February 2, 2026· 46 min

The Utilities Analyst Who Says the Data Center Demand Story Doesn't Add Up

Andy DeVries

Orality

Model

88%

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(1,734 words)

M:54%

HostJoe Weisenthal(3,059 words)

M:56%

GuestAndy DeVries(4,277 words)

M:57%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic32%

totally, very, obviously

Engagement70%

i'm, you, we

Memory Aids100%

like, right, so

Repetition100%

like (108x), it's (83x), know (68x)

Parallelism94%

And I'm Joe Weisenthal...., And for years, you are laborin..., And, you know, we like talking...

Sound Patterns88%

79 question(s), alliteration: "when work", alliteration: "are a"

Formulaic Phrases7%

you know what, i mean, to be honest

Literate Indicators

Hedging6%

maybe, could, probably

Passive Voice3%

was packed, was misplaced, be cooled

Abstract Nouns15%

management, business, utility

Subordination9%

because, while, since

Sentence Length25%

Avg: 11.1 words/sentence

Word Complexity45%

management, business, empower

Academic Markers0%

Impersonal Style30%

631 personal pronouns found

Descriptive Style73%

really, roughly, totally

Description

Utilities analysts are having a moment as the energy sector gets a boost from AI. With an extra 94 gigawatts forecast to be needed by 2030 to power all these new data centers, energy investment has become a hot play as investors take a "picks and shovels" approach. But one long-time analyst says that — from a utilities perspective — we're already set to overbuild capacity by twice as much as is needed. On this episode, Andy DeVries, co-head of investment grade credit and head of utilities and power at CreditSights, talks to us about the math behind his infrastructure overbuild analysis, who has been making money (so far) from the data center boom, and what we already see playing out in the credit markets. Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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