PPL’s Advanced-Stage Data Center Pipeline Reaches 31.8GW

Pennsylvania utility PPL Corporation’s advanced-stage data center pipeline grew to 31.8GW in Q2, up from 28.3GW in Q1. Of the total, 11GW is covered by signed electric service agreements, while 6.5GW is already under construction. “Signed data center agreements with PPL Electric Utilities increased for the tenth consecutive quarter to about 32 GW, an increase of 3.5GW from last quarter,” said Vince Sorgi, president and CEO of PPL.

Two data centers under construction in PPL’s service area began taking utility service during Q2 and are expected to ramp to around 2GW of load by 2031. In Kentucky, PPL reported 13.7GW of potential load growth, including 11.6GW from data centers, up 800MW from Q1. About 1.3GW is now backed by signed reimbursement agreements, up from 900MW in Q1. CEO Vince Sorgi also welcomed a Kentucky executive order requiring data center developers to demonstrate they will not harm ratepayers or the environment, saying it aligns with PPL’s customer-protection approach.

“It was good to see the order come out. We view it as fully consistent with the ratepayer protection principles that we’ve been championing and even the ratepayer protection pledge that we signed recently, where new large load customers should be supporting and paying for the infrastructure and the resources that are needed to serve them,” he said. “Importantly, the order did not prohibit or put a moratorium on data center development. It simply is reinforcing that we need to have customer protections built into the process, which, of course, we have built into our approach.”

PPL’s joint venture with Blackstone Infrastructure, Invictium Energy, has identified sites for 8–14GW of new generation to serve data center demand. More than 5GW of CCGT capacity is also in the PJM queue, with another 5GW covered by turbine reservation agreements. PPL does not expect the JV to make a material earnings contribution before 2030.