Fred V. Carstensen’s March 22 “Opinion: CT SB299 — Fear the Future, Data Centers, and AI” ignores the legislative events and legitimate concerns that led to the introduction of SB-299 in the first place.
First, House Bill 6514 (HB-6514), a law passed in 2021, incentivizes data center development. Under HB-6514, data centers built or rehabilitated in Connecticut will not pay property, sales, or use taxes for the life of the facility, typically 20 to 30 years. Instead, they must pay a payment in lieu of tax (PILOT) to the host municipality, which often results in unreasonably low fees when negotiated with the host municipality.
Connecticut relies on local property taxes for municipal budgets. Why sell poor municipalities short with HB-6514 Host Fee Agreement (aka PILOT)? Nothing pits a small municipality against a wealthy developer with a lawyer representing a multinational corporation, except for the developer's superior proposal.
In support of rushing passage of HB-6514, State Senator Mae Flexer sought to introduce Amendment LCO No. 4286, which would require the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to consider any data center proposal. Ignored. as emergency legislation. If Flexer’s sensible amendments had been included in his 2021, SB-299 would not have been necessary.
[RELATED: Legislature seeks data center study; Concerns raised over delays]
Not surprisingly, Thomas Quinn, CEO of NE Edge, LLC (NE Edge), the developer of the proposed hyperscale data center in Waterford, is currently wondering how large data centers will improve reliability. We are lobbying hard for SB-299, which we are studying to see if it will have an impact. of the state power grid. Developer Quinn never actually completed construction of the data center directly connected to the two reactors. Incredibly, Carstensen does not want to adopt SB-299, which would bring scrutiny to such projects.
NE Edge is building a 1.5 million square foot hyperscale data center with direct connectivity to Dominion reactors 2 and 3. Its size and the proposed direct connection would hinder the desired competition. NE Edge aims to siphon 300 megawatts (300 MW), or 15 percent (15%) of affordable nuclear power, and current and future developers will be able to siphon off 300 megawatts (300 MW), or 15 percent (15%), of affordable nuclear power from other parts of Connecticut's grid supply. You will pay the price. This is an obvious issue that raises antitrust questions.
Siphoning 15% of nuclear power to power Quinn's Waterford data center would create a grid shortage. Rather than selling all capacity to the grid wholesale market, Dominion plans to provide only 85% of its capacity per day. The shortage will disrupt the wholesale electricity market run by Independent System Operator New England (ISO-New England).
Siphoning affordable “base” nuclear production that would normally be sent to the grid means that ever more expensive market-setting resources will automatically be paid to Dominion through the ISO-New England unified clearing price auction. It is as good as a guarantee.
The grid shortages caused by Quinn's direct connection plan will almost certainly result in greater profits for Dominion shareholders at the expense of Connecticut's residential, commercial, and industrial power customers.
[RELATED: Proposed data center would get power from Millstone nuclear plant]
Quinn says ISO-New England has the capacity to replace its losses, but conveniently omitted that it plans to use a more expensive combination of resources, typically natural gas, to backfill. That price will soon be passed on to Connecticut ratepayers. . Quinn's attorney, Bill McCoy, continues to “greenwash” the nuclear project. However, a significant increase in the amount of natural gas used to generate electricity will result in a significant increase in pollution.
If both reactors go down at the same time, as happened for several weeks in 2023, what will sustain Quinn's massive data center and who will power it? What about the rest of us? Neither Dominion nor NE Edge LLC is providing Connecticut residents with that answer.
The ISO-New England/Eversource circuit with Millstone is dedicated and provides the minimum functionality needed to safely run cooling pumps and peripherals during shutdown, but for running a commercial data center is not required. So where do we get 300MW of energy 24/7 for weeks on end?
While Connecticut statutes provide procedures to follow for billing and collection of taxes and related vital record keeping, ongoing negotiations between developers and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development do not require the same How will standards be ensured?
Ignoring adoption of SB299 puts our well-being, economy, and environment at risk. All this aside, what good is a hyper-scale data center built for Bitcoin mining or AI?
We at Waterford and East Lyme (CCWEL) aren't afraid of data centers or AI. We are concerned about the loss of energy security due to unchecked technological development that needlessly harms Connecticut's residents and the environment.
In the case of NE Edge, LLC's Waterford proposal, there are significant violations of local property taxes, power grid deficiencies, antitrust concerns, significant increases in utility costs, and a critical environment at the hands of a developer with no track record of success. There are concerns about destruction. Sites.google.com/view/ccwel-resources/home
Brian Sayles is the founder of Concerned Citizens of Waterford and East Lyme (CCWEL).