Alliant Energy expects its pipeline to produce about one gigawatt of additional contracted large-load demand within six months, a target that could require billions of dollars in power-system investment as its Iowa and Wisconsin utilities prepare for rising use.
President and CEO Lisa Barton set the six-month goal during an Oct. 30 earnings call. She described it as an expected result of pipeline activity, making the additional gigawatt a target for future contracts. Alliant’s Oct. 29 earnings release said its Iowa and Wisconsin utility subsidiaries had 3.4 GW of data-center demand under contract.
The subsidiaries, Interstate Power and Light Company and Wisconsin Power and Light Company, serve customers in Iowa and Wisconsin. Alliant forecasts $15.9 billion in capital expenditures for 2027 through 2030, 19% above its previous four-year plan. The company said resources needed to serve expected demand contributed to the increase.
Chief Financial Officer Robert Durian said each additional gigawatt of load could require $2 billion to $3 billion in capital spending, primarily for capacity resources. Alliant previously outlined its capital spending estimate for each added gigawatt of load.
Alliant says large-load customers would cover the cost of serving their demand and an allocated share of required system investments. The company says existing customers should benefit from that growth. Its earnings release also projects peak demand across the system to rise about 60% by 2031.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that U.S. electricity consumption reached a record of about 4.20 trillion kilowatt-hours in 2025. In its October outlook, the agency projects commercial-sector electricity demand, which includes data centers, to grow 2.8% in 2027 from the previous year. EIA’s next Short-Term Energy Outlook is scheduled for Nov. 10.
