'How do you know what's real?': US utilities are making AI data centers prove they exist before handing over power connections — as 50% of planned buildouts are currently being delayed, stalled, or canceled

US data center developers have requested 1,066GW of grid connections, but Wood Mackenzie expects utilities to commit to only about 28% Utilities are demanding collateral, longer contracts, and study fees; Exelon's high-probability load fell from a whopping 18GW to 11GW once it insisted on the former Because grid costs are shared, phantom demand risks landing on household bills, and nobody knows how much of it is real yet US utilities and grid operators are now demanding higher rates, longer contracts, collateral, and steep engineering study fees from data center developers, in an attempt to weed out what the industry calls "phantom" data centers.

Reporting from The Wall Street Journal claims the reasoning is straightforward: Grid costs are shared, so if a utility builds substations and transmission lines for a project that never shows up, everyone else on the network ends up helping to pay for them.

The numbers back up the nerves in play: developers have requested 1,066GW of grid connections for US data centers, according to a Wood Mackenzie analysis first reported by Bloomberg in August 2026, a figure equal to roughly 83% of the country's entire utility-scale generating capacity at the end of 2025.

A queue full of ghosts as collateral becomes the norm? Wood Mackenzie expects utilities to commit to serving only about 28% of it: roughly 12% that already has firm service commitments, plus a further 17% that looks likely.

The WSJ also cites a separate Wood Mackenzie measure that puts just 23% of disclosed requests in its high-confidence category.

Much of the gap is due to duplication; developers who don't yet know which utility can deliver power fastest file the same project with several of them and keep every option open until one pans out.

Others are simply speculators: commentary in POWER Magazine argued that private equity funds, land brokers and shell companies are claiming queue positions without site control or a signed customer, betting that land with a grid connection attached will find a buyer.

The phenomenon isn't new.

Utility Dive was writing about phantom data centers in 2025, and TR reported in July that 67% of electricity executives surveyed by Capgemini were seeing speculative applications for capacity.

The change is that utilities are now pricing the problem, and it is causing many adverse effects.

Exelon's attempts to lock down potential consumers Exelon, which runs utilities across the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, offers the clearest look at what happens when developers are asked to put money down.