TeraWulf has cleared one of the most consequential gates in the development of its Justified Data Campus in Hancock County, Kentucky. The Kentucky Public Service Commission approved a Retail Electric Service Agreement on Aug. 21 that supports up to 482 megawatts of electric service for the project. The agreement authorizes Big Rivers Electric Corp. and Kenergy Corp. to serve TeraWulf’s planned campus at the former Century Aluminum facility in Hawesville. The decision matters because large AI campuses increasingly depend on secured electrical capacity before developers can turn construction plans into operating infrastructure. For TeraWulf, the ruling turns power from a development variable into a defined commercial and regulatory framework.

The significance goes beyond the headline capacity figure. The 482-MW electricity agreement defines the maximum electric-service framework approved for TeraWulf’s Kentucky project, while the company separately has contracted approximately 401 MW of critical IT capacity at the site. TeraWulf will assume market, transmission, delivery and other costs attributable to its load under the approved structure. The company will cover customer-specific infrastructure expenses and maintain substantial credit support for its obligations. Negotiated demand adders and customer charges will create additional contributions to Big Rivers and Kenergy. That allocation makes the agreement particularly important in an era when utilities face growing pressure to determine how large new loads should pay for the infrastructure they require.

The Power Deal Changes The Project Equation

The commission did not simply authorize another industrial electricity customer. It reviewed a structure designed around a large and unusually concentrated load, including protections intended to prevent the project’s costs from falling on existing utility customers. The commission concluded that the agreement provides adequate protections, assigns financial and operational risks appropriately, establishes fair and reasonable rates, and provides adequate and reliable service. That finding gives TeraWulf a stronger foundation for advancing the campus because the electricity arrangement now carries regulatory approval rather than remaining a proposed commercial framework. The decision therefore reduces a layer of uncertainty that can complicate financing, construction planning and customer commitments for power-intensive infrastructure.

“After consideration of the entire record, the Commission finds that the proposed RESA contains adequate protections for existing customers, appropriately allocates financial and operational risks, establishes rates that are fair, just and reasonable, and provides for adequate and reliable service.” The wording is important because the commission addressed more than the availability of electrons. Its order examined whether the commercial structure could isolate the consequences of the new load from the utility’s existing customer base. The arrangement uses a market-based pass-through structure under which Big Rivers will procure energy and capacity from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator market for Kenergy to serve the project. That approach places TeraWulf closer to the economic reality of the power it consumes rather than treating grid access as a generic utility service.

An Old Industrial Asset Becomes AI Infrastructure

Justified sits on a former aluminum manufacturing property that already carries the physical legacy of heavy industry. The Century Aluminum Hawesville smelter closed in 2022, leaving behind a large industrial site and electrical infrastructure designed for substantial power consumption. Big Rivers continued operating and maintaining about 482 MW of transmission capacity connected to the property after the closure. TeraWulf acquired the property in February 2026 with plans to redevelop it around high-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads. The site’s more than 250 buildable acres, energized on-site substation and high-voltage transmission connections give TeraWulf an existing infrastructure base for the planned development.

Paul Prager, Chief Executive Officer of TeraWulf, framed the strategy around that connection between power and infrastructure reuse. “Power is the gating factor for AI infrastructure, but how you bring that power to market matters.” “At Justified, we’re taking a former industrial site with existing transmission infrastructure and putting it back to productive use at scale. We’re paying the costs associated with our load, protecting existing ratepayers, and making a significant long-term investment in Kentucky. We believe that’s the right model for responsible data center development, and the Commission’s decision is an important validation of that approach.” 

Anthropic Gives The Campus A Commercial Anchor

The power approval becomes more consequential when viewed alongside TeraWulf’s customer commitments. In July, the company entered into a 20-year lease with Anthropic for approximately 401 MW of critical IT capacity at Justified. The leased capacity will support Anthropic’s high-performance computing operations and will arrive through a phased delivery schedule. TeraWulf expects the initial capacity to enter service during the second half of 2027 and the full 401 MW to reach service in early 2028. The contract gives the campus a substantial commercial anchor before the full physical buildout reaches completion.

The Anthropic commitment changes the development risk profile as well. A large campus without a customer must solve land, power, financing and demand simultaneously, creating several interdependent uncertainties. Justified now has a customer commitment attached to a substantial portion of its planned critical IT capacity. The lease carries an initial 20-year term, with two potential five-year extensions available to Anthropic. TeraWulf has said the agreement could generate approximately $19 billion in contracted lease revenue over the initial term. That commercial visibility gives the Kentucky development a very different financial profile from a speculative campus waiting for tenants after construction.

The Approval Does Not Finish Justified

The regulatory decision removes a major obstacle, but it does not turn the Kentucky campus into an operating data center overnight. TeraWulf still must complete site development, construct the data halls and deploy the electrical and mechanical systems required for high-density computing. The company’s filings indicate construction is expected to begin in 2026, with phased development extending through 2027, subject to planning and permitting requirements. The delivery schedule for Anthropic adds another operational deadline because initial capacity is expected during the second half of 2027. The project therefore enters its next phase with regulatory authorization and customer demand aligned against a demanding construction timetable.

However, the combination of those elements makes Justified more mature than many proposed AI campuses. The project has a defined site, substantial existing transmission infrastructure, an approved retail electricity agreement and a long-term anchor customer. It also has a stated multibillion-dollar development plan and a phased schedule tied to customer capacity. Each element solves a different part of the development equation. Power answers whether the campus can operate at its intended scale, the customer answers who will use that capacity, and the industrial site answers where the infrastructure can be built. The remaining challenge is execution across all three dimensions without allowing construction, financing or permitting to disrupt the sequence.

A New Blueprint For Power-Backed AI Growth

Therefore, Justified offers a useful lens into how the next generation of American AI infrastructure could take shape. The winning sites may not always be undeveloped parcels near major technology markets. They may instead be former industrial properties where power infrastructure already reflects decades of heavy electricity consumption. TeraWulf’s Kentucky project demonstrates how those sites can become attractive when developers pair existing grid access with long-term customer commitments. The economics still depend on construction costs, electricity prices, financing and customer execution, but the starting conditions can materially improve the development proposition. In that sense, the most valuable asset at Justified may not be the land itself but the electrical architecture attached to it.

Still, the broader significance lies in the way the agreement distributes risk. TeraWulf gets access to a large power framework, while Big Rivers and Kenergy gain a structure designed to recover the costs associated with serving the new load. Existing utility customers receive protections against direct exposure to the project’s customer-specific expenses under the approved terms. Hancock County gains the prospect of billions of dollars in investment, employment and an expanded tax base. The commission specifically identified the reuse of the industrial site, capital investment, employment and additional tax revenue as public-interest benefits in the record. The arrangement illustrates how an AI infrastructure project can become an industrial redevelopment transaction as much as a technology investment.

Justified Moves From Proposal Toward Execution

The next test will be physical delivery. TeraWulf must translate its approved power structure into energized data halls capable of supporting Anthropic’s contracted computing requirements. The company must coordinate electrical construction, high-density cooling, data hall deployment and customer infrastructure around the phased delivery schedule. TeraWulf expects to invest approximately $4 billion to $4.5 billion in site development and the initial data halls, excluding customer-funded computing equipment and related infrastructure. The project will also require the deployment of customer-funded computing equipment and related infrastructure alongside the physical development of the data halls. Each stage now carries greater importance because the project has moved beyond the question of whether power can be secured.

The Kentucky decision nevertheless marks a meaningful change in Justified’s status. The project no longer rests solely on the promise of repurposing an old industrial site for the AI economy. It now has an approved electricity agreement supporting up to 482 MW, a 401-MW Anthropic commitment and an infrastructure base designed for large-scale power consumption. TeraWulf has placed a multibillion-dollar investment estimate behind the redevelopment and a phased delivery schedule behind the customer relationship. The former Century Aluminum site is consequently moving from an underused industrial asset toward a power-backed computing platform. For the US AI infrastructure market, Justified may prove less interesting for the number of megawatts it can consume than for the development formula it represents: existing industrial power, contracted AI demand and a regulatory structure built around making the new load pay its way.