DTE Energy is in discussions with data centers representing 7 GW of potential new load, and expects it will need to begin developing battery storage resources next year to meet the demand, company officials said during the Michigan utility’s second quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
“We are in advanced discussions with multiple hyperscalers for over 3 GW of new load, and are having ongoing discussions with multiple other data center operators for an additional 4 GW,” DTE President and Chief Operating Officer Joi Harris said.
Harris is preparing to replace Chairman and CEO Jerry Norcia in September.
The utility is in “advanced discussions” with the hyperscalers, who have secured land positions, established zoning pathways and been working to garner support for the projects from local communities, Harris said. “And the remaining 4 GW in the pipeline either have confirmed access to land or are nearing finalization of land agreements.”
The near-term data center load ramp up to 3 GW “will be met through a combination of existing generation capacity and new energy storage solutions. And longer term, additional data center loads will require incremental investments in new baseload generation,” she added. “We are well positioned to meet the potential surge in demand from data centers. This represents significant upside to our plan, offering opportunities for additional investments in new generation capacity while supporting our commitment to customer affordability.”
DTE has a $30 billion five-year investment plan across its electric utility, gas utility and energy solutions businesses. The bulk of the spending, $24 billion, is planned for DTE Electric and includes $10 billion in grid investments.
“We're seeing a lot of interest in Michigan because we have excess capacity, so that's drawn data center providers to the state,” Harris said. New tax breaks for data centers are also drawing the attention of developers.
“There is some urgency on the part of the data center providers to begin the construction of their facilities by 2028 so that they can take advantage” of the new rules,” she said. “Near term load ramps would require us to begin construction of storage assets in 2026.”
Once DTE has struck deals to serve the data centers, new loads and resources will be incorporated into the utility’s integrated resource plan next year.
“The idea here is to serve the load with existing capacity. We have up to a gigawatt,” Harris said. “As we progress through their load ramps, we'll get to a point where we have to build out more dispatchable resources, larger dispatchable resources, but that'll get all fleshed out in our IRP next year,” Harris said.
