South Carolina: data centers & your electric bill
The numbers residents cite at hearings — grid, water, and regulator contacts for South Carolina, from the free GridWatch toolkit.
Subscribe by RSS — moratorium changes and community headlines for South Carolina.
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
Public Service Commission of South Carolina — website · file a complaint
Official state energy data: EIA South Carolina electricity profile — generation, prices, and consumption from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Pushback already happening in South Carolina
| Where | Level | Status | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newberry County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-07-16 | 12-month moratorium on accepting new data-center permits, confirmed unanimously after the council unanimously denied the 'Project Altair' land-sale ordinance in June. Staff directed to research appropriate locations for future data-center development. | Source read 2026-08-12 |
| Colleton County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-01-07 | 6-month moratorium on special exceptions, conditional-use approvals, and other land-use/development approvals for data centers (Ordinance 26-O-04), adopted unanimously. Planning Commission separately approved a 'digital infrastructure overlay district' text amendment. | Source read 2026-08-12 |
| Spartanburg County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-06-22 | 1-year moratorium (extendable by council vote), no dissent on first reading. Pending ordinance doctrine invoked to halt applications immediately. Exempts previously approved Kohler Plant site project | Source read 2026-08-13 |
| York County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-04-13 | 9-month moratorium in unincorporated areas, final reading. Does NOT affect QTS project near Lake Wylie (vested rights). Studies: rate-making, generators, geothermal/heat, noise | Source 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 South Carolina
| Operator | Location | Tenant | Filing LLC |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Lowcountry (Berkeley Co.) | Land-acquisition shells: Jet Stream LLC, Sharka LLC | ||
| Meta | Aiken | Meta | Codename shells: Greater Kudu, Raven Northbrook, Stadion, Wobniar, Pinnacle Mountain |
⏳ 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 South Carolina
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 South Carolina.
Browse the South Carolina 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 South Carolina data center news
No South Carolina data-center headlines in this week's national scan — local coverage often runs ahead of it.
Search live South Carolina data center news → GridWatch news feed →
State municipal league: Municipal Association of South Carolina
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.