Microsoft deal data centers: Microsoft deal signals booming demand from data centres to power AI

US utilities are finally signing concrete supply deals with data-centre operators as the artificial intelligence wave sparks a surge in power demand, paving the way for higher profits in the coming quarters.

Data centres are expected to account for 8% of the power generated in the US by 2030, compared with 3% in 2022, according to a Goldman Sachs report in May.

Here are some deals announced by utilities in 2024:

Constellation Energy signed an exclusive deal with Microsoft to restart one of the units at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

Under the agreement, the utility will provide 835 megawatts (MW) of energy to the tech giant’s data centres. The deal would also mark the first-ever restart of a nuclear power plant in the US after it was shut down.

Ameren signed a supply deal with a data centre with a power capacity of 250 megawatts (MW). It has also received expansion commitments and executed new contracts for more 85 MW of additional load for smaller data centres and other industries across Missouri and Illinois.

Alliant Energy said it has executed multiple power supply deals with data centres, but did not disclose details. Exelon said it is in the engineering phase for more than 5 GW of data centre capacity. Some data-center customers have also made deposits for ComEd – Exelon’s subsidiary – to order transmission and breakers, the firm said during a post-earnings call.

American Electric Power signed letters of intent to power an additional 15 GW of data centres by the end of the decade.

Xcel Energy will supply power to Meta Platforms’ data centre in Minnesota, expected to come online in late summer 2025.

Entergy has received legislative approval for investment in transmission and generation to serve Amazon’s upcoming Amazon Web Services (AWS) facility in Mississippi.

The utility has also signed a deal with Meta to supply power to the Facebook parent’s hyperscaler data centre located in Louisiana. The centre would be Meta’s largest data centre in the world. Pinnacle West Capital has more than 4,000 MW of committed data centre customers, not including the backlog of more than 10,000 data centre requests it has received.

AES signed an agreement with Google for 310 megawatts to support its Ohio data centres.

It further expanded a previously announced partnership with Google and signed a 15-year power purchase agreement for 727 megawatts in Texas. Talen Energy announced a deal to supply electricity and its 960-megawatt data centre campus to Amazon’s AWS in Pennsylvania.

NextEra’s renewables segment saw a rise of 3 gigawatts (GW) worth of renewables and storage projects in second quarter, including Google’s 860 megawatts (MW) demand for its data centre power.