Different Ways to Roll — Evergreen Usage Across Major Pipelines
With rising demand, evergreen clauses in transportation contracts may become increasingly important in shaping how and where firm capacity is retained.
Feeding the Machines: Early Pipeline Models for Data Center Power
Originally published for customers March 11, 2026.
What’s the issue?
Two new pipelines have been proposed specifically to supply natural gas to power generation serving large data center campuses.
Why does it matter?
Providing reliable power for hyperscale data centers is emerging as a major commercial opportunity. How these early projects structure gas supply could influence how future infrastructure is built.
What’s our view?
Early projects suggest microgrid-based generation paired with intrastate pipelines or FERC blanket-certificate laterals may become attractive models for serving data center demand.
As AI training campuses scale toward multi-gigawatt power demand, developers are turning to dedicated natural gas generation and to the pipelines that feed it. Two recently proposed projects show two distinct data center pipeline models: Transwestern’s Green Chile Delivery Lateral in New Mexico, filed under FERC’s blanket certificate program, and the Prosperity Line in West Virginia, built as an intrastate pipeline. This post breaks down how each is structured, the permitting pathway each uses, and what those choices signal for pipeline developers chasing data center demand. For a wider view of how location shapes permitting, pipeline, and transmission risk across these projects, see Data Center Geography, Power Grids, and Permitting Risk.
New Mexico: A Blanket Certificate Lateral for Project Jupiter
Transwestern Pipeline Company has requested authorization to construct the Green Chile Delivery Lateral from the El Paso Natural Gas system in Doña Ana County, New Mexico to supply power generation for Project Jupiter, a major data center development. Key project characteristics include:
- Capacity: 400,000 Dth/d
- Length: 17.77 miles
- Diameter: 24 inches
- Estimated cost: $60.2 million
- Anticipated in-service: August 15, 2026
The map below shows the locations of these facilities.
Project Jupiter is one of several massive AI training facilities associated with the Stargate initiative, a partnership between OpenAI and Oracle. The campus is expected to include four large data centers powered through two microgrids operating independently of the regional power grid. Initial power generation will rely on four natural gas turbines, each capable of producing roughly 700–1,000 MW, for a combined capacity approaching 4 GW.
A single shipper, Green Chile Ventures, has executed a 17.5-year precedent agreement for the entire capacity of the project. That contract duration aligns with what pipelines typically use to demonstrate market need in certificate proceedings. It also contrasts with how many data center developers describe their gas generation strategy, often framed as a temporary bridge until grid infrastructure or cleaner resources become available.
Other data centers may also use gas as a long-term energy supply. The typical length of precedent agreements with electric utilities since 2025 has been 20 years, as shown below. The associated interstate gas projects will help power the grid in their respective areas for the foreseeable future. Depending on the availability and economic viability of other generation resources, gas would likely be a primary power source for data centers cropping up in these areas. For a broader look at where that new gas demand is emerging, see Grid Reliability Shifts in 2026.
Project Jupiter does include plans for additional generation through a “Project Green” initiative, targeting 500 MW of renewable capacity by 2028 and 1 GW by 2032. Those additions would not likely displace the planned 4 GW of gas-fired generation. Combined with the 17.5-year transportation agreement supporting the pipeline, the project structure suggests natural gas will remain a long-term backbone of the facility’s power supply.
Since this analysis first published, the picture has shifted. On April 27, 2026, Oracle and campus developer BorderPlex Digital Assets announced a redesign of Project Jupiter’s power supply, replacing the planned gas turbines and diesel generators with a Bloom Energy fuel-cell microgrid of up to 2.45 GW. The change does not necessarily remove the pipeline from the equation, since Bloom’s solid oxide fuel cells run on natural gas, but its effect on the volume the lateral would move is unclear.
How the blanket certificate pathway works
The project is proposed under FERC’s blanket certificate program. Interstate pipelines that receive Section 7(c) authorization are typically granted blanket certificate authority allowing them to perform certain routine construction, replacement, and expansion activities without seeking case-by-case Commission approval. The program includes two pathways: automatic authorizations, which may proceed immediately, and prior notice authorizations, which require a 60-day notice period but may proceed without individualized approval if no protest is filed. The two pathways are determined largely by project cost thresholds, which the Commission temporarily increased through a blanket certificate waiver for projects entering service before May 31, 2027. We covered that reform in Bigger Blankets and Faster Steel: FERC’s May Commission Meeting.
The Green Chile Lateral was intentionally designed to remain just under the temporary prior notice threshold of $61.65 million. Transwestern filed its prior notice request on January 26, 2026, and the Commission issued a notice on February 10, 2026, setting an April 13, 2026 deadline for protests, interventions, and comments. Because the route also crosses public land, the project required a right-of-way from the Bureau of Land Management; on May 6, 2026, the Department of the Interior authorized the crossing of roughly 16 miles of public lands using an accelerated 14-day environmental review under emergency permitting procedures adopted in 2025.
Has the project drawn a qualifying protest?
FERC also issued an environmental information request seeking additional detail on impacts to fish and wildlife, vegetation, cultural and geological resources, and air and noise. As of the March filing window, one filing opposing the project had been submitted.
Under the Commission’s blanket certificate regulations, a prior notice project only converts to a full Section 7(c) proceeding if a filing qualifies as a protest. To do so, the filing must follow a prescribed format, request that the activity be processed as a separate application, and include a detailed statement of the protestor’s interest and the specific reasons for the objection.
Even when styled as a protest, the Director of the Office of Energy Projects may dismiss it within 10 days if it fails to raise a substantive issue or provide a sufficiently detailed rationale. The single filing on record at that point read as a general public comment opposing natural gas infrastructure rather than a protest styled under the Commission’s rules.
West Virginia: An Intrastate Line for the Monarch Compute Campus
A second example comes from West Virginia, where American Intelligence & Power Corporation (AIPCorp) and Hope Gas, a West Virginia local distribution company, are developing the Prosperity Line. The first phase, a 30-mile, 24-inch natural gas pipeline, began construction in April 2026, with completion targeted by year-end.
The pipeline will serve the Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County. Like Project Jupiter, the campus is designed around a microgrid architecture. The initial phase of the facility will rely on approximately 2 GW of natural gas-fired generation, provided by fast-response generator sets from Caterpillar combined with battery storage.
Over time, the campus is envisioned to draw power from the proposed Mountaineer GigaSystem, an energy hub concept that would integrate multiple energy sources including natural gas, biomass, and coal resources feeding blue hydrogen production, along with renewable generation and carbon capture and storage.
Within that framework, natural gas plays both direct and indirect roles. In the near term, it provides dispatchable generation for the microgrid powering the data center. In the longer term, it could serve as a feedstock supporting hydrogen production and other energy pathways within the broader energy hub concept.
Early Signals: What These Data Center Pipeline Models Mean for Developers
These projects provide early signals for how pipeline infrastructure may develop to serve AI-driven electricity demand: short, targeted pipelines connecting existing systems to dedicated generation sites, often supported by single-shipper contracts and microgrid-based power generation. Regulatory pathways such as intrastate pipelines or FERC blanket-certificate laterals may also offer faster routes to construction.
The Transwestern project illustrates both the advantages and the limits of the blanket certificate model. The Green Chile Lateral was intentionally designed to remain below the prior notice cost threshold, and it has already drawn public opposition. Whether additional filings meet the Commission’s protest requirements, and whether the project ultimately proceeds under the blanket certificate process or converts into a full Section 7(c) certificate proceeding, remains worth tracking.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Green Chile Delivery Lateral?
It is a proposed 17.77-mile, 24-inch Transwestern lateral designed to carry up to 400,000 Dth/d from the El Paso Natural Gas system to power generation for the Project Jupiter data center in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, with an anticipated in-service date of August 15, 2026.
Why did Transwestern use FERC’s blanket certificate program?
The lateral was designed to stay just under the temporary $61.65 million prior notice cost threshold, letting it proceed after a 60-day notice period without case-by-case Commission approval unless a qualifying protest is filed.
Does a public comment stop a blanket certificate project?
No. A filing only converts the project to a full Section 7(c) proceeding if it meets FERC’s protest requirements. A general comment opposing gas infrastructure does not, and the Director of the Office of Energy Projects may dismiss a deficient protest within 10 days.
What is the Prosperity Line?
It is a proposed 30-mile, 24-inch intrastate natural gas pipeline from AIPCorp and Hope Gas that would serve the Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County, West Virginia, with phase-one construction beginning in April 2026.
