PPL Subsidiary Gets First `Hyperscale Data Center’ Customer in Kentucky

— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs

PPL Corp.’s Louisville Gas and Electric subsidiary has picked up its first “hyperscale data center” customer.

The Kentucky operation will provide electricity to a 400-megawatt data-center in Louisville, with 130 megawatts available in October 2026. The center is a joint venture involving American Real Estate Partners and Poe Companies, a Louisville-based real estate developer.

Data centers are used by big technology companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, to store and process information. The centers consume immense amounts of electricity, leading to questions about how all the electricity the U.S. needs will be supplied, and whether clean energy can accommodate the expected increase in demand.

The Louisville operation will be Kentucky’s first `hyperscale’ (very big) data center campus, according to John Crockett, chief business development officer for PPL. The company put out a press release about the data center on Jan. 16.

The Kentucky state legislature approved in 2024 a 50-year tax exemption for data centers in Louisville and Jefferson County (home of Louisville).

In Kentucky, PPL owns Louisville Gas and Electric, and Kentucky Utilities Co. Allentown-based PPL also operates in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Chief Executive Vincent Sorgi said earlier that the company was in talks with data-center developers.

Shares of the company (NYSE:PPL) traded at $33.19 at 11:09 a.m. Wednesday.

— Disclosure: I own shares of PPL.