Serving large data centers, protecting existing customers

There have been national headlines about data centers impacting electric bills - we saw them too. That’s why, in 2025, we proactively took steps to create a clear process and pathway for large-load customers with demands of 10 megawatts (MW) or more to follow, without shifting costs to the rest of the community. 

Our role in growth

As your community‑owned utility, we do not determine growth; we have a duty to serve all customers in our service territory.

All prospective large load customers go through an application process that allows us to evaluate system impacts and resource needs.

Electric requirements

In addition to paying for the use of any existing infrastructure, large load customers:

• Sign a minimum 10-year agreement.
• Are billed based on contracted load for their demand costs. For instance, if a customer requests 20MW of capacity, but only uses 15MW, they are charged for 20MW.
• Are billed based on contracted consumption for their usage costs. For instance, if a customer requests 15,000 MWh, but only uses 10,000 MWh, they are charged for 15,000 MWh.
• Provide 36 months of collateral.
• Pay the full cost of any infrastructure upgrades needed to serve them.
• Pay a Resource Adequacy and System Support charge for the first ten years of the contract to ensure that needed long term assets are funded by the customer.

Water requirements

Any request at or above 250,000 gallons per day triggers a large‑load water study. This study, along with other steps in the process, evaluates available supply, system capacity, delivery facilities, and any needed agreements before serving the customer.

The study may require a closed‑loop system to ensure efficient water use, balanced with water resource recovery needs.

We work directly with individual customers to ensure that water loss through processes like evaporative cooling are minimized and we optimize the water use and reuse of our valuable water resources.

Questions & answers

How many data centers are in Colorado Springs and how much electricity and water do they use?

An average data center uses 24,000 gallons of water per day. Our average daily system-wide use is 60 million gallons of water per day. Data centers currently account for less than 0.05% of our overall system use.

If a prospective data center wants to move forward after their study, what steps do they follow?

When a project does move forward to our large load study process, the next steps are the same:

1. Intake.
2. Study and placement in the queue.
3. Customer-funded infrastructure where required.
4. Service under the Large-Load rate (if applicable).
5. Market purchases assigned only to that customer (if applicable).

How does Springs Utilities' membership in the Southwest Power Pool affect how you serve large customers?

By joining the Southwest Power Pool, we have access to power generation and transmission that we did not have before. By leveraging our membership, we can better serve any large-load customers that move to Colorado Springs.

The Southwest Power Pool may have additional requirements for new or incremental large loads.