Metro ColoRESEARCH
The research desk of Metro Colo Advisory

Independent data on what powers the data center buildout.

We track how much power utilities have actually committed to data centers, what large customers pay for it, what Big Tech has signed, what it costs to build, and where the copper networks underneath are being shut off. Every figure is tied to the filing it came from, and all of it is free to use and cite.

5open datasets, each with a CSV download
52US utilities and 6 grid operators tracked on data center power
$1.14Tin Big Tech data center leases signed but not yet started
105large-load rate filings and proceedings in 45 states
1,060AT&T wire centers where copper service can end
Our mandate

Three questions behind every dataset

Metro Colo Research answers the questions owners, developers and buyers bring to Metro Colo Advisory, with numbers anyone can check.

01

How much power is really available?

What utilities say has been requested, what is under signed contract, and what is actually running, in each utility's own words.

02

What does it cost?

Build cost per megawatt, lease rates, power prices and the large-load tariffs that set what data centers pay for electricity.

03

What is changing underneath?

Big Tech lease commitments that have not started yet, and the copper landline networks carriers are retiring.

Current research

Trackers and datasets

Each one answers a single question with sourced numbers and is updated as new filings come in. Data is published on metrocoloadvisory.com and archived on Zenodo with a permanent DOI.

Flagship tracker · Updated each earnings season

AI Power Reality Check

How much data center power US utilities say has been requested, how much is under signed contract and how much is actually running, quarter by quarter since Q3 2025. Includes a log of named data center power deals before state regulators.

52US utilities
6grid operators
184quarterly records
28named power deals
Sources
Earnings slides, SEC filings, grid operator reports, state regulatory filings
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.24086660
License
CC BY 4.0
Big Tech · Updated each earnings season

Big Tech Data Center Lease Tracker

Data center leases Microsoft, Meta, Oracle and Alphabet have signed but not yet started, quarter by quarter since 2023, with the exact filing wording behind every figure.

Headline
$1.14 trillion signed, not yet started
Sources
SEC 10-Q and 10-K filings
Coverage
Q1 2023 to Q3 2026
Regulation · Updated as filings change

Data Center Electric Rates

How data centers and other very large customers pay for power, utility by utility: large-load tariffs, data center rate classes, special contracts and decision dates.

Coverage
105 filings and proceedings in 45 states
Sources
Utility filings and state commission dockets
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.23839945
Market data · 2026 edition

Data Center Cost

What it costs to build, lease and run a data center in North America: cost per megawatt and per watt, lease rates, power use and power cost, and delivery timelines.

Coverage
54 sourced figures
Sources
Published market reports, filings and pricing pages
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.23652508
Telecom · Updated with FCC notices

Copper Landline Retirement

Where AT&T, Verizon and other carriers have filed with the FCC to retire copper landline service, with every filing linked and a lookup of affected wire centers by state.

Coverage
1,060 AT&T wire centers in 18 states
Sources
FCC network change and discontinuance filings
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.23620111
Standards

How we build our research

The same four rules apply to every tracker we publish.

1

Primary documents only

Figures come from utility filings, SEC filings, regulatory dockets, deeds, FCC notices and grid operator reports. News coverage is used only to find those documents.

2

The source's own words

Each figure keeps its source's label and unit, the page or slide it appears on and the date it refers to. Figures with different definitions are never added together.

3

Independent review

Before each release, a separate review re-opens the source documents and tests every headline figure against them.

4

Corrections in public

When a figure is wrong, we fix it on the tracker and in the downloadable data, and the dataset record gets a new version.

In the press

Where our research has appeared

Our data and analysis have been quoted, cited or published by these outlets.

Fortune
Al Jazeera
Yahoo Finance
The Daily Upside
Data Center Knowledge
Moneywise
KCTV5
Data Center POST
Energy Changemakers
VMblog
For reporters and researchers

Use it, cite it, ask us

All of our data is free to use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Credit Metro Colo Advisory and link to the tracker the figures came from.

How to cite Metro Colo Advisory, "AI Power Reality Check," data as of November 2026. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24086660. License: CC BY 4.0.

Use the tracker name and the date of the data. Each dataset record lists its own DOI.

Research desk

Data and media requests

We answer by email, usually the same business day, with the figure, the source document and the page it sits on.

  • Custom cuts of any dataset
  • Source documents behind a figure
  • Early looks at new releases

james.mercer@metrocoloresearch.com