Cotton Electric Cooperative CEO Jennifer Meason went before the Cotton County Board of Commissioners on October 5 with a straightforward message about the data centers, wind farms, and solar projects eyeing rural Oklahoma: new large loads cover their own costs. Cotton Electric is member-owned, and Meason said the co-op won’t let existing members subsidize infrastructure built for somebody else’s project.
The co-op does get regular inquiries from real estate site developers, but Meason said Cotton Electric doesn’t recommend sites or help procure power for data centers. There’s also a wrinkle in state law worth understanding. Facilities using more than one megawatt are classified as competitive load, meaning another utility could win the right to serve a project located inside Cotton Electric’s own service territory.
House Bill 2992, the Data Center Customer Ratepayer Protection Act, became Oklahoma law in 2026. It requires new data centers, crypto mining operations, and AI facilities using at least 75 megawatts to cover their own infrastructure and energy costs, and to notify nearby landowners and local officials. Cotton Electric goes further, requiring projects in the 250 to 500 megawatt range to generate their own power or hold a purchase power contract. If you own land in Cotton County, have you heard from a developer yet?
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