AI + energy: Monster child of Origin and Facebook – or a smart, decentralised grid?

Luis F. Gonzalez is not an energy traditionalist.

As Chief Data and AI Officer at Aboitiz Power — one of the Philippines’ largest power companies — he sits at the intersection of digital transformation and electricity systems. His job is to embed artificial intelligence deep inside a major generation and distribution business.

And he believes the centre of gravity in the energy transition is shifting.

As the data and energy industries become more intertwined Gonzalez argues “the data industry will lead and champion the energy transition in a way that the power industry on its own cannot”.

Gonzalez will deliver a keynote address to the Energy Consumers Australia Foresighting Forum on March 4 and 5, where regulators, consumer advocates and industry leaders will grapple with the future of the energy system. 

In an interview with the SwitchedOn Australia podcast ahead of the forum Gonzalez explained how AI changes the economics of power.

“The only way to be able to transform data into intelligence is through an immense amount of electricity,” he says.

Data centres need enormous amounts of energy, but Gonzalez says the relationship runs deeper than demand for electricity. 

“The data industry will lead energy transition because it changes the paradigm of the bankability of the projects.”

Instead of building generation purely to sell electrons, firms can finance power plants because they are selling something Gonzalez believes is far more valuable — computation.

“We can sell intelligence and electricity as a utility, and not just electricity.”

Economically, the digital economy already far exceeds the electricity sector in value. The question is whether that financial power will now reshape who builds — and controls — energy infrastructure.

Gonzalez’s audacious proposition is that AI will become the financial engine of decarbonisation, and unlock capital for renewables in ways traditional utilities cannot.

Decentralising data and power

But his vision is not one of endless centralisation.

He argues that today’s AI systems — such as large language models concentrated in a handful of massive US data centres — represent only a transitional phase. “in the future, we’ll have something called small language models, and they’ll be highly regionalized.”

Rather than one dominant intelligence layer controlling everything, Gonzalez believes computation can become more distributed — closer to where energy is generated and consumed.

“if we go down the path of fragmenting the data requirements and energy requirements, then I think there’s a lot more empowerment that can happen at the consumers level”

Whether that fragmentation is technically or commercially achievable at scale remains uncertain.

“I don’t know if we can, but we definitely should.”

A data layer above the grid

Gonzalez believes the real transformation lies not just in financing, but in control.

“The ability to centrally manage an energy grid has always been a challenge,” and whether the grid becomes more centralised or more distributed, he argues it cannot function efficiently without a coordinating intelligence layer.

“The only way to run a centralized grid or decentralized grid, and to manage it more intelligently is with data, with a central data capability that can broker every single one of the contributors to electricity management.”

Which raises an uncomfortable implication.

“The only company that has demonstrated to have the capability to do a massive data brokerage effectively for a platform of millions, is a data company.”

Gonzalez even floats the idea of “a blend of Origin energy and Facebook” — before clarifying: “I don’t want Facebook to run my power grid.”

His point is not that today’s tech giants should take over the system. It is that the technical capability to manage millions of distributed assets already exists in the data industry.

Consumers, trust and regulation

For energy consumers, this vision cuts both ways.

Gonzalez believes AI could help households manage bills by dynamically adjusting appliances and providing real-time optimisation. He argues intelligence should supplement human capability and be accessible to renters as well as homeowners.

But he also admits regulators are not ready.

“I don’t think we’re protected because we don’t even understand the harms that are coming to us very well. The regulators don’t understand it…”

He calls for government-owned regulatory sandboxes to simulate how intelligence and energy markets should operate, and for legislation that adapts continuously as technology evolves.

At the same time, he warns against monopolisation.

“The role of consumers is to always fight for the fact that we cannot allow to over monopolize key resources for human support and survivability.”

Gonzalez is openly optimistic about a data driven future, and has chosen, as he puts it, “to become a cheerleader of the positive aspects of this technology.”

The question for policymakers and consumer advocates is whether AI’s growing role in the grid will democratise clean energy, or simply shift power from utilities to tech platforms.

If electricity becomes the fuel of intelligence, then the clean energy transition may ultimately be shaped not just by engineers and regulators, but by whoever controls the data layer sitting above the grid.

You can hear the full interview with Luis Gonzalez on the latest episode of Renew Economy’s weekly SwitchedOn Australia podcast.