---
title: "Evergy Sees $4 Billion of Generation Behind a Deal Digital Realty Has Not Signed"
description: "A 1.4-gigawatt letter of intent at a former Kansas ammunition plant is the durable news in a weather-inflated quarter. The funding decisions that come first are a Missouri rate order in December and a new capital plan in February; the contract is not expected until the first half of 2027."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Power"
published: 2026-11-13T20:07:53.285Z
modified: 2026-11-13T20:07:53.285Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/evergy-sees-4-billion-of-generation-behind-a-deal-digital-realty-has-not-signed
language: en
keywords: "Evergy, Digital Realty, Data Centers, Utilities, Rate Cases"
---

# Evergy Sees $4 Billion of Generation Behind a Deal Digital Realty Has Not Signed

> A 1.4-gigawatt letter of intent at a former Kansas ammunition plant is the durable news in a weather-inflated quarter. The funding decisions that come first are a Missouri rate order in December and a new capital plan in February; the contract is not expected until the first half of 2027.

Shares of [Evergy](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/evergy), the electric utility for Kansas and Missouri, touched an all-time high of $88.65 on November 5, 2026, on a quarter that, by the company's own arithmetic, leaned on the weather [1]. Adjusted earnings were $2.58 a share against $2.03 a year earlier, and chief financial officer Bryan Buckler put $0.46 of the increase down to weather, demand and large-customer revenue [2][3]. The durable news is a [letter of intent](https://fracmoo.com/data-centers/evergy-q3-digital-realty-1-4-gw-loi/) with [Digital Realty](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/digital-realty), the data-center developer, for 1.4 gigawatts at the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in Kansas, beside the customer's existing project [2].

## The letter is the headline; the contracts are smaller

The electric service agreement behind the letter is not expected until the first half of 2027, and the roughly $4 billion of generation Evergy anticipates for it, most of it utility-owned, sits outside the five-year capital plan [2][3]. What Evergy signed this quarter was amendments adding about 110 megawatts to existing agreements, with 140 more contingent on a transmission study due by year-end [2][3].

## A minimum bill pays for capacity before it is drawn

Five executed agreements carry about 2.6 gigawatts of eventual peak load on 15-to-17-year terms with binding minimum bills: a customer pays for reserved capacity whether or not it draws it [2][3]. Those customers draw 350 to 400 megawatts today; the first bar below is power actually flowing, and the rest is ramp still to come [2][3]. That minimum bill is what lets a regulated utility finance plants for load that does not yet exist, and management says the Digital Realty expansion alone could add about two percentage points to long-term rate-base growth [4].

*Chart: **Evergy's signed load grows about sixfold by 2030** Column chart: Evergy's contracted large-customer peak load, about 375 megawatts today, about 2,250 megawatts in 2030 and about 3,100 megawatts after 2030.*

*Aggregate peak demand from Evergy's five executed agreements and announced large customers, in megawatts; the 2030 figures are company expectations, and today's is a stated range of 350 to 400. Sources: Fracmoo; Zolmax. [2][3]*

## The funding decisions come before the contract

Evergy is already selling at-the-market equity, shares issued gradually into the market, with about $700 million priced this year against $700 million to $900 million a year through 2029 [3]. Evergy Missouri West, one of its two Missouri utilities, asked the Missouri Public Service Commission on November 3 for about $182.6 million more a year, roughly $17.25 a month on a typical residential bill; [interventions close on November 25](https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/955052502/psc-sets-intervention-deadline-in-evergy-missouri-west-rate-case-pr-27-35) [5].

Expected revenue from two data-center customers trims that request by about $61 million, the same ratepayer-protection fight [we watched Florida's regulators force on Duke Energy](https://theinference.org/article/florida-regulators-rejected-duke-energy-s-data-center-tariff-5-0-evergy-filed-61-million-less-in-missouri) [6]. Missouri Metro, the other Missouri utility, expects its rate order in December, and Kansas regulators rule by mid-2027 on a tariff rewrite adding non-refundable advance payments from large customers [2][3]. [Public hearings before the Missouri Public Service Commission on a new gas plant near St. Joseph](https://www.kxcv.org/news/2026-11-10/public-hearings-set-for-evergys-proposed-power-plant-near-st-joseph-and-a-battery-storage-facility-in-jasper-county), which our earlier piece tied to this build, open on November 16 [7].

*Chart: **Evergy's capital spending has outrun operating cash in six of the last eight quarters** Column chart of Evergy's quarterly capital spending and operating cash flow from the fourth quarter of 2024 through the third quarter of 2026: capital spending climbs from $0.51 billion to $0.90 billion and is the higher of the two in six of the eight quarters.*

*Capital spending and cash from operations, quarterly, in billions of dollars, from Evergy's SEC filings. Capital spending rose from $0.51 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to $0.90 billion in the third quarter of 2026, while operating cash flow stayed between $0.32 billion and $0.99 billion. The roughly $4 billion of generation for the Digital Realty letter sits outside the current five-year capital plan. Source: Evergy quarterly SEC filings, retrieved 13 November 2026. [9]*

## Digital Realty has promised that ratepayers will not pay

Digital Realty's chief executive, [Andrew Power](https://theinference.org/markets/people/andrew-power), told [his own October call](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/digital-realty-dlr-q3-2026-144450054.html) that the company is developing [the Sunflower site in De Soto, Kansas](https://theinference.org/article/digital-realty-is-offering-de-soto-households-up-to-1-000-a-year-to-say-yes-to-its-data-center), and landed one of the largest leases in its history in Kansas City this year [8]. His company has signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, whose commitment is that the cost of infrastructure for new data-center demand "should not be borne by residential customers and small businesses" [8].

If Digital Realty signs next year, Evergy collects on those minimum bills for power it finances now; if it walks, the growth case rests on a pipeline that is still letters, and the equity is already sold. The next marker is the February capital-plan update, when the $4 billion either enters the numbers or does not [2][3].

## Takeaway

Evergy's growth case now rests on 1.4 gigawatts that exist only as a letter of intent, while the equity to fund the generation is already being sold.

## Sources

1. [Investing.com India, "Evergy Inc stock hits all-time high at 88.65 USD", 5 November 2026](https://in.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/evergy-inc-stock-hits-alltime-high-at-8865-usd-93CH-5684262)
2. [Fracmoo, "Evergy's 1.4 GW Digital Realty Expansion Puts Kansas on the Data-Center Map, But an LOI Is Not Yet a Contract", 10 November 2026](https://fracmoo.com/data-centers/evergy-q3-digital-realty-1-4-gw-loi/)
3. [Zolmax, "Evergy Q3 Earnings Call Highlights", 8 November 2026](https://zolmax.com/investing/evergy-q3-earnings-call-highlights/12066758.html)
4. [Moby Intelligence via Yahoo Finance, "Evergy, Inc. Q3 2026 Earnings Call Summary", 5 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/evergy-inc-q3-2026-earnings-222933509.html)
5. [Missouri Public Service Commission via EIN Presswire, "PSC Sets Intervention Deadline in Evergy Missouri West Rate Case - PR-27-35", 6 November 2026](https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/955052502/psc-sets-intervention-deadline-in-evergy-missouri-west-rate-case-pr-27-35)
6. [When In Your State via Yahoo Finance, "Evergy Missouri West seeks $17.25 monthly electric bill increase", 12 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/evergy-missouri-west-seeks-17-213000810.html)
7. [KXCV-KRNW, "Public hearings set for Evergy's proposed power plant near St. Joseph and a battery storage facility in Jasper County", 10 November 2026](https://www.kxcv.org/news/2026-11-10/public-hearings-set-for-evergys-proposed-power-plant-near-st-joseph-and-a-battery-storage-facility-in-jasper-county)
8. [The Motley Fool via Yahoo Finance, "Digital Realty (DLR) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript", 30 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/digital-realty-dlr-q3-2026-144450054.html)
9. [Evergy, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001711269)


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Evergy Sees $4 Billion of Generation Behind a Deal Digital Realty Has Not Signed — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/evergy-sees-4-billion-of-generation-behind-a-deal-digital-realty-has-not-signed