DTE lifts five-year spending plan to $44 billion on data center demand

DTE Energy raised its five-year utility investment plan by nearly $10 billion to about $44 billion, citing data center demand, Data Center Dynamics reported from the utility's third-quarter earnings call.

DTE Electric accounts for $39 billion of the total, including about $23 billion for generation and $12 billion for distribution. The generation figure includes 7.6GW of new solar and wind, 2.1GW of new combined-cycle gas and 2.7GW of storage. The gas plants would replace the retiring Monroe coal plant, chief executive Joi Harris said.

For allocators, the plan's contracted slice is 2.4GW of data center load that DTE says is fully secured. The agreements include minimum monthly charges, termination fees, and credit and collateral requirements designed to shield existing customers from risk.

Of the secured load, 1.4GW is tied to an Oracle project in Saline Township, developed with Related Digital and OpenAI. Harris said construction is “advancing as scheduled” and that demand will ramp up in 2027 and 2028.

The other 1GW is tied to a Google campus in Buren Township, near Detroit. Google signed a 20-year contract with DTE, approved last month, to bring 2.7GW of new clean resources to the grid and committed to pay for 480MW of energy storage. Google says it will cover the electricity and infrastructure costs, and the campus is expected to be fully energized in late 2028.

The pipeline behind the signed deals runs 5GW to 6GW of potential data center load, about 2GW of it in advanced discussions, similar to the level DTE reported at the second quarter. “We are encouraged by the continued level of customer interest and remain focused on securing an additional agreement by year-end,” Harris said.

A large-load tariff DTE filed earlier this year is structured so data centers cover their own costs. Harris said the added load will spread fixed system costs across more electric sales and help keep bills affordable for existing customers. DTE serves about 2.3 million residential and business customers in Michigan.