Michigan regulators approve a 20-year Google data-center power deal with DTE, with up to 1,600 megawatts of new renewables

Michigan regulators approved a new 20-year contract structure for a Google data center, with Google funding up to 1,600 MW of new power.

3 October 2026 · 5 min read · L1 Power and land · The Pulse, 1 October 2026

What happened

On October 1, 2026, the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a new kind of power contract between DTE Electric, the state's largest utility, and Google, for a data center Google is building in Van Buren Township, Wayne County. The deal runs for 20 years, four times longer than the 5-year contracts regulators normally require for this kind of customer. Under the agreement, Google will pay for DTE to build up to 1,600 megawatts of new solar and wind power plus 480 megawatts of battery storage, for a data center campus expected to begin drawing power in December 2027 and reach its full contracted load, close to 1 gigawatt, by December 2028. DTE says the arrangement will save its other customers about $1.7 billion over the life of the contract, though that figure comes from DTE's own filing to the commission, not an independent audit. The same day, the Wayne County Commission voted to override a veto by County Executive Warren Evans and preserve a tax exemption for the project worth more than $125 million to Google.

Why it matters

Data centers built to run AI models use enormous amounts of electricity, and utilities across the US have faced the same question DTE faced here: who pays to build the power plants a single company's data center needs. If a utility spreads that cost across all customers the normal way, households can end up covering the cost of one company's project. Michigan's commission tried to avoid that by requiring Google to cover the cost through a much longer, harder-to-escape contract than usual. Commissioner Katherine Peretick framed the case plainly: "How do we make sure that existing customers are protected?" A commitment to build 1,600 megawatts of renewable power is a large amount of new generation being built specifically because one customer asked for it, not because the grid needed it for everyone else.

What would change it

The arrangement depends on Google actually building and operating the data center as described; DTE's $1.7 billion savings estimate is a projection, not a measured result, and it will only be checked years from now once the contract has run its course. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel pushed for stricter terms in an August 3 brief to the commission, including a 90% minimum billing floor on the data center's contracted demand, meant to guard against the risk that Google could walk away and leave the power built on its account stranded. Whether the commission's final order adopted that 90% floor, and whether Google's build timeline slips past December 2027, are the things most likely to change this story's shape.

What we do not know

We have DTE's own filing and the commission's own order summary, which both describe the contract terms in general shape, but neither document we were able to read discloses the full, unredacted contract. We also do not have independent verification of the $1.7 billion savings figure beyond DTE's own estimate; no outside auditor's review of that number was published alongside the order. And we don't know whether the final order actually adopted AG Nessel's requested 90% minimum billing floor, since the order summary itself doesn't specify that detail.

What this changes for you

If you are a DTE customer in Michigan, the immediate effect is that this specific data center is not supposed to raise your electric bill; the whole design of the 20-year contract is to make Google, not other ratepayers, responsible for the cost of the power plants built for it. The broader pattern matters even if you don't live in Michigan: other states' utilities and regulators are watching this model as more data centers get proposed near their own grids, and whether structures like this actually hold up over 20 years will shape how the next round of AI data-center deals gets written.

Sources

Everything above is written from these. Each line says what that document proves.

1. michigan.gov: Confirms the commission's October 1 order approving the 20-year contract, the up-to-1,600 MW/480 MW figures, DTE's own $1.7 billion savings claim, and case number U-22058.
2. planetdetroit.org: Independently reports the Wayne County Commission's tax-exemption override vote and the $125m+ savings for Google, Commissioner Peretick's quote, DTE spokesperson Ryan Lowry's quote, and AG Nessel's and the Environmental Law and Policy Center's criticisms of the process, including Nessel's 90% minimum-billing request in her August 3 brief.
3. constructionreviewonline.com: Independently reports the data center's developer (Panattoni Development), ITC's transmission-build timeline, and the roughly 1 GW maximum contracted load figure.

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