Data centers pushing Phoenix area’s power grid to the limit

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Phoenix area is a hub for a new kind of high-tech business. They are called data centers, and they serve as storage facilities for online information, including photos, videos, spreadsheets, files, and nearly everything that modern humans don’t store on their own phones or computers.

“All of that data that we’re using has to be stored somewhere,” said Kevin Thompson, who is the chairman of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

He says the speed at which data centers began popping up across the Valley and the state is alarming. “I think it took everyone by surprise,” said Thompson.

Roughly 140 are operating today, with dozens more waiting in the wings.

These are not ordinary “9 to 5″ businesses; they are large. Some are taking up as much acreage as entire neighborhoods. They consume large amounts of electricity and water 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

“We do not have the energy and transmission infrastructure to support the amount of energy that’s being requested of us,” said Patrick Bogle, who is the data center strategy director at APS.

Bogle says the power company is having to turn away potential data center customers because they require such a large amount of electricity.

Currently, data centers use about 350 megawatts of electricity from APS. Last summer, the company saw its highest demand ever, at 8,200 megawatts. Bogle says that if every data center that wanted to set up shop in APS’ service area were able to do so, the electricity demand would be 19,000 megawatts.

“So the ultimate goal for APS is reliability and affordability for our existing customers,” said Bogle. “We’ve been able to tell data center customers, ‘We can serve you, but just not now.’”

Bogle says APS is working to increase its capacity, but that may take some time.

In early July, the Phoenix City Council voted to begin regulating the location of data centers. Councilmembers listed as community members, firefighters and others spoke out about the potential harm to neighborhoods, the environment and to first responders in the event of a fire or other problem.

But it’s a different issue that Thompson is concerned about. “I’m strictly looking at the power side of things, the energy they use. How can we ensure that the data centers are paying their fair share, paying their own way?” said Thompson, who opened an investigation to answer those questions.

He says his job is to ensure that electric companies are not charging residential consumers for the upgrades they need to make to provide electricity to data centers.

APS has vowed to abide by that guidance. “We don’t want that situation where grandma down the street on a fixed income is having to pay for high-tech company X over here to be building a data center on their dime,” said Bogle.

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