Powered land is not a queue position
Powered land is a data-center site with firm power today, or a path a buyer can underwrite: existing service, a confirmed utility expansion, an executed interconnection agreement (IA), or a permitted behind-the-meter (BTM) package.
A load application in an interconnection queue is not powered land.
A will-serve letter is not an IA.
Those two mix-ups are how farmland flyers and Stage 0 options get priced like contracted megawatts.
Powered land (definition). Land a data-center buyer can energize without winning a new study lottery.
Three tests, any one of which can pass: (1) existing load already on the meter, (2) a confirmed utility expansion with a date and a capacity, or (3) an executed IA or a permitted BTM generation package.
A queue receipt, a desktop overlay, or proximity to a substation does not pass.
What is powered land?
Powered land is a data-center site a buyer can energize without winning a new study lottery: existing metered load, a confirmed utility expansion, an executed interconnection agreement, or a permitted behind-the-meter package.
“Near a 345 kV line” is not powered land. A queue receipt is not powered land.
What the market calls powered land
Hines popularized the phrase as an asset class. Its Power Play research (2025-26) estimates that about 40,000 acres of powered land, almost 2 billion square feet, are needed to support projected data-center growth over five years. That figure is demand for powered land. It is not a hall-size formula. See how much land data centers need.
Reuters (April 2026) defined the same label in the field: a plot that already has its own generation, an existing high-voltage grid connection, or both.
Both of those descriptions are directional. Neither is what a credit committee funds.
A site with a 240 MW industrial tap and on-site turbines (Wilton International in the UK, as Reuters reported) is close to the real thing. A farm whose flyer says “near 345 kV” is not. Equinix’s UK managing director, James Tyler, told Reuters the thing that actually removes risk is “outline planning and a confirmed grid connection.” Confirmed is the word. Queued is not a synonym.
Practitioners now split the conversion chain the same way. Powered land is not leased MW. Leased MW is not energized MW. Energized MW is not occupied IT load. Treat those as four different assets. A buyer who collapses them overpays.
Eight power labels
Use this table before you shop land for data centers, and before you believe a “powered land for sale” listing.
| Label | What it actually is | What people confuse it with | What a buyer will underwrite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop only | GIS overlay: acres, flood, a line on a map, miles to a substation. | Powered land. | Nothing on power. Option value, maybe. |
| Queued | A large-load or interconnection application is on file. Studies may not have started. Withdrawal risk is high. | A power contract. | A discount to Stage 1 assemblers, not a hyperscaler close. |
| Will-serve | A utility comfort letter that the company can serve the load, often with no capacity, date, or upgrade cost. | An IA. | Almost never, on its own. |
| Confirmed expansion | Utility has committed a MW number and a path (study complete, facilities agreement, or equivalent). | Energized power. | Specialist developers, with a haircut for schedule risk. |
| Executed IA / firm service | Signed interconnection agreement or equivalent firm-service contract. Capacity, point of interconnection, deposits, CIAC, and a construction schedule. | A powered shell. | Infra PE, neocloud, hyperscaler diligence. Still not a building. |
| BTM permitted | Behind-the-meter generation with the air permit, fuel or pipeline, and equipment slots that make Stage 3 real. | A slide that says onsite gas. | Same buyer pool as an IA, if the permit set is complete. |
| BTM claimed | A rendering of turbines or an SMR. No air permit, no fuel, no slots. | BTM permitted. | Speculators. |
| Existing | Load already on the meter. Bills, a live service agreement, a substation that is serving this site. | We are next to a plant. | The only label that is already powered. |
A will-serve letter and an interconnection agreement are different instruments. The letter is a utility saying it is in the business of selling electricity. The IA is the contract that says this load, this point of interconnection, this upgrade stack, these deposits. Do not let a listing collapse them.
Markets often describe a five-rung ladder (near power, studied, committed, under construction, energized). That language is directional. This table is what a buyer funds.
| What the market says | Our label | What a buyer funds |
|---|---|---|
| Near a line / overlay | Desktop only | Nothing on power. |
| Studied / queue receipt | Queued | An assembler, and only if the position is assignable. |
| Credible path / will-serve | Will-serve | Almost never, on its own. |
| Committed / dated MW | Confirmed expansion | A specialist developer, with a haircut for schedule. |
| Energized, or an executed IA | Existing, or executed IA / BTM permitted | Yes. This is powered land. |
Generation queues and large-load queues are also different lines. PJM and MISO can own the generic “interconnection queue” query because most of that queue is generation. A data-center site lives on the load side: offtake at a substation, not injection from a solar farm.
Why the label got sloppy
The queue filled with filings that will never become campuses.
ERCOT told the Texas Senate in July 2026 it was tracking about 474 GW of large-load interconnection requests, of which about 90 percent were data centers. That is several times ERCOT’s all-time peak demand. A public cut of ERCOT’s Large Load Working Group file (June 2026) showed 5.7 GW energized against hundreds of GW still sitting at “no studies submitted.” A queue that large is not a map of powered land. It is a map of people who paid to stand in line.
Utilities make the same split on the contracted-versus-claimed axis. Reporting in 2026 cited AEP with about 63 GW of contracted new load through 2030, and about 190 GW of active projects still in its interconnection queue. Those are not the same inventory.
Reuters named the junk: “zombie projects,” filings from land that has neither power, planning permission, nor an end user. Britain’s NESO said speculative requests were inflating demand far past what the network can support. The US pattern is the same.
Utilities have answered with deposits, take-or-pay, and batch studies. Colliers’ 2026 Data Center Marketplace Report put large-load deposits in a $25 million to $75 million band in primary markets, often non-refundable until connectivity. That is the market charging rent on optionality that used to be free.
Google’s Marsden Hanna said in January 2026 that utilities in many markets were quoting four to ten years to interconnect, and that one utility quoted twelve years to study the request. A four-to-ten-year study clock is a schedule risk. It is not a land value.
Behind-the-meter gas is the other place the language broke. Reuters (June 2026) counted at least 57 off-grid US plants proposed or under construction to serve individual data centers, totaling 73 GW. Some of those are BTM permitted. Many are BTM claimed. Campuses are becoming energy projects first. That does not make a turbine on a slide into Stage 3.
What documents prove each label
Do not underwrite a flyer. Underwrite the packet.
| If they claim | You should see | Fail closed if |
|---|---|---|
| Existing | Recent utility bills in the site's name, a live retail or industrial service agreement, a one-line showing the point of interconnection serving this parcel. | The load is a neighbor's plant. Proximity is not service. |
| Queued | Queue or large-load ID, filing date, MW requested, study status, deposit receipts, assignability language. | The application is in someone else's name and is not assignable. |
| Will-serve | The letter, the date, the MW, the caveats, the expiration. | It is addressed to whom it may concern with no MW and no date. |
| Confirmed expansion | Facilities agreement, an LOA with capacity and a construction milestone, or a utility letter that names the upgrade and the MW. | The LOA is a we-received-your-application stamp. |
| Executed IA | Signed IA or firm-service agreement, point of interconnection, MW, CIAC, security, in-service window. | A draft, a term sheet, or IA in process. |
| BTM permitted | Air permit, fuel or pipeline agreement, equipment slots or EPC, and the BTM interconnection to the campus. | A rendering, an OEM reservation, or gas nearby. |
| Site control | Recorded option or deed, term, assignment rights, mineral and title exceptions (ALTA / Phase I). | A handshake with a landowner group. |
Packet size at Stage 1 is 15-60 files, not a Datasite room. The site readiness checklist is that list.
Two live 2026 deals show how the market itself prices the gap.
Stream / Plug Power, Young County, Texas (July 2026)
Plug Power sold 66 acres plus associated 164 MW of grid interconnection assets to Stream Data Centers for up to $76.5 million: $50 million at closing, and up to $26.5 million more based on the load capacity confirmed in the final interconnection agreement with the Texas utility (Plug Power, 13 July 2026). The earnout is the taxonomy. Even a sophisticated buyer would not pay the last third until the IA, not the queue position, spoke.
QTS / Blackstone, Salem Township, Pennsylvania (2026)
About 1,700 acres, 96 families, roughly $330,000 per acre, about $586 million combined (WSJ and local recorder reporting, 2026). Treat that as a single-market anecdote, not a national acre price. The land sat next to transmission serving a gas plant and Talen’s Susquehanna nuclear station, inside a township overlay that already allowed data centers by right. That is infrastructure adjacency plus entitlement, not soil.
There is no national dollars-per-acre for land for data centers. See how much data centers pay for land. Colliers (2026) put powered-land averages at about 1.63-2.5x industrial land over the prior 24 months, and more than 3x in Northern Virginia and Northern California, with a national powered-land average near $944,000 per acre against about $316,000 industrial. Avison Young told Bisnow that Q1 2026 data-center land sales were about $3.3 billion across 16 sites, 30 percent of US development-site spend, up 141 percent year over year. Fewer trades, higher tickets: the sites that move are the ones with power quality, not acreage.
Who pays a premium, and who does not
| Stage | What is in the folder | Who shows up | Premium? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 Thesis | Site control + desktop story (Desktop only) | Speculator, assembler | No. Option money. |
| 1 Filed | Queue app + deposits + Phase I / title (Queued) | Assembler; specialist developer at a discount | Small, and only if the queue is assignable. |
| 2 Entitled / utility-advanced | CUP / zoning + studies or a real LOA (Confirmed expansion) | Specialist DC developer | Yes, versus raw. Not versus an IA. |
| 3 Power contracted | Executed IA / firm service or BTM permitted | Infra PE, neocloud, hyperscaler diligence | This is the premium the reports are describing. |
| 4 Powered shell | Building + energized feed | Operator / hyperscaler | Real estate plus power, not land. |
| 5 Leased / FID | Investment-grade lease | Recap, REIT, core | Not a first-timer close. |
A first-time sponsor should not expect a hyperscaler to buy Stage 0 or Stage 1. Most queue filings never become campuses. The earnout in Young County is the tell: the market will pay for a path, and it will withhold the rest until the IA exists. If you have an option and a queue filing, see who buys an option + queue.
FAQ
What is powered land?
Powered land is a data-center site with firm or existing power: load already on the meter, a confirmed utility expansion, an executed interconnection agreement, or a permitted behind-the-meter package.
A queue filing is not powered land.
Is a queue position powered land?
No. A load application in an interconnection queue is a request to be studied.
It can be withdrawn, restudied, or delayed for years.
ERCOT's 2026 large-load queue is hundreds of gigawatts against a few gigawatts actually energized.
Is land next to a substation powered land?
No. Offtake capacity at that substation, and a contract that awards it to this parcel, is the question.
Injection capacity (what a generator can push onto the grid) can be a different number at the same point of interconnection.
Proximity is a desktop overlay, not service.
What is the difference between a will-serve letter and an interconnection agreement?
A will-serve letter is a utility comfort letter.
An interconnection agreement is the contract: megawatts, point of interconnection, upgrades, deposits, CIAC, and a schedule.
Buyers fund the second.
What documents prove powered land?
Existing service: utility bills and a live service agreement for this site.
Contracted power: a signed interconnection agreement or firm-service agreement.
Behind-the-meter: air permit, fuel path, and equipment slots, not a rendering.
For everything else, you have a story, not power.
Is behind-the-meter generation powered land?
Only when it is permitted: air permit, fuel or pipeline, and equipment slots, so Stage 3 is real.
A rendering of turbines is claimed BTM, not powered land.
How much extra does powered land cost?
There is no national acre price.
Colliers in 2026 reported powered land at about 1.63-2.5x industrial land, and more than 3x in Northern Virginia and Northern California.
Primary-market sites have cleared millions per acre. A Pennsylvania assemblage next to nuclear and transmission cleared about $330,000 per acre in 2026. Those are not comps for each other.
Is powered land for sale on LoopNet the same as contracted power?
Usually not. Public listings skew desktop overlays and queue filings.
Serious Stage 2-3 packages move off-market, under NDA, then into a data room.
The flyer is not confidential. The APN, the option price, and the IA are.
Can I sell or assign a queue position with the land?
Only if the utility tariff and the application say you can.
Many large-load filings are not assignable, or they reset the study if the applicant changes.
Read the assignability clause before you price Stage 1 as if it were Stage 3.
Who buys powered land versus queued land?
Queued land: assemblers and, at a discount, specialist developers.
Contracted power (Stage 3): infra PE, neoclouds, and hyperscaler diligence teams.
A first-timer does not close Stage 3 on a flyer.
Sources
- Hines, Power Play: The Emerging Powered Land Opportunity, 2025-26.
- Reuters, Powered land and zombie projects, April 2026.
- ERCOT, Texas Senate panel on large-load interconnection, July 2026.
- Google / Marsden Hanna, remarks on interconnection timelines, January 2026.
- Colliers, US Data Center Marketplace Report, 2026.
- Avison Young via Bisnow, Q1 2026 data-center land sales, May 2026.
- Plug Power press release, Graham / Stream sale, 13 July 2026.
- WSJ and Luzerne County recorder reporting, QTS / Blackstone Salem Township assemblage, 2026.
- Reuters, off-grid plants serving data centers, June 2026.
If the files are already in a folder, grade which row they are on. Cashpian is a gated room for that packet. It is not a listing portal. It does not sell land or transfer queue positions.