Sarah: AI demand has reached the stage where coal retirement dates are suddenly negotiable.
Sarah: Who gets handed that bill?
Sarah: Before we get to today’s development
Sarah: Evergy came into the week with signed agreements for 3 GW of data-center load across Kansas and Missouri
Sarah: including 2.5 GW under its large-load power service tariff.
Sarah: It still had to answer how it would secure enough dispatchable capacity
Sarah: especially gas turbines
Sarah: to serve AI demand into the 2030s without turning interconnection certainty into a reliability problem or sticking ratepayers with the cost.
Matt: This is The Data Center Daily.
Matt: Today: Evergy coal extensions, PJM reform, and grid software promising extra capacity.
Matt: Same expensive question running through all of it: who pays when the load shows up?
Matt: We'll keep tracking this story — Evergy data-center load and gas capacity.
Matt: Follow the show so the next update finds you.
Sarah: Latitude Media, with Maeve Allsup:
Quote: The utility Evergy is asking the Kansas Corporation Commission and the Missouri Public Service Commission for permission to delay the
Quote: retirement or conversion of around 2.8 gigawatts of coal plants across the states by at least five years.
Quote: Additionally, Evergy plans to build 5 GW of new generation, including 3.9 GW of natural gas.
Matt: Evergy wants the Kansas and Missouri commissions to keep 2.8 gigawatts of coal online for at least five extra years while building 3.9
Matt: gigawatts of gas. That’s the AI power stack: coal plants that were meant to retire, plus more combustion.
Sarah: Evergy’s data-center contracts now come with a request to keep 2.8 GW of coal around longer.
Sarah: Latitude says more than 2 GW of data-center deals are signed under Evergy’s large-load tariffs
Sarah: and Google’s 710 MW Kansas City contract is specifically named.
Matt: And the commissions should make Evergy spell out the bill.
Matt: If these coal units stay open to serve Google-scale load
Matt: does the tariff recover the carrying cost
Matt: or do ordinary Kansas and Missouri customers get handed the backup tab?
Matt: Put that in the rate-case language.
Sarah: A pipeline slide is one thing; an executed service agreement is another.
Sarah: The filing says the path has become more certain, and the measurable consequence is a 2.8-GW coal-retirement delay.
Sarah: Here's Federal Register:
Quote: Pursuant to section 385.601(a) of the Commission's regulations
Quote: commencing on September 1 2026
Quote: the Director of Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) will convene a forum to facilitate interest-based discussions on proposed reforms to PJM's
Quote: governance and stakeholder processes.
Quote: The objective of the forum is to gather feedback from PJM members and stakeholders
Quote: identify areas of consensus and divergence
Quote: and evaluate actionable reforms to inform a future filing.
Sarah: FERC has put dates on PJM’s governance fight: post-conference comments close August 21
Sarah: then its dispute-resolution staff convenes the reform forum September 1.
Sarah: A forum to inform a future filing—efficiently indirect, but at least it has dates.
Matt: Good. Put the July 22 load-drop data on that table.
Matt: More than 3 gigawatts of data-center load fell off PJM during that fault; stakeholders should be debating ride-through obligations before
Matt: they approve another giant load request.
Sarah: Evergy’s filing makes this feel a lot less procedural.
Sarah: Large-load contracts are changing generation plans in commission dockets
Sarah: and PJM’s stakeholder machinery has until August 21 to show it can move faster than committee speed.
Matt: September 1 is the test.
Matt: If the forum produces another consensus memo while the queue stays jammed, grid operators get paperwork and everybody else gets the risk.
Sarah: Utility Dive writes:
Quote: Utility Dive has spotlighted OATI PowerNow
Quote: an initiative designed to help utilities and grid operators unlock 10–20% more transmission capacity from existing infrastructure.
Quote: The article arrives as data centers, domestic manufacturing, electrification, and other large loads intensify demand for new grid capacity.
Sarah: OATI says PowerNow can unlock 10 to 20% more capacity from wires already in service.
Sarah: It uses dynamic line ratings, near-real-time coordination, and AI dispatch.
Sarah: Useful? Potentially.
Sarah: It doesn’t build new transmission.
Matt: A 100-to-200% shift on one constrained line can sound spectacular.
Matt: Then ask whether that headroom survives the contingency standard on a hot August afternoon.
Matt: Operators can’t interconnect a 300-megawatt load on a software demo.
Sarah: Exactly. What matters is capacity that clears reliability review, not a theoretical figure after a rating limit changes.
Sarah: OATI is pointing to a real operational tool; the queue needs a number it can bank on.
Matt: PJM’s dates are August 21 for comments and September 1 for the forum.
Matt: Put dynamic ratings and redispatch into the interconnection rules, or they remain a very elegant way to admire the same congested wire.
Sarah: Financial Standard, with Vinny Vucago:
Quote: Centuria Capital Group and AI infrastructure business ResetData have partnered with CDC Data Centres to develop AI data centre
Quote: infrastructure. The entities have secured new power capacity and $165 million in GPU financing.
Quote: Centuria which holds a 50% interest in ResetData
Quote: said the developments build on initiatives outlined during its June 2026 equity raising and are intended to support the next stage of
Quote: business.
Matt: Centuria and ResetData have a signed 7-megawatt services agreement with CDC.
Matt: The jump to 10 megawatts is an LOI, though, so keep those two numbers separate.
Sarah: Then there’s 72 megawatts of dedicated generation units due in 2028, plus a $165 million senior bridge facility for GPUs.
Sarah: Very different timelines and assets, all bundled into one ambitious sentence.
Matt: The build right now is seven megawatts.
Matt: The 72-megawatt power equipment arrives in 2028.
Matt: Calling that a two-year acceleration depends on sites
Matt: fuel interconnection
Matt: and operating permits all cooperating—which is a fairly crowded ‘if.’
Sarah: Credit where it’s due: an executed CDC agreement and executed GPU-financing documents carry more weight than a slide deck.
Sarah: But revenue is only targeted for the second half of FY27, and the expansion still depends on demand turning into contracted capacity.
Sarah: CVC writes:
Quote: CVC DIF the infrastructure business of leading global private markets manager CVC
Quote: has agreed to acquire a significant majority stake in firstcolo Holding GmbH (“firstcolo”)
Quote: a leading Frankfurt-based colocation data centre operator
Quote: from Cube Infrastructure Managers.
Quote: The investment will be made through DIF Value Add IV and is expected to close by the end of September 2026, subject to customary conditions.
Matt: CVC DIF is buying into a Frankfurt operator with two near-full data centers and more than 350 enterprise customers.
Matt: It starts with 24 MW at FRA7.
Matt: That’s an actual operating platform, not a render with a heroic adjective.
Sarah: The deal structure is clear: a significant majority stake through DIF Value Add IV, with closing expected by the end of September.
Sarah: Frankfurt supply is constrained, so 24 MW there carries more strategic weight than a much larger speculative campus elsewhere.
Matt: Two facilities are already near utilization
Matt: so CVC gets the customer base
Matt: the Frankfurt footprint
Matt: and a growth project with a very specific 24-megawatt first step.
Sarah: Compared with the Australian item we just covered
Sarah: the key point here is that 24 MW of development
Sarah: two operating sites and more than 350 customers all sit in the same business.
Host: Got feedback, a story idea, or a correction?
Host: Email us at datacenterdaily at lantern podcasts dot com.
Host: Your notes help us make The Data Center Daily better.
Host: Looking ahead: post-conference comments in FERC’s PJM governance docket are due August 21.
Host: FERC’s Director of Dispute Resolution Services is scheduled to convene the PJM governance reform forum beginning September 1.
Host: CVC DIF expects the firstcolo acquisition to close by the end of September, subject to customary conditions.
Host: Links to every story are in the show notes if you want to go deeper.
Host: That’s The Data Center Daily for today.
Host: This is a Lantern Podcast.