TVA and Tennessee data-center power demand

Our analysis: Tennessee electricity is generated and transmitted largely by the Tennessee Valley Authority and distributed by local power companies such as MLGW in Memphis. A campus’s actual service depends on the specific distributor, contract and grid work, so a regional announcement does not establish delivered service for a particular site.

The desk ties each power claim to the record that makes it. Where a record is silent, the field stays undisclosed.

On August 18, 2025 Google, Kairos Power and TVA announced that Hermes 2 in Oak Ridge would deliver up to 50 MW to TVA’s grid, with operations scheduled for 2030. Kairos says TVA is the first U.S. utility to sign a PPA for electricity from a Gen IV reactor. [Kairos Power]

Google says it will procure the plant’s clean-energy attributes through TVA to help power its data centers in Montgomery County, Tennessee and Jackson County, Alabama. [Google] A signed PPA is not operating generation.

MLGW’s July 22, 2025 statement says it has a general services agreement supplying around 0.5 MW at 5420 Tulane Road and is not supplying power to Colossus 2. [Memphis Light, Gas and Water] The Commercial Appeal reported that the Shelby County Health Department granted an air permit for 15 natural-gas turbines at the Paul R. Lowry Road site. [The Commercial Appeal]

Meta says eight Meta-supported projects with TVA add 530 MW of new renewable energy in Tennessee. [Meta]

Our analysis: renewable procurement describes contracted supply, not how much electricity a single campus draws. Do not substitute one figure for the other.

Our analysis: keep four dates apart for every record: the date a source was published, the date the desk reviewed it, the date a decision or approval took effect, and the date anything actually started operating. A review date on this site never turns an older announcement into new news, and a planned figure is never presented as a delivered one.

Our analysis: when a field such as investment, power or employment is not disclosed in a cited record, the desk leaves it blank rather than estimating it. A blank is unknown, not zero, and readers should ask the controlling party for the actual document before relying on any number. County boundaries come from the Census Gazetteer so that every record can be tied to one of Tennessee’s 95 counties. [U.S. Census Bureau]

Our analysis: corrections are welcome. If a cited page changes, moves or is superseded by a newer agency decision, the desk updates the record with the new source and its own date rather than silently rewriting the old claim. Readers making a consequential decision should consult the controlling agency record and qualified professionals.