US utility AES has released its Q3 financial results, reporting significant growth across its renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) deal count driven primarily by data center load growth.

The company reported that since its Q2 2024 earnings call in August 2024, it had signed agreements with data center customers for an additional 900MW of new load growth at AES Ohio, for a total of 2.1GW in 2024.

"Since our last call, we have signed or been awarded 2.2 GW of long-term contracts for renewable or new data center load growth at our US utilities," AES CEO Andres Gluski said.

In a recent report, S&P Global Ratings estimated that US data center power demand will increase at 12 percent per year until the end of 2030, risking a potential doubling of the tech sector's current carbon emission levels.

To meet this demand, US utilities such as AES have been investing heavily in the renewable sector. The AES pipeline of PPAs - projects under contract but not yet online -rose to 12.7GW, up slightly from 12.6GW in the previous quarter.

In its Q2 report, the company said that it had signed agreements to support 1.2GW of new data center load at US utilities and was in advanced negotiations for up to another 3GW over the next 12 months.

This included a 15-year PPA for 727MW of wind and solar to serve data center growth in Texas and a 310MW retail supply agreement to support data centers throughout Ohio.

Data center expansion has recently surged across AEP Ohio's service area, particularly Central Ohio. The growing presence of these facilities is a critical factor behind the region's soaring electricity demand, which is now projected to more than double by 2030.

As a result, in late October, AEP Ohio filed a settlement agreement to address the power demands of Ohio’s data center sector.

The filing, which is subject to review and approval from PUCO, will require new data center customers to pay for a minimum of 85 percent of the energy they say they need each month, even if they use less, to cover the cost of infrastructure required to bring electricity to those facilities.

Several recent major announcements have also spurred the growth of the Ohio market. For example, last month, Microsoft revealed plans to invest $1 billion in developing three data center campuses in Central Ohio.

In addition, Microsoft also announced plans to construct a $420 million data center in New Albany.