Contracted MW and Energized MW Are Different Numbers

The number that gets misunderstood

Data-center companies often report capacity in megawatts. The number can describe a utility agreement, a customer contract, a building’s design capacity, a construction phase or a live load. These are not the same thing.

“Contracted MW” generally means capacity subject to an executed agreement. “Energized MW” means power has been delivered to the relevant electrical system and can serve a load, usually after interconnection, substation and commissioning steps. A project can have 400 MW contracted and 100 MW energized at the same time.

Applied Digital showed the distinction clearly in a 2026 investor presentation for its Polaris Forge 1 project: 400 MW contracted, 100 MW energized and 300 MW under construction. The numbers describe different stages of the same site, not a contradiction.

What contracted means

Contracted capacity can refer to a customer lease, a power-service agreement, a capacity reservation or another binding commitment. The exact definition depends on the company. A 2026 SEC filing described contracted power capacity as sellable power capacity subject to executed customer contracts, including capacity already generating revenue and capacity contracted but not yet in service.

A contract creates commercial visibility. It may support financing, construction planning and revenue forecasts. But it can still be conditional on permitting, customer deployment, construction, interconnection and acceptance.

The contract may also cover critical IT load rather than the total facility load. Critical IT load is the power available for servers, storage and network equipment. Cooling, lighting, pumps and building systems consume additional power. Two companies can report the same MW number while measuring different electrical boundaries.

What energized means

Energization is a physical milestone. It usually means a utility or on-site generator has energized the substation, switchgear or facility electrical system. It does not necessarily mean the data hall is fully commissioned or that customers are using the entire capacity.

A site can be energized in phases. The utility may energize one feeder or substation bay, allowing the first building to start commissioning while later phases remain under construction. The energized number can therefore be smaller than the contracted number and larger than the live IT load.

Core Scientific’s 2025 filing distinguishes gross utility power capacity, total leasable customer power capacity and other measures. It warns that these metrics are management estimates based on operational and engineering data and may not be comparable with similarly titled metrics from other operators.

The conversion chain

A typical project passes through a sequence:

1. Land and permits.
2. Utility study and capacity reservation.
3. Executed power or customer contract.
4. Equipment procurement and construction.
5. Interconnection approval.
6. Substation energization.
7. Data-hall commissioning.
8. Customer installation and load ramp.
9. Revenue-producing utilization.

At each stage, the risk changes. Contract risk concerns customer commitment and termination rights. Construction risk concerns labor, equipment and cost. Energization risk concerns utility work, protection testing and safety. Load-ramp risk concerns servers, networking, cooling and customer deployment.

How to read a project slide

Start with definitions and dates. Does the slide say “as of June 30” or “expected by 2028”? Is the metric gross capacity, critical IT load or customer demand? Does it include future phases, options or capacity that is not yet under construction?

Then reconcile the numbers. If contracted MW is higher than energized MW, ask what must happen to close the gap. If energized MW is higher than operating MW, ask whether the balance is commissioned, reserved for a customer or simply available.

The gap is not automatically a problem. A new campus may intentionally build electrical infrastructure ahead of tenant installation. But a large gap needs funding, equipment and a dated customer ramp.

The revenue connection

Contracted capacity is often used as a proxy for future revenue. That can be useful if the contract has a clear term, price, minimum commitment and commencement date. It is weaker if the customer can delay deployment, terminate, reduce load or avoid payments until acceptance.

Energized capacity is closer to an operational asset, but even it does not prove revenue. A facility can have power but no commissioned servers, no customer acceptance or no billable load.

BOSSTOX reporting discipline

BOSSTOX should report at least four numbers where available:

• Contracted customer IT load.
• Utility or site power capacity.
• Energized capacity.
• Live or revenue-producing IT load.

Each should include the date, definition and boundary. If the company gives only one number, quote the company’s wording and avoid translating it into a stronger claim.

BOSSTOX takeaway

Megawatts are not interchangeable. Contracted MW tells you what someone has committed to. Energized MW tells you what the electrical system has made physically available. Operating MW tells you what equipment is running. Revenue-producing MW tells you what is being billed.

The difference between those numbers is where a large part of data-center development risk lives.

Energization also has a technical meaning that should be stated. A utility may energize a substation, while the customer’s medium-voltage distribution remains locked out for testing. A site may have a live feeder but no commissioned UPS, cooling plant or generator synchronization. Conversely, a customer may run a temporary load before the permanent campus is complete. These cases make the phrase “energized” useful but incomplete.

The cleanest company disclosure presents a table with contracted, under construction, energized, commissioned and occupied MW. It should identify whether each figure is gross utility power, critical IT load or actual demand. Analysts can then calculate the conversion gap instead of relying on a single headline number.

A contract can also cover future customer capacity that has not yet been accepted. The company may describe the customer as committed while billing begins only after a hall is delivered. This is why contracted MW is useful for backlog and revenue visibility but should not be treated as current load. The gap can close quickly, or it can remain open through multiple quarters if construction, utility work or customer deployment slips.

The practical test is whether the next physical milestone has an owner and a date. If a project has a utility agreement but no transformer delivery date, the conversion risk is high. If the substation is energized but the customer has not installed equipment, the risk has moved from power to deployment.