A 33 percent jump on the previous quarter
US utility company PPL Electric, which primarily serves Pennsylvania, has seen its pipeline of data centers in the “advanced-stage” of interconnection grow to 14GW, a 33 percent jump from three months earlier.
It means PPL’s data center load could swell from 800MW in 2026 to 14.4GW in 2034, with 5GW already publicly announced. This includes Amazon’s $20 billion data center expansion in Pennsylvania, and a $6bn planned CoreWeave data center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
"We have made it a strategic priority at PPL to serve data centers," CEO Vincent Sorgi told investors following the release of the company's most recent quarterly financial results.
PPL is taking a two-pronged approach to support data center growth, continued Sorgi. “First, we are enabling speed to market for the data centers by being able to connect them to the grid faster than they can get the data centers built. And second, we are supporting several initiatives to develop new generation to serve this massive new load coming onto the grid,” he said.
Sorgi cited the recently announced joint venture agreement with Blackstone Infrastructure as an example of this commitment. The deal will see the companies build power plants across Pennsylvania to serve the data center market.
Sorgi went on to say that PPL estimates that it will require around 7.5GW of new generation over the next five to seven years to support the capacity growth.
“Given both federal and state support for new natural gas plants, natural gas pipeline expansion, and streamlined siting and permitting, we are optimistic this generation can get built,” he said.
Last week, two of the PPL’s utilities, Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, reached a settlement that will facilitate the construction of 1.3GW of gas-fired generation to serve the data center market. The agreement filed with the Kentucky Public Service Commission calls for the agency to approve two 645MW combustion turbine units to be built at two power plants. The units are expected to come online in 2030 and 2031.
The utility sees Kentucky as a significant growth area, reporting 5.7GW of potential data center load in the state.
Despite the growth of the utility's data center pipeline, the company missed Wall Street estimates for Q2 profits due to high operating costs. The company reported an adjusted profit of 32 cents per share for the quarter ended June 30, compared with a Wall Street estimate of 38 cents per share.
PPL primarily serves the Pennsylvania market, delivering energy to more than 1.4 million customers across the state, in addition to its two subsidiaries in Louisville and Kentucky.
