Southern Company's contracted data-center power load climbs to 17 gigawatts
A 3.2-gigawatt, 25-year OpenAI contract near Savannah is the biggest sign yet that data centers are reshaping the Southeast's power grid — and its bills.
What happened: Southern Company told investors on its second-quarter earnings call that contracted "large load" on its system — mostly data centers — has grown to 17 GW, up 6 GW in recent quarters. The headline deal is Georgia Power's 25-year, 3.2 GW contract with OpenAI for a data center campus near Savannah, set to start drawing power in 2028. CEO Chris Womack said the company also has 8 GW more in advanced contract talks, including 3 GW expected to close soon. Current data center load on the system already tops 1.2 GW, and usage from that category was up 55% year-over-year in Q2.
Why it matters: Southern serves about 9 million people across Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, so how it handles this surge affects everyone on its grid, not just tech companies. Womack said the OpenAI deal alone pushes demand about 1 GW past what regulators have already approved, meaning more power plants, transmission lines and rate cases are coming. He also admitted the industry has a trust problem: "There's noise all across the country about data centers," and said hyperscalers need to do a better job explaining the benefits and correcting misinformation.
How it works, plainly: To limit risk to ordinary customers, Southern is building in protections: minimum monthly bills so data centers pay even if they use less power than expected, long-term contracts, termination penalties if a project pulls out, and high upfront collateral. The OpenAI deal also includes something new — 1 GW of "flexible demand response," meaning the data center agrees to cut its power draw during peak hours, the first time Southern has locked in that kind of flexibility with a large-load customer.
The rollout: Southern has already secured approval for roughly 10 GW of new company-owned generation, mostly natural gas plus some storage and solar, and has requests for proposals out in Georgia and Alabama, with winning projects expected to be named by year-end. That's on top of an $81 billion capital plan through 2030, $68 billion of it for regulated utilities. Meanwhile, Alabama Power is still fighting a revived lawsuit over its plan to close a coal ash pond at Plant Barry, even as the EPA moves to approve Alabama's own coal ash permitting program.