Data centers and new power in Shelby County, TN
1.8 GW of new power is waiting to connect to the grid in Shelby County, TN — 7 active requests. Typical wait: 9.0 years. 2 projects are built, 26 withdrawn. Data as of 14 October 2026.
How far is it from your house?
Colossus 2, run by SpaceXAI, is in Shelby County and uses about as much electricity as 757,000 homes.
99 public schools are within 5 miles of it, 6 within one mile. Counted from the facility, not from any home. School list: US Department of Education.
Plus 1 more mapped in this county.
What is happening with electricity in Shelby County
Every new power plant, battery or big customer has to join a waiting list before it can plug into the grid. This is what that list looks like in Shelby County right now.
Where every request ever filed here ended up
Most requests in the US are withdrawn — a developer tests a site and moves on. That is normal, not a warning sign for Shelby County.
What kind of power is asking to connect
By capacity requested. Data as of 14 October 2026.
All the numbers
35 requests ever filed
Source: interconnection queues published by TVA. Parsed and normalised by Watt Street. Data as of 14 October 2026. A queued project is a request, not a commitment.
Outcome of every request filed here
| Outcome | Projects | Capacity | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built | 2 | 760 MW | 5.7% |
| Still waiting | 7 | 1.8 GW | 20.0% |
| Withdrawn | 26 | 23.0 GW | 74.3% |
| Paused | 0 | — | 0.0% |
Waiting to connect, by type of power
| Type | Projects | Capacity requested |
|---|---|---|
| Natural gas | 4 | 1.4 GW |
| Batteries | 2 | 300 MW |
| Solar | 1 | 74 MW |
Key dates for projects here
no dated windows published
| Queue | What closes | Closes | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| FERC | FERC large-load show cause — stakeholder comments on RTO responses Comments on the six RTO/ISO responses to the FPA section 206 show-cause orders of 18 June 2026 (PJM EL26-67, SPP EL26-68, NYISO EL26-69, MISO EL26-70… | No date published yet | unconfirmed source |
| FERC | FERC RM26-4 — generic large-load rulemaking Still at ANOPR stage. | No date published yet | confirmed source |
| FERC | Georgia PSC - Georgia Power must file large-load contracts 30 days before execution A standing obligation rather than a dated one: large-load contracts must be filed with the commission at least 30 days before they are executed. | No date published yet | confirmed source |
A date marked confirmed was checked by a person against the authority's own tariff, order or form page. Anything else is listed so you know it exists, with a link so you can check it yourself. Full calendar.
The biggest projects on file
top 15 by size
| Project | Type | Capacity | Status | Filed | Queue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 219 | Wind | 3.5 GW | withdrawn | 2009-05 | TVA |
| 220 | Coal | 3.5 GW | withdrawn | 2009-05 | TVA |
| 31 | Other | 1.2 GW | withdrawn | 1999-02 | TVA |
| 33 | Other | 1.2 GW | withdrawn | 1999-02 | TVA |
| 35 | Other | 1.2 GW | withdrawn | 1999-02 | TVA |
| 37 | Other | 1.2 GW | withdrawn | 1999-02 | TVA |
| 6 | Other | 1.2 GW | withdrawn | 1998-05 | TVA |
| 257 | Natural gas | 1.1 GW | active | 2014-08 | TVA |
| 98 | Other | 931 MW | withdrawn | 2000-03 | TVA |
| 103 | Other | 900 MW | withdrawn | 2000-04 | TVA |
| 225 | Natural gas | 751 MW | withdrawn | 2010-10 | TVA |
| 110 | Other | 750 MW | withdrawn | 2000-07 | TVA |
| 30 | Other | 700 MW | withdrawn | 1999-02 | TVA |
| 32 | Other | 700 MW | withdrawn | 1999-02 | TVA |
| 34 | Other | 700 MW | withdrawn | 1999-02 | TVA |
How Shelby County compares
#219 in the US · #2 in TN
Shelby County ranks #219 of 1,607 US counties by power waiting to connect, and #2 of 24 in Tennessee.
| County | Waiting | Capacity queued |
|---|---|---|
| Trousdale County | 2 | 2.4 GW |
| Haywood County | 3 | 1.2 GW |
| Humphreys County | 3 | 950 MW |
| Fayette County | 2 | 839 MW |
| Hawkins County | 2 | 325 MW |
| Hardeman County | 1 | 250 MW |
| Lawrence County | 1 | 195 MW |
| Lake County | 3 | 177 MW |
Common questions about power in Shelby County
How long does it take to get power for a data center in Shelby County, TN?
The median wait for a project still in the interconnection queue in Shelby County is 9.0 years. Across the US, most large loads are quoted three to seven years depending on the market and whether network upgrades are needed. 2 projects in Shelby County have reached energization and 26 were withdrawn, so the withdrawal rate here is a better guide to risk than any single quoted timeline.
How much capacity is available in Shelby County, TN?
1.8 GW is currently requested across 7 active interconnection requests, and 760 MW has actually been built. A queued megawatt is a request, not deliverable capacity — most queued projects are never built. For deliverable offtake capacity at a specific substation you need a utility study, not a queue.
Is Shelby County, TN a good site for a data center?
This page gives you the power half of that answer: what is queued, what has been energized, how long the wait runs, and which large load interconnection requests are already recorded nearby. The other half — the state policy position, moratoriums and large load tariffs — is on our Tennessee policy page.
Where does the data on this page come from?
The interconnection queue published by the transmission providers serving Shelby County — TVA — parsed and normalised by Watt Street. Every figure carries the date it was true. Data as of 14 October 2026.
Go deeper on Shelby County
The interactive map plots every one of these applications, and a generated county report puts them in a sourced PDF with the date each figure was true on every page.
Open Shelby County on the map County reports All of Tennessee