The disclosure and our analysis
Evidence dates
Evidence: Black Hills Corp. Form 8-K filed October 6, 2026, and its press release furnished as Exhibit 99.1, dated October 6, 2026. The agreements are effective September 30, 2026.
What Black Hills disclosed
Black Hills Corp. (NYSE: BKH) signed two agreements to serve a planned Google data center to be constructed in Cheyenne, Wyoming: a Large Power Contract Services Agreement and a Generation Facilities Agreement. Both run through 2048. [Source 1] [Source 2]
**Power supply structure:** Black Hills will provide up to 590 MW of grid-connected energy service. Of that, 564 MW (nameplate) comes from new natural gas generation that a non-regulated Black Hills affiliate will build and own at its existing Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station. The remaining 26 MW comes from market energy purchases and retail service under the company's industrial tariff. [Source 1]
**Microgrid:** Black Hills will also manage the output of about 2.1 GW of Wyoming-based, third-party contracted resources through a privately managed microgrid under its Large Power Contract Service tariff. The release does not name those resources or their owners. [Source 1]
**Total resource mix:** Black Hills says the project, excluding additional transmission expansion, is anticipated to be served by a total resource mix of 2.7 GW, including reserve margins. That is a supply figure with reserves built in. It is not the data center's load, and the release does not state the facility's peak load or critical IT load. [Source 1]
**Timing:** The data center is planned to begin taking energy service in late 2027 and ramp to the project's peak load in 2030. [Source 1]
**Capital and advances:** Black Hills plans to invest $1.8 billion between 2027 and 2029 in the new generation. Google has provided $399 million of refundable advances for long lead equipment under a generation reservation agreement, which Black Hills expects to reimburse by June 30, 2027. [Source 1]
**Cost protections:** Black Hills says the agreements are structured so Google bears all costs of serving the planned data center for the life of the project. The listed protections include cost pass-through mechanisms, full recovery of generation capital over the contract term, early termination provisions, and collateral and financial assurance requirements. These are the company's descriptions; the agreements themselves are not filed. [Source 1]
**Black Hills economics:** The company expects the project to provide about $150 million of net income in 2030 and about $2.4 billion of unlevered free cash flow through 2048, net of the $1.8 billion capital investment. Revenue includes a return on the generation investment and microgrid management fees based on a contracted minimum peak load that rises through the ramp period. [Source 1]
Approvals and filings
Black Hills lists these regulatory steps: the Robinson substation certificate of public convenience and necessity, approved May 2026; an industrial siting permit for the Cheyenne Prairie expansion, filed July 2026; an air quality permit for that expansion, approved August 2026; a Large Customer Transmission Cost Adjustment Mechanism, filed June 2026; a South Cheyenne Transmission Expansion certificate, filed September 2026; and a Wyoming transmission expansion certificate to be filed in the fourth quarter of 2026. The industrial siting permit and the transmission filings are not described as approved. [Source 1]
Buyer analysis
This is our analysis.
**This is a single-tenant power deal, not colocation supply.** Everything here is dedicated to one planned Google facility. None of the 590 MW, 2.1 GW or 2.7 GW is capacity that colocation buyers in Cheyenne can lease.
**The structure is the news.** A utility building and owning dedicated gas generation, while also running a private microgrid that pools third-party supply for a single customer, is a template other utilities in power-constrained markets may copy. The customer funds equipment up front and carries the cost risk for two decades.
**Watch Cheyenne's grid for everyone else.** Black Hills says existing customers are protected from cost shifting. Still, new transmission filings are pending, and the company says it sees other regional large load opportunities. Buyers evaluating Cheyenne should ask providers how their own utility service is secured, whether any new large load tariff or transmission charge applies to them, and what delivery dates their utility has confirmed in writing.
**Timelines are plans.** Service in late 2027 and peak load in 2030 depend on equipment delivery, construction and pending regulatory approvals that Black Hills names as risks.
