Data Center Gas Plants: The Record

Facts and sources for How a Data Center Gas Plant Gets Paid. Nothing here argues anything.

The table covers 31 gas plants, turbines or engines that a regulator's order, an SEC filing, a permit or the company's own statement ties to data center load in the United States, as of September 2026. A row is a plant or a group of units as the filings present it. "Not confirmed" marks a cell that could not be confirmed against the primary document on a second reading. CONFLICT marks two primary sources that disagree; both are kept.

The questions, by group

Buyers, terms, gas price, owners, funding and backstops are in the group tables below.

Regulated, cost shared across all customers

Eleven rows, five deals. Entergy's new firm gas transport in north Louisiana runs from February 2028 to January 2048 (Energy Transfer release). The Evest agreement runs 20 years with a renewal option (party filing).

(a) A term of the settlement the Louisiana commission accepted in globo in Order U-37425, not a Commission finding. The settlement states that the certification of the plants is not to be "construed as approval of the ESA and the Related Agreements." Entergy's release of 1 December 2025 says Meta "will fund the full cost of the utility infrastructure required to interconnect and serve" its data center, which "prevents cost-shifting to other customers," with projected customer savings of "approximately $650 million" over the 15-year agreement (company release). (b) Entergy Louisiana's own motion in Docket U-37882, a party filing. The Commission's floor, at least 15 years and fixed revenue covering at least one-half of the fixed revenue requirement, is stated here as Entergy Louisiana's motion quotes it. (c) CONFLICT: Entergy's 10-K ties the February 2025 AWS agreement to Warren County. Its 10-Q says "The February 2025 agreement will serve" the Madison County expansion. (d) Cleco's own application in a pending case. The $69.1M below is from Cleco's 10-Q, which does not name Applied Digital. (e) The data center tie is a joint statement of Commission Staff and Georgia Power, a party filing. The order mentions data centers in its history of the 2023 plan update and not elsewhere, and the application does not use the term "data center". Summer capacity is from the application.

Who is bound, and to whom

Regulated, cost ring-fenced to the data center

Five rows, two utilities.

(f) Figures from Wisconsin Electric's applications, party filings. Oak Creek and Paris figures are from the Commission's certificate decisions. (g) The term, fixed capacity charge, parent guaranty and IRR collar are petitioner testimony in an order approving a settlement. The option to halve is a NiSource 10-K statement, not a finding.

Also not confirmed: the Paris engine maker (Wartsila, from a web page), and WEC's statement that the Bespoke return is "excluded from future rate case proceedings"; the order calls it "a set cost of capital" and does not address duration. WEC states a peak collateral requirement of about $7 billion without naming the plants.

Who is bound, and to whom

Utility-served outside an organized market

One row, moved from the off-grid group because Black Hills filed for a substation to serve Cheyenne Power Hub LLC and WY DC 1 LLC, with 230 kV tie lines to the data center facilities, and told investors the generation is "tied to our system". WECC, no RTO. No Commission order was read.

The contract form and the substation come from the Wyoming PSC's notice summarizing Black Hills's application, a party filing. The Wyoming air permit was not located.

Organized market

Three rows. Only Kilby has a named offtaker and a contract. No capacity payment, minimum take or exit fee is disclosed for any of the three. Chevron's release says Kilby is "targeting mid-teen returns." Kilby's four ERCOT requests total 2,377 MW of gas, most of the plant's stated 2.67 GW, so they are the plant itself seeking a grid connection, not capacity on top of it.

Kilby's ERCOT requests at Solstice 345 kV are 371, 950 and 1,056 MW of gas and 330 MW of storage. ERCOT's Co-located Battery Identification Report lists all four as a battery co-located with thermal units at the same point of interconnection; it is a report about batteries, not about large loads. The Goodnight order date within July 2026 is not confirmed. Homer City's PJM connection rests on sponsor statements only, and its FT8 unit count is not confirmed.

Not connected to the grid

Eleven rows, seven campuses. Not every row is cleanly islanded; the note below the table says where the placement is weaker.

Placement. Matador and Hillcore sit on a private grid in Southwestern Public Service territory in SPP, with interruptible retail supply from that utility of 86 MW expected in the second half of 2026 and a further 114 MW targeted but not yet fully committed, and no generator interconnection disclosed. Islanding is not confirmed for Socrates North and Neo. Abilene 9-10 is placed here on a Crusoe process diagram, not a filing, and VoltaGrid on an equipment specification in its permit application.

(h) Socrates South's offtaker and islanding come from the Ohio Power Siting Board staff report, a recommendation. Apollo and Socrates the Younger rest on the Board's releases. None of the certificates was retrieved. Williams describes the customer as "a large, investment-grade company". Williams' megawatts and the Board's differ in basis. Also not confirmed: Monarch's certification as a West Virginia microgrid district (the September 2026 certification is a High Impact Data Center certification), and the arrangers of VoltaGrid's notes.

Who is bound, and to whom

What is disclosed

"Yes" means a primary document states it for that row. "Partial" means it states part of it, or needs an inference. "No" means not disclosed in any document read.

The one project lender is Stonebriar at Southaven. The Louisiana mortgage bonds are utility corporate debt, and Homer City's first-lien loans held by CION are not established as construction debt. The six dollar figures are Cleco, the three Georgia rows, the Cheyenne substation and Matador's aggregate contracted revenue. Level or formula only: the two Evest rows, the four Wisconsin rows, Indiana (termination payments largely at net book value) and Hillcore. Matador's gas price holder moved from partial to yes on 25 September 2026, when Fermi's 10-Q wording on the variable power charge was confirmed.

Multiples

Every multiple a buyer or developer stated was found again, word for word, on a second reading. Each is shown on the earnings year and basis it names. They are not averaged.

As stated

Computed here, not stated by anyone

On a like-for-like five-year basis, the in-window plants with 6 to 8 years of contract left sold at 5.4x to 6.5x (6.7x at Frederickson's announced price). Capital Power's April 2025 deck charts La Paloma and Harquahala at 4.8x as an average; its November 2023 release gives 5.4x on the five-year average and 4.8x on 2024E. On TransAlta, the buyer's prospectus deck says the price is "Below the cost of new build gas-fired peakers".

The Williams and Blackstone target of 6.35 percent is a capped return on a preferred-like position, not an unlevered asset return, and is not comparable to the 12.5x above. No 2023 to 2026 US observation near 10x was found; the nearest are Capital Power's 2017 deals, Decatur at 9.8x and East Windsor and York at 9.1x, from page 18 of its April 2025 deck. Constellation's divestitures to LS Power (4.4 GW in PJM for $5.0B; Brazos Valley, 606 MW, for $860M) have a price and no multiple.

Removed, and why

Five first-pass rows were removed because their filings tie them to general load growth, not to data center load.

Four cells were also removed. The "2.8 gigawatts" once attached to Big Hollow came from the West Alton application. A Monarch line saying Anthropic tranches start in late 2027 was wrong: the dates are redacted, and "late 2027" in the S-1 refers to Microsoft in Portugal. A reading that Oracle is VoltaGrid's gas counterparty was removed, because Energy Transfer's filings name Oracle and not VoltaGrid, and the Oracle filings read do not mention VoltaGrid. A reading that TransAlta's seller captured a development premium had no primary source and was removed.

One plant is not placed and is not among the 31. Williams' Aquila, Utah, 520 MW on a 12.5-year term inside the Blackstone JV, sits in PacifiCorp territory outside an RTO, but no filing read gives its grid status.

Sources

Only needed if you are checking a figure. Each cell was read from a primary document. A separate reviewer checked most of them a second time; a few, among them the Georgia in-service dates and the Abilene 9-10 cells, were read once. A settlement term accepted in globo, a FERC notice summarizing an applicant, a staff report and a PSC notice summarizing a utility's application are treated as party filings, not findings. Megawatts are the company's own number in its own words, and documents for one plant often count different things. The multiples' sources are in their table.

Entergy Louisiana. LPSC Order U-37425 with the Final Stipulated Settlement Term Sheet, 29 August 2025, for Laidley. Order U-37882 and the Rule 57 motion of 2 April 2026 for Evest. Entergy's 2025 10-K and Q2 2026 10-Q. Releases of 1 December 2025 and 4 November 2025. FERC notice CP26-549, Federal Register 2026-14686.

Entergy Mississippi. SB 2001, 2024 Second Extraordinary Session, section 22. Entergy's 10-K and 10-Q above. FERC notices CP26-555 (Federal Register 2026-15289) and CP26-75 (2026-02759).

Cleco. Application in LPSC Docket U-38035, 1 July 2026, Cleco witness testimony and the schedule motion, all party filings. Cleco's Q2 2026 10-Q. Applied Digital's 10-K; the link to its Delta Forge 1 is an inference.

Georgia Power. GPSC Final Order in Dockets 56298 and 56310, December 2025. The all-source application (Commission document 223493), post-hearing brief of 16 December 2025 (224871) and joint statement of Staff and Georgia Power of 26 August 2026 (228126), all party filings. Southern Company's 2025 10-K.

Wisconsin Electric. PSCW Final Decision in 6630-TE-113, 21 May 2026, and the approved VLC and Bespoke tariff sheets. Certificate decisions for Oak Creek, 6630-CE-317 and Paris, 6630-CE-316. Party filings: the Foundry Ridge and Red Oak Ridge applications, data response BS-104, the Second Amended and Restated PCA of 29 September 2025, the WE-GO data response, the gas precedent agreement and the plant assignment table. WEC Energy's Q2 2026 10-Q.

NiSource. IURC orders in Cause 46322 and Cause 46362, 17 June 2026. NiSource's 2025 10-K and Q2 2026 10-Q.

Cheyenne Power Hub. Wyoming PSC public notices, Docket 20003-263-EN-26, Record 18057, and the South Cheyenne Transmission Project, Record 18235. Black Hills's Q4 2025 earnings call transcript, filed as a 425. The Tallgrass and Mitsubishi release of 15 May 2026 and the Crusoe and Tallgrass release of 24 July 2025.

Kilby. Chevron's Q2 2026 10-Q and 2025 10-K. Chevron's release of 22 June 2026 and the Chevron and Engine No. 1 release of 28 January 2025. The current ownership, "a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Joulent", is from Chevron's Kilby project site, read 25 September 2026. ERCOT's GIS reports for July and August 2026 and co-located battery report of August 2026. TCEQ's draft permit notice, 181895 and PSDTX1684, 15 April 2026.

Goodnight. TCEQ application 182880 and PSDTX1698. PUCT order in Docket 59220.

Homer City. FERC filing ER23-2614, 31 July 2026. The Homer City Redevelopment release of 1 April 2026. The AECOM PSD application of 4 August 2025; DEP's comment response and Plan Approval 32-00457A, 18 November 2025. EQT's 8-K Ex. 99.1, 22 July 2025. CION Investment Corp's Q2 2026 10-Q.

Monarch. Nscale's Form S-1 of 18 September 2026 and Exhibit 10.25, the Anthropic order form. The AIP, Caterpillar and Boyd CAT release of 28 January 2026, WVDEP application R14-0042, 20 April 2026, HB 2014 as enrolled and the Governor's release of 3 September 2026.

Southaven. Solaris's 2025 10-K, Q2 2026 10-Q, Master Equipment Rental Agreement, Ex. 10.4 and Stateline LLC agreement, Ex. 10.3. MDEQ PSD permit 0680-00119, 11 March 2026. SpaceX's prospectus of 12 June 2026 and Q2 2026 10-Q. The plant is tied to the site by an equipment count that matches Solaris's orders and the permit. Both venture parties use the same off-grid sentence, so the two are not independent.

Matador and Hillcore. Fermi's Q2 2026 10-Q and 2025 10-K, accession 0002071778-26-000010. More detail in Large-Load Power Contracts: The Record.

Williams, Ohio. OPSB staff report, Case 25-0185-EL-BLN, 29 May 2025. The case page for 25-0188-EL-BGN, the release of 3 February 2026 on Apollo (25-973-EL-BGN) and the release of 26 June 2026 on Socrates the Younger (26-0169-EL-BLN). The Neo pre-application letter, 26-0627-EL-BGN, 20 May 2026. Williams' Q2 2026 10-Q, 2025 10-K, and 8-K of 13 July 2026, Ex. 99.1 and Ex. 99.2.

VoltaGrid. TCEQ application 182467. VoltaGrid's releases of 15 October 2025, 10 November 2025 and 11 May 2026. Energy Transfer's 8-K Ex. 99.1 for Q3 and Q4 2025.

Abilene 9-10. TCEQ application 182126 and its preliminary decision notice. Crusoe's releases, including 27 March 2026. Energy Transfer's 8-K above for gas deliveries to Oracle's Abilene data center from January 2026, buildings not stated.

Exclusions. No executive is named and no motive is attributed. Excluded: plants tied only to general load growth, gas as backup on a grid-fed campus, platforms with no site, and sites with no offtaker. Regulated deals are filed publicly and many private ones are not, so the count of 3 in an organized market should be read that way.

All analysis by Tafel Power from public sources.