Several major US utilities have announced significant growth in the number of new data centers wishing to connect to the grid in their Q4 earnings.
Exelon, the US’ largest utility company, serving 10 million customers along the East Coast, reported that its pipeline of data centers and other “high-density loads” has more than doubled to 17GW compared to a year ago. The utility expects its load to grow by 1.3 percent over the next four years, compared to a 0.4 percent decline over the previous eight, with data centers playing a central role.
Calvin Butler, Exelon’s president and CEO, said: “It’s clear that as we face rapid and significant load growth, we need enhanced solutions at PJM and complementary approaches that can meet those evolving customer needs as cost-effectively as possible.”
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which serves northern and central California, saw a 2GW increase in its data center pipeline compared to July last year. In total, the utility is working to serve 5.5GW of new data center energy demand over the next decade, with 1.4GW currently in final design and projected to come online between 2026-2030.
Duke Energy, which serves southern and midwestern states, reported that it expects demand across its footprint to reach record highs and has raised its five-year capital expenditure plan to $83 billion. The utility said that by 2029, 50 percent of its pipeline will comprise data center customers, with the majority located in the Carolinas.
Incoming CEO Harry Sideris noted that “the near-term data centers under construction are really associated with cloud computing,” and “later into the plan, that’s where some of the generative AI data centers are coming in, and that’s when we see the larger load growth.”
Dominion Energy, which released its Q4 results earlier this week, reported staggering data center growth. The utility said it has approximately 40GW in various stages of contracting as of December 2024. This compares to 21GW in July 2024, an 88 percent increase.
The huge load increase was driven by a procedural change at Dominion, which effectively incentivized developers seeking power in the next seven years to get in line now. Under Dominion’s new process, load requests will be considered in the order they are received. “Since we began communicating these changes, we’ve seen an increase in demand from customers,” CEO Robert Blue said in Dominion’s earnings call.