Compared to some other states, Florida is late to the data-center game.
But with explosive growth in the use of artificial intelligence and other technology, Florida utilities, regulators and lawmakers are preparing for what could be an influx of data centers that would use massive amounts of electricity and tap water resources.
The state House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee on Tuesday held a hearing that included testimony from a Florida Power & Light vice president and two data-center industry officials that focused heavily on energy use.
The hearing came after the Florida Public Service Commission last month approved an FPL rate settlement that includes addressing costs of adding electric infrastructure that would be needed for data centers. Duke Energy Florida has filed a proposal at the regulatory commission to address similar issues.
A key question has been how to make electric-system upgrades without saddling existing utility customers with costs.
The FPL settlement includes two sets of what are known as “tariffs” — which essentially detail types of rates — that are designed for such large energy users as data centers. One of those tariffs focuses on Southeast Florida’s Treasure Coast region, where FPL has significant infrastructure such as transmission lines.
Tiffany Cohen, FPL’s vice president of rate and regulatory strategy, said the utility is trying to be “proactive” because it knows such large customers are coming.
“We’ve tried to flip this and say we know we have to build new generation to serve these (large) customers, and they should be the ones to pay for it,” Cohen said.
Adding data centers is one of the biggest issues in the electric industry, with utilities taking steps that include restarting nuclear power plants to try to meet demands.
On Monday, NextEra Energy, the parent company of FPL, announced a partnership with Google Cloud to “develop multiple, new gigawatt-scale data center campuses with accompanying generation and capacity.” An FPL spokesman said the projects are not planned in Florida.
Florida has not seen the type of data-center development that has happened in states such as Virginia. But in recent months, proposals have emerged for data-center projects in areas such as Palm Coast, Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Polk counties and have sparked controversy. Palm Coast is permitting a data center in Town Center, but the city continues to refuse to disclose any regulatory information about it.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, described public opposition to data-center projects as the “elephant in the room” and cited issues such as environmental concerns. In addition to questions about electricity use, data centers use large amounts of water for cooling purposes.
Supporters of data-center projects point to issues such as job creation and investments in communities. C.J. Maier, a senior vice president of Cielo Digital Infrastructure, which develops data centers, also told lawmakers that information cited by opponents about water usage is often outdated, as new technology has become more efficient.
It remains unclear whether lawmakers will address data-center issues during the legislative session that will start Jan. 13. But in June, lawmakers approved a tax package that included extending and expanding a sales-tax exemption for data centers.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
Deborah Coffey says
Data centers are a very bad idea since no regulation is in place. And, why are WE having to pay FP&L for all the electricity and infrastructure needed for the Town Center data center? Palm Coasters are about to regret the day. Please stop voting for Republicans. They keep costing you a fortune with absolutely no benefit to you.
DeSantisRocks says
Your hatred of Republicans is a bit funny. The political angle here doesn’t really fit. Data centers aren’t a Republican thing or a Democrat thing. They’re just infrastructure. And the idea that Palm Coasters are paying FPL for their power isn’t accurate. Data centers buy their own electricity at commercial rates and fund their own build out the same way every other large business does. If someone wants to debate zoning or impact, that’s fair, but it’s not tied to any party.
What we actually get is tax revenue, high paying jobs, and infrastructure upgrades. We already rely on data centers every time we bank, shop, stream, or argue online. Having one here doesn’t introduce new risks. It just brings the benefits closer while the companies foot the bill.
Celia says
Did you read this whole excellent editorial? : It remains unclear whether lawmakers will address data-center issues during the legislative session that will start Jan. 13. “But in June, lawmakers approved a tax package that included extending and expanding a sales-tax exemption for data centers”.
We can’t afford the water or the power for the unit approved in Town Center, unless we will accept further increases in our already high rates!
Pogo says
@If you live on this planet
… in a developed country, data centers are literally a necessity (and their lack, an insurmountable disadvantage). The pricks living in the clouds with private jets, with mansions decorated by ornamental fountains of human tears, take everything — because they can, because they’re utterly indifferent to the cost they pile on everyone else’s back; because the rest of us accept it.
Eat up, it’s all that there is.
Skibum says
Who is going to pay for the huge amount of electrical power as well as all of the water needed for cooling is but one of the many questions for regulators and state legislators. How about privacy concerns for the nearly unlimited amount of personal data these centers will process and store? How about security of the infrastructure to prevent bad actors and cyber criminal from either hacking into or sabotaging the systems?
As more and more data centers are built, and more and more of our society’s critically important data is sucked up into the massive systems necessary to support our day-to-day lives, what do people think would happen if some catastrophic event that was man made or from a natural disaster completely shut down one or more data centers?
There are a lot of questions and concerns that need to be addressed, and right now I don’t believe adequate answers and protections are forthcoming from the companies who are building these data centers. If we are not careful, all of us are potentially going to be victims, while the companies who own all of these data centers just tell us “sorry, it was something that nobody could have foreseen happening”, yada yada yada, the same old worn out corporate excuses they use when they do not want to spend the necessary capital to protect our data in the first place.
We have seen it time and time again. What makes anyone think these data centers will be a different story?
DeSantisRocks says
My guy, data centers are everywhere. The physical location of a data center has precisely zero bearing on any of your technical concerns regarding security or private information. Physical location is only relevant when it comes to data sovereignty which is only a concern for those firms that require it.
Having more data centers is a good thing, more jobs, more infrastructure, more opportunity.
I get the concerns, I really do. But some of this reads like people think a data center is going to roll into Flagler County, drain every lake, blow out the power grid, steal our data, and then shrug like a cartoon villain. That’s not how any of this works.
Yes, AI data centers can use water. You know what else uses insane amounts of water? Golf courses, paper mills, and every Florida lawn someone insists on watering at 3 PM in August. Modern data centers at least track and optimize their usage instead of pretending it’s ‘just part of life.’ And the newer cooling systems are either closed loop or air cooled anyway, so we’re not talking about a building with a garden hose running nonstop.
As for power and utilities, taxpayers aren’t buying the electricity or the water. Data centers pay for what they use at commercial rates. Utilities love them because they’re stable long term customers, which actually leads to better infrastructure for everyone else.
Privacy and security? These companies survive only if they get that right. If they mess it up, it’s not ‘sorry folks, who could’ve seen this coming.’ It’s lawsuits, fines, regulators breathing down their neck, and a CEO doing the walk of shame on CNBC. They follow compliance frameworks thicker than a Bible study group’s reading list.
And the idea that one facility going offline would collapse civilization is adorable. These companies have more redundancy than a conspiracy theorist has browser tabs open. Your bank isn’t going down because one building in Palm Coast lost a breaker.
What we actually get is tax revenue, high paying jobs, and infrastructure upgrades. We already rely on data centers every time we bank, shop, stream, or argue online. Having one here doesn’t introduce new risks. It just brings the benefits closer while the companies foot the bill.
Pogo says
@Welcome to the monkey house — and going home
… please stay on the line (it’s a two-minute read — for God’s sake).
Goodbye to paper again? Fed is considering eliminating its use
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/goodbye-to-paper-again-fed-is-considering-eliminating-its-use/ar-AA1S22gU?ocid=nl_article_link
Good night, and good luck.
BIG Neighbor says
I thought the value of having a town center is to design space for human-centric habitat? In stead we’re being pushed out by automation? Wha’s the density ratio of human to sq ft in this tax revenue scheme? Yeah, machines may not be in charge, but the net effect is WE are without traditional consumer protections afforded by regulation. Government alone is not the problem; privatization is not the problem.
Laurel says
Okay, so I’ve been conservatively watering my lawn, on certain days, and certain hours, for thirty years, for the masses moving here, for tourists, and now, for big data bros?
FPL wants to average my monthly bill so it won’t look so bad?
Big money always gets its way.
Little to no employees, yet they grab every last watt they can from us. says
I could go either way with data centers.
The problem I have is that in the event of a power outage, I can guarantee you that the data center will receive priority, while my home can wait.
Anyone notice how close this is to the hospital?
I understand that the hospital, and other “essential” services must have priority restoring electricity as their emergency generators can’t run forever.
But if you as me, this data center should be the absolute last customer to have it’s electricity restored.
DeSantisRocks says
I get the worry about power restoration, but the idea that the utility company is going to shove your house to the back of the line so a data center can keep its GPUs warm is kind of giving data centers superpowers they just don’t have. Utilities prioritize based on public safety, not who has the biggest building with blinking lights. Hospitals, fire stations, water treatment, 911 infrastructure… yes, they get priority. A private data center does not magically leapfrog them.
And honestly, the data center being near the hospital doesn’t mean they get treated the same. It just means they found a convenient spot with good fiber routes and zoning. They are not linking arms with AdventHealth and demanding VIP status on the grid.
Plus, data centers have massive UPS banks and diesel generators that last for days. They are literally designed to not need priority restoration. They are the opposite of a fragile customer. If anything, they make fewer demands on emergency crews because they can sit there humming along while everyone else gets fixed.
So no, your home is not going to be held hostage while some server rack gets plugged back in. In a real outage, the data center is the one customer that can wait without anyone dying, panicking, or losing drinking water. And they certainly aren’t getting bumped to the front because they bought a lot of GPUs.
Tommy truth says
We get republicans support terrorism, pedophiles, murders, and violating the constitution for their pedo king, but the rest of us are ready to remove these crooks and make a government that supports humans. It’s unamerican and unchristian to support republicans!
Data Do IT says
Y’all, data centers have been around for quite a while now. I’ve built and worked in and around them my entire 40 year career. They come and they go. Same electrical demands. Same water demands. Water doesn’t just disappear, ya know. Fact is, they’re far more effecient now versus just a decade ago. There will surely be some solar imcorporated to offset costs and electrical availability. We happen to live next to an ocean and on top of one of the world’s largest freshwater reservoirs. It just makes for sound, fiscal investment to have one here. The footprint of the Town Center facility will actually be smaller than many of the data centers I’ve worked in all around Florida. Look, for reference, all of you old fogies surely recall the ugly big brick buildings with no windows in every small town all over our area, right? Those are/were data centers. Telco Central Offices. With the giant behemoth obnoxious gas generators outside. So let’s not overthink this. It really isn’t that big of a deal, locally here in Flagler that is. Quite frankly it’s a long overdue “utility” needed for our area. We’ve never had the luxury of an old brick telco building to curse at like towns with more than a 30 year history.