Black Hills plans $1.8 billion investment to power Google's data center

NorthWestern Energy

06/10/2026 22:02

Oct 6 (Reuters) - Black Hills Corp BKH.N said on Tuesday it signed agreements to power a proposed Google data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and plans to spend $1.8 billion from 2027 to 2029 on new generation capacity, as tech firms race to secure electricity for power-hungry AI data centers.
Black Hills said it will build 564 megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity for the Cheyenne project
The project is expected to draw on a 2.7-gigawatt (GW) resource mix, including reserve margins, with power deliveries set to begin in late 2027 and peak load expected in 2030
Black Hills will supply up to 590 MW from the grid, mostly from a new gas plant at its Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station and manage about 2.1 GW of third-party resources in Wyoming through a privately managed microgrid
The South Dakota-based utility expects the project to add about $150 million to its net income by 2030
The agreement requires Google to cover the full cost of supplying electricity to the data center, preventing those expenses from being passed on to other utility customers
Separately, Google GOOGL.O also signed a 3.59-GW power contract with Constellation Energy CEG.O, which will invest more than $4.3 billion in its fleet
In August last year, Black Hills agreed to merge with NorthWestern Energy NWE.O in an all-stock deal to create a $15.4 billion regulated electric and natural gas utility

 (Reporting by Dharna Bafna in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)
 ((Dharna.Bafna@thomsonreuters.com))