US utility company American Electric Power (AEP) has seen its pipeline of contracted capacity surge to 63GW, 90 percent of which comes from data center customers.

The utility’s pipeline increased 9GW from last quarter, with the bulk of the load coming from AEP’s subsidiaries in Texas and Ohio.

Due to increased load growth, the utility expanded its capital spending plan by $6 billion to $78bn, primarily to support new transmission and generation projects.

Outside of its near-term additions, AEP reported that it has continued to see a robust pipeline of longer-dated opportunities, especially across the PJM Interconnection grid.

Trevor Ian Mihalik, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said that in total, the utility has approximately 190GW within its active interconnection queue. This includes a 10GW data center campus, being developed by SB Energy in Piketon, Ohio, and a “multibillion-dollar Google data center development in Putnam County, West Virginia,” he said.

According to AEP, the majority of capacity addition growth in the quarter occurred in ERCOT, where load increased to 41GW, up from 36GW. In the Southwest Power Pool - which covers much of the central US - contracted load growth increased by 1GW in the quarter. This was driven primarily by an Amazon data center project in northwest Louisiana.

“The scale of load growth we are seeing highlights the strength of our diverse footprint that is highly suited for data centers and our ability to attract large-scale economic development to the communities we serve,” said Mihalik.

Outside the load growth additions, the utility reported that it has secured new data center tariffs in Ohio, followed by large load tariff solutions in Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

According to William J. Fehrman, CEO and president of AEP, the tariff structures have been designed with several key goals. “First, we are protecting our existing customers by ensuring data and other large load customers cover the investments required to support their energy needs. Second, we are protecting our revenue and earnings base through minimum demand charges embedded directly within these binding take-or-pay contracts,” he said.

Fehrman went on to say that the utility is advancing similar tariffs across its other coverage areas. “We have active filings in Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia,” he said.

AEP is one of the country’s largest electric utility companies, serving 11 US states, including data center hotspots Ohio and Texas. AEP has seven operating companies covering Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.