The Wall Street Journal · Oct 13, 2026
The WSJ reports that AI’s electricity demand has buried utilities in grid connection requests, many for data centers that may never be built. Utilities such as Exelon are now requiring collateral and binding commitments to separate real growth from speculative growth. Drawing on analysis from Halcyon’s Large Load Tariff Tracker, WSJ notes that average minimum contract lengths for large customers have more than doubled since 2024, from roughly 4.6 years to 10.8 years.