Xcel Energy has 6.2 gigawatts of generating capacity in Colorado, but the company already has pending applications from data centers seeking 5.8 GW of electricity — enough to power more than 3 million homes.
In the face of this booming demand — particularly in an area of Denver and Aurora being called Data Center Row — Xcel Energy is seeking to add 12 to 14 GW of new generation and transmission. The price tag is $22 billion.
The question, however, is how much of that is real, for the risk is that Xcel Energy will build it and nobody — or at least not so many — will come…