Romance. Intrigue. An action-packed race to a thrilling finale. Just a few takeaways from the latest news featuring natural gas players and their data center growth strategies.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the producers and pipeline operators uniquely packaging their assets, geographical footprints, and investment bucks to attract tech data center projects that require 24/7 electrical power. That last bit is the golden fleece, of course, which has given rise over the last year to behind-the-meter, gas-fired power generation. With that, we start with our first news takeaway starring Romance. As in the flourishing relationship between natural gas and electrical power to keep data center reliability at a stringent 99.999%. A new study from Rystad Energy predicts power demand from U.S. data centers will increase 1,000% over the next 10 years. Renewables can’t compete even with today’s battery backup technology. Geothermal and nuclear aren’t prime-time ready for tech companies expecting a two-year startup.

Takeaway 2—Intrigue. Tulsa-based midstream giant Williams reports it will invest $1.6 billion in a natural gas and power generation project with a mystery company that’s slated for completion next year. Alabama-based producer Diversified Energy has formed a data center-focused partnership to deliver Appalachia natural gas and coal mine methane via pipeline to fuel cells.

As for our third takeaway, it’s all about speed to build the behind-the-meter energy bones data center operators need to keep up with the competition. The key word here is “hurry.”