Evergy executives revealed during the second quarter earnings call on Thursday that the company has signed power service agreements totaling 2.5 gigawatts with data centers under its large load tariff, along with an additional 500 megawatts of smaller large load agreements not covered by that tariff. This information comes from Evergy's release.Second quarter earnings call transcript。

Evergy Chairman and CEO David Campbell said during the call that the company plans to build more than 5 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2032, including 3.9 gigawatts of natural gas, nearly 800 megawatts of solar, and 450 megawatts of battery storage. Evergy's current installed generation capacity is approximately 15.8 gigawatts.

Evergy Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Bryan Buckler noted that recent power service agreements support the company's expectation of7% to 8% retail sales growth by 2030. To address the growth in large load business, Evergy raised this expectation from the previous 6% to 7%-8% in the first quarter of this year.

Buckler said: "The ramp-up of large load customers has begun and is expected to continue accumulating growth through 2030 and beyond. This reflects the impact of Digital Realty, which was the fifth power service agreement customer announced during our first quarter call."

Key data at a glance

  • 3 gigawatts: Total large load contracts signed by Evergy.
  • More than 5 gigawatts: Evergy's planned generation capacity, of which natural gas accounts for 3.9 gigawatts.
  • $21.6 billion: Evergy's capital expenditure plan for the next five years.
  • 1.8%: The company's weather-adjusted year-over-year electricity demand growth rate.

In addition to the signed 3 gigawatts of large load contracts, Campbell said Evergy is in "deep discussions" with customers representing "approximately 1 to 2 gigawatts" of large load. "These customers have secured land or land rights, signed letters of intent, and we are actively reviewing transmission and generation capacity solutions," he said. "The opportunities from these customers will primarily materialize after 2030."

Campbell also stated that the pipeline of incremental projects not yet in the active queue process totals "well over 10 gigawatts," and these projects are also expected to "primarily come online after 2030."

Campbell said Evergy continues "to make progress on expansion project agreements"; the company is "very confident in signing at least one more power service agreement in 2026" and expects to provide more details during the third quarter call in November. "The momentum in the customer pipeline and new project discussions is very strong, and we expect this momentum to continue into 2027," he said.

However, Campbell also noted that "additional load beyond the currently signed 3 gigawatts is expected to require additional generation resources and corresponding incremental capital expenditures." The generation construction plan proposed in the recent integrated resource plan was not included in Evergy's$21.6 billion capital expenditure plan for the next five yearsannounced in February.

"To serve incremental load, we expect additional resource needs, primarily in generation," Campbell said. "The cost trends we are seeing are consistent with those of other utilities. The associated capital investment is quite substantial. Therefore, we expect this to drive additional capital expenditures."

Evergy estimates that its pending resource plan will add approximately $1 billion in capital expenditures.

Buckler said Evergy's weather-adjusted electricity demand grew 1.8% year-over-year and 3.3% year-to-date, driven primarily by commercial and industrial demand. He also noted that commercial demand grew 4% year-to-date, "reflecting the initial ramp-up and higher electricity usage from data center projects."