State briefing

Pennsylvania: data centers & your electric bill

The numbers residents cite at hearings — grid, water, and regulator contacts for Pennsylvania, from the free GridWatch toolkit.

Subscribe by RSS — moratorium changes and community headlines for Pennsylvania.

98tracked data center facilities
2.5 TWhestimated annual DC electricity
21.6¢residential rate per kWh
310grid gCO₂/kWh · water stress: low

As of July 2026 · changes over months · Source: U.S. Data Center Power Map by State — ElectricChoice.com compilation (updated July 2026; CC-BY 4.0). Underlying load research: LBNL 2024 US Data Center Energy Usage Report; rates: EIA

Facility counts vary by directory because each one draws the boundary differently — DataCenterMap lists 44 in Alabama where this table says 35, since it counts small network rooms alongside hyperscale campuses. Cite the TWh figure rather than the facility count when you can; it is the number that speaks to grid impact. Underlying load research is LBNL-2001637 (Dec 2024).

Your regulator

Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissionwebsite · file a complaint

Official state energy data: EIA Pennsylvania electricity profile — generation, prices, and consumption from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Pushback already happening in Pennsylvania

WhereLevelStatusNoteSource
OlyphantLocalEnacted6-month moratorium on new data center development, 4-3. Triggered a wave of similar actions across Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Chester countiesSource
read 2026-08-13
East Whiteland TownshipLocalEnacted180-day moratorium — board declared parts of data center zoning 'substantively invalid' and launched curative amendment. Developer Green Fig withdrew 1.7M sq ft application in May after sustained public oppositionSource
read 2026-08-13
PennsylvaniaStateProposedSB 1345 — would allow municipalities to impose 18-month moratoriums. Passed Senate Rules & Exec Nominations Committee 13-4. Three competing state bills range from 180 days to 3 years. Not yet enactedSource
read 2026-08-13

As of August 2026 · changes weekly — re-check before citing

Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.

Known data center campuses in Pennsylvania

OperatorLocationTenantFiling LLC
Amazon (AWS)Luzerne County (Salem Twp.)Amazon (AWS)Vadata, Inc. — AWS's build/operating entity on many permits
Amazon (AWS)Falls Township (Bucks Co.)Amazon (AWS)Vadata, Inc. — AWS's build/operating entity on many permits
CoreWeaveLancasterMostly TENANT in partners' buildings: Core Scientific, Chirisa/Bulk, Flexential, Lincoln, TierPoint, Digital Realty, DataBank, Switch, Galaxy, Applied Digital

⏳ No verification date recorded · changes over months · Source: Operator ownership & filing-LLC naming patterns — compiled from operator releases and county filings, then checked against SEC EDGAR full-text search. Composite, not a single citation: look the entity up yourself before naming it in a filing

Each row carries its own attribution level — first-party rows come from the operator's own site, but colocation and REIT ownership was compiled from trade press and never passed an independent fact-check. Check the attribution column before citing a row.

Every data center already built in Pennsylvania

The campuses above are the ones GridWatch tracks by operator and filing LLC. For the full inventory — street addresses of every existing facility, including the smaller colocation and network sites — DataCenterMap keeps a public directory for Pennsylvania.

Browse the Pennsylvania directory →

Two caveats before you cite it at a hearing: it lists facilities that already exist, so a newly proposed campus will not appear; and it counts a small network room the same as a hyperscale campus, so the facility count is not a measure of power draw or community impact.

Latest Pennsylvania data center news

All Pennsylvania news → Live news search →

State municipal league: Pennsylvania Municipal League

A data center was proposed near you?

The free toolkit walks you through it in five steps: who's really behind the LLC, what it costs your community, what to do this week, and a downloadable action pack — speech, letters, flyer, and CBA targets included.

Start here → The health risks, sourced