5 Notable Data Center Links, March 7, 2026
Data Center Land Deal in Ashburn, Why the Ratepayer Pledge Matters, New EPRI Data
Each week I curate 5 links from the data center sector that I find particularly interesting, with my commentary on why they merit your attention.
Sound interesting? Subscribe and get them every Saturday.
Notable Links
EPRI: Data Centers Could be 9% to 17% of U.S. Electricity by 2030 - There’s lots of interesting data in this report from EPRI, a non-profit that tracks trends in power. The headline: EPRI projects data centers to consume 9% to 17% of U.S. electricity by 2030, up from 4% to 5% today. The group’s projections have shifted higher since 2024, due to the burst of AI development, and that 17% number is perhaps the highest I’ve seen from a credible source. The Powering Intelligence 2026 report also looks at the states with the highest percentages of power for data centers (topped by Virginia, Oregon, Iowa and Nebraska).
College Sells Virginia Campus Land to AWS for $427 Million - George Washington University has sold the Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Loudoun County to an Amazon affiliate. The 122-acre campus in in Ashburn is located near the intersection of Route 7 and Loudoun County Parkway. It looks like the latest example of a “knock-down” project in a key tech corridor, where data centers become the highest value use of real estate. University officials said the sale was motivated by rising property values in Loudoun County, where the average price per acre hit $3.76 million in 2026.
Big Tech Firms Sign Ratepayer Protection Pledge at White House - CEOs from the seven largest tech companies in the US have signed a “ratepayer protection pledge” at the White House. Under the non-binding pledge, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon are committing to build or buy the immense electricity infrastructure required to power their data centers, in addition to the transmission and distribution infrastructure needed to connect the power to the grid. It’s a voluntary commitment that companies have agreed to honor through private negotiations with utilities and state regulators. The enforcement mechanism is, in effect, public accountability and the willingness of state utility commissions to hold companies to the terms they negotiate. Nonetheless, this is progress on an important issue. State utility regulators have real authority over rate structures and cost allocation, and several are already paying close attention to how data center load growth affects their ratepayers. But it means the pledge’s impact will play out market by market, utility by utility
CBRE Report Highlights Pricing Shifts - CBRE has shared its update on 2H 2025, and some of the most interesting data points concerned pricing. “Pricing for 3-to-10-MW requirements jumped by 12.5% year-over-year, as competition intensified for large contiguous space with scalable power and connectivity,” CBRE reports, compared to a 6.5% annual lift for a 250-to-500-kW requirement. Meanwhile, CBRE affirms that “grid-power capacity for existing projects is largely booked through 2030 in most markets. This is driving new projects to incorporate on-site power like natural gas generators, wind turbines, hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels with battery energy storage.”
Vertiv, Generate Capital Team on BYOP Solutions - Vertiv and energy investor Generate Capital are teaming to provide a turnkey infrastructure solution aimed at accelerating the deployment of data center capacity. Under the new program, Generate Capital will provide the financing and ownership structure, while Vertiv will supply the integrated power and cooling systems, as well as ongoing operations and maintenance services. The initiative expands Vertiv’s Bring Your Own Power & Cooling (BYOP&C), building on recently announced collaborations with Caterpillar and Solar Turbines to help customers deploy data center infrastructure in constrained power environments.
If you found 5 Notable Links useful, please subscribe so you can get it each week!
The ratepayer protection pledge is an interesting mechanism — voluntary accountability backed by state utility commissions with real rate-setting authority. Korea faces the same data center load growth pressure, but the cost allocation works in reverse. KEPCO, the state utility monopoly, absorbs the gap between wholesale costs and frozen retail tariffs, so the burden doesn’t surface in rate cases — it accumulates as corporate debt. KEPCO posted cumulative operating losses of roughly 43 trillion won between 2021 and 2023 under this structure. KEPCO won’t go bankrupt — the government effectively guarantees its obligations — but that’s precisely the problem. The costs don’t disappear; they sit on a sovereign-backed balance sheet until a tariff hike or fiscal transfer finally settles the bill.