The Kentucky Public Service Commission has approved a Retail Electric Service Agreement that will provide up to 482 megawatts of electric service to TeraWulf's Justified Data Campus in Hancock County, Kentucky, the Nasdaq-listed digital infrastructure company announced on August 24, 2026.

Commission Finds Agreement Fair and Protective of Existing Ratepayers

The PSC issued its order on August 21, 2026, concluding that the proposed agreement 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 commission specifically found that the direct pass-through of market and delivery costs ensures that TeraWulf bears the costs attributable to its service, and that the customer-specific terms do not provide TeraWulf an unreasonable preference or advantage or subject other customers to an unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage.

The approved agreement authorizes Big Rivers Electric Corporation and Kenergy Corp. to implement the agreement in accordance with its terms. Under the structure, TeraWulf is responsible for market, transmission, delivery, and other costs attributable to serving its load, along with customer-specific infrastructure costs and substantial credit-support obligations.

The agreement also includes negotiated demand adders and customer charges that provide incremental contributions to both Big Rivers and Kenergy beyond reimbursement of direct service costs.

Redeveloping a Former Industrial Site

The Justified Data Campus is being developed at the former Century Aluminum Hawesville facility, where approximately 482 megawatts of existing transmission capability remain available following the closure of the aluminum smelter.

TeraWulf says reusing the existing industrial infrastructure allows the company to pair large-scale power availability with the redevelopment of a previously industrialized site, avoiding the need to build new transmission capacity from scratch.

The PSC acknowledged those circumstances in its order, stating that the proposed reuse of an existing industrial site, anticipated capital investment, employment, and additional tax base provide further support for the public-interest benefits asserted in the record. Paul Prager, Chief Executive Officer of TeraWulf, said the project reflects what he described as the correct approach to large-scale data center development.

"Power is the gating factor for AI infrastructure, but how you bring that power to market matters," Prager said.

"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."

Projected Investment in the Billions

TeraWulf currently estimates approximately USD 4.0 billion to USD 4.5 billion of investment in site development and the initial data halls, based on expected development costs of approximately $10 million to $12 million per megawatt of critical IT load.

That figure is exclusive of additional investment by customers in computing equipment and related infrastructure.

The commission recognized anticipated economic benefits associated with the project, including capital investment, employment, and expansion of the local tax base in Hancock County.

A Model TeraWulf Intends to Replicate

Beyond the immediate approval, TeraWulf is positioning the Justified structure as a broader framework for responsible large-scale digital infrastructure development.

The company describes the model as built around several principles: leveraging existing infrastructure rather than developing greenfield sites, ensuring that project-specific market, delivery and infrastructure costs are borne by the large-load customer rather than shifted to other utility ratepayers, aligning market-price and load risks with TeraWulf rather than the utility, generating incremental value for utility partners through negotiated demand charges and customer fees, and driving durable local economic investment through jobs and an expanded tax base.

TeraWulf describes itself as a vertically integrated owner, developer, and operator of large-scale digital infrastructure in the United States, with facilities purpose-built for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads.

The company said it believes the combination of power availability, contractual risk allocation, existing infrastructure reuse, and local economic benefits demonstrated at Justified can serve as a replicable framework for meeting rapidly growing demand for AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

The PSC approval represents what TeraWulf characterized as an important milestone for the Justified campus and a validation of the company's approach to negotiating power agreements that assign project-specific costs and risks to the large-load customer while creating incremental value for the utilities and communities involved.