David Coker, chief executive officer of One Power Solutions. (Photo by Jacob Orledge/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – Natural gas is going to be the “savior” of the power grid. That was the message from David Coker, chief executive officer of One Power Solutions, during the North Dakota Petroleum Council’s annual meeting.

“People are starting to realize it now. We have a power problem in this nation,” Coker said. “Natural gas is the solution to our power problem.”

That’s good news for North Dakota, which produces more than 3.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Meanwhile, the demand for artificial intelligence is growing so rapidly that the power generation needed is expected to reach 50 gigawatts by 2028, according to Todd Slawson, chair of the North Dakota Petroleum Foundation. “Fifty gigawatts is like building another California,” Slawson said.