US utility American Electric Power (AEP) has seen its pipeline of load additions by 2030 rise from 24GW to 28GW since Q2, with roughly 80 percent of the growth tied to commercial data centers.

In its Q3 earnings report, the company reported that all 28GW of load is signed to a take-or-pay electric service agreement or a letter of agreement, meaning they are tied to binding financial agreements. According to the utility, the customers driving most of the growth are substantial market players, including Google, AWS, and Meta.

In its Q2 earnings report, the utility reported a 14 percent Year-on-Year growth in operating earnings per share, driven primarily by new data center growth, which accounts for the bulk of the total incremental load growth of 24GW

The utility also reported that approximately 2GW of data center load came online in Q3 alone.

“Regions with concentrated data center and industrial development, including AEP's footprint, are emerging as clear winners. Large annual capital budgets from hyperscalers totaling hundreds of billions of dollars reinforce the conviction, strength, and staying power of this demand growth,” said William J. Fehrman, CEO of AEP, during the call.

As a result of this growth, the utility said it expects system peak demand of 65GW by 2030 across its diversified service territory, particularly in Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas.

“This growth is fueled by data centers, reshoring of manufacturing, and further economic development, which we expect to create jobs in local communities and maintain affordability as our load grows by almost 76 percent in the next five years,” said Fehrman.

Fehrman also stressed the importance of making sure that the costs associated with these large loads are allocated fairly. “For that reason, we have secured commission approvals for data center tariffs in Ohio and large load tariff modifications in Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia, with pending tariff filings in Michigan, Texas, and Virginia,” he said. The measures, Fehrman argued, are “designed to protect other customers from bearing the cost of grid improvements required to meet the energy demands of large load customers.”

In July, Ohio regulators approved new rules that would 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. As a result of the tariff in October, the utility updated its pipeline of interconnection requests, with demand reportedly falling from more than 30GW of requests to 13GW.

In the earnings report, the utility also announced a new, increased long-term operating earnings growth rate of 7-9 percent over the next five years, bolstered by a $72 billion capital plan and supported by an expected ten percent annual growth in rate base. The $72bn will be split between $30bn for transmission infrastructure, $20bn for generation, and $17bn for distribution.

AEP is one of the country’s biggest 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.