Orcadian Energy

[00:00:00]AI may be digital, but its biggest bottleneck is increasingly physical, power. So, who is going to supply the energy infrastructure behind the data center boom? Today, we're looking at Orcadian Energy's Erlem Gigagrid opportunity and how it could bring together gas production, low-carbon electricity, carbon capture, and AI-driven demand in one integrated project. I'm joined by Steve Brown, CEO of Orcadian Energy. Steve, welcome back to the watchlist.

[00:00:29]>> Delighted to be here, Ricky.

[00:00:31]>> It's a pleasure to have you, as always.

[00:00:33]Um but tell us, Steve, the Erlem Gigagrid concept brings together gas production, low-carbon electricity generation, carbon capture and storage, um and obviously the AI-driven data center demand. How do you see this project positioning Orcadian as a pioneer in the UK's future energy and digital infrastructure landscape?

[00:00:53]>> Well, I think people will end up thinking we're really quite innovative.

[00:00:58]Uh because this is a super innovative project. Um it's combining the technologies we need to generate reliable, low-carbon power, carbon capture and storage, and this AI-driven data center demand.

[00:01:15]Um we really want to maximize the value of the energy we have at Erlem. And the way we can do that is convert the gas into power and convert the power from electrons into bits. With um uh the AI data center. And you might be thinking what does an aging North Sea tiger like me uh what can I bring to the data center business? Well, historically, the data center business was land first. And they identified the piece of land, they got the permissions, they got the electricity supply, so on and so forth.

[00:01:53]And uh that was how a data center got Now ideas the data center industry has realized it has to be energy first. And first of all, you got to find the energy. And once you find the energy, then you can find the facility and the place you're going to put it and so on and so forth. And uh the great the people in the data center business need energy. And the other thing they need is cooling because they need some some way of taking the heat that is generated in these data centers away.

[00:02:28]Well, it turns out that the UK's offshore oil and gas business has been running islanded mission-critical microgrids for 50 years because every single North Sea platform has its own microgrid. It has its own power generation system and it's distributes that power to a series of absolutely critical processes. And data centers need reliable energy. And they need somewhere to dissipate heat. So, Earlham can provide the energy. Offshore energy's engineers can make it reliable.

[00:03:05]And the North Sea is a massive heat sink.

[00:03:09]So, it turns out that offshore is actually almost the very best place you can put a data center.

[00:03:17]>> Well, it might be the first time anyone's seen a tiger at sea, Steve. But this all comes at a time when data centers are becoming a major source of electricity electricity demand as you just alluded to that. With the IEA noting that reliable and affordable power will be critical to unlocking data center growth and local AI capability.

[00:03:38]With interest from potential hyperscale data center operators and the formation of Earlham Gigagrid, what are the key milestones over the next 12 months that could unlock significant value for shareholders?

[00:03:51]>> So, the the first milestone is actually bringing some new capital in to that uh subsidiary called Earlam Gigagrid because that will allow us to properly evaluate the development concept for Earlam and to get the NSTA TA, the oil and gas regulator on board and for us to prepare plans of what the Gigagrid really looks like, the first step in that. And then once we've got that a agreed to by NSTA, uh then we'll look to bring in those hyperscalers, those neoscalers and I expect one of them's going to say, "This is just the best project ever.

[00:04:30]I got to buy it."

[00:04:33]>> Well, this sounds like a story sitting right at the intersection of energy security, AI infrastructure and low-carbon power where the ability to deliver reliable electricity could become a major competitive advantage. Thank you for your time today, Steve.

[00:04:48]>> And th- thank you for listening to me, Ricky.

[00:04:51]>> Always a pleasure. Once again, that is Steve Brown, CEO of Alkane Energy. For more information on the company and the Earlam Gigagrid opportunity, visit alkane.energy.

[00:05:02]That's all for this episode of The Watchlist. I'm Ricky Lee. Make good choices today.