Iberdrola’s Ignacio Galán Joins Global Energy Leaders To Discuss AI-Linked Electricity Demand Surge

Iberdrola Executive Chairman Ignacio Galán participated in CERAWeek, one of the world’s leading energy forums, held in the United States. During the event, he met with key figures from global political, regulatory and energy sectors and joined a plenary panel addressing the challenges that rising artificial intelligence demand poses for electricity systems. Throughout the conference, Ignacio Galán met again with the US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, and the US Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum. He also held discussions with Ditte Juul Jørgensen, and Katherina Reiche, reflecting the global perspective of the forum and the importance of cross-border coordination in the energy sector.

During CERAWeek, Galán participated in the panel titled The Power Convergence: Bridging the Gap Between AI Demand and Grid Capacity. The discussion examined the rapidly increasing electricity consumption across various sectors, driven largely by the growth of artificial intelligence and the expansion of large data centres. The session emphasised the urgent need for substantial investments in electricity transmission and distribution networks, as well as new generation capacity, to manage this surge in demand while ensuring system reliability, security, energy independence and long-term competitiveness.

Joining him on the panel were Scott Strazik, representing the equipment supplier GE Vernova, and Uwem Ukpong from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Together, they discussed how the accelerating demand from AI workloads is reshaping electricity planning and infrastructure requirements around the world. Iberdrola is part of a select group of global electricity companies invited to participate in CERAWeek. Its inclusion reflects its standing as Europe’s largest electric utility and one of the world’s largest by market capitalisation, as well as its strong and growing presence across both Europe and North America.