Latest News

American Electric Power expects strong development in brand-new data center demand

American Electric Power has actually signed letters of intent to connect an additional 15 gigawatts of information centers, or more than 40% of the utility's current peak electrical load, by the end of the decade, company executives said on Tuesday.

Numerous U.S. electrical utilities are seeing unmatched interest from innovation business racing to protect enormous quantities of electrical energy for information centers that support technology like expert system (AI) and cloud computing.

We are excited, challenged and poised to welcome this chance, AEP Chief Financial Officer Charles Zebula said on a call with financiers after the company reported its second-quarter outcomes. To put the committed brand-new data center load in perspective, the company said its system-wide peak load at the end of in 2015 was 35 gigawatts.

Present information center power intake assisted AEP beat second-quarter earnings estimates. The company's industrial load rose 12.4% in the 3 months ended June 30 as brand-new data processing centers came online.

AEP

said in April that it anticipated higher industrial load, which is the quantity of power used by customers at an offered point, over the next several years as the growth of AI and other innovations improve the requirement for extra information storage and processing.

Data centers could consume to 9% of overall electrical power created in the U.S. by the end of the decade, depending on the adoption rate of GenAI and other technologies, an Electric Power Research Institute analysis said in May.

Still, it is uncertain exactly how the build-out of new information centers will be funded, whether the projected doubling of need from the sector will materialize and what safeguards will be put in location to secure daily power consumers from taking in the expenses.

AEP stated approaching information center consumers have dedicated to pay for at least a portion of the expenses to construct the needed transmission, power generation and distribution lines. The business did not offer specifics about the costs.

These are serious clients that wish to get on the grid and want to economically devote to do what it takes to get on the grid, Zebula stated.

AEP has

proposed

information center tariffs, which set electricity rates and other power contract terms, to spend for the electricity and facilities they are asking for.

The business reported an operating revenue of $1.25 per share in the 2nd quarter, beating analysts' average price quote of $ 1.23, according to LSEG information.

AEP, which provides power to 5.6 million clients in 11 U.S. states, reaffirmed its yearly operating earnings forecast variety of $5.53 to $5.73 per share.

(source: Reuters)