Oregon is a Major Data Center Location Straining the Energy Grid

At a recent webinar, regional transmission authorities said that apart from the problems posed by climate change, the demand for energy by the growing number of data centers is challenging the reliability of the existing electrical grid.

Oregon has 109 Data Centers, with a Further 11 Planned at the Facebook Campus

At present, there are 109 data centers in Oregon. The state is the fifth largest location of data centers in the country. The biggest data center in Oregon is owned by Facebook (Meta Platforms). Its complex in Prineville, Central Oregon, spans 4.6 million square feet.

Besides Facebook, Amazon, Google, X (previously Twitter), and Apple also have huge data centers in eastern Oregon, The Dalles, Prineville, and Hillsboro, all requiring enormous amounts of energy to operate.

Adding further strain to the energy grid will be the construction of an additional 11 data centers at Facebook’s Prineville campus at a cost of a staggering $2 billion.

Meanwhile, Amazon plans to build at least 10 more data centers in eastern Oregon.

Furthermore, a new $950 million data center in Umatilla, eastern Oregon, was announced towards the end of last year. The 100-megawatt data center will be developed on 60 acres within the city boundaries.

Demand is Outstripping Supply

With energy requirements already straining the grid, transmission authorities warn that more data centers will see demand outstripping supply.

The Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, a trade group based in Portland, predicts a 30% growth in energy demands in the region over the next decade, largely because of data center expansion. The estimate is three times the increase predicted three years ago.

Members of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) pointed out to the webinar that it can take as little as 18 months to build a data center, outpacing growth in new electrical energy supply and transmission availability. The WECC is a nonprofit organization that oversees grid connection between 14 western states and parts of Canada and Mexico.

The commission’s vice president of Reliability Planning, Branden Sudduth, says new data centers with large load demands come online quickly and asked how the problem could be solved. Data centers consume substantial amounts of energy for processing and cooling servers.

‘Day Ahead’ Energy Market is Growing

An increasing number of energy utilities in Oregon and Washington have joined a relatively new regional market in which energy is bought and sold by utilities. Prices are set a day ahead, which enables utilities to assess and cope with demand.

Overview

While utilities are recommending an expansion of electrical grids, future planning has not considered the emergence of new technology and resources such as green hydrogen power and offshore wind turbines that could reshape the energy landscape.