US utility Duke Energy's data center pipeline has increased by 2.7GW since the end of last year.

According to the company’s latest earnings report, it now has secured approximately 7.6GW of electric service agreements with data centers, and 15.4GW with large load customers.

It reported that, of that 7.6GW, 5GW is currently under construction, with the utility’s CFO Brian Savoy stating that the utility is “putting the necessary infrastructure in place to support speed to power, preparing the grid to deliver energy as soon as they are ready and executing our generation build to grow together over time.”

Savoy went on to state that he expects “these customers to begin taking energy as early as the second half of 2027 and into 2028 and ramp into their full contracted load through the early 2030s.”

Of the additional 2.7GW of data center load, the utility said that it expects them to begin taking energy in the early to mid-2030s.

The utility also referenced several potential large load tariffs that have been proposed in South Carolina and other states where the company has a presence.

“We're looking at several dockets and several tariff opportunities in all our states, but they're all grounded on the contracts that we have mentioned before, making sure that the data centers pay their fair share through minimum take provisions, deposits, refundable deposits, clawback provisions if they terminate,” said Harry Sideris, president of Duke Energy. “We're in discussions in South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, and other states to make sure that these are memorialized and that we have the right provisions and tariffs in place to be able to do that.”

Duke Energy is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owns 54.8GW of baseload and peak generation in the US. It serves 8.4 million customers across six US states, including Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, North and South Carolina, and Florida. It also has subsidiaries in Puerto Rico and Argentina.