GridPermit Blog

Data center site diligence, reported straight.

Power and utility interconnection, zoning and entitlement, water rights, grid strain, and the policy shifts that change how large-load sites actually get built — the growth stories and the ones that end in a moratorium alike.

Latest

October 24, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Kentucky Power Wants to Build a New Gas Plant for a Data Center That's Still Just a Filing. It's Already Promising $100 Million Back to Everyone Else's Heating Bill.

Kentucky Power hasn't broken ground on the 760-megawatt gas plant a TeraWulf data campus needs. It's already promising residential customers $25 a month in winter bill credits for a decade, if regulators approve the whole package.

Power & Utility Policy Community Opposition

October 23, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Google Just Turned a 100-Megawatt Bet Into a Full Gigawatt of Grid Capacity. It Didn't Build a Single Power Plant to Do It.

Google just scaled a bet on grid flexibility tenfold to a full gigawatt in PJM, paying homes and businesses to use less power at the right moment instead of building a new plant.

Power & Utility Grid Capacity Financing & Investment

October 23, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Georgia Power's Record OpenAI Deal Got Real New Ratepayer Protections After Public Pressure. The Contract That Spells Them Out Is Entirely Blacked Out.

Georgia Power raised its promised bill relief to $180 a year after advocates objected to OpenAI's $20 billion data center deal. The contract explaining how is fully redacted, and a sitting U.S. senator just called for a moratorium.

Power & Utility Policy Community Opposition

October 22, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Google Is Paying $716 Million for the Solar Farm Powering Its Own Data Center. The One Entergy Tried to Bill Everyone Else For Just Got Rejected.

Arkansas regulators rejected a second, $1.6 billion solar deal pitched partly on Google's data center needs. The first one is already funded -- Google is paying $716 million of it directly, a number that only surfaced through a records request.

Power & Utility Financing & Investment Policy

October 22, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Blackstone Just Raised $8.7 Billion for Data Center Power Infrastructure. The Bottleneck It's Betting Against Isn't Land Anymore -- It's a Four-Year Line at the Grid.

Blackstone's fifth energy-transition fund closed oversubscribed at its hard cap on October 19th, 55% bigger than its last one. The bet: the real holdup for data centers now is a years-long wait for a grid connection, not a permit.

Financing & Investment Power & Utility Grid Capacity

October 21, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Minnesota Judge Halted Google's Data Center in May. The State's Attorney General Says the Real Cost Is Still Redacted.

Xcel says Google's Pine Island data center deal saves other customers $1.1 billion. Minnesota's attorney general says the number behind that claim is blacked out, and his own read of it comes out nearly a billion dollars negative.

Power & Utility Policy Community Opposition

October 21, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Platte County, Wyoming Rezoned 5,344 Acres for a $26 Billion Data Center. The Commissioners Made Sure a Vote Wasn't the Same as a Permit.

Platte County commissioners unanimously zoned 5,344 acres of ranchland for a $26 billion data center campus -- then attached four conditions that keep the real decision for later.

Zoning & Entitlement Community Opposition Financing & Investment

October 20, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

NiSource Promises Microsoft's Data Center Won't Raise Anyone's Bill. LaPorte County Already Decided Not to Take That on Faith.

NiSource says its new 20-year Microsoft power deal will save Indiana ratepayers $140 a year. LaPorte County didn't wait to find out -- it passed its own rules first.

Power & Utility Financing & Investment Community Opposition

October 20, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Federal Judge Dismissed DC Blox's Lawsuit Against Nashville. The City's Own Zoning Staff Say Its Data Center Permits Are Vested Anyway.

Nashville is trying to seize DC Blox's zoo-adjacent data center site by eminent domain even though the city's own zoning administrator says the project's permits are already vested under state law.

Zoning & Entitlement Community Opposition Policy

October 19, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

San Francisco and Oakland Joined 300-Plus Cities Trying to Stop Data Centers This Week. By One Count, Only Three of Those Fights Have Actually Worked.

An analyst tracking 300-plus local data center restrictions found only three projects nationally actually delayed by them -- about 2.3 gigawatts out of roughly 20. A rival tracker puts the real toll many times higher.

Policy Community Opposition Commercial Readiness

October 19, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Digital Realty Is Offering Every Household in a Kansas Town $1,000 a Year. Four Hundred Residents Signed a Petition Anyway.

Digital Realty's second De Soto, Kansas campus comes with a $20 million household fund, a 600-megawatt power deal the company is paying for itself, and a petition asking for a vote on the whole thing.

Community Opposition Power & Utility Financing & Investment

October 18, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Google Turned Down a 20-Year Tax Break in Rural Kansas. Six Weeks Later, It Still Hasn't Signed the Deal.

Barber County, Kansas, population 4,000, talked Google out of a tax exemption and into $320 million over 20 years. The county's own paperwork still says the deal isn't signed.

Financing & Investment Community Opposition Water Rights

October 18, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Meta Is Putting $200 Million Into Richland Parish's Schools and Roads. Entergy's Own CEO Just Revealed, by Accident, How Much Power the Data Center Behind It Actually Draws.

Meta is pledging $200 million for Richland Parish schools and roads. Mid-hearing, Entergy's own CEO let slip the real number behind it: four times New Orleans' peak power, continuously -- kept confidential until then.

Power & Utility Policy Community Opposition

October 17, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Pennsylvania Township Just Got $120 Million From Two Data Centers to Build a Police and Fire Headquarters. Residents Wanted to Read the Deal First. Commissioners Voted Anyway.

Swatara Township, PA locked in $120.3 million from two Corscale data centers for a new police and fire headquarters -- residents asked for a week to review the agreement first, and commissioners voted it through anyway.

Zoning & Entitlement Community Opposition Power & Utility

October 17, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Kelly Scott's Cattle Farm Sits 650 Yards From Wisconsin's Next Gas Plant. The Commission Approved It Anyway.

Wisconsin approved two billion-dollar gas plants for Microsoft and Oracle's data centers over 82-88% hearing opposition, with a signed Microsoft contract still carrying language regulators already ordered removed.

Power & Utility Policy Community Opposition

October 16, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Texas Sent 156 Data Centers a Warning Letter About Their Water Use. The Law Behind It Can Only Fine Them $500.

Two companies skipped a legislative hearing rather than explain their water use. Texas just mailed 156 more letters asking the same question, backed by a law that tops out at a $500 fine.

Water Rights Policy Commercial Readiness

October 16, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Meta's $15 Billion Kentucky Data Center Comes With $115 Million for Water Infrastructure the County Already Needed. Twenty-Eight Mobile-Home Households Have 90 Days to Find Somewhere Else to Live.

Meta hid behind NDAs in rural Kentucky for more than a year. The $115 million water deal it revealed on October 13th is real, and so is the 90-day clock now running on 28 mobile-home families next door.

Zoning & Entitlement Water Rights Community Opposition

October 15, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Washington Has Let PJM Switch Data Centers to Backup Generators Four Times This Year. Nobody's Had to Flip the Switch Yet.

DOE authorized PJM to force data centers onto backup generators this week, the fourth time in 2026. The alert got recalled by Wednesday noon, and PJM still hasn't pulled the trigger once.

Power & Utility Grid Capacity Policy

October 15, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Indiana's New Data-Center Cost Law Just Passed Its First Test. The State's Largest Utility Still Gets to Bill Everyone Else for $74 Million of It.

Indiana's first case under its new data-center cost law closed October 7th. Google clears the 80% floor by a wide margin — but $74 million of the build still lands in AES Indiana's general rate base.

Power & Utility Policy Community Opposition

October 14, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

AMD Just Agreed to Back Fermi's Amarillo AI Campus. The Lease It's Backing Already Missed One Deadline.

Fermi's stock jumped as much as 18% when AMD signed on to support its Texas AI campus. The lease that deal backs already slipped one closing date, and Fermi still has no permanent CEO.

Financing & Investment Commercial Readiness Water Rights

October 14, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

PJM Wanted the Power to Decide Which Data Centers Get Cut Off First. FERC Just Said That's Not PJM's Call.

FERC approved a registry tracking every 50-megawatt-plus data center in 13 states, then rejected PJM's plan to curtail them ahead of ordinary demand response. The $29.4 billion question of who pays is still open.

Power & Utility Policy Grid Capacity

October 13, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A $2.8 Billion Data Center Beat Its Lawsuit in Spartanburg County. The Power Plant Behind It Never Went Before the Board That Reviews Power Plants.

South Carolina ruled Valara's 11-turbine gas plant isn't a "utility facility," so the one board that vets big power plants never saw it. A judge just threw out neighbors' last lawsuit over the project.

Power & Utility Zoning & Entitlement Community Opposition

October 13, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Kokomo's Mayor Turned Down a Tax Break to Land a Data Center. OpenAI and the Electricians' Union Are Betting the Deal Travels.

Kokomo offered a data center zero tax abatement and still landed a $1.3 billion campus. Six other states are watching whether that deal, not a ban, is what actually calms the backlash.

Policy Community Opposition Commercial Readiness

October 12, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Geothermal Plant in Rural Utah Just Made History. Google's Near-Gigawatt Bet on It Is for a Data Center That Doesn't Exist Yet.

Fervo's first commercial enhanced-geothermal unit started selling power on September 30th — a world first. Google's much bigger bet on the same technology is for a data center that still has no confirmed site.

Power & Utility Financing & Investment Commercial Readiness

October 12, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Oracle Will Absorb $300 Million in Nuclear Costs to Spare Wisconsin Ratepayers. The Transmission Line Carrying That Power Just Got $1 Billion More Expensive.

Oracle agreed to absorb roughly $300 million in nuclear fuel costs for its Wisconsin AI campus. The transmission line built to reach it just jumped past $2.7 billion, and who covers the rest is still unresolved.

Power & Utility Grid Capacity Financing & Investment

October 11, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Virginia Was Going to Charge Every Household $2.90 a Month for a Data Center Power Line. Regulators Cut It to 94 Cents by Billing the Data Centers Instead.

Dominion wanted Virginia ratepayers to help cover a new 765,000-volt transmission line built mostly to serve data centers. Regulators cut the typical household's share by two-thirds and told Dominion to go bill the data centers for the rest.

Power & Utility Policy Commercial Readiness

October 11, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A $6 Billion Data Center Chose One of America's Poorest Counties. The County Has No Zoning Code to Weigh In.

Eagle Rock Partners says it won't ask Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi for a single tax break on its $6 billion campus. The county couldn't grant one if it wanted to — it has no zoning ordinance at all.

Zoning & Entitlement Power & Utility Water Rights

October 10, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

St. Louis Wrote a Data Center Penalty Clause With Real Teeth. The Developer Is Suing to Pull Them.

TerraWatt's $3 billion Armory data center comes with $15.7 million in enforceable penalties if its tax-revenue promise falls short. Its own leadership is now suing to strike the conditions that make the penalty stick.

Zoning & Entitlement Community Opposition Commercial Readiness

October 10, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Taylor, Texas Had No Legal Say Over a 664-Acre Data Center Next Door. On October 8th, It Annexed Its Way Into Getting Some.

The site sat in unincorporated Williamson County, outside Taylor's zoning reach entirely. The city annexed it anyway on October 8th — and a 1,400-signature petition to stop the project just got ruled off the ballot.

Zoning & Entitlement Water Rights Community Opposition

October 9, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Pennsylvania Coal Plant Closed in 2019. The Data Center Taking Its Place Comes With a Gas Plant Projected to Pollute More Than Any Other One in the State's Pipeline.

Shippingport, population 160, just landed a $10 billion AI campus and 3,000 construction jobs. The dedicated gas plant built to power it is projected to out-emit every other one in Pennsylvania's data-center pipeline, including a bigger plant.

Power & Utility Financing & Investment Community Opposition

October 9, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Meta Contractor Contaminated Cheyenne's Recycled Water This Summer. The City's Utility Just Signed Google Up for 22 More Years of Data Centers.

Cheyenne's water utility sat on a bacterial contamination traced to a Meta data center contractor for weeks before residents found out. In October, the same city's utility locked in Google's next campus through 2048, on Google's dime.

Power & Utility Financing & Investment Water Rights

October 8, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Duke Energy Couldn't Show Its Data-Center Math in September. In October, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft Signed the Document That Does.

North Carolina denied Duke a $584 million gas plant for failing to show its data-center cost math. Weeks later, a new settlement — signed by the hyperscalers themselves — tries to answer it, though critics say the numbers are still too soft.

Power & Utility Policy Commercial Readiness

October 8, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Nuclear Reactor Died at This Tennessee Site in 1983. On September 29th, a Different One Became the First of Its Kind the NRC Has Ever Approved.

The NRC's permit for TVA's Clinch River reactor came four months ahead of schedule — rare for nuclear construction. Data centers already make up a fifth of TVA's industrial power demand, and TVA expects that to double by 2030.

Power & Utility Grid Capacity Financing & Investment

October 7, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Wisconsin Added 10,500 Construction Jobs This Year. About Half of Them Trace Back to Data Centers.

Microsoft's Fairwater campus alone cycled 10,000 union workers through two years of construction. A union leader says the data center boom behind Wisconsin's job numbers has a decade left to run.

Financing & Investment Commercial Readiness

October 7, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Nuclear Plant Running Since 1986 Is About to Get 348 Megawatts Bigger. Google Is Paying the $4.3 Billion Bill, Not Ratepayers.

Google is financing $4.3 billion in nuclear plant upgrades, including the largest at Limerick, to add 890 megawatts of capacity in PJM, without asking Pennsylvania or New Jersey ratepayers to cover a dollar of it.

Power & Utility Grid Capacity Financing & Investment

October 6, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Louisiana Teacher's Bonus Check Jumped From $10,200 to $50,935 This Year. The Reason Is Sitting on Farmland Outside Holly Ridge.

Richland Parish's teacher bonus pool quintupled on sales tax from Meta's $50 billion Hyperion campus. The $12.9 billion plan to keep its power flowing gets a three-day Louisiana hearing starting October 7th.

Power & Utility Financing & Investment Commercial Readiness

October 6, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Iowa's Only Nuclear Plant Closed in 2020. On September 8th, the Federal Government Put $1.9 Billion Behind Bringing It Back.

Iowa's Duane Arnold nuclear plant shut in 2020. Now a county has rezoned the site for nuclear, Google has signed a 25-year power contract, and the DOE has closed a loan of up to $1.9 billion to bring it back. Here's what the approvals actually show, and what's still open.

Power & Utility Zoning & Entitlement Financing & Investment

October 5, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

The World's Busiest Data Center Market Ended Its Own Shortcut. Tomorrow It Votes on Whether the Projects Already in Line Still Get to Use It.

Loudoun County ended by-right data center permitting in 2025, but let the projects already in line keep the old rules. On October 6th, supervisors vote on whether roughly 17 of them still get to use those rules. Data centers already bring in 38 to 42 percent of the county's local tax revenue.

Zoning & Entitlement Policy Commercial Readiness

October 5, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Michigan Made Google Guarantee 80 Percent of a Data Center's Power Bill for 20 Years. The Utility Granting That Contract Still Wants to Build Two New Gas Plants to Serve It.

Michigan regulators approved Google's 1-gigawatt data center contract on October 1st. It bills the company for at least 80% of its demand for 20 years. Meanwhile, DTE's own resource plan calls for two new gas plants sized almost exactly to the load it just signed up.

Power & Utility Commercial Readiness Policy

October 5, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

What to Have Ready Before You Ask a Utility for a Large-Load Study

Utilities won't study a large load on a hunch. Before you submit, you need site control, a credible load ramp, a site plan, and a clear picture of who will pay for what. Here is the checklist we use to see whether a project is ready to be studied.

Guide Power & Utility Zoning & Entitlement

October 5, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

How a Large-Load Tariff Works, and What the Minimum Bill Really Means

A large-load tariff sets the terms for a data center's power, and the minimum bill decides who pays if the load never fully shows up. Here is how the rules differ by utility and what to check before you sign anything.

Guide Power & Utility Commercial Readiness

October 4, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Memphis Spent xAI's Tax Money on Home Repairs. On October 6th, It Votes on Whether to Pause the Next One.

Memphis's zoning code has no category for a hyperscale data center, so xAI's Colossus got built as ordinary industrial use. On October 6th, the City Council takes a final vote on a 12-month moratorium meant to fix that gap — at the same meeting it spends $3.2 million in tax revenue xAI already generated.

Zoning & Entitlement Community Opposition Power & Utility

October 4, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

FERC Just Froze PJM's $20 Billion Fix for Its Power Shortfall. Amazon's Own Fix Closed the Next Morning.

PJM's emergency backstop auction for a 6,831-megawatt capacity gap was supposed to open September 30th. FERC accepted it, then suspended it for five months over who pays. The next morning, Amazon signed its own 20-year, 690-megawatt nuclear deal in the same state — a deal the frozen auction had nothing to do with.

Power & Utility Grid Capacity Financing & Investment

October 3, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

North Carolina Regulators Denied Duke Energy a $584 Million Gas Plant. The 3-1 Vote Came Down to a Question About Data Centers Duke Couldn't Answer.

On September 18th, the North Carolina Utilities Commission voted 3-1 to deny Duke Energy a sixth gas turbine at its Smith Energy Complex, calling the $584 million price tag "staggering" and faulting Duke for not saying how much of the plant — or its cost — belongs to the data centers driving the request. The complex sits next door to Amazon's $10 billion AWS campus, under construction in the same county.

Power & Utility Policy Commercial Readiness

October 3, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Amazon Just Promised $1 Billion to Data Center Towns. It Also Just Permitted the Country's Single Largest Carbon Polluter to Power One of Them.

AWS's October 2nd "Built Together" program ends non-disclosure agreements with local governments and pledges communities won't see higher electricity bills. The same week, critics pointed back at a Pecos County, Texas gas plant Amazon is financing — permitted to emit 33 million tons of CO2 a year, more than any other power plant in the country.

Policy Community Opposition Power & Utility

October 2, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

New Mexico Rejected the Pipeline for Oracle's AI Data Center Twice. Oracle's Answer Was a Force Majeure Notice, Not a Backup Plan.

Project Jupiter was designed to skip the interconnection queue entirely by running on-site gas fuel cells instead of grid power. The gas still needs a pipeline New Mexico's land office has refused twice, a hearing officer just recused himself over bias claims, and on September 24th Oracle hedged its own lease rather than naming a new power plan.

Power & Utility Water Rights Zoning & Entitlement

October 2, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Valar Atomics Wants to Build 456 Nuclear Reactors in a Utah Coal Town. The NRC Hasn't Licensed One Yet.

Project Beehive would lease more than 9,000 acres of Carbon County, Utah to a startup proposing 456 helium-cooled microreactors generating 9.6 gigawatts — nearly matching the state's entire peak grid capacity. Valar Atomics has raised more than $1.5 billion since 2023. Its reactor design has not cleared the one agency that can actually let it operate.

Power & Utility Zoning & Entitlement Community Opposition

October 1, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Imperial Valley's $10 Billion Data Center Said It Wouldn't Touch the Colorado River. It's Suing Over 260 Million Gallons of It.

In December, the developer pledged to run its 330-megawatt AI complex on recycled wastewater. By June it was suing the Imperial Irrigation District for Colorado River water instead — and September brought the project a CEQA reversal and a power-curtailment policy that puts it last in line during a shortage.

Water Rights Zoning & Entitlement Power & Utility

October 1, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

The Energy Department Put $250 Million Into a Transmission Line Through Lamar, Colorado. It's One of 31 Bets on Finding Gigawatts in Wires We Already Own.

DOE's September 24th SPARK awards put $1.9 billion behind 31 projects to reconductor and upgrade existing transmission lines instead of waiting years for new ones. In eastern Colorado, that means tripling the Lamar Tie's capacity to 700 megawatts — on a line most people have never heard of, and subject to approvals it doesn't have yet.

Power & Utility Grid Capacity Financing & Investment

September 30, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

New York Already Has a Statewide Data Center Moratorium. Buffalo Just Voted for a Longer One of Its Own.

Governor Hochul's one-year pause on data center permits is two and a half months old. On September 30th, Buffalo's Common Council voted for a two-year local moratorium on top of it — proof a state-level pause doesn't settle anything at the municipal level.

Zoning & Entitlement Policy Community Opposition

September 30, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Samsung Just Put $1 Billion Into a Data Center Company That Hasn't Named a Single Site.

Helix Digital Infrastructure launched in June with $10 billion and Vistra as its "preferred power provider." Samsung's September 29th investment pushed that past $11 billion. Helix still hasn't announced where any of it gets built.

Financing & Investment Power & Utility Commercial Readiness

September 29, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

California Signed Seven Data Center Laws in One Day. The Price Tag Isn't Written Yet.

Newsom's September 21st signing is being called the most comprehensive data center law package in the country. Most of what it actually changes is who gets to write the numbers later, and when.

Policy Power & Utility Water Rights

September 29, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

PJM's Capacity Auction Came Up 6.8 Gigawatts Short. Its Fix Could Cost Maryland Alone $562 Million.

On September 30th, PJM runs an emergency capacity auction it has never had to run before — up to $20 billion at a price cap 70% above normal. Five state ratepayer advocates already asked FERC to block it.

Power & Utility Grid Capacity Commercial Readiness

September 28, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Texas Halted Data Center Permits. Its New Interconnection Deposit Is the Bigger Story.

Gov. Abbott's Sept. 21 order paused every state permit tied to a data center project. The number that will actually change how sites get built is the $50,000-per-megawatt deposit Texas regulators adopted three days earlier.

Power & Utility Policy Commercial Readiness

September 28, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

The House Voted 417-3 to Make Data Centers Pay Their Own Grid Costs. The Word Doing the Work Is “Consider.”

H.R. 9340 passed the House by the widest possible bipartisan margin on September 16th. Six days later a Senate Democrat blocked it outright, and the reason why is buried in a single verb the bill uses forty times.

Policy Power & Utility Commercial Readiness