Utilities Commit More Power as Terms Tighten
Power planning was the clearest hard movement yesterday. In Indiana, NIPSCO said it is adding another 400 megawatts for Amazon Web Services, bringing planned supply for Amazon's Northwest Indiana project to 2,800 MW, and separately agreed to serve 300 MW for Google's Michigan City site. With NIPSCO's current system peak around 2,300 MW, its plan to add 3,000 MW of new generation at Schahfer shows how quickly a few hyperscale projects can reshape a regional utility build program.
Policy moved on the same question of how to serve large new loads. South Korea passed a law treating AI data centers as national strategic facilities and routing approvals through an integrated review process, a clear effort to speed projects outside the Seoul area. But lawmakers dropped a proposed exemption for LNG-based direct power deals, leaving electricity supply as the main constraint even as permitting gets easier. In the U.S., Florida has now ordered its Public Service Commission to create tariffs that make large-load customers cover their full cost of service, and Vermont lawmakers are considering a similar approach before major projects arrive.
Utah offered the opposite lesson: a project can keep moving only by shrinking its near-term footprint. After intense backlash over water use, power and Great Salt Lake impacts, Governor Spencer Cox said the state is focused only on a first phase of the Box Elder proposal, about 1.5 GW on less than 2,000 acres, rather than the previously discussed multigigawatt, 40,000-acre vision. That still leaves a very large project on the table, but it ties the next steps more tightly to Utah's requirement that new data centers provide their own power.
Local governments kept showing how uneven the path can be. Red Oak, Texas approved an 830-acre campus near Dallas, but only after adding limits on noise, lighting, water use and crypto mining, plus a requirement that the project not connect to the city utility line. In Cassville, Wisconsin, residents voted 44-0 for a temporary ban that blocks a proposed 400 to 500 MW project outright. Land use approvals are still available, but they are coming with tighter terms or not at all.
Key Points
- NIPSCO expanded planned supply for AWS to 2,800 MW and separately committed 300 MW for Google, alongside plans for 3,000 MW of new generation at Schahfer.
- South Korea passed a law designating AI data centers as national strategic facilities and streamlining approvals, but removed the proposed LNG direct-PPA carveout.
- Utah's Box Elder project is now being framed as a roughly 1.5 GW phase I on under 2,000 acres after backlash over water, emissions and lake impacts.
- Florida enacted a full-cost-service tariff requirement for large loads, while Vermont is weighing similar rules before major data center demand lands.
- Red Oak approved a major campus with stricter operating conditions, while Cassville moved to block a large proposal with a temporary ban.
Implications
Utility commitments are getting large enough to drive new generation and grid investment on their own, which raises the stakes for tariff design, cost recovery and contract structure.
Permitting is moving in two directions at once: some governments are speeding strategic AI projects, while local jurisdictions are attaching tougher conditions around power, water, noise and land use.
Things to watch
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Indiana's next regulatory and financing steps for Schahfer generation and related grid reinforcement
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Whether Utah's pared-back phase I stabilizes the Box Elder project or only postpones the next round of opposition
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How Florida's Public Service Commission writes its large-load tariffs and whether other states follow with similar full-cost-service rules