NY Communities Near Hyper-Scaled AI Data Centers - Grid Impact

Sharing this story as I get ready to drive to Genesee County for the part II. This one began while I was reporting as a freelancer on the North East Supply Enhancement (NESE) Pipeline and I noticed that the NYISO interconnection queue had over a dozen "hyper-scaled" AI data centers all waiting to connect to the grid: triple the figure from 2024 and requiring thousands more MWs of power from the grid. Only a few of them had been reported in and only in local publications. The independent researchers I spoke to criticized NYISO's projection of state energy needs for being over-inflated, so I set out to see if this influx of data centers was connected to the new fossil fuel projects. https://lnkd.in/e4M_a9Y3 This investigation took about five months. I went whale watching with environmentalists, marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, interviewed experts and legislators, confronted the grid's managers and spent hours staring at various spreadsheets/documents off the clock. I even drove eight hours over night to Genesee county to speak with the chief of the Tonawanda-Seneca Nation's Bear Clan. I'll be heading out soon to try and share more of these hyper-local stories to a larger audience. I'll always be grateful for the editors at amNewYork and Schneps Media for helping me edit down this one; get to the heart of the issues. TLDR: Like most stories, the answer was yes and no. The projected numbers were mainly focused on a projected boom of economic growth due to tech manufacturing plants after the last federal administration passed the CHIPS Act. And while the state keeps pushing for renewable energy, the current administration repealed many of the federal tax breaks and incentives for these projects, so thousands were scrapped and NY is even more behind the Climate Act's 2030 goal. While that did put the state's new fossil fuel plans into perspective, I did not meet a single community that approved of a hyper-scaled data center in their neighborhood. Especially considering that rate-payers would have to subsidize the new load on the local grid. Companies had also misrepresented the number of jobs and environmental impact these facilities would have on their communities. After hearing the backlash, Gov. Hochul approved the one year moratorium on data center construction and required companies pay a larger premium to connect. Now I'll be reaching out to everyone from this story to hear how they feel about it and what other problems they hope the state addresses before it's lifted. Give this a read if you're interested in how these data centers would impact the grid and people of New York. And please do let me know if there are other communities out there like Tonawanda-Seneca Nation or Genesee County, as I'd love to speak with them.