Data center applications are piling up in Pacific Gas and Electric’s territory with some of the new load projected to come online in 2027.

PG&E now has applications for about 10 GW of new data center load, up from about 5.5 GW at the end of 2024 and 8.7 GW in May.

“Once people found out that PG&E was ready to serve, the applications came rolling in,” CEO Patricia Poppe said during the company’s July 31 earnings call.

Poppe called the volume of data center demand growth “Goldilocks growth: not so much to be a problem, and yet enough to be beneficial for all of our customers.”

Of the proposed 10 GW, about 8.4 GW are in the application and preliminary stage, 1.5 GW in final engineering and 0.5 GW under construction.

Data center load growth could allow PG&E to use more of its existing power infrastructure, which would spread the fixed costs of operating and maintaining the grid over more units of energy and allow the utility to increase its average grid utilization rate, PG&E said in a July 31 press release.

Ten gigawatts of data center load could lead to lowering customer electric bills by 10% or more and generate $1.25 billion to $1.75 billion in increased property tax revenue, the utility claimed in the release. That volume of load is enough energy to power about 7.5 million homes, PG&E said. There are currently about 14.8 million housing units in California, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

During the call, a participant asked Poppe to provide more information about proposed data center projects in San Jose. Poppe said PG&E has worked with city officials to accelerate permitting and construction.

“Construction and preparation will take most of 2026, then we see that pipeline both in San Jose and throughout the rest of the [PG&E] service area taking shape 2027, 2028 [and] 2029,” Poppe said. “We would see the rate benefits starting in probably 2027.”

PG&E’s new data center demand numbers are dramatically higher than what the California Energy Commission forecasted in its 2024 Integrated Energy Policy Report, which showed data center peak demand of about 2.8 GW in PG&E’s territory under the “high” case in 2040.

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission partially approved a new electric rule that will make it easier for data centers and other large customers to complete transmission connection projects in PG&E’s territory. The new rule, Electric Rule 30, will help address the increase in PG&E’s retail customer transmission interconnection demand. PG&E has received 40 transmission connection applications since 2023. (See CPUC OKs New PG&E Rule to Speed Tx Connections for AI Data Centers, Others.)

PG&E earned $521 million in the third quarter ($0.24/share), up $1 million from the same period a year earlier.