Pipelines, gas and utility pushback

A boom in data centers is helping revive gas pipelines and gas-fired power plans that utilities had said they would phase down. (williams.com) Williams said it will break ground on April 14 on its Northeast Supply Enhancement project, expanding its Transco gas network in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The company has also proposed its 950 million cubic feet a day Power Express expansion into Virginia, with service targeted for the third quarter of 2030. (aol.com) (datacenterdynamics.com) Williams says Transco spans 8,580 miles and carries about 20 percent of United States natural gas, putting it across the same Southeast corridor where utilities are adding power for server farms. Company executives have said data centers create both round-the-clock demand and peak demand that fit gas generation. (datacenterdynamics.com) (williams.com) The pressure starts with electricity use. The United States Department of Energy said in a December 2024 report that data center load has tripled over the past decade and could double or triple again by 2028. (energy.gov) The Energy Information Administration said electricity consumption grew 2 percent in 2024 and is forecast to grow another 2 percent in both 2025 and 2026, with data centers and new factories driving much of the increase. It also said Virginia added 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity demand from 2019 to 2023, the biggest increase among states. (eia.gov 1) (eia.gov 2) Utilities are now writing those higher forecasts into long-range plans. Duke Energy said in its October 1, 2025 Carolinas Resource Plan that energy needs over the next 15 years are expected to grow at eight times the pace of the prior 15 years and more than double the growth forecast in its 2023 plan. (news.duke-energy.com) Duke said the updated plan reflects “significant policy changes” and gives more room for existing coal plants and new gas generation while it adds nuclear, batteries and other resources. The company said average customer bill impacts under the plan would run 2.1 percent a year over the next decade. (news.duke-energy.com) Dominion Energy used different language, but the direction is similar. Its 2024 Virginia plan said nearly 80 percent of incremental generation over 15 years would be carbon-free, while about 20 percent would come from natural gas as backup for wind and solar; its 2025 update says demand in its territory is “rapidly increasing” and repeats its goal of “reliable, affordable and increasingly clean” power. (investors.dominionenergy.com) (dominionenergy.com) Critics say utilities are using uncertain data center forecasts to justify too much fossil infrastructure. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said utilities in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are planning more than 20,000 megawatts of new gas plants by 2040 and warned that customers could be left paying for overbuilt systems if demand falls short. (ieefa.org) The companies answer that the load is already arriving. Duke said in May 2024 that it signed agreements with Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nucor to explore tariffs and financing structures for new carbon-free generation, and later said companies had announced more than 25,000 jobs and $19 billion of projects in North Carolina in 2025. (news.duke-energy.com 1) (news.duke-energy.com 2) For pipeline operators, that mix of rising server demand, utility load forecasts and slower clean-power buildouts has turned old gas networks into growth assets again. For regulators and customers, the next fight is whether those bets produce reliable power at reasonable cost or lock in decades of new fossil spending. (williams.com) (ieefa.org)