Hyperscaler plans and utility supply commitments are driving data center demand growth across MISO. Development runs from colocation clusters in the Twin Cities and Detroit to hyperscale developments across MISO. The largest sites sit away from densely populated areas, where land and a willing utility are available.

As of October 26, Modo Energy tracks 55.1 GW of operating and planned data center capacity, measured as building load, across 124 developments.

Key takeaways

• 93% of tracked capacity (55.1 GW) is still in some phase of planning or construction. MISO's forecast carries 20.5 GW of data center peak demand by 2030, up from 1.2 GW in 2026.
• Five developers account for 55% of the total. Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Related Digital amount to 30.4 GW.
• Modo Energy expects 16.9 GW of data centers to get built by 2030.
• That 16.9 GW adds 10.0 GW of data center load on the grid at the system peak by 2030, 49% of MISO's 20.5 GW forecast.
• ERAS, MISO's fast lane for new supply, is nearly full. Its 58 active projects hold 32 GW, and Cycle 5 was the first with gas under half of capacity, at 48% of accepted capacity.
• A 133 GW ceiling on US data center IT capacity limits total capacity rather than delaying it. This limit trims MISO's expected build from 23.0 GW to 16.9 GW and its 2030 load from 12.7 GW to 10.0 GW, and leaves 2035 at 13.7 GW. Projects with compute offtake agreements and interconnection rights energize first.

Hyperscale data centers cluster around utilities

A handful of utilities plan to serve the largest campuses, with individual campuses having massive sway over an entire zone. The demand in MISO is primarily from hyperscalers, compare with ERCOT and PJM which have more neocloud and independent developers. The average planned hyperscale campus exceeds 500 MW, nearly 5x larger than the average campus before the AI boom.