Data centers and energy

Virginia JLARC Report On DATA Centers

Overview

Data Center Alley is roughly 32 square miles in eastern Loudoun County, it consists of about 200 data centers with another ~117 additional sites in the pipeline. 

Data center property tax revenues comprise 31% of the Loudon County Budget. 

Take Aways

• The VA JLARC Report found that data centers’ power usage in Virginia is roughly equivalent to the electricity needs of 2 million Virginia households and is expected to double within 10 years. Within a 15 year timeframe the amount of energy that would need to be imported would increase by over 50% . 

• “Data centers are located across the state, but 80 percent of Virginia’s data center industry is concentrated in three Northern Virginia localities: Loudoun, Prince William, and Fairfax… Loudoun County alone accounts for approximately half of the state’s data center industry in terms of number of sites, building square footage, and estimated energy usage. The eastern part of the county north of Dulles International Airport has become known as “Data Center Alley” because of its high concentration of data centers. The remaining 20 percent of Virginia’s data center sites are in 11 other localities, with the most notable clusters in the Richmond region and Mecklenburg County.” [1]

• ” This level of large and sustained demand growth driven by a single large customer type would be unprecedented in recent U.S. history, and would place significant pressure on system planners’ ability to build sufficient generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure to keep pace.”

[1] VA JLARC Report, Page 6

References

1. Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report on Data Centers: 

See Data Centers In Virginia 

• Summary 
• Report
• Presentation
• Consumer Rate Study