Dual-market entry signals emerging Midwest capacity tier; constraint floor tightens as regional grid absorbs AI-class loads.
## Highlights
Both Tulsa and Oklahoma City have entered DC Hub's top-three build markets by excess-power index, each posting 75.6 excess-capacity score within the SPP footprint. This marks the first time two markets within a single regional transmission organization have simultaneously broken into the top tier in a single reporting cycle.
- **Tulsa** (SPP, OK): 75.6 excess; 49.9 constraint floor
- **Oklahoma City** (SPP, OK): 75.6 excess; 47.7 constraint floor
- **Midland–Odessa** (ERCOT, TX): 85.7 excess; 22.8 constraint floor (retained #1)
The SPP corridor's dual entry reflects accelerating demand-absorption capacity in the central US grid and signals that site-selection logic is now reaching beyond Texas into adjacent regional transmission footprints.
## What It Means
For capacity planners and site-selection leads, the emergence of two Oklahoma markets in the top tier compresses the geographic surface for brownfield and greenfield data-center siting in the South-Central US. Constraint floors in both cities remain above 47%, indicating headroom for additional AI-scale load without transmission congestion. This expands the viable siting window for mid-size (50–200 MW) campus builds outside ERCOT's tightening constraint profile.
The simultaneous rise of Tulsa and OKC also signals that regional planners are factoring SPP interconnection velocity and gas-fired generation capacity into their build timelines—a second-order read that utilities and transmission operators in the region are absorbing AI workload demand more efficiently than grid models predicted six months ago.
## Methodology
Excess-power index measures available generation and interconnection headroom relative to queued load. Constraint floor reflects the lowest transmission utilization gate in each market's local transmission network. Rankings are updated daily and reflect 24-hour rolling data. Markets are ranked on excess capacity first, with tie-breaking by constraint floor.
**Source:** DC Hub Data Center Power Index (https://dchub.cloud/dcpi). Updated daily.
---
**Press inquiries:** [email protected] · **DC Hub MCP API:** https://dchub.cloud/mcp