Andy Power, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty, the world’s second-largest data center REIT, challenged the prevailing narrative that expanding data center capacity drives up overall electricity costs. Speaking at the Property Play conference, he characterized the notion as a fallacy, noting that Digital Realty’s efficient designs and investments in power‐usage effectiveness have kept incremental energy demand flat relative to compute growth. He pointed to the company’s industry‐leading PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) ratios, which average below 1.3 across its global portfolio, as evidence that modern facilities can scale without a commensurate rise in grid strain.

Power emphasized that Digital Realty’s backlog of signed, long-term agreements provides a robust buffer against cyclical supply pressures. The REIT has secured more than 6 gigawatts of committed capacity under contracts with average initial terms of 15 years, spanning hyperscale cloud operators, financial services firms and government entities. He reported that current orders represent over 90% pre-leasing for projects scheduled to come online within the next two years, signaling that fundamental demand continues to outpace new construction starts and negating concerns about an oversupplied market.