Southeastern United States utilities and gas pipeline developers are planning a major infrastructure buildout, in large part due to data center demand.
Utilities and pipeline developers appear poised to overbuild gas infrastructure in the Southeast.
Southeast consumers are subsidizing the growth of the data center industry and the major tech companies behind it.
Data center growth forecasts are incompatible with necessary action on climate change.
Southeast utilities and pipeline companies are planning a major buildout of natural gas infrastructure (pipelines and power plants) over the next 15 years. This report focuses on the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Utilities in these states plan to build more than 20,000 megawatts (MW) of natural gas power plants by 2040.
Meanwhile, pipeline operators are currently proposing or constructing more than 3,300 million cubic feet (MMcf)/day of new pipeline capacity through these states. More than 75% of this capacity is destined for electric utilities. More pipeline capacity will be needed if the Southeast utilities’ natural gas power plant plans come to fruition over the coming decades.
The main driver of this dash to build new gas infrastructure is data centers. The Southeast utilities profiled in this report are forecasting a level of load growth unprecedented in the last two decades in large part attributable to projections of rapid data center expansion. IEEFA finds that: