The Terms of Power II: How much data center demand is real, and who will power it
A look at how much utility data center demand is under a signed contract, and where the power for that load will come from.
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How much of the data center boom is real, and who will power it?
Utilities report far more data center demand than they have under contract. Across the utilities we track, there is a reported 500 gigawatts of data center demand, with only 122.9 gigawatts currently under contract. At a typical utility, only 9% of reported load sits under an executed agreement that commits the customer to take power.
Reported totals run highly partly because utilities don’t count data center demand the same way. One may count only executed service agreements, another adds engineering letters, and a third counts every inquiry. For example, if you count demand using Dominion’s method, Dominion looks like it has twice the load of AEP Ohio. But if you count only signed contracts, AEP Ohio looks like it has twice the load of Dominion.
The Terms of Power II applies a single definition of signed load to every utility we cover, making each utilities’ figures directly comparable. The report then examines the harder question of who will supply the power for that load.
