Race to increase data center capacity, meet their energy consumption becoming strategic challenge for world economies - Gazprom head
ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 9 (Interfax) - The race to increase data center capacity and the ability to meet their energy needs is becoming a strategic challenge for world economies, the head of Gazprom , Alexei Miller, said during the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (SPIGF 2025).
Over the past ten years, it is gas rather than renewable energy sources that has grown the most in terms of consumption levels, even though "a real war has been waged against traditional hydrocarbons," Miller said. For world economies focused on renewable energy sources, gas has turned out to be the main balancing factor for energy systems. It turned out that no energy systems could work without gas. At the same time, without gas supplies from Russia, the risk to the stability of the energy system has become more significant for these economies, Miller said.
The energy market has increased the specific consumption of gas over ten years, and new consumers have appeared in the form of data centers, Miller said. Gas generation and digitalization are two inseparable elements, with data centers and artificial intelligence already accounting for a large specific share of the growth in electricity consumption, he said. If data center capacity grows, then energy consumption also increases. It turns out that digitalization now and especially in the future will be ensured by the reliability of energy supplies, Miller said.
"These are completely new factors. These are new sectors of consumption. Digitalization, artificial intelligence - these are inevitable things; we have already embarked on this path, we are moving along it. The more powerful the data centers, the more powerful the AI, the more energy is required. And if you don't have this, then you are left on the sidelines of history," Miller said.
New gas fields are needed to cover the growth of new energy demand, and these are only available in Russia, he said.
