Enchanted Rock Taps Veteran to Power AI Boom Amid Grid Strain

HOUSTON, TX – January 14, 2026 – In a strategic move to address the escalating power crisis facing the data center industry, onsite power specialist Enchanted Rock has appointed industry veteran Regis Malloy as its new Senior Vice President of Data Centers. The appointment signals an aggressive push to provide critical power infrastructure for hyperscale and AI-driven computing, which are straining electrical grids to their breaking point.

Malloy will lead the Houston-based firm's data center practice, focusing on hyperscale, colocation, and enterprise operators who are struggling with power constraints, reliability demands, and accelerated deployment timelines. His hiring comes at a moment when the insatiable energy appetite of artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping energy markets and challenging the ability of utilities to keep pace.

"The industry has reached a clear inflection point," said Allan Schurr, Chief Operating Officer at Enchanted Rock, in a statement. "Policy developments and market imperatives increasingly validate the need for onsite generation for large-scale data center operations."

An Industry Overwhelmed by Demand

The scale of the data center industry's power consumption is staggering. Global electricity demand from data centers, which power everything from cloud computing to generative AI, is on track to more than double by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Projections show demand reaching nearly 1,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) by the end of the decade—an amount equivalent to the current total power consumption of Japan.

This explosive growth is driven primarily by AI. AI-optimized servers are projected to account for nearly 45% of total data center power usage by 2030, with power densities per rack having already doubled in just two years. This unprecedented demand has created severe bottlenecks in the power supply chain. Data center developers in high-demand markets like Northern Virginia, Georgia, and Texas now face multi-year delays—sometimes as long as seven years—just to secure a grid connection for new facilities.

This “speed to power” constraint is a critical barrier to the continued expansion of the digital economy. The Uptime Institute has warned that by 2027, 40% of AI-focused data centers could find their operations constrained by the simple lack of available power, as utility grid expansion cannot match the pace of digital infrastructure development.

Malloy's Mandate to Bridge the Power Gap

Regis Malloy's career has been forged at the heart of the data center ecosystem, with senior leadership roles at industry mainstays like CoreSite, Sabey, Element Critical, and the modular data center innovator Flexnode. His experience spans the very sectors Enchanted Rock aims to serve, from large-scale hyperscale infrastructure to rapid-deployment modular solutions.

In his new role, Malloy is tasked with navigating this complex landscape. He will be responsible for expanding the adoption of Enchanted Rock’s onsite power platform, which aims to decouple a data center's growth timeline from the utility's interconnection queue. His mandate is to help data center operators build faster and more reliably, even in power-constrained regions.

"Data center operators are being asked to navigate the complexities of scaling under grid constraints, reliability demands, rapid deployment timelines, and community expectations," Malloy stated. "Enchanted Rock's integrated onsite power platform enables data centers to grow responsibly, maintain reliability, and support the grid — turning operational challenges into operating leverage."

Beyond the Grid: The Rise of Onsite Generation

Enchanted Rock is a key player in the growing trend of distributed energy resources and microgrids, which offer critical facilities a way to achieve energy independence and resilience. The company's solution centers on grid-tied, natural gas-powered generators that provide a multi-faceted platform for data centers.

Unlike traditional diesel backup generators, which are used only during outages, these systems can function as a primary power source, a dispatchable capacity resource for the grid, and a resilient backup system all in one. This allows a data center to begin operations long before a permanent utility connection is available, effectively providing a “bridge to permanent grid capacity.”

By using natural gas, the company positions its technology as a lower-emission and quieter alternative to the diesel generators that have long been the industry standard for backup power. While natural gas is a fossil fuel, it produces significantly lower levels of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, addressing some of the increasing environmental and community pressures on data center operators. This approach offers a pragmatic middle ground in a market where fully renewable solutions may not yet provide the 24/7 reliability required for critical AI workloads, and where other alternatives like solid oxide fuel cells from competitors like Bloom Energy are also vying for market share.

The ability to deploy these power solutions in a modular and scalable fashion is a key advantage, allowing for faster construction timelines that align more closely with the rapid pace of the technology sector.

A New Symbiosis for Utilities and Data Centers

The data center power crunch is forcing a new, more collaborative relationship between developers and utility providers. Utilities, once seen simply as suppliers, are now partners in navigating a complex energy future. Overwhelmed by interconnection requests that in some cases represent more growth in a single year than in the previous decade, many are becoming increasingly receptive to hybrid power models.

Customer-sited generation, like the solutions offered by Enchanted Rock, is emerging as a critical tool. It not only helps data centers get online faster but also provides a valuable service back to the utility. The dispatchable nature of these onsite generators means they can be activated to supply power to the grid during periods of high demand or when intermittent renewable sources like solar and wind are not producing. This flexibility helps stabilize the broader electrical system, turning a major power consumer into a potential grid asset.

Malloy’s appointment and Enchanted Rock’s strategy reflect a pivotal shift in the industry. As the digital world's demand for power continues its exponential climb, the future of data center growth will depend not just on the grid, but on innovative, resilient, and rapidly deployable power solutions built right next door.