TeraWulf Clears Power Hurdle for Anthropic Data Center in Kentucky
The state's grid already had the interconnection built. That is the whole pitch.
Kentucky’s Public Service Commission approved a 482-megawatt electric service agreement for TeraWulf’s data center campus on the former Century Aluminum smelter site in Hawesville, clearing the last major regulatory hurdle for a project anchored by a 20-year lease with Anthropic, according to TeraWulf’s own announcement.
Why it matters
The smelter closed and left behind exactly what data center developers are fighting utilities and years-long interconnection queues to get: a grid connection already built for heavy industrial load. TeraWulf is developing the site, branded the Justified Data Campus, for an estimated $4.0 billion to $4.5 billion in site work and initial data halls, work that Fluor is now handling master planning and preconstruction on. Anthropic has leased approximately 401 megawatts of critical IT capacity there under a 20-year deal worth roughly $19 billion in contracted revenue over its initial term. CEO Paul Prager put the site-selection logic plainly: “Power is the gating factor for AI infrastructure, but how you bring that power to market matters.”
The numbers
The Kentucky PSC’s retail electric service agreement covers up to 482 megawatts in Hancock County, the transmission capacity that survived the smelter’s shutdown. TeraWulf estimates development costs of roughly $10 million to $12 million per megawatt across the site buildout. Anthropic’s initial capacity is expected in service in the second half of 2027, ramping to the full 401 megawatts by early 2028.
What’s next
TeraWulf and Fluor now move from preconstruction into full site work under the approved power agreement. The contrast with this month’s data center news elsewhere is stark. While Hancock County, Kentucky welcomed the load with a shuttered smelter’s grid already in place, Palm Beach County voted a year-long application freeze and Miami-Dade staff moved to write data centers out of a new industrial zoning category entirely. The sites winning approval fastest now share one trait: dead industrial land that already comes wired for the load nobody wants living next door.