"The biggest bottleneck in the energy sector is the power grid"

"The problem and the biggest bottleneck in the State of Israel today is the grid," said Galit Cohen, a visiting senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), at a panel held at the Calcalist and Discount Energy Conference.

The panel, moderated by Calcalist journalist Amir Kurtz, also included Adi Levitan, CEO of Enlight, Roni Sadeh, president of MedOne, and Shira Brand, deputy chair of the National Planning Headquarters.

Planning principles for 2050

Shira Brand stated: "Our planning principles are very clear. We want to bring available, efficient, and cheap supply to all citizens of the State of Israel. To do this, we need to distribute energy sources throughout the country in a logical way, so that it does not have to be transmitted over long transmission lines from the south to the north and vice versa." According to her, the global trend is to bring energy production closer to the consumer, which is the safest and most cost-effective method.

AI and data center resilience

Roni Sadeh noted that data centers are part of Israel's national resilience: "Today, there is no digital activity in the country — from banks and health to government — that does not ultimately involve the activity of computers located in data centers. Without digital resilience, a state cannot exist." He pointed to the dramatic changes brought by AI: "An average server rack consumes 6 kW, an AI rack consumes around 200-300 kW. There is an inconceivable gap between the progress of AI technology and the infrastructure that is supposed to support it."

Critical infrastructure resilience

Galit Cohen emphasized the need to move from a focus on capacity to resilience: "The question is how a state plans itself in such a way that it provides an answer and the ability for continuity and also an exit from a crisis for all critical infrastructure — water, transport, electricity, health, and food — in a situation where disruptions occur in several areas simultaneously."

Regulation and network development

To address local opposition to facility construction, authority has been transferred to a national licensing body. "It works great," Brand explained. "We work in cooperation with local authorities, but the permit is issued centrally, which significantly accelerates the processes."

Adi Levitan added that in the renewable energy sector, Israel is focusing on agro-voltaics, which allows for the efficient use of scarce land resources.

In conclusion, Galit Cohen called for the establishment of a special committee to make the development of the power grid a national project. Adi Levitan suggested implementing a milestone mechanism for data center connection requests to filter out unfeasible projects from the 27 gigawatts of pending requests and ensure Israel does not lose the technological race to other countries.