17GW in line to connect into the system
Public US utility Exelon has said it has 33GW worth of data centers interested in connecting to its system.
The utility serves more than 10 million customers across Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia, via six utility companies.
Exelon said that of the 33GW, 17GW is already in line to connect to its system, with a further 16GW set to be studied and added to the formal pipeline later this year. The level of high-density requests increased by 1GW from May, when the utility reported 16GW of capacity at that stage.
Of its total large load pipeline, the utility said it expects to bring 10 percent online by 2028, another third by 2030, and three-quarters by 2034.
In order to meet the skyrocketing demand, the utility has said it is currently considering options for building and owning power generation. Currently, regulated electric utilities are barred from doing so in several states; however, recent proposals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are considering lifting that ban.
"We want to be part of the solution. The supply is not meeting the demand," Exelon CEO Calvin Butler said during the company’s Q2 earnings call.
Butler reported significant activity in the Illinois market, where IBM has developed a supercomputing campus. However, the CEO noted that “we’re also seeing data center activity across our other jurisdictions, Pennsylvania, Maryland. So this is not just one state. You just see Illinois being in the top five of what we’re doing.”
The utility is currently undertaking cluster studies in Illinois and across the Mid-Atlantic region, with results expected in Q3 or Q4 of this year. Following the completion of the studies, Exelon said that it will begin discussions with the different applicants, with announcements related to the studies expected by the end of the year.
Overall financial results for the utility were somewhat mixed. Earnings at its PECO utility, which is Pennsylvania’s largest electric and gas company, increased by more than 50 percent; however, earnings for its Commonwealth Edison unit, which serves Illinois, fell by 15.6 percent.
The company also commented on the ratepayer bill increases, which have soared across the US, driven primarily by data center growth. Butler said that Exelon is taking the issue “very seriously,” and has seen increases of “anywhere from a dollar and a half to a $4 increase going across the system.” To mitigate the impact, Butler said that the company is “doing everything we can to offset that and work with the states to mitigate it, but that’s the impact we’re seeing.”
