Grid and gas impact by campus

Data Center Index

Every data center campus of 100 MW or more in the US and Canada, live since 2021 or in the pipeline, with our estimate of what it pulls from the power grid and the natural gas system.

87 campuses tracked, plus 3 on the watch list. Research and estimates by Discovery Energy. Last updated November 4, 2026.

Campuses tracked87100 MW or more, US and Canada
Announced205 GWAt full buildout
Expected by 203055 GWWeighted by build stage
Added gas burn5.1 Bcf/dAverage day, grid and on-site
Updated daily

Latest updates

  1. · Grid

    PSEG and Constellation plan a 200 MW Salem nuclear uprate; PSEG's data center deals are not yet final

    PSEG's third-quarter presentation shows a planned 200 MW uprate at the jointly owned Salem nuclear plant in New Jersey (2,280 MW installed), which would support a recently announced nuclear power purchase agreement with Google. PSEG's CEO said the company is still developing terms with large-load customers around its roughly 3.8 GW nuclear fleet, so no further deals are final. Salem 1's refueling outage will be extended after inspectors found degradation of the reactor vessel's thermal shield.

  2. · Grid

    FirstEnergy's Maidsville gas plant awaits a West Virginia PSC ruling; 7.9 GW of large load contracted

    FirstEnergy's third-quarter release says it expects a final West Virginia Public Service Commission order on its proposed Maidsville combined-cycle gas plant in the fourth quarter of 2026, with Siemens turbines reserved for 2030 delivery, and reports 7.9 GW of contracted large-load demand plus about 4 GW in active negotiation. Baxtel reports a broader 26 GW data center pipeline, including 6 GW in West Virginia; that figure is not in FirstEnergy's release. The Dominion Post reported the plant at 1,200 MW and about $2.7 billion, and Baxtel reports the PSC has received 662 letters against it, nearly all form letters.

  3. · Grid

    PJM refiles its data center backstop procurement; results now expected May 10, 2027, not Dec 2, 2026

    FERC's Sept 29, 2026 order accepted PJM's reliability backstop procurement for filing but suspended it for five months, to Feb 28, 2027, set a paper hearing and opened a Section 206 proceeding. Utility Dive reports PJM filed a revised plan on Oct 29 aiming to start the procurement March 1, with the bid window closing March 28, the target set April 28 and results posted May 10. Utility Dive also reports a Jefferies note that PPL Electric, FirstEnergy and AES Ohio cut near-term large-load forecasts by 6.5 GW, which could shrink the original 6.8 GW target to about 630 MW, while a Charles River Associates analysis found a possible shortfall of about 11.5 GW by 2030.

Show 7 more updatesShow fewer updates
  1. · Build

    Prometheus Hyperscale drops its 1.25 GW Casper, Wyoming campus

    Prometheus said on Oct 28 it will not build the planned 1,250 MW, gas-powered campus on 940 acres of Falls Ranch land east of Casper. Falls Ranch says the project will continue under a new, unnamed developer. Prometheus had not filed a county permit application, and it still plans its Evanston, Wyoming campus.

  2. · Build

    Michigan economic group pitches a 700 MW data center near Lansing; the host township objects

    LEAP and Lighthouse Sustainability pitched a campus of up to 700 MW, reported at $10 billion or more, on 423 acres in Delhi Township. No application is filed and no end user is named. The township learned of it from the media, ended its LEAP membership and is under a data center moratorium until April 2027. It is on the watch list and not included in the index totals.

  3. · Build

    TerraWatt proposes a data center campus at the former Alton Steel site

    TerraWatt has a contingent deal to buy the 381-acre Alton Steel site in Alton, Illinois. Rezoning and an Ameren Illinois load study are still pending. Added to the index as DC-086 (proposed, 200 MW).

  4. · Build

    Digital Realty picks Kokomo, Indiana for a 1 GW campus

    Digital Realty plans about 1 GW of IT load (1.5 GW of power) on 476 acres in Kokomo, served by Duke Energy Indiana, with build-out to 2033. Added as DC-085 (announced).

  5. · Gas

    Taylor, Texas approves a 1 GW gas-powered data center campus

    Taylor's city council voted 5-0 to annex the 664-acre site and approve a development agreement for the Big Watt Digital and PowerHouse campus. It will run on on-site gas generation, off the ERCOT grid, with first power in the first half of 2028. Added as DC-087.

  6. · Grid

    Georgia Power signs a 3.2 GW contract for OpenAI's Project Camellia

    A 25-year, 3.2 GW service contract with service from 2028, 1 GW of it flexible. The index moved the campus to Approved and raised its expected 2030 load to 626 MW.

  7. · Gas

    Microsoft's 2 GW Pecos campus will run on a co-located Chevron gas plant

    A 20-year power purchase agreement with Chevron keeps the campus off the grid at launch. The index now rates it 4 of 4 bolts on gas, at about 129 MMcf/d of added gas burn.

All updates and the regulatory tracker   RSS feed

Where data center load is landing

Shading shows the data center load we expect to be running in each state or province by 2030. Select one to see its campuses.

Expected GW by 2030 None tracked Under 0.5 0.5 to 2 2 to 6 6 or more

Every campus, rated 1 to 4 bolts

Expected MW is our estimate of the load running by 2030, after phasing large campuses and weighting each one by how far along it is. Select a column heading to sort, or open a profile for every campus, state or grid region.

Confidence grades run from A (confirmed by a primary source) to D (estimated or conflicting figures); see the methodology.

Status
Rating
Find

Operating or under construction Announced, approved or proposed

Campus Location Grid region Status Announced MW Expected MW 2030 Power supply Gas MMcf/d Impact Conf.
How we estimate

Watch list

Reported projects we are tracking. They are not included in the totals, map or ratings until size, status and power supply are confirmed by a primary source.

CandidateLocationLikely grid regionReported sizePower supplyLatestSource
Project RomanGoogle (via Intersect Power)Near Hereford (Deaf Smith County), TXAbout 3,700 acres for the energy portionSPP (likely)Not disclosedSelf-supplied: gas plant (TCEQ air permit 184403) plus wind and solar; gas via NGPL Amarillo Expansion, 550,000 Dth/dReportedAir permit comments closed Jul 24, 2026; pipeline filed at FERC Sept 17, 2026 (CP26-581); about 90 permanent jobs; completion before 2030NewsChannel 10 · NGI
Meitner Energy CenterGoogle + Intersect PowerGray and Roberts Counties, TXSPP (likely)Not disclosed; over 1 GW of co-located wind, solar and storageRenewables, on-site gas for firmingReportedUnder construction, June 2026PV Tech
Google West MemphisGoogleWest Memphis, AR1,100 acres; up to five buildings reportedMISO (Entergy Arkansas)Not disclosed; $4B first phaseGrid, with 600 MW solar + 350 MW battery (Cypress Solar) and added batteriesReportedAnnounced Oct 2, 2025; agreement expanded Q3 2026; operation expected around 2027POWER · Entergy Q3

Added to the index after checks (Nov 3, 2026): Taylor Technology Campus (DC-087), Digital Realty Kokomo (DC-085), TerraWatt Alton (DC-086). Dropped: Synapse's Olds, Alberta campus. The Alberta Utilities Commission rejected its 1.4 GW gas plant in August 2026, and the developer says the project will not proceed as proposed (The Hub).

What the bolts mean

Each campus gets a grid score and a gas score. The rating is the higher of the two. It measures strain on the system, not who pays.

RatingGrid-served load by 2030Local design-day gas drawTypical meaning

How the 87 campuses rate

23 four-bolt29 three-bolt32 two-bolt3 one-boltDrivers: grid 71, gas 10, grid + gas 6

Ratings lean to 3 and 4 bolts because the index covers gigawatt-scale projects.

Load by grid region

Bill effects follow the grid region and utility a campus connects to, not the city it sits in. Campuses with on-site gas generation shift the impact from electric bills to the gas system.

Grid-servedOn-site (behind the meter)

RegionCampusesAnnounced MWExpected MW by 2030Gas MMcf/dShare of peak
Total87204,59354,9415,097

Not covered: NYISO, ISO-NE, CAISO, Ontario (IESO), Québec (Hydro-Québec). Share of peak uses PJM 160,000 MW (2025 summer), ERCOT 91,089 MW (record, July 22, 2026), SPP 56,000 MW (2025) and AESO 12,800 MW.

Announced is not built

Public pipelines overstate what will be running. Utilities now ask developers to prove a project is real before they connect it, and the queues shrink when they do.

PJM 2026 load forecast60 → 34 GW

2030 data center load submitted by utilities, versus what PJM accepted.

Modo Energy
PJM market monitor42%

Share of forecast data center load growth already cancelled or delayed.

TechRadar
Bernstein35%

Share of the US data center pipeline judged credible.

Financial Times
AEP Ohio30 → 13 GW

Large-load queue once its data center tariff required financial commitments.

ai2.work

National demand

2023 US use176 TWh

About 4.4% of US electricity. 2028 projections run from 325 to 580 TWh (6.7% to 12%).

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
New capacity by 203062 GW

Lower 48, roughly 40% planned behind the meter, adding about 1.3 Bcf/d of on-site gas demand.

Enverus, July 2026
Added gas demand by 20303–10 Bcf/d

Analyst range. S&P Global about 3 to 6; PwC base case about 5.8. A 1 GW gas-fed campus burns about 140 MMcf/d.

S&P Global, PwC, Enverus

PJM capacity prices

The market monitor attributes $6.3 billion, or 38%, of the 2028/29 auction to data centers. That works out to about $45,078 per MW of peak load contribution per year, or $7.35/MWh for a large user at a 70% load factor.

Base Residual Auction clearing price, $/MW-day

2026/27 through 2028/29 cleared at the price cap. Sources: Calpine, Citizens Utility Board, Environ Energy.

Large-load tariffs: who pays

About 24 states had approved large-load tariffs by mid-2026. They set minimum bills and long terms so other customers aren't left with stranded costs.

UtilityKey terms
Dominion Virginia GS-525 MW+; from Jan 2027; 14-year terms; minimum demand about 85% (T&D) and 60% (generation)
AEP OhioMinimum billing about 85% of contracted demand, plus collateral
Georgia PowerRules apply from 100 MW
Entergy LouisianaFive-year minimum contracts
Evergy MissouriLarge-load service from 75 MW
El Paso Electric20-year minimum contract proposed
Portland General Sch. 9620 MW+; 90% minimum demand; 10 to 30 year terms

Rulings, orders and laws on who connects and who pays are tracked in the regulatory and legislative tracker.

Behind-the-meter gas

Cleanview counts 59 data centers planning on-site generation, about 90 GW in total, with only about 2 GW online by mid-2026. Notable builds include xAI's 1,498 MW of turbines across Colossus 1 and 2, 360 MW of turbines at Stargate Abilene, the 4.5 GW Homer City plant on a former coal site, and Entergy gas plants for Meta Hyperion: three approved (about 2.3 GW) and seven more proposed, about 7.5 GW in all. Project Jupiter in New Mexico switched from turbines to fuel cells after the state rejected its gas pipeline. ERCOT's large-load queue reached about 475 GW in June 2026, 90% of it data centers, more than five times the Texas grid's record 91 GW peak.

Canada

Alberta has about 19,565 MW of data centre load requested against a record peak near 12,800 MW. Its 1,200 MW Phase 1 allocation is full, and new rules favor bring-your-own generation. Wonder Valley is announced at 7.5 GW, and Meta has announced a C$13 billion campus in Sturgeon County. Québec requires government approval for loads of 5 MW or more.

Questions about the index

What is the Data Center Index?

A list of every data center campus of 100 MW or more in the US and Canada that entered service since 2021 or is under construction, approved, announced or proposed, with an estimate of the load each will put on the power grid and the natural gas system by 2030.

Why is expected load so much lower than announced capacity?

Announced figures are often full-campus potential over a decade or more, and many projects never get built. We phase large campuses to what can plausibly run by 2030, then weight each by its build stage. That turns 205 GW announced into about 55 GW expected.

How do data centers raise electric bills?

Through capacity prices, new transmission and new generation. In PJM, the market monitor attributes 38% of the 2028/29 capacity auction to data centers. Large-load tariffs decide how much of that reaches other customers.

How do data centers affect natural gas supply?

Either directly, through on-site turbines, engines or fuel cells, or indirectly, through gas-fired plants built to serve the grid. We estimate about 5.1 Bcf/d of added gas burn on an average day across tracked campuses.

What does the bolt rating mean?

One to four bolts for the strain a campus puts on the grid or gas system, from local (served by an existing substation) to gigawatt-class (reshapes regional planning). Solid bolts are operating or under construction; outlined bolts are announced or proposed.

How current is the data?

The index was first published October 28, 2026 from public trackers, news and filings, and is updated daily. Each row carries a confidence grade from A (confirmed by a primary source) to D (estimated or conflicting figures), and recently changed rows are marked. New campuses stay on the watch list until a primary source confirms them.

Can I download the data?

Yes. Use the Download CSV button under the campus table. It exports the rows that match your current filters.

Explore the data.

Browse every campus, download the dataset, read how the estimates are built, or follow the daily updates.