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Or sign-in if you have an account.Utility poles carry electrical and other types of wire near Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on June 2, 2009. Photo by Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg NewsNextEra Energy Inc.’s US$67 billion deal for rival Dominion Energy Inc., the largest utility acquisition in U.S. history, suggests even the industry’s biggest companies need to grow in order to accommodate the power demand driven by artificial intelligence.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorUtilities and grid operators in the U.S. are expected to invest more than US$1.1 trillion over the next five years on new generation and transmission projects. That spending wave is increasing pressure to gain scale and financial heft, even for companies like NextEra, the largest U.S. utility by market value and biggest renewable-energy developer.“Seeing that need to scale up at the highest level, at the top of the sector’s market cap, I think flips the entire way people are going to view M&A on its head,” said Nicholas Campanella, an analyst at Barclays. “If that’s going to happen and get done and close, then the game is on for it to happen anywhere across the country.”The NextEra-Dominion acquisition follows a string of landmark power deals. In March, BlackRock Inc.’s Global Infrastructure Partners LP and EQT AB agreed to buy AES Corp. for about US$10.7 billion. Last year, Constellation Energy Corp., the country’s largest owner of nuclear reactors, swooped up a major owner of natural gas-fired power plants for $16.4 billion.These deals are part of a trend of ever larger transactions as power companies work to secure enough energy capacity at scale under tightening reliability, capital and execution constraints, according to a February Deloitte report. NextEra is raising the stakes even further with the sheer size of the combined companies.Other recent utility deals include Stonepeak Partners LP and Bernhard Capital Partners agreeing to buy Louisiana utility Cleco Power and Global Infrastructure Partners buying Minnesota utility Allete Inc.It’s not just utilities being bought up. Power plant developers have become so attractive that even big technology companies are buying them to supply their data centres. In December, Alphabet Inc. announced it was buying clean energy developer Intersect Power LLC for US$4.75 billion.Whether companies are buying power plants to expand their generation capacity or acquiring full-scale utilities to grow across multiple states, the utility industry is reaching the same conclusion: The AI build-out is reshaping the scale of the business.NextEra and Dominion executives argue the merger would create a company better equipped to build and deploy energy while lowering overall costs.“This moment requires a company to buy, build, finance and operate more efficiently. It’s easier said than done,” Dominion chief executive Bob Blue said on a call with analysts Monday. “That’s what NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy together can bring to the table at a time when projects are only getting bigger and more capital intensive.” Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. 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