If Dedicated Power Stays Unnamed Above 250 MW, Where Does Cash Stick?

ANALYSIS · MEMBERS CONTINUE · 5 min free / 14 min full · Data as at 16 Oct 2026

Mason County named Meta on 13 October as the company behind a 2.2 GW campus and a $10 billion first cheque. The wires already have dates and a $566.35 million customer bill. Kentucky's tariff says anything above 250 MW needs a dedicated power plant. The first building is 396 MW. This piece maps where the cash sits when ads can fund the hall and the wires, and the generation is still unnamed.

In short

• The question: if dedicated power stays unnamed above 250 MW, where does the cash stick?
• The answer: Scenario B. The county and the co-op get paid on roads, water and $566.35 million of 345 kV work. Transformer and breaker makers get paid on eight 345/138 kV units and 91 breakers (ours, from the plan). Korea's memory makers are already paid on a $60.50 billion September invoice. Live racks above 250 MW wait on a named plant that is not in the public record
• Why: on 13 October 2026 Mason County approved three agreements with Crisham LLC, Meta's project company. The first building is 396 MW. The Kentucky Public Service Commission approved EKPC's data-center tariff on 28 October 2025: loads above 250 MW need one or more dedicated resources. Today's Wire gave the news. Today's Stack is the ads-funded hall model. This map asks who is paid while the plant is still a blank
• The size of the gate: 396 − 250 = 146 MW of the first building (36.9%) already sits above the line (ours). Of the 2,200 MW request, 1,950 MW — 88.6% — needs a named resource (ours). The requested 110 MW by December 2026 does not. The requested 530 MW by February 2028 already does, 2.12 times over
• The contrast: today's Korea Pulse shows memory makers already invoicing — chips $60.50 billion, half of Korea's exports — while extra wafers still wait. Ads paid Meta $59.363 billion in Q2. The $10 billion campus is 16.8% of one quarter's ads (ours). The short clock is paid. The long clock is a blank line
• What would break it: a PSC special contract that names the dedicated supply, its size and its in-service date (A), or a capex or ads print that delays the 36-month start (C)
• Nothing here is a recommendation. Arithmetic shown below the wall

The numbers that matter

Chart 1 — Requested ramp against the 250 MW line. Teal can sit without a dedicated resource. Amber cannot. Education only.

Why is unnamed dedicated power the stuck step?

A 396 MW hall is not a 250 MW hall. EKPC's tariff, approved in Case 2025-00140, says that once expected peak crosses 250 MW, the data center cannot lean on the wholesale market. It needs one or more dedicated resources under a special contract, and the Kentucky PSC has to sign that contract. EKPC picked 250 MW because that is about one combustion turbine. The first building is already 1.58 times that unit (396 ÷ 250, ours).

That is a different question from 10 October, when utilities billed data centers before power — minimum bills and security as the map. It is not Amazon's site-permission price. It is not 850 MW landing into a full fleet. The county has already named the developer. The wires already have in-service dates. What Does Meta Do? is the free Stack read of the ads-funded model. Today's Wire gave the $10 billion and the 2.2 GW. This map asks: when ads can write the cheque for the hall and the 345 kV, who is paid while the dedicated plant is still unnamed?

Three clocks around it are not the bind. The county voted; land purchases start in November. The wires are a four-phase customer-borne plan totalling $566.35 million (taps 19 Dec 2026, Mason County 1 on 28 May 2027 at $122 million, MC1+MC2 on 11 Mar 2028 at $182.35 million, MC2+MC3 plus the Stuart line on 1 Sep 2028 at $262 million). The ads already print: $59.363 billion in Q2. Construction in progress of $80.345 billion is unfinished halls, not a missing advertiser.

What is left is a named watt above 250 MW. EKPC says a large new load "will need new resources" and that the plants it is planning are for existing members. A 780 MW gas project sits in PJM's Mason County queue with a December 2031 target. Nothing public ties it to Meta. See speed-to-power. The stuck step is dedicated generation.

What does the map already assume?

Three answers compete: a PSC filing names the plant and the campus can scale (A); the wires get built and paid, ads keep funding unfinished halls, and anything above 250 MW waits on a blank (B); or the ads-and-capex print slips and Meta uses the 36-month start window to wait (C). A tip sheet would pick a stock. Analysis asks which answer today's county deal already needs.

Our read, in one line: the map already assumes Scenario B. The wires have dates. Generation does not. $566.35 million ÷ 2,200 MW is about $257,000 per MW of requested load (ours), 5.7% of the first $10 billion. Add the local package and the known up-front outside the buildings is about $696 million, 7.0% of $10 billion (ours). Q2 free cash flow was $784 million — enough for the wires and the roads, not a named turbine. The scenarios and the arithmetic are below.

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