Long term electricity service agreements offer a concrete measure of how much power data centers are locking in, and recent utility filings put the figures in sharp relief. NorthWestern Energy Group disclosed development agreements for data centers in Montana with combined energy service requirements starting near 150 megawatts in late 2027 and growing to roughly 1,500 megawatts or more by 2030. The tenfold increase over a few years illustrates the pace at which single markets can scale.

Individual facility deals show the same trajectory. In one filing, a digital infrastructure operator executed a 15 year electric service agreement to expand contracted load at a single site from 40 megawatts to 65 megawatts. These contracts matter because they commit utilities to build or reserve generation and transmission years in advance, shifting data center demand from forecast to firm obligation.

The agreements arrive as US data center electricity load is projected to roughly double toward 150 gigawatts by 2028. For utilities, long dated contracts provide the revenue certainty needed to justify new plants and grid upgrades. For data center operators, they secure the power required to bring capacity online in markets where interconnection can otherwise stretch for years. The filings show a market formalizing at scale, with multi year, multi hundred megawatt commitments becoming a standard feature of the buildout.

Source: NorthWestern Energy - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001993004/000199300426000031/ex991pressreleaseq12026.htm