DATA CENTERS: Industry's power consumption worries NEPA residents concerned about property values, electric rates

The view from Doreen Cherenyock’s “serenity spot” is skewed in Sugarloaf Twp.

From her porch in southern Luzerne County, Cherenyock was once able to look out over reclaimed mine land and see trees for miles. Now, the trees stop where land was cleared across the mountain at the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Twp.

In early December, she opened the door to the deck on the second floor of her home near Tomhicken.

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"When we had our house appraised a few years back, we were told that the view adds about $35,000 to $40,000 to our home," Cherenyock said.

"As you could see, it's gone,” she added.

Under development across from her home is NorthPoint Development’s Project Hazlenut, a 15-building data center campus in the industrial park, according to documents presented to Luzerne County Council.

Brian Stahl, NorthPoint's executive vice president of strategic initiatives, said there are limits on what they can share at this stage of development.

"We can say that we take community concerns seriously, and we are committed to being responsive and responsible throughout the process," he said. "We encourage residents with questions or issues to contact NorthPoint Development so we can address concerns promptly."

Stahl added that NorthPoint is reviewing their site practices and strengthening its approach to communication, scheduling and reasonable mitigation measures.

"So that the community has clearer expectations and fewer surprises," he said.

Residents, like Cherenyock, are not only opposed to the data center campus but to a 500kV transmission line that PPL Electric Utilities plans to run through the region.

Residents believe the line will help power the industrial park. PPL said it won't specifically serve the industrial park but was requested by multiple new customers and will support "growing demand for power in this area.”

PPL also says the line will run along an existing right-of-way that is being expanded from 100 feet wide to 200 feet wide to accommodate the line. Maps show its southern terminus will be at PPL's existing Harwood Substation within the industrial park.

Despite what the utility says, Cherenyock and others say they worry the line will diminish their quality of life.

"The people are saying, ‘you know what, just because you have money doesn't give you the right to destroy our lives and our livelihoods and our peace of mind, our grandchildren still have a life to live. What's it going to be like for them?” she said.

"At this point in our lives, we should be just sitting back and enjoying ... I call this serenity mountain,” said Cherenyock, a three-time cancer survivor.

Instead of relaxing, she joined her neighbors to oppose at least eight data center developments in or around Luzerne County and to fight the transmission line.

The controversy spotlights another key aspect of data center development: The facilities use significant amounts of power.

'100% of power, 100% of the time'

Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon are predicted to spend $364 billion this year to accelerate the construction of new data centers across the U.S., according to Harvard Law Today.

If successful, that investment will translate into vastly increased power consumption, because data centers are energy-intensive operations.

In June, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced it will invest at least $20 billion to open data centers in Luzerne and Bucks counties and other parts of the state. AWS will operate a data center next to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Salem Twp.

The servers inside, which house the brains of artificial intelligence and online computing, need to run 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week. Project locations are often chosen for their proximity to power infrastructure, according to representatives of the many proposals in Northeast Pennsylvania.

"These are entities that typically need 100% of their power, 100% of the time … there's no off shift or days off, or, ‘hey, we're doing low or a cleaning week’ or whatever … these need constant, uninterrupted power,” said Nicole Luciano, Director of Policy at Energy Association of Pennsylvania.

The trade association represents distribution utilities, like PPL Electric Utilities, which serves 29 counties and half a million customers across the state.

PPL officials say the rise of artificial intelligence is a significant driver of the increased power usage by data centers.

"If you're using a Google search, for example, what we hear anecdotally is that it uses one unit of energy, whereas if you're using generative AI, it uses 10 times the amount,” said Shelby A. Linton-Keddie, PPL's senior director of government, regulatory and external affairs. "That's why you're seeing the size of consumption much larger than in the past, because as artificial intelligence changes, so do the electricity needs.”

The Pew Research Center analyzed an International Energy Agency (IEA) report called “Energy and AI.”

“U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2024, according to IEA estimates. That works out to more than 4% of the country’s total electricity consumption last year — and is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity demand of the entire nation of Pakistan,” the Pew analysis says.

And most of that electricity — about 60% on average — powers the servers that process and store digital information, the IEA says.

By 2028, data centers could consume 6.7% to 12.0% of electricity in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2024 Report on U.S. Data Center Energy Use.

“The rapid growth in accelerated servers has caused current total data center energy demand to more than double between 2017 and 2023, and continued growth in the use of accelerated servers for AI services could cause further substantial increases by the end of this decade,” the report states.

Dan Diorio is vice president of State Policy for the Data Center Coalition, a national trade association for the industry. He said energy costs can represent 80% or more of regular operating expenses for data center operators.

In September, Stephen M. DeFrank, chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, testified during the Pennsylvania Senate Democrats Policy Committee Hearing on Data Centers at Marywood University.

DeFrank said the electric demand from these data centers is unprecedented.

“Interconnection of data center customers is similar to creating a brand-new city but placing its demand on a relatively small geographic footprint,” he said.

Will data centers push electric rates up?

At public meetings across the region, residents often ask if their electricity costs will skyrocket because of the data center campuses. It’s a major fear for community members, who are already faced with increasing utility costs. They worry that utilities will choose to power data centers over homes.

Data center growth is overwhelming longstanding approaches to approving utility rates, according to the Harvard University research paper "Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power."

Luciano from the Energy Association of Pennsylvania said the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is trying to stay on top of what's happening with residents’ electric bills as more heavy-load customers go onto the grid.

“There's, again, a misconception in the public sphere, I think that, ‘hey, a data center is going to come in and … all those costs are going to get socialized to everyone,'” she said.

There are rules in place that govern how those costs are distributed, Luciano said, adding that utility companies deal with all large-load customers on an individual basis.

"Again, based on what they're bringing, what they're using, where they are in the system, right where they are in the queue, like did ... some other huge project just interconnect," she said. "I would say that there are very rarely any situations where a data center is going to come in and only residential customers are going to be paying for all the upgrades the data center needs to onboard. That's just not, that's not reality.”

Pennsylvania has 11 primary electric distribution companies regulated by the PUC. The state's electrical net energy use for residential, commercial, industrial, sales for resale and other in 2024 was 142,644 gigawatt hours, according to the PUC.

PPL's system peak right now is 7.8 gigawatts per year, Linton-Keddie said.

"Right now we have 20.5 gigawatts of potential load growth with these customers, and that number means that they have some sort of signed agreement with us," she said. "But we are anticipating load growth of more than three times of where we are today over the next 10 years.”

Linton-Keddie said a study and analysis is done for every large load customer, like a data center.

“So we can figure out, first, what kind of upgrades are needed on the system. And then secondly, what we determine is what is needed just for that customer versus what part of that infrastructure upgrade benefits the system as a whole," she said. "The portion of any line or any project that is directly for that customer is paid for by that customer, and then the portion of that line and or upgrade that has systemwide benefits is allocated to all customers.”

PPL is required to file documentation with the PUC regarding such upgrades and who will bear the costs.

"It's not something that PPL just decides and puts into place. It's something that we propose, we work with other stakeholders, we participate in an open proceeding in front of the state regulator, and then a decision is made that includes cost allocation,” she said.

'Good partners on the grid'

Diorio said data centers are among several entities driving increased demand on the nation's electricity grid.

“You have advanced manufacturing coming back, onshore and reshoring. You have continued electrification of vehicles, homes and businesses, and you also have emerging hydrogen production,” he said. “All of these factors are coming together, and they are economic factors in driving new electricity demand.”

And, he said, increased energy use "really is reflective of consumer and business demand for digital infrastructure, so we are all driving that continuous need for electricity to provide the services we rely on every day," Diorio said.

From Luciano’s perspective, over the past 20 years, despite the electrification of more consumer products, she said the amount of power that the system needed was relatively flat, and the amount of power generated has met the demand.

She fears that more data centers and other large industrial customers coming online will exceed the amount of power being generated.

"Now, with the projections that you're seeing ... the supply that we have, it hasn't come up to meet it,” Luciano said.

Diorio said the data center industry is very energy-efficient as a whole, and there is a built-in financial motivation to be as efficient as possible.

“Data centers are a much more efficient way of centralizing all the computing, processing, and storage that we need,” he said. “We know from 2010 to 2018, when we saw the emergence of data centers, computing output rose 550% while energy consumption only rose 6%.”

Areas of the country with higher electricity load growth are actually seeing lower prices overall, Diorio said, and data centers are committed to paying their full cost of service for electricity.

"Again, we're leaning in with regulators, utilities and grid operators to do just that, to ensure fair cost allocation and to protect ratepayers as well," he said.

"They work with utilities to be good partners on the grid as well," Diorio added. "And actually, what we're seeing across the country is that areas of the country with higher electricity load growth are actually seeing lower prices overall."

Doreen Cherenyock

Proposed Luzerne County line: Where, what & how

Many residents suspect PPL's 500kV Sugarloaf Transmission line will run from the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station to the Humboldt Industrial Park.

Maps from PPL show the line running along an existing right-of-way between a switchyard in Nescopeck to its existing Harwood Substation in Hazle Twp.

The Nescopeck terminus is several miles south of the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station and on the opposite side of the Susquehanna River.

Harwood Substation is, however, within the industrial park.

PPL Electric Utilities' Sugarloaf Project presentation

WVIA News asked PPL if residents' suspicions about the route are accurate.

“While this project doesn’t connect directly to the power plant or industrial park, it’s important to note that the transmission grid is a system of pathways that move electricity from where it is generated to where there is demand for power,” PPL spokesperson Dana Burns said.

“In that respect, the Sugarloaf project, along with other transmission lines, play a supporting role in the flow of power," Burns added. "By creating additional pathways for electricity delivery, we’re ensuring customers have dependable service while meeting the growing demand for power in this area.”

PPL has a website dedicated to the project, which says that multiple new customers have requested electric service to power their proposed southern Luzerne County site.

The 12-mile line is planned to run through Nescopeck, Black Creek, Sugarloaf and Hazle townships.

Regardless of where the transmission line begins and ends, for John Zola, the line could be 100 feet from his grandsons’ bedroom on his 40-acre apple orchard in Sugarloaf Twp.

"They want to put a 500kV, so half a million volts of electricity, right diagonally through my property,” he said. "It is right in their yard where they play, this is literally right by my daughter's house.”

The proposed transmission line will be designed and built for 500 kV operation but will initially operate at 230 kV until the load needs to be increased, according to PPL.

Wider poles are needed to carry the line. New poles will be wider by 100 feet on either side and will be between 100 and 240 feet tall, with an average height of approximately 200 feet.

The right-of-way will double in width to 200 feet, according to PPL.

Zola’s family all live on the property. Zola and his wife built a new house on their land and moved in in October 2024.

"So one month after we were in, they knock on our door and tell us they want to put this line through our property.”

PPL plans to use an existing right-of-way corridor, Burns noted.

“The route was selected based on a comprehensive evaluation of the project need and the study area,” according to PPL’s plans. “Any alternative location for the line would be through undeveloped areas and would have substantially more cumulative impact than the selected route, which utilizes a corridor that previously contained a transmission line.”

The utility also plans to construct two new switchyards, which transmit electricity from a power plant into large transmission lines, according to PPL.

“The proposed Nescopeck Switchyard will be located in Nescopeck Township, near PPL Electric’s existing Sunbury-Susquehanna transmission lines,” said Burns. “The proposed Tomhicken Switchyard will be located in Hazle Township, near a new customer facility, and adjacent to PPL Electric’s existing Susquehanna-Harwood transmission lines.”

PPL: 'Not just for one customer'

The lines will interconnect the two proposed switchyards and the Harwood Substation, as well as extend power to a customer’s facility, Burns said.

"We anticipate growth in that area many more times over where we are today,” PPL's Linton-Keddie said. “But it's not just for one customer, and it really is for regional reliability in that area.”

As a regulated public utility, PPL has to provide nondiscriminatory access to its system, Linton-Keddie said. Statutorily, they have to give everyone access to their system.

"Now, with that said, as requests are coming in we work and we study our system, and that's how we help determine maybe the best location, what kind of investments are needed, and we are working with our customers and our regulators and other stakeholders to not only determine what that need is, but do it in a way that's orderly so we can make sure that everyone else's service remains reliable and as affordable as we can,” she added.

Power from the grid

Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program, argues that more demand for energy, with no corresponding increase in supply, means higher prices for everyone in the research paper "Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power."

"When a utility expands its system in anticipation of growing consumer demand, ratepayers share the costs of that expansion based on the premise that society benefits from growing electricity use," the paper says.

Utility companies, like PPL, are separate from energy suppliers, including power plants or solar facilities.

"The utility company that you get your bill from that delivers your power is not the same entity that creates the power or makes sure that there's enough power,” Peskoe said.

That overarching entity in Pennsylvania is PJM, the regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

"The supply itself really comes from the competitive marketplace, so either from generators or independent power producers,” Linton-Keddie said, noting again that PPL provides transmission and distribution.

“They (PJM) make sure that there is enough transmission to … transmit electricity from generators to the ultimate destination, so where customers are located. But then the other portion that PJM does … is that they also hold capacity auctions to make sure that, forward looking, there is enough supply to match forecasted demand,” she said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is a proponent of bringing tech businesses to Pennsylvania, met with other governors from PJM states in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 16.

Shapiro warned that rising energy costs could be passed directly onto consumers unless immediate action is taken. His administration sued PJM in 2024 to put a cap on rates, which stopped bill increases from PJM to the utility companies.

In the nation’s capital, he signed a statement of principles, along with the 13 governors from PJM states, “to advance a coordinated plan to reform PJM Interconnection, accelerate the construction of new energy generation, and protect families and businesses from rising electricity costs.”

During his budget address on Tuesday Shapiro announced a set of standards that his administration will use to hold data center developers accountable.

One of the standards is that developers must commit to bringing their own power generation or pay entirely for the new generation that they will need.

Luciano said that if all the planned or projected data centers were to come online immediately, it would be a big problem.

"Because we do not have enough electricity to power all of those things,” she said.

To create enough electricity, Luciano said an "all of the above" approach is needed — that means creating more power plants and more investments in clean energy and the fossil fuel industry, like oil and gas.

"We would need every available resource that we could get our hands on to make sure that we had enough power to keep everything kind of running smoothly,” she said.

Lehigh University

McCormick: Pa. an 'energy Mecca'

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick is one of the state's top elected leaders. He believes Pennsylvania's energy resources position the commonwealth to compete in the burgeoning industry, but he also acknowledges there are some challenges.

McCormick hosted the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on July 15. The event brought together global leaders in energy, AI, major investors, and government officials to showcase the state’s potential to power the AI revolution, according to McCormick's website.

During the summit, McCormick and many of the global leaders said they would make more than $90 billion in investments in the commonwealth. Blackstone announced a $25 billion investment in data center and energy infrastructure development in Northeast Pennsylvania, along with a new joint venture with PPL Corporation for power generation.

On Dec. 4, McCormick participated in Lehigh University’s Compelling Perspectives series to discuss positioning Pennsylvania as a leader in artificial intelligence, which is stored in data centers.

"But you really almost can't say the AI revolution without saying the energy revolution. There are different sides of the same point," he said. "You can't have AI leadership without the energy leadership. And that's one of the reasons that innovation needs to happen across energy as well to meet this growing demand.”

During the discussion, McCormick said the country is facing the next industrial revolution.

"But on steroids,” he said. “I think it's the most important thing that's going to happen in the lifetimes of everybody in this room. That's how big it is. And there are lots of things we have to figure out, because moments of huge change are disruptive. So I'm worried about energy prices. I'm really worried about energy prices for consumers. It's a big deal for people who are living paycheck to paycheck. I'm really worried about job loss. Really worried about job loss.”

He believes Pennsylvania is “uniquely blessed” compared to the rest of the country.

"So if a Martian landed in America and could pick any state in the country, of 50 states, to be the AI energy Mecca, I think it'd be Pennsylvania,” he said.

Lehigh senior Julie Wright asked McCormick what “mechanisms” are in place to ensure that Pennsylvanians want AI investments.

"First of all, stepping back again, AI and the energy revolution is happening,” he said. “The question is, how do you want to participate in this moment of enormous change? Do you want to be a leader? Do you want to be at the forefront? Do you want to be someone who is sort of following? There's a legitimate question. I think the reason we want to do this is the reason I said before, which is, I think it's going to bring prosperity and opportunity to the most Pennsylvanians.”

McCormick, who grew up in Bloomsburg, called it an area with rolling fields.

“I don't really think I'm going to love looking out the window of my farmhouse and seeing three city blocks full of data centers,” he said. “That's not going to be great. There's questions around water usage, which I think can be handled … and there's questions around like electricity prices. So I think it's very legitimate that some people, maybe all the people, say, ‘listen, we don't want that, we don't want that in our community. And there's local zoning with county commissioners, and each area gets to review this and make their decisions.”

On Jan. 12, the senator’s wife, Dina Powell McCormick, joined Meta’s management team as president and vice chairman.

The appointment came as the social media company launched an initiative called Meta Compute to manage its data center growth plans.

"Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Powell McCormick, a veteran of two presidential administrations and the Republican National Committee, will help guide Meta's "overall strategy, including the execution of multi-billion-dollar investments," according to the Associated Press.

Taking property for power

Zola, who is vehemently opposed to the line, said PPL plans to use eminent domain to expand the line through his property.

"Those words right there are terrifying," he said. "You wouldn't think in this country someone could come along and take your property against your will, right?”

The company's official position is that it prefers to negotiate with landowners first, but will use eminent domain if needed.

Eminent domain, which has long been used in the United States, is the legal power of government agencies, utilities, and other organizations to take private property for public use. The law gives public utility companies the power to take private property for public projects.

"So they have no regard for the property owners besides the many, many health effects and dangers of that line being there,” he said. “It’s going to make my property valueless, really. And we have a beautiful property. I'm not boasting, but it's a beautiful place.”

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that property owners be given “just compensation.”

PPL's FAQ page for the project says the company will negotiate in good faith and compensate property owners at fair market value when acquiring easement rights.

The utility says “our first choice is always to negotiate and reach an amicable settlement" with property owners.

"If we have not reached an agreement with a property owner from whom we need to acquire right-of-way, we will file an application with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission seeking authorization to use eminent domain," it adds.

Before constructing any transmission lines in Pennsylvania, a utility company needs the approval of the Public Utilities Commission. PPL has not submitted its request yet, but has previously said its application will seek authorization to use eminent domain, in which PPL will pay the estimated just compensation as determined by the certified appraiser’s fair market value analysis report.

The company added that no one will be displaced by the project.

Doreen Cherenyock

Alliance to Stop the Line

After finding out about the transmission line, Zola formed the Alliance to Stop the Line. The focus evolved.

“Our fight now is not only with the line, it’s with the data center,” Zola said.

For Cherenyock, construction of the Humboldt Industrial Park Data Center Campus was just the beginning.

"My anxiety was through the roof, sleepless nights … heavy equipment, I have pictures, and I have videos of it going on 24 hours a day, cutting, blasting,” she said.

Cherenyock’s husband, Joe, built the house in 1996. The home is secluded at the top of the Sugarloaf Valley, up a winding gravel road. She said they never needed curtains. But then the lights started glaring into the living room at night.

"We had to put them up,” she said of the curtains.

Stahl said that NorthPoint acknowledges that, during early site work for Project Hazelnut, the company did not always meet the standard that it should to be a good neighbor.

"Construction is inherently disruptive, but we should have taken steps to minimize potential impacts such as sound, lighting and worksite-related disruptions. We apologize for that," he said.

The residents fighting the line and the data centers advocate for transparency when it comes to data center development.

"We've had enough. We had enough of the political people not doing their jobs by just standing up for their constituents … there's too much backdoor deals that are not benefiting anybody, but that person getting that kickback in their pocket,” Cherenyock said.

Zola feels like there is a place for data centers — on the acres of mine-scarred land in the Hazleton area.

The Humboldt Industrial Park, where Hazlenut is being built, was developed on former mine land. Other proposed data centers are not.

Zola said he’s told politicians across the spectrum, including U.S. senators, that he feels location matters.

"I've told them, you're wondering why you're getting so much pushback. It's because you're putting these things in the wrong places, like right these need to be put far away from where people live,” he said.

The residents in Luzerne County, like Zola and Cherenyock, and across the region are not giving up their fight. Some have hired an attorney to represent them, Cherenyock said.

"This is the wonderful thing about it. It is bringing people together, but for the wrong reasons," she said.

I wish we could be gathering together to be celebrating something wonderful, and maybe … down the road a little bit, we will be," Cherenyock added.

"I will never give up my hope that this will come to a good resolution, and the people with the money will realize their money isn't going to buy them everything,” she said.

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