The disclosure and our analysis
Evidence dates
Evidence: FirstEnergy Corp. Strategic and Financial Highlights presentation dated October 27, 2026, filed as Exhibit 99.2 to a Form 8-K. Read October 28, 2026. The presentation's demand figures are forecasts of cumulative data center demand for 2026, 2031 and 2036.
What FirstEnergy disclosed
1. **Contracted demand:** FirstEnergy says contracted data center demand nearly doubled, to about 8 GW. Its demand table gives contracted cumulative demand of 2,190 MW for 2026, 6,730 MW for 2031 and 7,880 MW for 2036. It defines contracted as a contract to construct facilities and/or an electric service agreement. [Source 1]
2. **Pipeline:** the company counts pipeline demand of 6,390 MW by 2031 and 19,070 MW by 2036, and says it is in active contract negotiations with about 4 GW. Contracted and pipeline demand together total 26,950 MW by 2036, which the presentation describes as about a 60% increase since year end 2025. [Source 1]
3. **Load studies:** separately, it lists 117 GW of potential additions not in its pipeline. These are trailing twelve month detailed and conceptual load studies larger than 500 MW that are not contracted or included in the pipeline. [Source 1]
4. **By state, 2036 forecast:** Ohio 2,570 MW contracted and 6,790 MW pipeline; Pennsylvania 2,010 MW contracted and 3,400 MW pipeline; Maryland 3,045 MW contracted and 1,585 MW pipeline; West Virginia 175 MW contracted and 5,870 MW pipeline; New Jersey 80 MW contracted and 1,425 MW pipeline. [Source 1]
5. **West Virginia:** FirstEnergy says contracted and pipeline demand in the state is up about six times to about 6 GW since the start of the year. It says it is advancing negotiations with a data center customer to serve as the long-term off-taker of the output of a planned combined cycle gas plant at Maidsville, expects approval of the plant's certificate in the fourth quarter of 2026, and has signed a turbine reservation agreement with a 2030 delivery date. It has also issued an initial request for proposals for an additional 3 GW of combined cycle plants. The customer is not named. [Source 1]
6. **Transmission:** the company gives a rule of thumb of about $250 million of transmission network upgrades for each 1 GW, says upgrades tied to contracted demand signed since February 2026 are not in its 2026 to 2030 investment plan, and expects to raise transmission investment by at least 25% from its current $19 billion plan. [Source 1]
How to read the megawatts
These are utility forecasts of cumulative data center demand on FirstEnergy's system, not critical IT load, facility capacity or available space. Contracted demand reflects construction contracts and/or electric service agreements; the presentation does not say how much is covered by signed service agreements, and does not count agreements. Pipeline demand is not contracted, and the 117 GW of load studies sits outside both. The presentation does not name customers, projects or counties.
Status
On our status vocabulary, these figures describe utility demand forecasts as of October 27, 2026. They establish no project level approval, construction, energization or availability. The West Virginia off-take agreement is under negotiation, not signed, according to the presentation.
Buyer analysis
This is our analysis, not FirstEnergy's. The split between contracted and pipeline demand is the useful signal. Maryland and Ohio carry the most contracted load, which points to where utility capacity is already spoken for. West Virginia is the opposite: little contracted today but a large pipeline, a gas plant being negotiated around a single data center customer, and a further 3 GW generation request, which makes it the state to watch for new large campus power in the FirstEnergy footprint.
The 117 GW of load studies, set against 27 GW of contracted plus pipeline demand, shows how much requested load is still speculative. Buyers evaluating sites served by FirstEnergy utilities should ask whether a provider's power is in the contracted column, and on what schedule, rather than relying on a load study or pipeline position.
We have not assigned this story to a tracked market. FirstEnergy serves parts of five states, and the presentation does not break demand down below the state level.
