Avangrid Grows Generation Capacity in US to 10.5 GW

Spanish power and gas utility Iberdrola SA, through its subsidiary Avangrid Inc., has launched commercial operation at the 202 MWdc-150 MWac Powell Creek Solar project in Putnam County, Ohio.

The facility raises Iberdrola’s installed capacity in the United States to 10.5 gigawatts (GW), with nearly 600 megawatts added in the last six months, according to an online statement by Avangrid.

Powell Creek, near Miller City, is now generating enough electricity for the annual consumption of 30,000 homes according to Avangrid. The farm has over 300,000 panels.

“Powell Creek is a timely addition to the regional electric grid ahead of peak summer demand and represents new American energy capacity that will help to meet the growing power needs from data centers, domestic manufacturing, and electrification”, Avangrid said.

Avangrid expects the project to make about $31 million in local taxes and around $1.1 million in annual lease payments.

“In a unique relationship, Miller City is capturing significant revenue from the project which it will use to construct a new sewer line to encourage new home and business development. Growth was historically limited there because the village’s homes, businesses, and school run on individual septic systems”, it added.

Powell Creek is Avangrid’s second energy project in Ohio, after the 304 MW Blue Creek built 2012. Avangrid now has over 500 MW of installed capacity in the state, enough to power 100,000 homes annually according to the company.

Elsewhere Avangrid earlier in May announced five projects with a total investment of $41 million to install additional capacity and improve the reliability of the power grid in Ithaca, New York.

Avangrid expects the Ithaca projects to benefit over 42,000 customers of New York State Electric & Gas, an Avangrid unit that operates about 35,000 miles of electric distribution lines and 4,500 miles of electric transmission lines across over 40 percent of upstate New York.

In March Avangrid announced the start of commercial operation of the True North Solar project, its biggest solar project with a capacity of 238 MWac-321 MWdc. True North supplies the Taxes grid, as well as Meta’s operations. It will power an upcoming Meta data center in neighboring Temple.

Earlier that month Avangrid announced plans to invest $20 billion in the U.S.’ power grid infrastructure until the end of the decade.

That would be spent on grid modernization and expansion. “The investment plan could also include opportunities for new generation”, Avangrid said.

The investment “comes at a time when U.S. energy demand is surging due to manufacturing and data center growth”, it said.

Data center load growth in the U.S. tripled over the past decade and could double or triple by 2028, when data centers would account for about 6.7-12 percent of national power consumption, according to a report by the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory December 20, 2024.

Data center power usage grew from 58 terawatt hours (tWh) in 2014 to 176 tWh in 2023. The sector’s power consumption is projected to surge to between 325 and 580 tWh by 2028, according to the report.

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