McGuireWoods partner Brian Kelly shared insights with Law360 for a Jan. 2, 2026, story on energy transactional trends to watch in the year ahead, including power demands for data centers and private equity investment in utilities.
Law360 called data centers “the energy deal story of 2025,” with no sign of a slowdown in 2026. Kelly said data center developers will continue pursuing innovative solutions to access the electricity needed to power facilities.
“You’ll see more off-grid, islanded projects, and behind-the-meter projects,” said Kelly, co-leader of McGuireWoods’ Energy Industry Team. “The inability to connect to the grid with any reasonable timeline right now is forcing companies to take a look at how much risk they’re willing to absorb for capacity, even if that means islanded projects.”
The power demands of data centers also drive private equity and infrastructure fund investment in electric utilities, Kelly added.
“I think utilities don’t have the balance sheets to manage the exposures associated with some of these large load deals,” Kelly said. “You’re going to see additional infrastructure funds and investors taking minority positions in utilities or utility affiliates to satisfy that demand.”
Kelly was part of a McGuireWoods team that advised NiSource Inc.’s subsidiary Northern Indiana Public Service Company LLC and its new subsidiary NIPSCO Generation LLC in structuring a groundbreaking electric service agreement with Amazon to supply up to 3 gigawatts of capacity for Amazon data center sites in NIPSCO’s Northern Indiana service territory.