mix and policies: what fits an Oregon IOU fails a Southeast co-op or a Canadian province.
Escend brings insight from those markets and working knowledge of the frameworks now being tested in them, from Community Benefit agreements to Bring Your Own Distributed Capacity (BYODC), drawn from the docket record we read every business day.
Escend Advisory
Growth decisions, market by market. Utilities, solution providers and the consultancies that serve them bring us the barrier; we bring the answer and stay to deliver it.
Explore the practice →Board Service
Independent judgment for boards facing decisions the playbook does not cover: financial oversight in a changing market, regulatory and commercial risk, and management's plan for growth. Vice Chair, PLMA. Board member, All In Energy.
Board profile →Four things moving in the market this week.
- Flexibility is becoming the price of a connection. A Duke University Nicholas Institute study estimates that greater flexibility from data centers could avoid $40 billion to $150 billion in capital investment, and OpenAI agreed to cut the grid draw of a planned 3.2 GW facility by up to 1 GW. Pennsylvania's PUC voted 4-0 to take comment on rules that would stop large loads being classed as critical loads exempt from curtailment, with a final order expected January 28, 2027.
- Regulators are writing the terms data centers pay. Michigan approved DTE's 20-year contracts with Google, with an 80% minimum billing demand, against the five-year term DTE's large-load rate normally requires. Alabama now requires a commission vote and public contract summaries for projects over 150 MW. Duke Energy's large-load tariff settlement is before North Carolina regulators and drawing objections.
- Cost allocation has moved to the grid operators. DOE urged PJM to make large loads, not households or other businesses, fund the 6.8 GW of capacity it plans to buy. MISO filed a Large Load Addition Resource Study at FERC (comments due October 23) and won broad support for an accelerated interconnection queue covering about 71 GW of projects.
- Local pauses keep spreading, and opinion is hardening. In one week: Lexington, KY extended its moratorium; Denver named a 26-member working group under a one-year pause; Indio, CA extended its freeze through October 2027 on the way to a permanent ban; Grand Junction, CO and San Joaquin County, CA started new pauses; and Hillsboro, OR took a first look at a two-phase limit. Polls found a majority of Maryland voters and 64% of Canadians want data centers limited, and Heatmap counts $260 billion of projects canceled this year after local opposition.
Escend tracks data center power and regulation across North America daily. Sources available on request.
Commercial outcomes, owned end to end.
Listen to the market
We work alongside your teams, customers, regulators and industry groups to surface the signals that matter, and we bring our own network of utility, developer and investor relationships to the table.
Translate signals into a roadmap
Energy, market and customer signals become a prioritized commercial plan with named owners, milestones and the metrics an executive team or board can hold it to.
Deliver measurable results
We stay through execution: positioning, pricing, partnerships, program launch and the negotiations where the value is decided.
Dain Nestel
Dain leads Escend's advisory practice. He previously served as Head of Growth and Commercialization at Portland General Electric, where he led data center negotiations, program development and the launch of the utility's transportation electrification and DER programs, and earlier built CLEAResult's demand response business line. He holds an Executive MBA from Kellogg School of Management and Sasin.