Gas power projects backing the AI data center boom are accumulating risks that conventional staged insurance was not built to handle. Aon plc has moved to address that gap with the launch of the Power Lifecycle Program (PLP). The London-market-backed multiline solution offers up to $2.5 billion in coverage across the full development arc of a conventional gas power project, from site preparation through to ongoing operations.
The program arrives as data center electricity demand reshapes global investment in conventional power generation. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that data center electricity consumption grew by nearly 20 percent in 2025 and is on track to reach approximately 950 terawatt-hours by 2030. Gas-fired generation is absorbing much of that growth because renewables cannot reliably deliver on-demand flexibility.
The placement challenge for power projects has long been structural. Construction and operational cover have traditionally been arranged in sequence, and the handovers between phases create exposure windows that can affect project financing, delay schedules, and leave revenue at risk.
PLP consolidates these exposures into a single coordinated framework. For the construction period, the program provides up to $2.5 billion in erection all risks and delay in start-up (DSU) cover. Once operational, it moves to up to $2.5 billion in property damage and business interruption cover.
Third-party liability of up to $100 million is also available for non-US projects. Optional risk advisory assessments address natural catastrophe, cyber, casualty, and supply chain exposures. The program is backed by a lead panel of London-based carriers with additional capacity from local and global markets.
Available clients include power infrastructure developers, private equity firms, contractors, and power infrastructure owners, for both grid-connected standalone projects and dedicated assets supporting data centers.
The London-market energy sector entering into which PLP launches is well-supplied with capacity. According to Gallagher's H1 2026 Energy Insurance Market Report, rates across power and renewables trended downward in the first half of 2026, with strong underwriting capacity and competition among carriers creating favourable conditions for buyers.
The power sector is seeing new insurance considerations driven by the scale and complexity of new energy infrastructure, but the current capacity environment means PLP is entering a market where buyers of conventional power risk have options. What the program offers is not access to scarce capacity but a structural consolidation of what would otherwise require separate placements across multiple phases.
Brokers in the energy and construction sector have been navigating this coverage gap for some time. A published analysis by Splunk and Oxford Economics noted that AI cluster downtime costs can reach US$9,000 per minute in high-availability environments. Many insurers are not yet positioned to underwrite the DSU exposure that arises when power infrastructure is damaged during construction.
The risk complexity now embedded in data center cover has prompted a wave of dedicated product development. Standard engineering policies were not designed to address the interlinked construction, power and operational exposures now concentrated on a single project site. W Denis Group launched a specialist data center and power asset division in July 2025 with a similar end-to-end structure.
PLP sits alongside Aon's Data Center Lifecycle Insurance Program (DCLP), which Aon expanded to US$5 billion in capacity in July 2026. DCLP covers the data center asset itself, including construction, cyber, cargo, and operational exposures. PLP covers the power generation infrastructure that keeps it running. Together, the two programs are designed to address the full risk profile of digital infrastructure projects with dedicated on-site generation.
"As investment in energy infrastructure continues to grow, organizations require risk solutions that evolve alongside increasingly complex power assets," said Joe Peiser, chief executive of Risk Capital at Aon plc. He added that the lifecycle framework helps clients manage project, operational, and infrastructure risk within one structure rather than a series of separate placements.
The scale of capital behind these projects gives the broker placement question weight. Private equity investment in US data centers reached $45.7 billion in 2025, accounting for roughly 72% of total investment in the sector, according to S&P Global, with firms including Blackstone, Brookfield, and KKR active across both data centre assets and the power infrastructure that serves them. Brokers placing risk for developers, PE sponsors, and lenders across that supply chain now have a named London-market program covering the full project lifecycle from construction through to commercial operations.
