Oracle Wisconsin AI Campus Faces Grid-Permit Delay to 2028

Oracle's planned 902 MW AI datacenter in Port Washington, Wisconsin cannot energize until state regulators approve a more than $2 billion transmission build to feed it, and in the base case now circulating among analysts, full power will not arrive until October 2028, well past the H2 2027 delivery Oracle had targeted. The Register reports on Project Lighthouse, a Vantage-developed site with 1.3 GW of total electricity demand and Oracle as tenant.

"The problem is power," analysis firm Aterio writes. "The campus cannot run until ATC connects it to the grid, and ATC cannot start building until the PSC approves its application." American Transmission Company's filing to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin is the gating item. The PSC closed the original case after withdrawing its finding that ATC's application was complete, and ATC refiled in September, restarting the approval process.

Aterio's base case puts partial power in December 2027 and full supply in October 2028. An extended regulatory review could push those dates to June 2028 and April 2029. "In practice, a datacenter does not run as soon as first grid power arrives," the firm notes, and even the December 2027 scenario leaves almost no runway for commissioning before Oracle's customer deadline.

Oracle has guided to as much as $95 billion in FY2027 capex, up from $55.7 billion in FY2026 against $67.4 billion of revenue. Aterio estimates annual financing costs for the Lighthouse power commitments at more than $100 million before any customer load arrives. Lighthouse's timeline lands a week after Oracle sent a force majeure notice on Blue Owl Capital's Project Jupiter in New Mexico, one of 17 Oracle stories we have tracked across the past 90 days.