Power interconnection for Opportunity Zone data centers

Because it usually takes longer than anything else and the OZ rules penalize idle capital. Cushman & Wakefield's H1 2026 Americas update says power availability now decides where data center growth can happen, with a record 37.7 GW under construction.¹⁴ A site with land, fiber and zoning but no firm power date is not yet a project.

Dominion Energy said in 2024 that connecting data centers above 100 MW could take one to three years longer than before, for total waits of up to seven years in Northern Virginia.² For an Opportunity Zone (OZ) project, the Qualified Opportunity Zone Business (QOZB), the operating company that owns the project, can hold cash for only 31 months under a single written working capital plan, or 62 months with overlapping plans.¹² See data center power timelines and the Opportunity Zone clock.

Load interconnection connects the data center to the grid as a customer; generator interconnection connects a power plant to the grid as a supplier. They run through different processes and timelines.

• Load service. The data center applies to its local utility for service. The utility studies the load, may need new transmission or substations, and signs an electric service agreement. Timelines depend on the utility and the local grid.
• Generator interconnection. A power plant, including on-site or co-located generation that will export or synchronize with the grid, joins the regional transmission organization's queue. LBNL's Queued Up report tracks these.¹

Queues are also unreliable. LBNL found that only 13% of capacity that requested interconnection from 2000 to 2019 had reached commercial operation by the end of 2024, 77% had withdrawn and 10% was still active.¹

Long minimum payments and collateral. Utilities and regulators have adopted tariffs that make large new loads pay for capacity they reserve, so other customers do not carry stranded costs.

These terms affect the capital stack. Collateral, deposits and minimum bills are real costs before the first tenant pays rent. For OZ purposes, cash posted as collateral is not tangible property, so a QOZB should plan whether collateral is posted as cash, a letter of credit or parent-company credit support (analysis; confirm with counsel). See the capital stack for an Opportunity Zone data center.

They are writing new rules for large loads and co-location, and the results are still arriving. On December 18, 2025, FERC found PJM's tariff unjust and unreasonable for lacking clear rules for co-located load and directed new transmission services for co-located load, with compliance filings due February 16, 2026.⁶

On October 23, 2025, the Secretary of Energy used section 403 of the DOE Organization Act to send FERC a proposed rulemaking on interconnecting loads above 20 MW, including hybrid load-plus-generation facilities, opened as Docket RM26-4-000.^7,8 FERC said in April 2026 that it would act by the end of June 2026.⁹ Secondary sources report FERC then issued show-cause orders to the regional grid operators rather than a single final rule; confirm current status on FERC's docket page before relying on any outcome.

Sometimes, but it brings its own permits, fuel supply and interconnection questions. Recent large campuses show the range:

• Homer City, Pennsylvania: a former coal plant site being converted to a 4.5 GW gas-fired campus on more than 3,200 acres, with first turbine deliveries expected in 2026.¹¹
• Talen and Amazon (Susquehanna nuclear): after FERC rejected an amended agreement to expand co-located load from 300 MW to 480 MW, the parties moved to a front-of-meter power purchase agreement ramping to 1,920 MW by 2032.¹⁰
• Meta Hyperion, Louisiana: the state commission approved three Entergy gas plants of about 2.26 GW, plus a roughly $1.2 billion transmission line, to serve the campus.¹⁶

Credits matter for renewable supply. Public Law 119-21 ends the §45Y and §48E credits for wind and solar facilities placed in service after 2027 unless construction began by July 4, 2026, and Notice 2025-42 tightened the beginning-of-construction rules.¹³ Projects counting on new contracted solar or wind should confirm the supplier's credit position.

By ownership and location. A QOZB must have at least 70% of the tangible property it owns or leases be qualified zone business property, which must be acquired by purchase from an unrelated party, meet original use or substantial improvement, and be used in a zone during substantially all of the holding period.¹⁵

• QOZB-owned substation, switchgear, generators and UPS inside the tract: qualifying tangible property if bought new.
• Utility-owned substation or transmission line: the utility's property, outside the QOZB's tests.
• Generation outside the tract: owned property that is not used in the zone, which counts against the 70% test.
• Payments to a utility for upgrades the utility will own: analysis only; these may not be tangible property of the QOZB at all. Confirm treatment with tax counsel.

Does a utility delay extend the working capital safe harbor?

Not clearly. The regulations toll the safe harbor for delay caused by waiting for government action on a completed application, where no other action can be taken to advance the project, and add up to 24 months in a federally declared disaster area.¹² Many utilities are investor-owned companies, and no guidance treats their study or construction queues as governmental permitting. See the working capital safe harbor.

Ask for documents, not maps. A transmission line near the site says little about available capacity.

For how power drives site choice, see data center site selection inside Opportunity Zones and rural data centers and Opportunity Zones. For the full schedule, see the Opportunity Zone data center development timeline.