Municipalities across Pennsylvania are being urged to put in place an ordinance regulating data center development as the number of projects being announced continues to accelerate. Data centers are large warehouse-like buildings that house networked computers, storage systems, and computing infrastructure used to store, process, and distribute massive amounts of data. These energy-intensive centers operate 24/7 to support cloud services, AI, internet traffic, and online appl

Pennsylvania’s utility regulator recently approved an order to guide how data centers and other energy-intensive customers can connect to the electric grid to ensure that existing ratepayers don’t shoulder the costs for infrastructure upgrades. The Public Utility Commission unanimously approved a model tariff for large load customers following an extensive review to address the rapid expansion of large load customers and the potential impacts on customer costs, infrastructure

The rising demand and cost for energy has put the issue at the forefront of policy discussions at both the federal and state levels. Regional electric grid operator PJM Interconnection has been struggling to streamline and update its regulations to be able to quickly connect new power generation project to the grid at the same time it is seeing a rapid increase in electric demand from data center operators and other large-load customers. This has led to a supply-demand imbal

Governors of states in the PJM Interconnection regional footprint recently reached a statement of principles with federal officials at the White House on a plan to speed up construction of new power generation projects to meet rising data center demand while ensuring that the costs are paid by developers and not consumers. Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro was one of the bipartisan group that met to sign the statement urging PJM to quickly take several actions, including keeping a pric