On October 1, 2026, the Michigan Public Service Commission granted conditional approval of special contracts between DTE Electric and Google LLC for the provision of utility electric service to a Google data center. The Commission does not decide whether or where a data center can be built. Its authority applies only to the utility service needed to serve the facility, including the rates, terms, and conditions of that service.
The Michigan Public Service Commission’s role in this case is to review and approve, reject, or approve with conditions the contracts submitted by DTE Electric to serve the Google data center to be built in its service territory. In conducting its review, the Commission is charged with protecting the public interest and ensuring that the costs and risks associated with serving a large new electric customer are appropriately addressed.
The Commission’s Order puts protections in place, so other DTE customers are not responsible for costs and financial risks created by serving this large new load. The Commission will also continually monitor the costs being caused by the data center customer into the future and ensure customers will not bear any burden if projected affordability benefits do not materialize.
This issue brief explains the proposed special contracts, the Commission’s role, and the customer protections included in the Commission’s Order.
On March 17, 2026, DTE Electric (DTE or the Company) filed an application with the Commission seeking approval of two special contracts between the Company and Google LLC (the Customer), which plans to build and operate a data center in Wayne County’s Van Buren Township. The two contracts (the special contracts) are a Primary Supply Agreement (PSA), which governs the terms and conditions of electric service provided to the Customer, and the Clean Capacity Accelerator Agreement (CCAA), which provides for new clean energy resources (primarily renewable energy and energy storage facilities) to be developed by the Company and paid for by the Customer. The Company requested the case be contested and also requested an expedited decision from the Commission.
Michigan law gives the Michigan Public Service Commission jurisdiction over the electric and natural gas rates charged by utilities to customers, including data centers, and the terms under which regulated utilities provide those services. When any new customer requests electric or natural gas service, the utility has a legal responsibility to provide it. The Commission is responsible for determining whether the proposed service and associated costs are reasonable and prudent and in the public interest.
The Commission may require specific terms and protections to ensure existing customers do not subsidize the costs of serving large load customers, including costs that could remain if a data center reduces its operations or leaves the utility system. The Michigan Public Service Commission has put in place some of the strongest ratepayer protections in the nation.
The Commission does not have authority over the siting or construction of data centers. It also does not issue construction or land-use permits or make decisions regarding water usage or whether a data center may be built. For this proposed data center, the Commission has the authority to review and approve, reject, or provide conditional approval of the special contracts between the utility and the data center customer.
A special contract is a negotiated agreement between a regulated utility and a customer that establishes rates, terms, or conditions for utility service that differ from those included in the utility’s standard rate book (Mich Admin Code 460.2012). In this case, a special contract is necessary to impose additional conditions on the customer to ensure that all costs caused by the large load customer are, in fact, paid for by that customer.
Under the proposed Primary Supply Agreement (PSA), the Customer would receive electric service under DTE's existing Commission-approved D11 Primary Supply Rate. This rate is generally available to large customers that contract for at least 50 Kilowatts of electric capacity and receive electricity at higher voltage levels.
The proposed PSA incudes terms beyond those normally required under the D11 rate including:
Minimum billing demand (MBD) sets a minimum amount that a customer will pay each billing cycle regardless of actual use. In the proposed PSA in this case, it is 80% of the Customer’s contracted monthly electric demand. In other words, each month, the Customer will have to pay at least 80% of the contracted demand even if it doesn’t use any energy at all. If the actual demand is over 80%, the Customer will pay for its actual full demand and usage.
Under the terms of the proposed CCAA, the Customer would pay for the development of up to 480 megawatts (MW) of energy storage facilities and up to 1,600 MW of renewable energy facilities. These facilities would be fully funded by Google LLC and owned and operated by DTE Electric. Google LLC will also give the utility 300 MW worth of capacity credits at no cost. The utility can use those credits to help demonstrate that it has enough power resources available to reliably serve customers, rather than having to obtain that capacity elsewhere. The CCAA also includes a termination payment as well as credit and collateral requirements, providing additional protection in the event the customer ceases operations earlier than planned.
No. DTE could provide electric service to the Customer under its existing Commission-approved D11 Primary Supply Rate that does not provide these additional customer protections. However, the Commission Order requires provisions that enhance customer protections, including that the Customer must fully fund specific amounts of clean and renewable energy resources that the Customer would not otherwise have to pay for under the standard rate. Because these additional terms differ from DTE’s standard rate, they are included in special contracts that require Commission review and approval.
Although DTE could serve the Customer under its existing D11 Primary Supply Rate, the proposed special contracts include terms and conditions that are not part of that standard rate. Under Michigan rules, utilities must obtain Commission approval for special contracts that provide service in a manner or at a rate not covered by existing Commission–approved rates.
The proposed contracts also include provisions intended to protect other DTE customers from costs associated with serving this Customer. For example, the CCAA provides for the Customer to directly pay for a substantial amount of new clean energy resources. Without these additional provisions, some of the costs could otherwise be borne by other DTE customers.
To approve a special contract, the Commission must find that approval is in the public interest.
The Commission found that approval of the special contracts serves the public interest, and “DTE Electric has demonstrated that approval of the special contracts will not increase rates, rate schedules, or the cost of service to other customers.” The Commission also found that the “terms and conditions of the PSA and CCAA reflect distinct protections for the utility with respect to stranded costs, mitigate cost subsidization for existing and future customers, and provide an opportunity for a benefit to customers in the form of electric rates that are lower than they otherwise would have been due to the increased share of fixed costs that will be borne by Google with the conditions described” in the order.
The Commission provided conditional approval of the special contracts, specifying a list of conditions that DTE Electric must agree to for the approval to stand.
Several conditions were stipulated in the Commission’s approval of the special contracts, including:
All parties participating in the case had equal access to unredacted copies of all documents in the case. However, to protect commercially sensitive information, the case was governed by a protective order enforced by the presiding Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). So intervening parties had access to the full, unredacted record, but certain commercially sensitive information cannot be shared publicly. This is standard practice in Commission proceedings, and both the protective order and the ALJ ruling is part of the official record of the case and can be publicly accessed via the case docket.
Yes. The Commission requires DTE Electric to file a letter within 30 days confirming that it accepts all conditions in the Order. If any special contract needs to be updated because of those conditions, DTE Electric must file the revised contract within the same 30‑day period in the docket.
Yes. The Commission will continue to oversee this matter. It may reopen the case at any time if the affordability benefits DTE Electric has claimed do not occur or disappear over time, or if any costs associated with serving Google LLC are in danger of being passed on to existing customers.
