Chris Reilly, state infrastructure coordinator for Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office, asked a panel of energy and industrial leaders a question Wednesday.

“So, we’re a transformer recruitment team here, everyone?” he asked to laughter from the audience. “That’s what I hear.”

Reilly wasn’t referring to the film franchise, but to a discussion about the kind of infrastructure needed to power Northern Nevada’s growing industrial economy, from battery manufacturing to data centers.

In other words, the discussion revolved around the current capacity of the electricity grid versus the future capacity needed for the region’s overarching economic development vision.

The event was hosted by the Northern Nevada Development Authority and held at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden. It drew a large crowd. Reilly moderated the event.

“Think about NV Energy Northern Nevada, our legacy footprint in Sierra Pacific,” said Jeff Brigger, director of business development and major accounts for NV Energy. “It runs from Reno east to Elko, south to Tonopah, a 100-plus year-old company that traces its roots back to the Comstock Lode in Virginia City. So, quite a historic past. We’ve been serving the community for a long time. It’s taken us all those years to get to about 2 gigawatts of demand for hot summer daytime heat in our service area … 2,000 megawatts.”

Brigger said NV Energy currently has contracts in place with customers that will allow it to double its energy needs.

“And we’re in the process of studying or developing service options for businesses that are asking for a load that’s three or four times what it is now,” he said. “I don’t think anyone could have imagined or even anticipated this kind of growth.”

As more businesses come online, electricity generation and transmission will become critical, and Brigger said a balanced approach is needed.

“There’s a lot of risk that we have to mitigate. There’s a lot of capital that we have to deploy. And we want to make sure that it doesn’t impact our existing customer base and it doesn’t drive up the rates, and then we’re in a position where we have too expensive rates and we’re no longer supporting economic development,” he said.

At Reilly’s urging, Brigger described supply chain issues affecting energy infrastructure.

“Really transformers, transmission breakers… the time frame to get those is sometimes three or four years away, so I think this is a great opportunity for the state to maybe start looking, in partnership with our economic development organizations like NNDA, to find some of those types of companies and bring them back to the U.S.,” he said. “We buy a lot of these from suppliers overseas.”

After Reilly’s point about a “transformer recruiting team,” collaboration between the private and public sectors became a theme of the conversation. Two enthusiastic energy customers flanked Brigger on the panel: Dennis Bartlett, vice president of utility development for Tract, and Rick Nelson, senior vice president of Mark IV Capital and a retired U.S. Marine Corps major general.

Tract, which Bartlett described as a data center land development company, is developing areas in Tahoe Reno Industrial Center in Storey County known as Peru Shelf and South Valley. Bartlett said the “planning horizons” for the projects are long.

“I think the bottom line is that we’re told the projects are expected to consume about 2 gigawatts of power, but we’re not taking megawatts until early 2027, and we’re going to grow to that over the next 10 to 15 years,” he said.

Bartlett added that the company is trying to enable NV Energy to plan for the long term.

“And a lot of that, frankly, is putting money in place today to support what can be done in the future,” he said.

Mark IV Capital is developing the Victory Logistics District in Fernley for manufacturers, data centers and distributors on the south side of I-80 and housing on the north side of the freeway for future employees.

Nelson said research is being done into the possibility of generating electricity on site.

“If we can find a way to break through that and create energy locations, then that changes the dynamics of how energy is delivered there,” he said.

Nelson also mentioned natural gas generation, geothermal resources, solar energy and a potential technology hub in Fernley.

“You’re talking about batteries, advanced materials, lithium … all of that is circulating in Northern Nevada,” he said. “I’m working with the governor’s office to get that land in Fernley, to make Fernley the center of excellence for advanced materials and a technology hub. That’s why the schools are coming. That’s why we’re talking about modular nuclear. There’s a lot of different things happening and we’re trying to make this the new technical home in Northern Nevada for all of these advanced materials.”

Brigger pointed out that the projects unveiled Wednesday alone would more than double existing energy demand in Northern Nevada. He cited NV Energy’s Greenlink project as a step forward in meeting that demand.

“Greenlink consists of two parts. Greenlink West will be a 525 kV (kilovolt) line spanning approximately 350 miles from Las Vegas to Yerington,” the company’s website states. “NV Energy expects construction of Greenlink to begin in the first quarter of 2025. Greenlink West is expected to be in service in May 2027.

“Greenlink North will be a 525 kV line spanning approximately 235 miles from Ely to Yerington. Greenlink North is expected to be in service in December 2028. The project also includes three 345 kV lines from Yerington to the Reno area.”

Bartlett was more concerned about the future of energy supply than about industrial development.

“The grid has seen this kind of growth before, but it’s been a long time, really since the post-war period, and there are so many more hurdles to overcome now than there were then,” he said. “We have to think about air emissions. We have to think about greenhouse gas emissions. We have to think about water stress. We have to think about habitats and natural resources.

“And so the challenges of planning, permitting and building these major infrastructure projects in transmission and generation have never been greater, but now is the time when they are needed most. Big loads like data centers are getting a lot of attention right now, but they are really just one of the first waves of increasing needs on the electricity system.”

Bartlett said navigating the energy needs of data centers, for example, can be part of a broader solution that “supports economic development, enables tax growth across all sectors and opens up opportunities for other industrial customers to locate here in Northern Nevada in the future.”

“The things we do today will really have an impact on the next decade,” he said.