It is a “recognition that Google’s constraint has moved upstream,” he said. Google doesn’t need to be schooled on data center design or real estate footprint, it “needs a way to bring megawatts online with predictability in a market where grid timelines, interconnection queues, substation upgrades, and permitting cycles are now slower than the compute deployment cycle.”
It is also a risk internalization play, he noted; Alphabet wants to reduce its exposure to delays that occur when phased power delivery is late and “[leaves] capacity stranded and utilization depressed.”
‘Shifts the dependency’
Intersect adds time certainty, sequencing control, and a developer-style operating model that is not reliably provided by utilities and co-location contracts, Gogia noted. The company is “explicitly framed” around co-locating demand and dedicated gas and renewable generation.
That model shifts the dependency, he noted. Instead of waiting for grid capacity to become available, then placing load into it, generation is placed alongside the load path and both are orchestrated together. “It is a very different approach to reliability and speed,” said Gogia.
Alphabet’s support of numerous renewable and clean energy technologies indicates that the tech giant is looking to diversify and stabilize power capacity across different regions and grid conditions and reduce single point dependency. When one technology pathway stalls, another can carry part of the load, Gogia explained.
“Intersect allows Google to coordinate the sequencing so that compute and power arrive together,” he said.
