By Jason Charles Guck, Business Development, Delta Edge CI
Not long ago, landing a data centre was the economic development prize. Governors competed for them. Utilities lined up to serve them. The cost of the new poles, wires and power plants needed to serve them was often blended into everyone’s rates.
That era is ending fast.
In 2026, states and utilities are rewriting the deal. The new message to the biggest power users is simple: pay your own way, commit for the long haul, and if you can, bring your own power. At the same time the industry is answering in a way few expected a decade ago. It is becoming a power producer.
The old playbook
For years the model was straightforward. A developer picked a site, the local utility built whatever was needed, and the costs flowed into the rate base where they were shared across residential, commercial and industrial customers.
That worked when data centres were tens of megawatts. It stops working when single campuses ask for hundreds of megawatts or more. Projects that size can force utilities to build entirely new plants and transmission lines. If a project shrinks, stalls or leaves, everyone else may be left paying for infrastructure nobody uses.
That risk of stranded cost is what changed the politics.
The flip, state by state
Florida. Governor DeSantis signed SB 484 in May 2026, requiring public utilities to file large-load tariffs so customers with 50 MW or more of peak demand at one location bear their own cost of service. Tampa Electric filed its version on September 30. Large loads would pay for the generation, storage, transmission and distribution built to serve them plus a share of overall system costs. Contracts would run at least 20 years. Required security is $2.0 million per MW of contracted capacity for customers without an investment-grade credit rating, and half that for those with one. The filing states the goal plainly: that each large-load customer bears its own full cost of service and that the cost is not shifted to the general body of ratepayers. Tampa Electric serves no large-load customers today. The rules are being written before the load arrives.
Oregon. The 2025 POWER Act requires investor-owned utilities to place large data centres in their own rate class and charge them the full cost of their power. Pacific Power’s proposal requires contracts of at least 10 years, minimum payments, possible collateral and exit fees. New power acquired to serve these customers must be emissions-free. Facilities over 100 MW would also pay one cent per kilowatt-hour toward low-income home repairs and efficiency programmes.
Texas. SB 6, signed in June 2025, changed the rules for loads of 75 MW or more on the ERCOT grid. New large loads must disclose on-site backup generation. In qualifying emergencies ERCOT can direct them to switch to that backup or curtail. Loads interconnected after 2025 must be capable of curtailment during firm load shed.
Ohio. In July 2025 regulators approved AEP Ohio’s data centre tariff for new loads above 25 MW, setting minimum demand charges of up to 85% of contracted capacity and a term of the ramp period plus eight years, up to 12 years in total. It also ended AEP Ohio’s moratorium on new data centre hookups.
Virginia. In the country’s largest data centre market, regulators approved a new GS-5 rate class for Dominion effective January 1, 2027. It covers customers of 25 MW or more with high load factors and requires 14-year commitments, with minimum demand charges of 85% of contracted transmission and distribution demand and 60% of contracted generation demand.
Georgia. In January 2025 the Georgia PSC approved rules allowing Georgia Power to place new customers of 100 MW or more on customised contracts, including minimum billing, terms of up to 15 years, and charges for upstream generation and grid costs as construction proceeds.
Oklahoma. OG&E has proposed an Extra Large tariff for customers of 75 MW or more, with minimum charges, collateral and long-term commitments. A hearing is set for November 3.
Chicago. On September 23 the mayor and three aldermen introduced a proposed twelve-month moratorium on new data centres and major expansions while a task force writes rules on energy, water and air quality. It faces competing proposals and legal questions.
The details vary. The direction does not: longer contracts, minimum bills, real collateral, and cost assigned to the customer that caused it.
Washington is moving too
- FERC’s large-load proceeding. In June 2026 FERC issued show-cause orders to grid operators on large-load interconnection, including co-location and behind-the-meter generation. After extensions, filings are due November 16, 2026.
- The PJM backstop. On September 29 FERC suspended PJM’s Reliability Backstop Procurement until February 28, 2027. That procurement was meant to secure roughly 6.8 GW for 2028/29. We covered what that means for buyers in our piece on the suspension.
- The ComEd decision. On September 22 FERC declined to take jurisdiction over ComEd’s attempt to cancel a transmission agreement for PowerHouse Hillwood’s planned 1.8 GW, $20 billion data centre in Joliet, sending the dispute to federal court. The credit support at issue was a $1 letter of credit. Commissioner David LaCerte said the figure trivialises the obligations the guarantee is meant to secure. Collateral is now a front-line issue.
- Backup generators as a grid resource. On September 18 the Department of Energy issued a Federal Power Act section 202(c) emergency order to Duke Energy Carolinas during hot weather, allowing customer-owned backup generators, including those at data centres and large commercial sites, to run despite permit limits as a last resort.
That last item hints at the bigger story.
Data centres become power plants
As capacity tightens and rules get stricter, the largest developers are no longer just plugging in. They are building, financing and contracting for generation directly.
- Self-built gas. In March 2026 Mississippi regulators approved an air permit for an xAI affiliate to run 41 permanent gas turbines at its Southaven plant serving Memphis-area data centres. A formal hearing on the permit is set for November.
- Fuel cells. Oracle agreed to procure up to 2.8 GW of Bloom Energy fuel cells. Brookfield expanded its Bloom financing partnership to $25 billion. AEP has an agreement for up to 1 GW of Bloom fuel cells to serve data centre customers.
- Dedicated utility generation. In Louisiana, regulators approved Entergy’s plan for three gas plants totalling about 2.26 GW to serve Meta’s Hyperion data centre.
- Nuclear. On September 30 Amazon and Constellation announced a 20-year agreement covering 690 MW at Calvert Cliffs, a figure that includes a 190 MW uprate. Talen and Amazon expanded their Susquehanna deal to 1,920 MW through 2042. Microsoft’s agreement supports restarting the 835 MW Crane plant, targeted for 2027. Google and NextEra plan to restart Iowa’s 615 MW Duane Arnold plant under a 25-year agreement. Meta announced agreements for up to 6.6 GW with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo.
The pattern is unmistakable. Large loads are bringing generation with them, whether it sits behind the fence or is contracted on the grid.
Behind the meter and front of the meter
Bring your own power can mean two very different things, and the difference is which side of the utility meter the generation sits on.
Behind the meter means generation on the customer’s side. It serves the facility directly and its output never crosses the utility grid. On-site gas turbines, fuel cells, batteries, rooftop solar, plants co-located with the load they serve.
Front of the meter means grid-connected generation selling into the grid. The customer secures it through a power purchase agreement or supply contract, and the electrons arrive over the utility’s wires like everyone else’s.
Oracle’s Project Jupiter in New Mexico, planning up to 2.45 GW of fuel cells as a single on-site microgrid, is behind the meter. Amazon’s Calvert Cliffs deal, Microsoft’s Crane restart, Google’s Duane Arnold restart and Entergy’s gas plants for Meta are all front of the meter: the plant feeds the grid and the data centre buys through a contract.
The Talen and Amazon story at Susquehanna shows how the line gets drawn. The campus was originally connected directly to the nuclear plant as co-located load. In November 2024 FERC rejected an amended interconnection agreement that would have raised that co-located load from 300 MW to 480 MW. Commissioner Mark Christie wrote that co-location presents complicated, nuanced and multifaceted issues with huge ramifications for both grid reliability and consumer costs. In June 2025 the parties signed the expanded 1,920 MW deal and said the arrangement would shift to front of the meter after transmission work. Under the new structure Susquehanna’s power goes to the PJM grid, Talen acts as retail supplier, and PPL handles delivery.
The trade-offs are real on both sides. Behind the meter is faster, because power can arrive before the grid is ready and some interconnection queues can be avoided. It also draws permitting and emissions scrutiny, which is why the xAI turbine permit faces a hearing, and regulatory questions about whether a large load is avoiding its share of grid costs while still relying on the grid for backup. Front of the meter adds supply that strengthens reliability for everyone, but interconnection and transmission builds take years.
The same menu applies at commercial scale. Behind the meter: solar plus storage, combined heat and power, fuel cells, backup generators enrolled in demand response. Front of the meter: virtual or physical power purchase agreements and structured retail supply. Most operators will end up with a mix.
What it means for commercial buyers
The good news is cost discipline. When regulators make large loads pay full freight, there is less risk that your business subsidises someone else’s grid upgrades or stranded assets. Every megawatt a data centre self-supplies or curtails in an emergency is a megawatt not competing with you for scarce capacity.
The caution is that tight markets raise everyone’s costs anyway. Capacity prices reflect overall supply and demand, and new tariffs for large loads do not change that overnight. Until new generation is actually online, all customers feel it through capacity and transmission charges.
The opportunity is that the same tools are available at your scale. On-site generation, storage, demand response and long-term supply agreements. Rules increasingly recognise customer-sited resources as part of grid reliability, and being able to curtail or self-supply at the right moment is becoming an asset rather than a footnote.
What to do now
- Review your tariff exposure. If you are near the new thresholds, which run from 25 to 100 MW depending on the state, find out which rules apply and how minimum-demand, collateral and term requirements would affect expansion plans.
- Know your capacity costs. Understand how capacity and transmission charges are set on your bill, particularly in PJM, and plan for 2027 through 2029. The mechanics are covered in our post on how capacity tags are set.
- Value your flexibility. Demand response, load shifting and storage lower peak-driven costs and may earn revenue as operators look for flexible load.
- Look at behind-the-meter options properly. Solar, storage, combined heat and power, fuel cells and backup generation may carry more value, and more rules, than they used to.
- Follow the calendar. FERC filings are due November 16. The OG&E hearing is November 3. The PJM backstop process runs to February 28, 2027.
The bottom line
States that once courted data centres with open arms now ask them to pay their own way and, increasingly, to bring their own power. The data centres are answering by becoming power producers.
That changes the landscape for everyone buying electricity. This is a fast-moving regulatory picture and the dates above are those on record in early October 2026. Confirm anything that affects a budget against the current docket before building a number on it.
If you want a clear-eyed review of your tariff exposure, capacity costs and procurement options, that is work we do at Delta Edge CI.