AI data center expected to be a boon to region
Everyone wins. Ratepayers win. Labor wins. The environment wins. Connecticut wins. That is the single most important outcome when considering the development of the hyper scale AI data center located next to the Millstone nuclear power plant.
First, consider ratepayers. The state collects mandated fees on any electricity sold in Connecticut. The data center would pay fees of more than $1.15 billion over 30 years. That is all new revenue for Connecticut, meets more than a third of the state of Connecticut clean energy contract, and would reduce the burden on ratepayers (see the last two lines your monthly bill). In addition, the data center would separately pay an additional $63 million into the Energy Assistance Fund, delivering even more benefits to the ratepayers.
Second, consider jobs. Construction itself will drive more than 6 million hours of work for a wide swath of tradespeople. Connecticut trade unions have already signed agreements with the developers. After completion, the data center will directly support hundreds of jobs because of required maintenance and regular replacement of the servers, in addition to 200 full-time high-wage jobs. The direct employment will support as many as 10,000 additional jobs through the supply chain and increased aggregate demand flowing into the state’s economy.
Third, consider the environment. It is critical that we transition to clean energy. Nuclear is a critical component of that equation. This would be the first ever virtually clean data center in America. Equally important, there are benefits to constructing a large electric user near a generating station to prevent congestion on the transmission network.
Fourth, consider Connecticut. The state itself would benefit directly, saving millions of dollars as it migrates its data processing to this facility at a 27.5% discount on a 30-year contract. Beyond that, the state would benefit from new income tax revenues. And these benefits do not include a projection of the likely colocation effects that the development of this AI data center would drive: AI is rapidly becoming the single most powerful driver of economic growth. Businesses often need to be close to the data centers that provide the critical processing. Connecticut, suffering from 35 years of stagnation, is now enjoying a strong recovery in jobs and business creation. The Waterford AI data center would sustain and expand that recovery; it promises to deliver a much more competitive economy.
There are misplaced concerns about the ability of the electrical grid to support this scale of development. Currently, the regional, multi-state grid (ISO-NE) has 28,500 MWS of capacity; of that, in winter, 52% has remained available for sale at peak demand; in summer, at the peak, 25% remains available. The grid will also soon gain significant additional capacity, with 404 projects in the queue, adding 41,000 MWS, far more than doubling the current capacity. To that, immense new battery storage, solar and wind assets are in the queue. We have a strong, resilient, and growing electrical capacity that supports the grid; there ought to be no realistic concerns on this front.
We now live in a world in which future economic growth will be driven in significant measure by AI, a truly revolutionary development only in its infancy. The questions before us are quite simple. Who will lead the AI revolution? Will Connecticut be one of the leaders? AI data centers will be developed in many locations and in many countries. Connecticut has the opportunity to grasp a leading role in this exciting new, powerful development, restoring its historical role as a national leader and finally resetting its economy after failing to address the importance of the development of the internet in the early 1990s.
The bottom line: the Waterford AI data center delivers serious, long-term wins for every stakeholder, every citizen. Ratepayers win, Labor wins, the environment wins, Connecticut wins. The High-performance Compute AI data center will put us on a path to a better tomorrow.