Southern Company's data center pipeline swells to 25 GW as contracted load hits 17 GW
Company executives now expect an additional 8 GW in advanced contracting stages, including 3 GW near-term, as second-quarter consumption jumped 55% year-on-year.
Southern Company has added 6 GW of large load contracts since the first quarter of 2026, bringing its total contracted large load to 17 GW across its territory, company executives said during the second-quarter earnings call during the week of July 27 (2026-07-27). The 6 GW addition came in just one quarter.6
The buildup matters because it translates legacy utility capex into a generation procurement race. Southern has secured approval for about 10 GW of new, company-owned generation — mostly gas, as well as some storage and solar — and has issued requests for proposals in Georgia and Alabama. Chief executive Chris Womack told investors the company plans to spend $81 billion through 2030, with $68 billion earmarked for regulated electric utilities.6
Data center electricity usage at Southern was up 55% year-over-year in the second quarter and 49% year-to-date, with more than 1.2 GW of data center load already on the system. Womack said the company has sights on an additional 8 GW of projects in advanced stages of contracting, including 3 GW he expects to be finalized in the near term. If all 8 GW sign, Southern's total pipeline would reach 25 GW.6
One contract stands out for structure. Georgia Power signed a 3.2 GW, 25-year agreement that includes 1 GW of "flexible demand response" for peak shaving — the first codified flexibility provision the utility has negotiated with a data center customer, according to Womack. The project is set to begin taking electric service in 2028.6
Southern Company's electric and gas utilities serve about 9 million people. Its subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power.6
The speed of contracting mirrors the broader Southeast trend. CenterPoint Energy submitted more than 17 GW of large load projects to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' new large-load interconnection process and expects 14 GW to be eligible as base load or studied load, officials said Tuesday (2026-07-28) in the company's second quarter earnings call. Texas regulators created the separate queue to handle a wave of co-location proposals that had overwhelmed the standard process.5
Commercial electricity sales in Virginia increased by nearly 30.0 million MWh between 2019 and 2025, faster growth than in any other state except Texas, according to the EIA's Annual Electric Power Industry Report. The growth in sales of electricity in Virginia is driven almost entirely by data centers.4
Duke Energy has also proposed special rules for data centers in North Carolina after months of pressure from clean energy and consumer advocates to follow the national trend and create special rules and prices for data centers. The state's predominant utility had resisted.3
Capital is rotating into energy companies that can supply power for AI data center buildouts, with nuclear and renewable baseload generation offering the cleanest solutions to address constraints. Fluence Energy shares closed at $24.16 on May 8 (2026-05-08), up 98.2% in a single week after the company disclosed master supply agreements with two hyperscalers and a record $5.6 billion backlog.1
NERC's summer reliability assessment flagged large computational and other large loads as posing operational challenges for the upcoming summer. Recent events of unexpected disconnections underscore the need for coordination.2
The unresolved question is whether Southern's RFP process will deliver enough third-party capacity to fill the gap before the 10 GW of company-owned generation clears permitting and construction. If the company-owned resources are selected, the $68 billion capex budget will be absorbed quickly. Womack's near-term 3 GW should clarify whether third-party developers can compete on price and timeline.