Large electrical load projects

We've served large energy users in the region for many years. Our established processes help evaluate projects, plan service and protect existing customers from costs tied to infrastructure needed to support new growth. Along the way, we continue to support business investment and regional economic development while helping ensure the cost of serving a new large electrical load customer is not shifted onto existing customers.

A large electrical load customer is simply a very big electricity user. We generally consider this to be 50 megawatts or more, because a customer that size is served by our high-voltage transmission system. Most of our largest customers to date have topped out around 20 megawatts, so newer data-center inquiries at 50 megawatts represent a bigger scale than we have historically served.

Large electrical load projects require more planning, engineering and infrastructure than typical commercial development.

No. Data centers have operated in our region since around 2000, and more than a dozen are here today. They support everyday services that our region relies on - banking, hospitals, telecommunications and technology.

What’s new is the larger, AI-driven type that provides computing power.

It’s unlikely. The “hyperscale” AI data center campuses drawing attention are typically 200–300 MW or larger. Unlike some Bay Area communities where data centers make up a huge share of electricity demand, Sacramento is seeing steadier, broader growth across many industries.

We do not make land-use decisions. They’re made by local city and county governments through their own public environmental approval processes. Community questions about things like land, water and neighborhood impacts are decided there. Our role is restricted to providing electricity for approved projects.

Once a local jurisdiction approves a project, we have an obligation to serve it with electricity – the same obligation we have to any approved customer in our service area.

We engage early. Because available capacity is not the same across our service area, some locations are better suited than others for large electrical load customers. Our dedicated commercial development team walks large projects through the process, and every large customer project starts with a transmission study to understand costs and impact on the grid before anything moves forward. These projects take time and careful planning – they don’t happen overnight.

We have a process for extending service and assigning related costs to current large customers to help protect existing customers.

To ensure new large electrical load customers are handled consistently, we are working on a new policy for customers 50 MW and above with the goal of protecting existing customers from cost shifts from these new larger customers.

Yes. Some large electrical load customers can reduce or shift their energy use during peak-demand hours. That flexibility lowers the amount of power we have to buy at the most expensive peak times while generating new revenue, which helps keep rates low for everyone. Large businesses also create jobs and boost local economic development.

We’re planning ahead. We're developing a large-load policy – expected to go to our Board of Directors later this year. It will detail how we’re protecting affordability and reliability for all customers. As part of our broader planning for regional growth, we're also investing roughly $600 million in substation upgrades to maintain reliable service while keeping rates among the lowest in California.

As a community owned, not-for-profit electric service, we answer to the people we serve. We’ll keep putting customers first – growing responsibly while protecting the affordable, reliable, world-class service our community deserves.