Thought Leadership

News and Insights

Scaling transmission infrastructure: What to expect in the years ahead

 

I’ve spent the past several years scaling transmission programs for two of Atwell’s primary clients in the Midwest, and in that time, I’ve watched demand for transmission capacity accelerate at a rapid pace. We need more capacity than at any point in recent memory, and we need it faster. Data centers are the headline driver, but they’re really just the most visible symptom of something broader: an aging grid overdue for modernization, a wave of renewable interconnection projects, and a growing population of energy users who all want power quickly. Here’s where I see the real bottlenecks sitting, and where relief may come from in the years ahead.

A perfect storm, not a single problem

These challenges are more than a data center story. Aging infrastructure needs to be replaced, and facilities that were built decades ago are reaching the end of their lifespan at the same time that demand for power is climbing across nearly every sector. Add renewable interconnection projects competing for the same land, engineering talent, and regulatory bandwidth, and as I’ve put it before, there’s just this kind of perfect storm in this industry of need, and there’s only so much real estate.

That collision shows up first in regulation. Working with landowners to reach agreements can be challenging. Condemnation statutes, the legal process for acquiring land rights when a willing agreement can’t be reached, vary widely from state to state, and that inconsistency has real consequences for how quickly a project can move. Some states provide relatively defined procedures and timelines for obtaining possession when negotiations fail, while others provide less certainty about how quickly an unresolved acquisition can be completed. In my experience, states with predictable, well-defined processes are becoming more attractive for development, and I expect that dynamic to keep shaping where transmission investment lands in the coming years.

Materials and talent are slowly catching up to demand

Global supply chains have stretched our procurement timelines considerably for large power transformers, switchgears, conductors, and engineered transmission structures. Transmission structures are usually engineered to precise, project-specific heights, which generally means we can’t pull them from generic inventory as each one has to be manufactured to exact specifications, creating a procurement lead time of a year or more. A single constraint like that can define a project’s entire schedule.

On the talent side, I see more nuance than a blanket “labor shortage.” Right-of-way agents and land professionals are more available than they were during the renewables boom, but experienced transmission-specific talent like engineers and land professionals who understand the particular rhythms of transmission development remain genuinely scarce. Higher-voltage infrastructure adds another wrinkle: 765 kV lines are increasingly part of long-range planning, but for recent greenfield projects there’s limited industry-wide experience building at that voltage.

Regulatory timelines are the biggest, and slowest moving factor

When I think through the challenges we’re facing right now, I put regulatory review at the top. Permitting is a particular pressure point for me: agencies at both the federal and state level are managing heavy caseloads, and I expect that strain to continue for years rather than resolve quickly. Staffing capacity and workload pressures at some permitting agencies can add uncertainty to projects. Routing, siting, environmental analysis, and species studies all take time to do properly, and there’s little room to compress those timelines.

The upside is that our industry is in a genuine transition period. Interconnection queues remain historically large, and many projects face lengthy timelines and uncertainty before reaching operation. All this experience means the next generation of developers, regulators, and legislators are being forced to get more efficient. I’m already hearing early, high-level conversations about streamlining some of these processes, and I am hopeful approval timelines can shorten over the next several years, even if permitting and material procurement may remain persistent friction points.

What is actually helping right now

A few practical patterns have made a measurable difference to the projects I work on:

  • Getting involved earlier. When a team engages with a project from its earliest phases, well before construction, it builds institutional knowledge that pays off later. When an issue arises mid-project, having a team that’s been there from day one means we’re not digging through emails and contact records to reconstruct history.
  • Keeping personnel consistent. Landowners build trust with the specific people they’ve worked with. The same land agent who walked them through survey, soil testing, and appraisal permissions early on offers more comfort than a new name and face late in the process. The more we’ve been involved in early phases of these projects and been able to keep our personnel consistent, that’s been a real strong value add.
  • Investing in relationships beyond the transaction. For many landowners, a transmission easement negotiation is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that’s unfamiliar and, understandably, a little unsettling. It is important to prioritize engagement at every phase, as reputations carry forward.

Looking ahead

The next few years won’t resolve every bottleneck in transmission development, but I expect meaningful movement: incremental regulatory streamlining, more experienced talent entering the transmission space as the current generation cuts its teeth on higher-voltage and higher-stakes projects, and continued progress on approval timelines. Regulatory constraints, permitting and material procurement are likely to remain the toughest constraints for the foreseeable future.

For developers navigating this landscape, the most important lesson from my experience is straightforward: the projects that move fastest tend to be the ones built on early engagement, consistent relationships, and a real understanding of what it’s like to be a landowner encountering this process for the first time.

Having empathy for landowners navigating the acquisition process is important in the right of way profession. For a lot of people, this may be the only time they ever get exposure to this industry, or the only time they negotiate a transmission easement. It’s an unfamiliar, and for some an overwhelming and emotional process. You need to help walk them through in a kind and patient manner.

About the Author

David Hastings

Associate Director

With a strong background in title examination and evaluating business risk for projects, David has extensive experience in project and people management, renewable energy, linear and title projects. David supervises a team of more than 30 staff members, including project managers, project coordinators, document reviewers and contract title researchers and land agents. He earned his BS and JD from Case Western Reserve.

News and Insights

The new math of powered land: Power first, land second

 

“Powered land” is the term the industry is using now, and the shift in language matters. A parcel with a power problem attached used to be a land deal first and a utility headache second. Today, for the developers racing to bring data centers and large loads online, it’s the reverse: this is a power project that happens to need land. Every early decision from what to buy, where to buy it, and how fast to move follows from that new framework.

Start with the end in mind

Every powered land strategy should be built backward from one date: commercial operation date, or COD. It doesn’t matter whether a developer intends to build and operate the project or de-risk it and sell the position. COD is still the number that everything else has to answer to. Even a developer with no intention of ever energizing a site needs to know how soon it realistically could be, because that answer is what determines the value of the position they’re building.

The desktop analysis: Common findings

Atwell runs early-stage sites through an internal desktop-analysis framework before a developer commits real capital to them. It goes deep, but four items surface on nearly every project, regardless of technology or region:

  • Title, right-of-way, and easements

Land control is still the foundation, and no amount of interconnection capacity makes up for a title problem or a missing easement discovered late.

  • Environmental constraints

Wetlands, protected species, and air-quality non-attainment zones can quietly reset a timeline. Even a developer who plans to generate power on-site specifically to avoid the interconnection             queue isn’t necessarily in the clear: a site in a severe non-attainment area can face an air-permitting schedule that takes just as long as the queue itself.

  • Interconnection timeline exposure

Queue position, cluster study cycles, and network upgrade obligations all sit outside a developer’s direct control, but they drive the schedule more than almost anything else on the list.

  • Financial and credit readiness

Getting an interconnection request accepted increasingly requires proof of financial capacity. These may include letters of credit, parent guarantees, or surety bonds before a project earns a               serious spot in line.

None of these are new questions in land development. What’s new is that they now all have to be answered before anyone can say with confidence whether a parcel is actually powered land or just land near power.

Why now?

Capital has come back into the market for data center and large-load projects, and it has brought a new class of investor with it. Hyperscalers and their backers who can absorb credit requirements that would have stopped a smaller developer cold a decade ago. But that capital hasn’t come with the patience it once did. Investors often want deployment on a three-year horizon, not the five-to-seven-year horizon that interconnection queues can still demand in constrained regions. A queue delay that used to be a scheduling annoyance is now a financial risk that shows up directly in project underwriting.

One team approach

The desktop checklist above spans land, environmental, and engineering disciplines that most developers still manage as separate vendor relationships. That’s where projects lose time, not usually because any one discipline is slow, but because nothing forces the disciplines to talk to each other on the same timeline. Our team coordinates land, environmental, and engineering work in a unified manner, which means the wetland delineation, the title work, and the interconnection strategy are being weighed against the same COD from day one, instead of surfacing conflicts with each other months apart.

What comes next?

Land is still the foundation but for developers focused only on the parcel, it’s worth remembering that being near power is not the same as being able to access it. In the next piece of this power-focused series, we’ll take a closer look at what “available” power actually means: how ISO and RTO structure, regulated versus deregulated markets, and load size all shape the answer along with where developers most often assume they have power when they don’t.

About the Author

Sam Barnes

Market Leader

Sam Barnes, P.E., is Market Leader – Power at Atwell, LLC, where he leads the firm’s power engineering practice. His career spans systems engineering, consulting, and executive leadership, giving him a broad view of the power and energy project lifecycle from transmission and substations through EPC and utility-scale renewables. 

News and Insights

Before you buy the land: 10 steps to validate data center power availability

By Sam Barnes, P.E., Market Leader, Atwell

When evaluating land for a new data center, it’s easy to focus on things like acreage, location, or proximity to a transmission line. While those characteristics matter, they only tell part of the story. Developers need to understand whether the site can deliver the right megawatt capacity, on the required timeline, with the reliability, cost, and flexibility needed to support today’s project and future growth.

Successful site selection happens in layers. Each new layer of information helps validate or challenge the assumptions made before it. As you move from understanding your project’s power needs to evaluating infrastructure, schedule, cost, and risk, you build a clearer picture of whether a site can support your goals. The more questions you answer early, the more confident your investment decisions become.

Step 1: Define the project’s actual power requirements 
The first step in the process of selecting a data center site is to understand what your project actually needs.

Start by asking questions like:

  • For the first phase of development, what is the operating load?
  • How does that change as more phases are completed?
  • What is the total campus buildout and what voltage level will the facility require?
  • Will the load remain fairly steady, or will it fluctuate?

By understanding the project in both short-term and long-term needs, a better foundation for site evaluation is created.

Key message: You can’t evaluate available capacity until you define what the project needs and when it needs it.

Step 2: Look beyond nearby transmission lines and substations 
A transmission line or substation near a property doesn’t automatically mean your project can connect to it. A desktop review should evaluate:

  • Nearby substations and transmission lines
  • Voltage levels
  • Utility service territories
  • Regional transmission organizations or independent system operators
  • Planned transmission and generation projects
  • Existing large-load customers in the area
  • Public utility plans
  • Potential routes from the power source to the site

Infrastructure may already be assigned to another customer, lack sufficient capacity, or be unable to physically extend to the site.

Key message: Proximity to power is only a starting point and nearby doesn’t always mean available.

Step 3: Confirm what “available capacity” actually means 
Early conversations, maps, or broker information can be useful starting points, but they are not commitments. To get a true feel for what is available, ask questions like:

  • Is the capacity available today or only after planned upgrades?
  • Has it already been assigned or reserved for another customer?
  • Is the number based on normal or contingency conditions?
  • What infrastructure improvements are required?
  • Who pays for those improvements?
  • What approvals are still needed?

Key message: Available capacity and deliverable capacity are not the same thing.

Step 4: Establish a realistic energization timeline  
Power may be available, but not when your project needs it. Developers should ask for timeline assumptions to get a feel of where timing may shift rather than relying on a single estimated energization date.  Understand the major milestones, including:

  1. Large-load request
  2. Feasibility and system-impact studies
  3. Service agreements
  4. Regulatory and local approvals
  5. Infrastructure design
  6. Land and easement acquisition
  7. Equipment procurement
  8. Construction
  9. Testing and energization

Some activities can occur simultaneously while others depend on utility schedules, permitting, or long equipment lead times. It’s also worth watching a bigger regulatory shift already underway. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is weighing whether to take federal jurisdiction over how large loads connect to the transmission grid, a process that has historically been handled state by state. If that authority shifts, it could change who developers negotiate interconnection terms with and how approval timelines are structured going forward.

Key message: Understand if the complete infrastructure system can be designed, approved, procured, constructed, and energized when the project needs it.

Step 5: Determine the physical path to power  
Power may be available, but it may need to cross someone else’s property to bring it to the site. Scout the surrounding area to understand:

  • Transmission or distribution routes
  • Utility corridors and rights-of-way
  • Parcels that would need to be crossed
  • Existing easements and whether they are sufficient
  • Railroad, highway, pipeline, or waterway crossings
  • Environmental constraints
  • Required setbacks and buffer areas
  • Space for an on-site substation
  • Conflicts with future campus expansion

Key message: Power may seem available, but if there is no practical route to deliver it, it is not truly available to the property.

Step 6: Evaluate reliability, not just total megawatts 
Meeting your required load is only part of the equation; mission-critical facilities also require dependable service. To understand power reliability, ask:

  • Can the site receive power from more than one source?
  • What is the local outage history?
  • How are maintenance outages handled?
  • Is a dedicated substation needed?
  • What backup systems will be needed?

Key message: Power consistency is as important as power availability.

Step 7: Understand the full cost of getting power to the property 
The price of the land may only be a portion of the site’s total cost to energization. To understand the total cost, evaluate the following:

  • Utility studies and application fees
  • Substation construction
  • Transmission or distribution extensions
  • Network upgrades
  • New utility corridors
  • Easement and land acquisition
  • Environmental mitigation

Understanding which costs belong to the developer and which belong to the utility creates a more complete financial picture.

Key message: Don’t just evaluate the land price or utility rate – understand the total cost to energization.

Step 8: Examine conditions attached to the power commitment 
Power capacity may come with specific conditions in place from commercial, regulatory, or operational requirements. Common conditions that should be considered are:

  • Deposits or letters of credit
  • Construction contributions
  • Minimum usage requirements
  • Take-or-pay provisions
  • Capacity reservation milestones
  • Curtailment or demand-response requirements
  • Cost responsibility for future upgrades
  • Large-load tariffs
  • Service agreement deadlines

Key message: Understand the obligations you commit to when accepting power capacity.

Step 9: Test multiple scenarios  
Different scenarios should be evaluated to reduce uncertainty in case power delivery doesn’t go according to plan. For example:

Scenario A: Full utility service on the target schedule 

  • What must be true for the preferred plan to work?

Scenario B: Phased utility service 

  • Can the campus begin operating at a smaller load and expand as capacity becomes available?

Scenario C: Delayed permanent service 

  • What happens if the utility date slips by 12, 24, or 36 months?

Scenario D: Supplemental or on-site generation 

  • Does the site have the land, fuel access, permitting environment, and infrastructure needed for an interim solution?

Key message: Don’t expect the process to unfold perfectly from the get-go. Develop scenarios to prepare you for deviations from the original plan.

Step 10: Bring every layer of information together  
You now have a foundation of knowledge about the site that reveals how capacity, infrastructure, schedule, reliability, cost, and risk work together. That information helps determine whether:

  • The site has a credible path to meeting project goals
  • Additional due diligence or contractual protection would be beneficial
  • The risks outweigh the opportunity

Key message: The best site selection decisions are built by layering information until you have confidence in the path forward.

Better decisions start with better information  
The evaluation of power should be a major part of the land decision. Each layer of analysis adds clarity, helping separate what’s technically possible from what’s realistically deliverable.
By defining the load, validating capacity, evaluating infrastructure, understanding timelines and costs, and planning for multiple scenarios, you can make site decisions based on facts rather than assumptions. The more complete the picture, the more informed and confident your decision becomes.

About the Author

Sam Barnes

Market Leader

Sam Barnes, P.E., is Market Leader – Power at Atwell, LLC, where he leads the firm’s power engineering practice. His career spans systems engineering, consulting, and executive leadership, giving him a broad view of the power and energy project lifecycle from transmission and substations through EPC and utility-scale renewables. 

News and Insights

The spaces in between: How Atwell’s full power and energy capabilities connect to move projects forward

 

Power infrastructure projects are becoming more complex to deliver – not because individual engineering disciplines have become more difficult, but because the connections between them have become more critical. Growing electrical demand, increasingly constrained interconnection timelines, evolving regulatory requirements, and larger, more complex capital programs require utilities and developers to coordinate decisions across engineering, permitting, land, environmental, and construction much earlier in the project lifecycle.

Every power project depends on multiple disciplines working together. A transmission line requires substations, substations depend on interconnection planning, and renewable generation often requires storage – all of it ultimately fitting within the realities of the electric grid. The projects that move most efficiently are those where these disciplines are coordinated from the beginning rather than managed as isolated scopes.

That is where Atwell creates value – not simply within individual technical disciplines, but in helping clients manage the decisions that occur between them.

Atwell provides expert guidance and support for renewable and conventional power infrastructure throughout North America, with more than 50 gigawatts of renewable generation and energy storage projects energized, over 1,000 wind farms designed and permitted, and more than 5,000 miles of transmission line projects completed. Those numbers demonstrate technical depth and project experience. What they don’t fully capture is the coordination required across disciplines to consistently deliver successful projects. That coordination often begins long before challenges emerge in the field.

The “spaces in between”: Where power capabilities connect

Across every power infrastructure project, multiple technical disciplines must work together to keep projects moving. Each discipline requires specialized expertise, but success depends on how effectively those disciplines coordinate throughout planning, design, permitting, construction, and commissioning.

Delivery infrastructure

Transmission, substation, and distribution work form the physical backbone that moves power from where it’s generated to where it’s needed. Atwell supports utilities with transmission line design ranging from simple generation interconnections to ultra-high-voltage initiatives. Substation design and engineering for all voltage levels across conceptual, brownfield, and greenfield projects, with in-house expertise in system planning, structural engineering, protection, and control. Distribution work supports utilities bringing new systems online, relocating facilities, managing pole attachments, and recovering from storm damage.

These activities are rarely independent. A transmission upgrade may require substation modifications, while distribution planning often depends on upstream transmission capacity and long-term load forecasts. Each discipline plays an essential role in advancing projects, and early coordination across these disciplines reduces redesign, schedule impacts, and construction conflicts later in the project.

The same coordination across environmental permitting, land acquisition, and engineering teams helps identify potential constraints early, reducing the likelihood of redesigns and unexpected schedule impacts later in the project.

Generation, storage, and interconnection

Atwell offers comprehensive solutions for utility-scale solar, wind, and distributed energy resources, and has consulted on more than two gigawatts of energy storage projects. Our work includes feasibility studies, sizing recommendations, and economic impact analysis for battery energy storage systems. Today, securing timely interconnection has become one of the defining challenges facing renewable generation and energy storage projects.

Few areas of today’s power market illustrate the importance of the “spaces in between” more clearly than generation interconnection. A storage system sized without transmission capacity in mind, or a renewable project sited without a realistic understanding of interconnection timing, may appear technically sound yet still face years of delay if transmission capacity, queue timing, or grid constraints aren’t considered early. Atwell’s generation, storage, and interconnection teams work together so that what gets designed and what can be connected are evaluated as part of a single integrated planning process.

Connected infrastructure

Atwell has partnered with more than 65 utilities to expand operational capacity through new or upgraded substations, transmission, and distribution systems nationwide, acting as an extension of the client team across planning, land acquisition, right-of-way, permitting, engineering, and construction management. That same full-lifecycle approach extends into turnkey fiber solutions, where Atwell supports communication infrastructure build-outs with make-ready engineering, small cell power supply design, and owner’s engineer services for large-scale fiber projects.

While electric delivery systems and communications infrastructure are often managed separately, utilities increasingly view them as complementary investments sharing common rights-of-way, construction resources, and long-term planning objectives. Atwell’s program management and in-house EPC capabilities exist precisely to make the most of capital investment by coordinating across these adjacent infrastructure needs, rather than treating them as unrelated projects competing for the same crews and the same easements.

Creating connections that unlock opportunities

“Successful power projects aren’t just the result of strong engineering – they’re the result of good coordination. When engineering, permitting, land, interconnection, and construction planning are aligned early, clients spend less time reacting to surprises and more time advancing their projects,” said Jason Utton, Senior Vice President of Atwell’s Power Group.

“The clients who struggle most are usually the ones managing transmission, interconnection, storage, and permitting as separate contracts with separate teams that aren’t always aligned,” Utton said. “Every transition between separate teams creates an opportunity for assumptions to go unchallenged. When those disciplines work together from the beginning, potential issues are identified much earlier – before they become schedule impacts or construction problems.” Moments like these happen in the spaces in between, when disciplines that are usually scoped separately are designed together from the start.

That pattern is consistent across the projects Atwell supports: the value isn’t only in depth within any single discipline; it’s in how rarely something falls through the cracks between disciplines that may be handled by different firms.

Why Atwell is positioned to make these connections

Atwell’s Power & Energy team works across transmission, substation, distribution, generation, storage, interconnection, utility power delivery, and fiber all under one roof. We offer teams that work alongside each other on a regular basis rather than meeting for the first time on a shared project.

This integrated approach allows project teams to identify risks earlier, make better-informed decisions, and respond more effectively as project conditions evolve.

Combined with the expertise across the Atwell family of companies, our teams bring specialized knowledge across the full project lifecycle while maintaining a coordinated approach for our clients. Because we collaborate with utilities, independent power producers, developers, and regulators nationwide, we often see opportunities to connect disciplines and partners who can solve challenges together before a gap between scopes becomes a delay or a missed opportunity.

This perspective allows us to identify connections that others may not see, including linking technical disciplines, project phases, and client priorities across the full power and renewable energy lifecycle to keep projects moving forward.

Connection fuels progress

As power infrastructure continues to grow in scale and complexity, success increasingly depends not only on technical excellence within each discipline, but on how effectively those disciplines work together. By integrating technical expertise across the project lifecycle, Atwell helps clients reduce risk, improve coordination, accelerate decision-making, and keep critical infrastructure projects moving forward.

About the Author

Jason Utton

Senior Vice President

Senior Vice President of Atwell’s Power Group, Jason Utton has been developing renewable energy projects for more than 17 years, with experience in wind, solar, and battery storage projects across the country. He currently provides large scale investment and development clients with business goal setting, renewable portfolio optimization, and capital deployment strategies.

News and Insights

Beyond the plat: How oil and gas surveyors stay ahead of Texas regulatory change

 

For an industry that influences more than a third of Texas’ economy, even small regulatory changes can have far-reaching consequences. For our oil and gas clients, those changes are first felt at the project level, where evolving requirements influence how energy projects are planned, permitted, and delivered.

Understanding the forces driving those changes can help project teams make more informed decisions and position projects for smoother approvals. And as one of the first disciplines involved in project development, surveyors are uniquely positioned to apply that understanding from the earliest stages.

That perspective doesn’t come from technical knowledge alone. It comes from a commitment to staying engaged with regulators, operators, permitting professionals, and environmental experts to better understand the issues affecting the industry. The best surveyors don’t just understand the land; they understand the policies, priorities, and relationships behind the regulations.

In an industry that affects so many aspects of life in Texas, we add value by understanding how policies, stakeholders, and industry trends influence one another and ultimately shape project outcomes.

In permitting, details matter. So does context.

As surveyors, we’re often among the first boots on the ground at a project site, creating the plats that lay the foundation for every decision and approval that follows. While we may not be the ones submitting the permit applications, we are responsible for one of the earliest deliverables in the regulatory process.

Successful projects hinge on accurate data, but we’ve seen through experience with various regulatory agencies that it isn’t just what data we provide, but how we present it that adds value. There are many ways we can deliver reliable data, but if it misaligns with the permit’s intent, it can slow approvals and lead to cascading delays throughout the project delivery.

In short, the details matter, they vary by permit, and they’re easy to overlook or misinterpret without a clear understanding of regulatory expectations. For us, that understanding comes from building strong relationships across the industry and maintaining an ongoing dialogue with both our clients and the agencies responsible for reviewing their projects. It’s one thing to understand the technical requirements; it’s another to be immersed in the conversations surrounding them from multiple perspectives.

Across the industry, operators are navigating an increasingly complex regulatory landscape—from complying with nuanced P-16 requirements to addressing evolving legislation around orphaned wells and produced water. As surveyors, we’re able to better support our clients from the very beginning, whether that means incorporating the right coordinate information, leveraging GIS tools to improve well location verification, or tailoring our deliverables to the “unwritten” permitting requirements.

Ultimately, we’re in a position to help connect the technical details with the broader context of the industry and regulatory environment. That’s where we consistently add value for our clients. By staying at the intersection of industry trends, regulatory expectations, and technical execution, we help clients stay ahead of change.

Many of those changes are being driven by a broader movement in industry priorities, particularly around environmental impacts and long-term resource management.

How environmental policy is shaping energy development

Understanding the regulatory process also means understanding what’s driving it. Across the industry, proactive environmental policies are an important part of the conversation—not as a competing priority to energy production, but as a driver of innovation, long-term resource management, and operational resilience. As ongoing research advances, challenges that were once viewed strictly as liabilities are increasingly being evaluated for their broader value and potential, while others are the focus of renewed efforts to reduce long-term environmental risk and strengthen accountability.

Produced water is a prime example. Long treated as a waste stream requiring disposal, it’s now being explored as a resource with impacts across industries. Ongoing research, pilot programs, and emerging policy discussions are focusing on technologies that could enable treated produced water to be reused in agricultural or industrial applications.

Orphaned wells have also garnered much attention throughout the industry. With more than 11,000 documented orphan wells in the state, the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) is accelerating well plugging programs and looking at ways to strengthen operator accountability, reducing the likelihood of new orphan wells in the future.

These are more than regulatory topics; both have broad implications for landowners, operators, environmental groups, and the future of energy development in Texas. Produced water has the potential to evolve from a disposal challenge into a valuable resource, while efforts to address orphaned wells reflect a broader commitment to responsible land and infrastructure management.

Together, these conversations reflect an industry focused on driving sustainable solutions for the future. As the policies and priorities surrounding them evolve, so will our role as surveyors and land development professionals. Staying engaged in these topics is how we keep in front of the emerging issues and deliver value in the years to come.

The ripple effect of Texas’ energy industry

One statistic puts the oil and gas industry’s influence into perspective: roughly 34 to 38 percent of Texas’ economy is tied to energy. The impact goes beyond well sites and pipelines to influence everything from manufacturing and transportation to hospitality, housing, agriculture, and countless other industries. When the energy sector grows, communities, businesses, and infrastructure grow alongside it.

For Texans, that statistic may not come as a shock, but it does reinforce why conversations around permitting, legislation, the environment, and emerging technologies matter. Every decision has a ripple effect. Every project presents new opportunities. And every connection, every relationship, helps us turn ideas into action for our clients.

By staying in the middle of an industry in constant motion, we’re staying engaged in the concerns, priorities, and opportunities shaping the future of energy development in Texas. We’re listening to concerns and challenges, asking questions, and building relationships with the people driving those conversations.

Those insights, and the connections behind them, will help us better support our clients from the earliest stages of projects. A project is only as strong as its foundation, and the foundation of every pipeline ties back to data and relationships.

 

 

About the Author

Allen Peloquin

Senior Director

Allen Peloquin is a Senior Director and Registered Professional Land Surveyor with more than 25 years of experience supporting oil and gas projects across Texas. He specializes in well surveys, permitting support, pipeline routing, right-of-way, and boundary surveys, bringing extensive experience across the Haynesville, Barnett Shale, Eagle Ford, Permian, and Delaware basins.

News and Insights

What’s driving the next era of commercial retail?

 

Despite years of predictions about the decline of brick-and-mortar, commercial retail is entering a new phase of growth driven largely by changing consumer behaviors. People shop and spend their time differently than they did just a few years ago. As daily life becomes more integrated with online experiences, convenience is more relevant than ever, whether through curbside pickup, same-day delivery, frictionless returns, or omnichannel shopping.

Meanwhile, years of limited new retail construction have left many markets with historically low vacancy rates and a shrinking supply of available retail space. Coupled with renewed investment and updated site layouts and store prototypes, these conditions are creating opportunities for new development, redevelopment, and adaptive reuse across the sector.

As the conversation shifts from disruption to evolution, the retail landscape has changed substantially. Understanding the forces driving these changes, where growth is occurring, and how developers are responding provides valuable context for navigating today’s commercial retail landscape.

What does commercial retail look like today?

Commercial retail encompasses a wide range of developments—from quick-service restaurants (QSRs), grocery stores, and convenience retail to big-box stores, shopping centers, and mixed-use destinations. While the sector has always evolved alongside consumer preferences and economic conditions, the past decade has accelerated trends toward greater convenience, more personalized experiences, and stronger community connections.

Physical retail increasingly functions as an extension of the online shopping experience. While this trend had been gaining momentum throughout the rise of e-commerce, the shopping environment during COVID-19 catalyzed the need for curbside pickup, contactless shopping, and convenient delivery and returns. Successful formats function as a physical embodiment of the digital consumer experience, offering hubs for pickups and returns. As a result, store formats, site layouts, and technology and operational needs have driven renovations of existing infrastructure and new development alike.

One of the most visible transformations has been the decline of once-thriving shopping malls. When large-format department stores began to give way to online shopping, many developments lost the anchor tenants that once generated steady foot traffic for surrounding businesses. Today, these underutilized properties present opportunities for strategic redevelopment, with many being reimagined as mixed-use destinations centered around experiential concepts, grocery stores, healthcare, dining, entertainment, and other need-based retail.

These projects are redefining how retail spaces serve their communities by creating destinations that encourage more frequent visits and respond to evolving consumer needs. While the mix of tenants and store formats may look different, one fundamental principle remains the same: the local market must define the destination, not the other way around. Understanding demographics, consumer demand, traffic patterns, and site characteristics remains essential to create developments that deliver long-term value.

Why is commercial retail changing?

The forces reshaping commercial retail have been building for more than a decade with the rise of e-commerce. Then, in 2020, the global upheaval turned conveniences like online ordering, curbside pickup, and contactless transactions into everyday necessities, forcing retailers to rapidly adapt or consolidate.

Inflation and economic uncertainty changed household spending habits and influenced where consumers shop and what they value. In the months and years that followed, consumers have increasingly sought destinations that offered more than transactions, elevating the role of retail as places for community connection.

These forces continue to influence where investment is flowing, how retailers are expanding, and what successful retail development looks like today.

  • Changing consumer expectations: Consumer expectations have steadily evolved alongside e-commerce, mobile technology, and changing lifestyles. Today’s shoppers expect more from retail and value convenience, digital accessibility, and meaningful in-person experiences.
  • Economic and spending shifts: Inflation and income polarization have steadily driven growth in value-oriented and premium retailers, while many middle-market concepts have lost momentum.
  • Technology and omnichannel retail: As online and in-store shopping become increasingly intertwined, retailers are designing stores to support consumer experiences and fulfillment operations with flexible site layouts, dedicated pickup areas, and integrated technology throughout stores.
  • Limited supply and redevelopment opportunities: A decade of limited retail construction has created favorable conditions for new development in many markets. As retailers resume expansion, developers have opportunities to deliver thoughtfully planned projects that respond to evolving consumer expectations and local market demand.
  • Sustainability and ESG expectations: Investors, municipalities, and consumers alike are placing greater emphasis on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles. Energy-efficient buildings, EV charging infrastructure, walkable sites, and resilient stormwater solutions are becoming standard features that reduce operating costs while supporting municipal goals and evolving development standards.

Where developers are finding opportunity in key market segments

Understanding the market forces behind retail’s rapid evolution is only part of the equation. Those trends are playing out visibly across a handful of high-growth market segments, where brands are adapting their formats, expansion strategies, and customer experiences to meet changing consumer expectations.

  • Grocery and necessity retail

Grocery stores and necessity-driven retail (think pharmacies, banks, and medical clinics) have emerged as reliable anchors for many shopping centers. Their resilience through changing economic conditions and ability to generate consistent, repeat traffic can support surrounding businesses and contribute to more stable retail environments.

  • Dining and quick-service restaurants

Restaurants remain one of the fastest-growing retail segments, with dine-in formats satisfying consumers’ demand for experiences and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) offering convenience and scalable expansion models for developers. For national and regional QSR brands, standardized design criteria and prototypes help accelerate site selection and support efficient multi-market rollouts.

  • Big-box retail

Big-box retail continues to evolve as national retailers refine their footprints through strategic expansion, smaller-format concepts, and opportunities to redevelop aging commercial corridors. Omnichannel fulfillment has transformed many stores into hubs linking physical retail with digital commerce, leveraging technology to create seamless shopping experiences, improve operational flexibility, and adapt to changing consumer expectations. At the same time, many aging malls are being repositioned through adaptive reuse and densification, replacing underutilized retail with mixed-use environments that combine shopping, dining, housing, healthcare, and entertainment to create more community-focused destinations.

  • Convenience

Convenience retail remains one of the fastest-growing segments in commercial development as leading brands expand into both suburban growth corridors and infill locations. Today’s stores are designed to evolve with consumer expectations, incorporating fresh food, digital ordering, EV charging, and other services that extend well beyond traditional convenience offerings.

How can developers position retail projects for long-term success?

While every retail segment has its own development considerations, successful projects share the same foundation: informed site selection, early stakeholder alignment, and disciplined project execution.

Whether delivering a neighborhood shopping center, redeveloping an aging retail corridor, or supporting a nationwide rollout of QSR or convenience locations, successful retail development balances speed to market with early stakeholder alignment and coordinated project delivery.

By integrating market analysis, engineering, permitting, and program management from the outset, developers can create repeatable processes that reduce risk while adapting to the unique conditions of each site.

  • Comprehensive due diligence helps identify environmental, utility, regulatory, and site constraints before they become schedule impacts, while evaluating visibility, access, traffic circulation, and redevelopment potential.
  • Market analysis and strategic site selection help retail locations align with consumer demand, regional demographics, traffic patterns, and other factors that contribute to long-term performance.
  • Integrated planning brings together local stakeholders, potential partners, and technical disciplines early in the process to align site design, infrastructure, permitting, and minimize potential schedule risks.
  • Proactive community and utility coordination can streamline approvals for retail developments while coordinating roadway improvements, utilities, and municipal requirements to advance projects efficiently.
  • Disciplined program management helps deliver consistent results across multiple retail locations by coordinating schedules and design standards while leveraging local relationships and market knowledge to navigate jurisdictional requirements and site-specific challenges.

The outlook for resilient commercial retail

Commercial retail isn’t only about products and services anymore. It has become an ecosystem of grocery stores, restaurants, healthcare, convenience, services, and public gathering spaces that support the rhythms of everyday life. More and more, those rhythms incorporate technology and innovation, driving continued evolution.

The forces reshaping the industry—from changing consumer expectations and digital commerce to evolving demographics and redevelopment—will continue to influence where retailers expand and how communities grow. For developers, that means creating projects that respond to local demand, balance speed with thoughtful planning, and remain adaptable to future change.

Ultimately, commercial retail will continue to evolve as digital and physical experiences become increasingly interconnected. The need for physical space isn’t disappearing; it’s being redefined by the experiences, services, and convenience people expect it to provide.

About the Author

Jesse Conrad

Vice President

Jesse Conrad serves as a Vice President with more than 16 years of experience leading residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, and educational development projects of varying sizes. He specializes in civil engineering and land development, helping clients navigate complex projects from planning and design through permitting and approval. His expertise includes site grading, accessibility compliance, erosion and sediment control, utility design, stormwater management, and coordinating with local, county, and state agencies to help projects move forward efficiently.

News and Insights

From raw land to power: How integrated planning accelerates data center development

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating demand for data centers at a pace few could have predicted just a few years ago. As hyperscale campuses grow larger and more power-intensive, developers face increasing pressure to bring new capacity online as quickly as possible. In today’s market, speed to power determines speed to market.

But the journey from raw land to reliable operations is becoming increasingly complex. Grid constraints have utilities racing to expand transmission infrastructure and generation capacity, while developers simultaneously navigate site selection, utility planning, permitting, engineering, and a growing number of regulatory approvals and community concerns. Each workstream influences the others, and every delay ripples across the project’s critical path.

More than ever, successfully delivering a data center requires coordinating dozens of parallel efforts into a single, integrated program that maintains momentum from site acquisition to energized operations. As the AI race becomes an infrastructure race, the teams best positioned to succeed will be those that understand how every decision influences the path to reliable power.

Building momentum through due diligence

The developers that consistently move projects forward aren’t necessarily the ones that acquire sites the fastest; they’re the ones that evaluate them thoroughly. Comprehensive due diligence helps uncover everything from easements, utility constraints, and power availability to environmental needs, community sentiment, and long-term expansion opportunities.

The goal is more than simply reducing risk, it’s about gaining momentum and saving time. Every constraint identified before acquisition or design is an opportunity to begin planning sooner and keep the critical path moving forward. By enabling multiple workstreams to advance together, due diligence becomes the foundation for faster, more coordinated project delivery.

Aligning utilities and approvals through early engagement

Finding a viable site is only the beginning. Securing reliable power and obtaining local approvals are two of the biggest drivers of a project’s schedule, and they’re deeply interconnected. Beyond available grid capacity or water supply, developers must navigate an increasingly complex entitlement process before utilities can move projects forward. In many cases, utility providers require key local approvals before executing service agreements or committing to infrastructure investments.

That challenge has only grown as hyperscale data centers become larger and more visible. Projects that once moved through local approvals with relatively little attention now face increased public scrutiny, more extensive review processes, and, in some markets, temporary development moratoriums as local governments evaluate the long-term impacts and community benefits.

That doesn’t mean progress has to wait. Early engagement allows project teams to understand the utility requirements, coordinate infrastructure planning, explore alternative power strategies, and identify constraints while public engagement and entitlements continue.

Bridging the gap to reliable power

AI has fundamentally changed the scale of power required for data center development. Not long ago, 10- to 20-megawatt facilities were common. Today, campuses are increasingly planned for hundreds of megawatts, with some exceeding a gigawatt of demand—roughly the output of a nuclear power plant. To deliver that level of power, connecting to the grid is still the most reliable and scalable solution.

Yet even after selecting a site, navigating permitting and approvals, and advancing utility coordination, it can still take years for permanent grid capacity to become available. Utilities don’t move at the same pace as AI demand, which forces us to think strategically about how to reach operations while long-term transmission and generation projects are completed.

For many developers, this means evaluating alternative power strategies such as on-site natural gas generation, battery storage, or renewable sources like wind and solar. While each of these solutions can also involve long lead times and their own permitting and approval processes, they provide benefits beyond accelerating project schedules. They also strengthen long-term power resilience by providing additional layers of redundancy and operational flexibility.

Hyperscale facilities are engineered around what’s known as “four nines” reliability, meaning 99.99% uptime, or less than one hour of allowable downtime over an entire year. They need to keep running during scheduled maintenance and repairs, and they can’t go offline if an unexpected power disruption occurs. So, in addition to bridging the gap until permanent grid connections, alternative power sources become a critical component of long-term operational reliability in a data center’s power strategy.

As power demands continue to grow, securing reliable and redundant sources is an ongoing consideration throughout the development lifecycle. Every decision, from site selection and due diligence to engineering, permitting, and construction, influences the path to energized operations. Keeping those decisions aligned is what ultimately separates projects that maintain momentum from those that fall behind schedule.

Program management as a competitive advantage

Connecting to reliable power is a thread that runs through every phase of development. Decisions made during due diligence influence utility strategy. Utility timelines shape engineering and permitting. Public approvals affect service agreements. Every discipline influences the path to energized operations, making coordination just as critical as technical expertise.

Few developers have the internal bandwidth to coordinate every consultant, utility, permitting agency, and stakeholder across multiple campuses. As data centers continue to expand in scale and complexity, success is increasingly determined by the ability to coordinate all disciplines effectively to maintain momentum across the development program.

Just as importantly, experienced teams understand the local landscape—from permitting timelines and utility requirements to labor markets and community dynamics. Sometimes the most valuable insight comes from knowing who to call or recognizing where a planned transmission upgrade could reshape the project schedule.

That’s where program management creates the greatest value. It combines technical expertise, local knowledge, and disciplined coordination to identify issues early, maintain momentum, and give developers the confidence to focus on delivering the next generation of AI infrastructure.

The path forward

Developing the infrastructure to support the new generation of data centers has become one of the defining challenges of the AI era. As power demands continue to grow and project timelines become increasingly compressed, the path from raw land to energized operations will require closer coordination than ever before.

Developers that embrace an integrated, programmatic approach won’t just be better positioned to overcome today’s challenges, they’ll be better prepared for what comes next. As the AI race continues to reshape infrastructure development, demand for power will continue to grow and regulatory environments will continue to evolve. The ability to efficiently move projects from raw land to reliable power will remain a defining competitive advantage for developers that can maintain momentum and coordinate every phase of the development lifecycle.

About the Author

Jason Minock

Senior Development Manager, Renewables

Jason has 25 years of experience in land planning and development for real estate and energy developers. He currently oversees the program management for one of Atwell’s largest energy clients.

News and Insights

Capital is back, but smarter. Why due diligence wins in 2026.

 

Tighter lending and investment criteria are raising the stakes for due diligence and rewarding the developers who treat it as a competitive advantage, not a formality.

Investment is returning. Data centers continue to capture headlines and capital, but the momentum doesn’t stop there. Advanced manufacturing, logistics, multi-family, and select retail segments are all seeing renewed activity after moving at a slower pace in the past few years. Developers who spent that time waiting on the sidelines are starting to move again.

But the capital coming back into the market in 2026 doesn’t look like the capital that left it. It’s smarter. More deliberate. And far less forgiving of surprises.

What “smarter capital” actually means

“Smarter capital” has become shorthand for a shift everyone in commercial real estate and development can feel but hasn’t fully named. Ask what it actually means, and the answer isn’t new technology or a vastly different financial structure. It’s a sharper, more disciplined process which includes a lot more time and attention spent on due diligence before capital ever moves.

Call it smarter capital or call it what it really is: patient capital. Lenders and equity partners have more time on land contracts than they did a few years ago, and they’re using it. That extra runway means more emphasis on vetting, more boxes checked, and more confidence that a project can move smoothly through the development process once capital is committed.

The fundamentals haven’t changed. Good dirt, used for its highest and best purpose, still draws capital. What’s changed is the patience investors have for ambiguity. With interest rates and construction costs largely leveled off, capital is gravitating toward certainty. The preference is projects with fewer unknowns, clearer paths to entitlement, and fewer reasons for a deal to stall. Smarter capital isn’t chasing home runs. It’s looking for singles, doubles, and triples, deals it can trust to perform with less volatility along the way.

Why the questions are coming earlier

Lenders and investors aren’t necessarily asking new questions; however, they’re asking the same questions earlier, and in more detail. Investors today have more information at their fingertips than ever before, and that access has changed expectations. A passive investor who once relied more on gut instinct can now research a sector in minutes and walk into a conversation sounding informed, even without deep industry expertise.

The result is a capital-raising process where the depth of diligence required on the front end has increased substantially. Developers and project sponsors who can’t answer detailed technical questions early are finding their deals take longer to fill a capital stack or don’t get funded at all. In 2026, the developers winning capital aren’t necessarily the ones with the boldest vision. They’re the ones who’ve already de-risked it.

Where the new scrutiny shows up

Some specific areas of due diligence have become non-negotiable, regardless of asset type:

  • Power and water capacity. The conversation around data centers has put utility infrastructure under a microscope, and that scrutiny is spilling over into advanced manufacturing, cold storage, and any facility with a meaningful automation footprint. Investors want to know what else is being developed nearby, whether the local utility can deliver the power load required, and how that impacts the project’s schedule well before capital is committed.
  • Entitlement and community support. Discretionary approvals can make or break a project’s timeline, and one contentious public hearing can color how capital views an entire submarket. Investors increasingly want evidence that a development team has done the upfront work with community leaders and stakeholders, not just the engineering.
  • Site complexity. Infill and redevelopment opportunities (i.e., repurposed malls and underused retail corridors) carry a different diligence profile than greenfield sites. Greenfield work centers on geotechnical conditions, floodplains, wetlands, and utility capacity. Infill work centers on navigating an existing entitlement and community context. Smarter capital understands that distinction and expects development partners to have a clear path to success.

None of this is about reinventing due diligence. It’s about doing it earlier, more thoroughly, and with answers ready before anyone needs to ask twice.

Where AI fits, and where it doesn’t

The advancement of AI is definitely part of why capital has gotten smarter. It has made it easier for investors, including those without deep sector history, to ask sharper questions sooner. That’s a real shift in how capital is raised, and it rewards developers who treat strong technical groundwork as a front-end investment rather than a box to check later.

AI is also changing how project teams work. Used well, AI can accelerate research, permit tracking, and data gathering. Used carelessly, it can produce answers that sound confident but don’t hold up under review. The fundamentals still have to drive the decision: what is the investment thesis, what is the risk tolerance, and what does the data show. AI can speed up how a team gets there. It can’t make the call and it can’t build the relationships to make a project successful from conception through construction.

Why due diligence wins in 2026

This is where early technical validation earns its place in the process not as a formality, but as the work that determines whether a deal moves smoothly through entitlement, financing, and construction. Without that, a project may stall at the first hard question.

Atwell’s nationwide, multidisciplinary team is built to deliver that validation quickly. Our diversity across geography and service lines means a developer working through site selection for an advanced manufacturing facility can get a fast read from our power team on utility capacity, while our GIS team pulls together the mapping and site data investors are asking for, often before the question is fully on the table.

Our goal as strategic consultants to our clients is to see and identify issues or risk before they are asked by internal or external stakeholders and pivot quickly or provide options for paths forward. Regardless of what our scope is we approach every project with the mindset of how can we make our clients’ life easier while helping them get from point A to point B in their project faster.

That speed matters because every land contract and capital raise runs on the clock. Time spent chasing answers after the fact is time most developers don’t have. Our team functions as an extension of a client’s team: understanding their schedule, their benchmarks, and the specific points where lenders and equity partners are likely to push, then making sure those answers are ready well before they’re needed.

Good opportunities haven’t disappeared. Capital is back in the market in 2026, and it’s smarter about where it lands. The developers who move fastest from site control to funded, shovel-ready deals will be the ones who treat due diligence as the foundation of the process, not a hurdle at the end of it. In a market built on patient, disciplined capital, due diligence isn’t just protection. It’s the advantage.

About the Author

Jesse Conrad

Vice President

Jesse Conrad serves as a Vice President with more than 16 years of experience leading residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, and educational development projects of varying sizes. He specializes in civil engineering and land development, helping clients navigate complex projects from planning and design through permitting and approval. His expertise includes site grading, accessibility compliance, erosion and sediment control, utility design, stormwater management, and coordinating with local, county, and state agencies to help projects move forward efficiently.

News and Insights

The spaces in between: How commercial retail connections become community foundations

 

In growing communities, development often starts with a central hub that drives momentum and creates new opportunities for the businesses, services, and neighborhoods around it. Retail development helps shape the identity of a community by creating gathering spaces, supporting daily needs, and influencing how people experience the area. Alongside housing, these commercial centers help establish the foundation for how a community will function and grow.

Creating successful retail developments requires thoughtful planning and strong collaboration between community stakeholders, developers, municipalities, utility providers, engineers, contractors, and investors. Market knowledge, technical expertise, and execution all play an important role, but long-term success is often driven by something less visible: the power of connection.

In communities experiencing rapid growth, these connections help ensure retail spaces are positioned to operate successfully from day one and continue supporting the community well into the future.

The most successful development teams often create value in the spaces in between the formal scopes of work, where coordination, timing, and industry relationships can shape a project’s long-term success. Projects that move efficiently from concept to completion often depend on stakeholders being aligned early, even before challenges fully emerge. Because teams working across the full development lifecycle can see projects from multiple perspectives, they are often able to identify opportunities others may miss. Atwell applies this approach by helping connect the people, resources, and expertise needed to keep projects moving forward, even when a clear path does not yet exist. Through our family of companies, we provide resources spanning the full project lifecycle, and we bring the right people together to create solutions and build new possibilities. These connections often happen outside formal project scopes, in conversations or introductions that bring the right expertise together at the right moment.

The “spaces in between”: Turning process insight into opportunity

Commercial retail projects face obstacles when there is disconnect across teams, processes, or community requirements. These “spaces in between” can create delays, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities if teams are not aligned.

For example, a developer may manage projects across the country and need support tailored to the unique requirements of each community. When different teams operate independently without collaboration, the project experience and outcomes can vary. Atwell functions as a national team with local expertise to create a consistent approach across every project. We connect teams, partners, and services to help turn ideas into reality while maintaining accuracy from start to finish. Additionally, a brand may need to follow the same rules, guidelines, and processes, no matter where they are operating. Our in-house teams take the time to understand those standards so we can provide seamless support across markets and communities.

If additional expertise is needed, we connect clients with the right teams across our network and family of companies. We also make sure everyone involved understands the project goals, requirements, and next steps from the start.

Instead of just advocating for our clients, we help connect them with the people, resources, and solutions needed to keep projects moving forward and bring them to completion by truly understanding their goals.

Creating connections that drive better development outcomes

Our team excels at thinking beyond traditional solutions. By combining technical expertise with strong industry relationships, we often identify opportunities others might miss.

Jesse Conrad, Vice President at Atwell, recently shared an example from a recent initiative. “I was meeting with a national home builder that was planning a new residential community,” said Conrad. “During our conversations, they shared that one of their biggest goals was creating a place where residents could truly live, work, and shop without leaving the area. Around the same time, one of our commercial clients noted also looking for opportunities to bring shopping and dining options into growing markets and specifically that submarket. It became clear that the two organizations could benefit from knowing each other.”

“Rather than treating those conversations separately, we made the introduction and helped bring both sides to the table early in the planning process. What started as two independent projects quickly turned into a collaborative vision for a more connected community. Moments like that show the value of understanding our clients’ broader goals and knowing when the right connection can create new opportunities for everyone involved, creating win-win opportunities for our clients, the community and it’s future residents.”

While these started as separate projects, it ultimately led to a new working relationship between two organizations that shared the same end goal. In industries as integrated as commercial retail, these relationships often become the foundation for future projects.

Why Atwell is positioned to make these connections

Atwell works across the full project lifecycle, offering solutions that start from due diligence and continue through opening day, with consistency, program knowledge, and value provided every step of the way.

Our family of companies expands the expertise we can bring to every project. Because we collaborate with developers, utilities, municipalities, and contractors nationwide, we often see opportunities to connect partners who can solve challenges together.

This perspective helps us identify opportunities others may overlook by connecting ideas, expertise, and resources across organizations to create stronger commercial retail experiences and more connected communities.

About the Author

Jesse Conrad

Vice President

Jesse Conrad serves as a Vice President with more than 16 years of experience leading residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, and educational development projects of varying sizes. He specializes in civil engineering and land development, helping clients navigate complex projects from planning and design through permitting and approval. His expertise includes site grading, accessibility compliance, erosion and sediment control, utility design, stormwater management, and coordinating with local, county, and state agencies to help projects move forward efficiently.

News and Insights

The data center boom is real. The grid gap is real. The good news? So are the solutions

 

The data center development boom is unlike anything the infrastructure industry has seen in decades. AI adoption has dramatically accelerated demand for power, and developers are racing to secure land, permits, and utility capacity at a pace the grid and broader utility ecosystem were never designed to support. The result is a complex challenge that is forcing developers to rethink not just where they build, but how they power their facilities from the moment they break ground.

The tension is straightforward: developers want power now, and the grid can’t deliver it fast enough. Understanding why and what options exist in the interim is essential for any developer.

The grid constraint is reshaping development strategy

Connecting to the utility grid remains the most cost-effective long-term power solution for data centers. Grid power, purchased at commercial or industrial rates, is significantly cheaper than building and maintaining on-site generation. The problem is the timeline. Depending on the market, a meaningful grid connection can take several years when you factor in land acquisition, infrastructure planning, permitting, and construction. For a developer who wants to be operational “tomorrow,” that timeline is untenable.

Compounding the delay is a significant community relations challenge for utilities and developers. In many states and municipalities, data centers have become a flashpoint for community opposition, not necessarily because of the facilities themselves, but because of misperceptions around electricity rates and environmental impact. Many residents fear that data centers will drive up their electricity bills, even though developers typically purchase power at separate commercial rates and do not burden the residential rate base. Utilities are caught between pursuing large commercial load growth opportunities and navigating public utility commission scrutiny, ratepayer concerns, and political pressure around infrastructure expansion. Water consumption has also become a growing point of public scrutiny, particularly in water-stressed regions, even as newer facilities increasingly rely on closed-loop and more efficient cooling technologies. The perception gap between environmental impact and community concern remains wide, adding another layer of complexity to development projects.

Bridge power: A growing menu of options

Given the grid access timeline, a wide range of “behind-the-meter” and temporary power solutions have emerged. These are not new concepts, but the scale and urgency of data center demand have elevated them into mainstream planning conversations. Here is where the market currently stands:

Fuel cells. Natural gas-powered fuel cells have become one of the more prominent bridge solutions. Companies have established a meaningful foothold in the data center market. Fuel cells offer a relatively clean, scalable power source, and while they come at a cost premium over grid power, they are increasingly viewed as a viable interim or supplementary solution.

Gas turbines. Gas-fired turbines have historically been a go-to for on-site power generation, but the market is currently constrained. Turbine manufacturers are facing significant backlogs driven by simultaneous demand from data centers, power generation facilities, and natural gas compressor stations. Developers who want turbines need to place orders and commit capital well in advance, with delivery timelines that rival the grid itself.

Battery storage. Battery energy storage systems are an increasingly common component of the bridge power toolkit, often deployed in combination with other generation sources. They provide flexibility and resiliency, though they are not often a standalone solution for the sustained power loads that large-scale data centers require.

Diesel and dual-fuel generators. Diesel and propane generators remain in the mix as backup and supplementary sources. Their capacity limitations, however, make them better suited to redundancy roles than primary power for hyperscale or large regional facilities.

Wind and solar. Renewable generation is viable in the right circumstances, but the land footprint required to generate meaningful megawatts can be substantial. Developers who can integrate a solar or wind component into a larger site plan may find these options increasingly attractive, particularly as permitting for smaller distributed sites becomes more common.

The decision framework: Cost, speed, and long-term fit

For most developers, the conversation around bridge power comes down to a tradeoff: is the cost of a temporary or permanent behind-the-meter solution worth it compared to waiting for grid access? Well-capitalized developers like large hyperscalers and institutional players often have the balance sheet to pursue either path. The decision becomes more nuanced for mid-market developers working with tighter margins.

The key variables are rarely just financial. Speed to market, site-specific constraints, local regulatory dynamics, and the developer’s long-term operational strategy all factor in. A developer with a site near an existing substation faces fundamentally different considerations than one in a greenfield location with no nearby infrastructure. Getting the analysis right from the outset before land is committed or capital is deployed is where strategic planning makes the biggest difference.

Looking ahead at a market in transition

The current pace of data center development is extraordinary, but it will likely moderate somewhat. The land-acquisition frenzy of the past 18 to 24 months is beginning to encounter the natural limits of grid capacity, equipment supply chains, and public acceptance. The market is not stopping as AI adoption has created a demand curve that is not going to reverse but it is maturing.

One meaningful shift on the horizon is a move toward smaller, more efficient facilities. As chip technology advances, data centers will be able to do more with less space and less power. A portfolio of five 20-acre facilities may ultimately replace the need for a single 100-acre hyperscale campus. That model is both easier to permit and more resilient from an infrastructure standpoint. The underlying demand for power will continue to grow; the physical footprint required to meet it may not grow at the same rate.

The importance of creating a strategy to meet the needs of today

Navigating the intersection of land, power, permitting, and infrastructure planning requires an integrated strategy from the outset.

The most effective engagements begin early, well before a site is selected, before a power strategy is committed, and before regulatory exposure is locked in. Our role as a strategic partner is to help developers understand the full landscape of options, stress-test their assumptions, and build a plan that is grounded in what is actually achievable in a given market and timeline.

The challenges shaping data center development today are not going away. But for developers who approach them with the right team and the right plan, they are navigable.

About the Author

Brent Straub

Senior Director

Brent Straub is a strategic operations and program executive with more than 15 years of experience leading technical operations, field execution, and organizational transformation across critical infrastructure sectors. He specializes in directing large-scale natural gas distribution and transmission programs, bringing deep expertise in pipeline replacement, integrity management, and regulatory compliance across PHMSA, DOT, and FERC requirements. Brent is recognized for scaling programs across complex, multi-state environments and aligning engineering, construction, and operational teams to deliver safety-critical infrastructure with consistency and discipline.