Southern Company reported that data center power use across its service territory ran 55 percent higher in the second quarter than a year earlier, and that its contracted large-load pipeline grew by 6 GW to 17 GW since the prior earnings report. The Birmingham, Alabama utility serves more than nine million customers across six states through subsidiaries that include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power.
Chairman, president and CEO Chris Womack attributed the increase to accelerating load ramps from large customers and said demand for power across the southeast region has continued for several years. Operational data center load across the system now exceeds 1.2 GW, an increase of more than 500 MW year over year.
The newly contracted volume includes Georgia Power's 3.2 GW, 25-year agreement with OpenAI for a site near Savannah. Womack said another 8 GW of projects sit in late stages, with roughly 3 GW expected to be finalized in the near term, and put the prospective pipeline of large industrial and data center projects well above 75 GW.
Womack also addressed the moratorium debate now running through several states and counties. He said projects continue to move forward across Southern's territory and argued that hyperscale operators need to explain the benefits of their facilities more clearly. New York has since become the first state to enact a moratorium on new data center construction.
In February the utility secured a $26.5 billion loan from the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Dominance Financing to support more than 16 GW of firm power for the Georgia and Alabama grids.
Source: Data Center Dynamics - https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/us-utility-southern-co-reports-55-higher-data-center-power-usage-compared-to-last-year/