OG&E and Google strike deal to power three Oklahoma data centers

OG&E on Thursday announced it will power three new Google data centers in Oklahoma, with the tech giant committing to pay 100% of the grid connection costs and guaranteed contracted payments regardless of their actual energy consumption.

The utility describes the agreement, which offers transparency into how data center projects are financed in the U.S. power grid as a “landmark contract.”

But concerns remain about the centers having large appetites for water to cool servers and whether or not the economic benefits justify environmental costs. The contract addresses infrastructure payments, but easily accessible information outside of that doesn’t clearly answer all the questions that communities in Oklahoma and across the country are increasingly asking about what they’re really getting in return. 

Christi Woodworth, vice president of communications for OG&E, underscored that their customers will not bear the cost of serving Google’s data centers. 

“If Google doesn’t meet their expected load ramp in time, they’re going to pay those costs regardless,” Woodworth said. 

More: Oklahoma City passes moratorium to block new data centers through 2026

Would deal affect electric rates for other OG&E customers?

Google’s energy needs will ramp up to about one gigawatt by 2031, according to OG&E’s Integrated Resource Plan. 

When asked about how the deal could affect electric rates for OG&E’s other customers, Woodworth said the scenario where it would impact residential payers is, as OG&E “brings on a large load customer like this, it will spread fixed costs across a wider base, so over time, there could be some downward pressure on rates.“There’s not a scenario where their rates would go up because of Google. But as you look at shared system costs, bringing on a customer like this changes the cost allocation and cost implication for other classes downward,” Woodworth said, adding that they’re filing a large load tariff by July 1, and at that time, they will likely have more information on that.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission will review the agreement over the coming weeks, with a standard review time of 180-240 days. The review will include a public comment period and “in every future rate review, the commission will review for any adverse customer impacts,” Woodworth said. 

As part of the agreement, Google will make power generation capacity available from two solar facilities that are currently under construction.

Woodworth said there will be capacity purchase agreements from the solar facilities that are also going to be filed with the OCC.

According to a Thursday release, OG&E’s rates are among the lowest in the country, with Oklahoma residential rates today 19% below the regional average, and 34% below the national average, according to the Energy Information Administration. Over the past decade, electricity demand on our system has grown by 25% while the pace of residential rate increases is substantially below the inflation rate, the release reads.

Woodworth said there’s a lot of conversation and concern about the cost of electricity today.

“It’s important for our customers to know that there’s a lot of noise of things that happen on the coast, and why some costs might be increasing, but we don’t see that here. We’re able to do that and still have a 99.96% grid up time in 2025, so the value our customers are getting in terms of reliability is real, and we’re committed to providing that reliable service at low costs,” Woodworth said.

Regarding the agreement announced Thursday, Google is committing to pay 100% of the costs to connect the data center sites to the grid as well as all contracted costs regardless of the company’s energy use. Google will also pay its share of power generation required to serve these data centers, the release reads.

Economic activity would average $688 million, Google says

Google cites $688 million in local economic activity on average, per typical data center, with each job inside the campus supporting nine more in the community.

Some have speculated that Google data centers, while sizable, are designed to operate with minimal onsite personnel, and that most of the job creation comes from construction and temporary jobs.

JT Tolliver, data center operations site manager with Google, said when people search “Google data center jobs,” they often see outdated figures. He suggests using Google Maps to count cars in the parking lot.

At Google’s Pryor campus, which consists of 14 data centers built over close to 20 years on 700 acres, the company employs over 1,000 people to keep it operational, Tolliver said Thursday. 

That’s much higher than typical data center staffing, and Tolliver said that includes engineers, technicians, maintenance workers, security, cafeteria staff and landscaping crews. 

But the three new data centers in Muskogee and Stillwater are in the earliest stages, and it’s unclear how many permanent jobs the additional facilities will create when they’re fully operational. 

Google data centers use nearly half a million gallons of water per day

In 2022, Google published a blog post stating it uses 450,000 gallons of water per day, which amounts to 164.25 million gallons per year. 

The company’s 2025 environmental report found the Pryor facility used 1.1 billion gallons of water in 2024. That’s about 3 million gallons each day. Calendar-year 2025 figures are expected to be available this summer. 

Tolliver emphasized that most of that water evaporates in the cooling process and “returns as rain.” He said remaining water is treated and returned to the source it came from.