An administrative law judge said she would recommend approval. Formal paperwork and a final Corporation Commission decision remain pending.
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma Corporation Commission administrative law judge said Wednesday she would recommend approval of an agreement governing how OG&E would provide electricity to three new Google data centers.
The hearing had been recessed for several hours while the parties completed a settlement agreement.
OG&E, Google, the attorney general’s office and the commission’s Public Utility Division signed the settlement.
Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers did not sign but said it would not oppose the settlement. The Oklahoma Sustainability Network did not participate in the hearing and had not stated whether it supported or opposed the agreement. No one presented testimony against it.
“There were a lot of conversations, a lot of give and take, a lot of robust discussions,” said David Scalf, a program manager with the Public Utility Division.
Scalf said the plan for measuring the data centers’ effect on other customers was a major point of disagreement and went through multiple revisions.
The ALJ’s statement was an oral recommendation, not a final written decision.
Protections for other customers
The settlement requires Google to pay the full cost of power lines and other equipment used specifically to connect its data centers to OG&E’s system.
OG&E regulatory affairs director Kimber Shoop said the company recognized that adding the data centers would produce a rapid increase in demand for electricity.
“We needed to make sure that we did it thoughtfully and with the right customer protections,” Shoop said.
OG&E would review the effect of the Google contracts during future rate cases. Those reviews are intended to determine whether serving the data centers raises or lowers costs for other customers.
The settlement does not promise customers a specific amount of savings. It establishes a process for measuring the effect after the data centers begin operating and more information becomes available.
OG&E said it has not identified any broader power-grid upgrades caused directly by the Google projects. If that changes, the company must notify the commission and the parties within 30 days. How those additional costs would be paid would be decided in a future commission case.
Google also would be required to make minimum payments even if the data centers use less electricity than expected.
Solar energy capacity included
The settlement also covers OG&E’s purchase of power capacity from two solar facilities.
The solar energy would be used by all customers and those costs would be collected through the fuel adjustment charge paid by all OG&E customers and reviewed annually by the commission.
Shoop said the solar capacity would serve the entire system, not just Google, and would cost less than capacity offered through OG&E’s recent bidding process.
The administrative law judge asked OG&E to lead preparation of a proposed order for her review. The parties will try to submit it by Sept. 16 and said it would be filed before Oct. 1.
The Corporation Commission must then make the final decision. The settlement will not take effect unless the commission approves it.
