Black Hills Corp. has signed definitive agreements, effective Sept. 30, 2026 and running through 2048, to serve a planned Google data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The utility will invest $1.8 billion between 2027 and 2029 in 564 MW of company-owned natural gas generation, supply up to 590 MW of grid-connected energy service, and manage roughly 2.1 GW of third-party Wyoming resources through a privately managed microgrid, according to the company's 8-K exhibit filed with the SEC.
Black Hills says the project will be served by a total resource mix of 2.7 GW including reserve margins, with energy service starting in late 2027 and ramping to peak load in 2030. The new 564 MW sits at the company's existing Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station and will be owned through a non-regulated affiliate, and the remaining 26 MW comes from market purchases and the company's industrial tariff.
Black Hills earns a return on the generation investment from the start of construction in 2027, and collects microgrid management fees from late 2027 on a contractually defined ramp. The company expects the project to contribute about $150 million of net income in 2030 and roughly $2.4 billion of unlevered free cash flow through 2048, net of the $1.8 billion of capital.
Google is paying before the plant exists. The release says Google has provided $399 million of refundable advances for long lead-time equipment under a generation reservation agreement, which Black Hills expects to reimburse by June 30, 2027. The balance of the $1.8 billion is to come from project cash flow, debt and other financing.
Linn Evans, president and CEO of Black Hills Corp., said: "Importantly, these agreements and supporting regulatory mechanisms are structured so that Google bears all costs associated with serving the planned data center throughout the life of the project."
Behind that sentence is a set of four protections the company lists: cost pass-through mechanisms, full recovery of the generation capital over the contract term to guard against stranded assets, early termination provisions, and collateral and financial assurance requirements backing the data center's commitments. None of the figures that would let a buyer test them, such as the microgrid management fee rate, the termination payment schedule or the price of energy under the contract, appear in the release.
On permitting, Black Hills reports a certificate for the Robinson substation approved in May 2026, an industrial siting permit for the Cheyenne Prairie expansion filed in July 2026 and an air quality permit for it approved in August 2026, plus transmission filings in June and September 2026 with a Wyoming transmission certificate due in the fourth quarter of 2026. The company calls the transmission work upside to its current capital plan, which means it is not inside the $1.8 billion.
Black Hills does not name the Google project. Google's only publicly outlined campus in the county is Project Tembo, a $17 billion site with four data center buildings that the company presented at an open house in September, as WyomingNews.com reported, with vertical construction in 2027 and full buildout in the first half of 2031. The release also does not say who owns the 2.1 GW of third-party resources the microgrid will dispatch, nor what kind of plant the 564 MW is, so turbine type and heat rate remain unknown.
For buyers negotiating large-load service, the structure is the news: a utility affiliate owns the generation, the customer advances equipment money, and every cost-recovery mechanism is written to leave existing ratepayers untouched. Whether that holds through 2048 depends on the fee rate and the termination terms, neither of which Black Hills has published.
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