Quietly but with massive force New Jersey now has 116 Data Centers in 34 cities.
Secaucus 24, Piscataway 15, Newark 13, Clifton 8, North Bergen 5, Franklin Township 4, Weehawken Township 4, Weehawken 3, Jersey City 3 Piscataway Township 3, Edison 3, Hackensack 3. Totowa 2, Hanove 2, Carlstadt 2, Carteret 2, Matawan 2, Vineland 2, South Brunswick Township 1, Hightstown 1, Parsippany-Troy Hills 1, Union City 1, Bridgewater Township 1. Trenton 1, Wall Township 1, Franklin 1, Jefferson 1, Merchantville 1, Sea Girt 1, Newark 1, Ridgefield 1, West New York 1, Orange1, Jackson 1
Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation Thursday requiring data centers to report their water and energy use to state energy regulators every six months, touting it as a highlight of her plan to “hold data centers accountable.” Sherrill, a Democrat who pledged months ago to seek limits on data center construction, said during a bill signing ceremony in South Brunswick that she will not “let these developers operate in the shadows.” “New Jerseyans deserve to know how much water and electricity the data centers coming into their community will use. Data center companies often treat their usage statistics like a trade secret,” she said. Data center critics have said their mammoth power needs are behind rising electric rates. Sherrill pledged during her campaign for governor last year to freeze those rates for New Jerseyans. The law requires operators to disclose total energy consumption, energy used for cooling and IT equipment, peak daily water use, water sources, and backup power supplies to the state Board of Public Utilities twice a year. Bill sponsor Sen. Teresa Ruiz said the reporting requirement should be “the start of an ongoing public record” rather than a one-time disclosure. That data would be summarized for public release, but a provision of the law limits how much of that information could be released to the public under the state Open Public Records Act.
That is like reporting body counts annually after battles. There is no demand a priori, just after the fact. And worse it is by the State BPU, an entity almost always aligned with those they regulate! Try and get anything done as a citizen, I have, no such luck.
Just "knowing" well after the fact how much is used is useless! The cow and all the other animals have left the barn. Such an action clearly shows the naive experience of this Governor.
The Law allegedly states:
“Data center” means a facility: (1) whose primary services are the storage, management, and processing of digital data; and (2) that is used to house computer and network systems, including associated components such as servers, network equipment and appliances, telecommunications, and data storage systems, systems for monitoring and managing infrastructure performance, Internet-related equipment and services, data communications connections, environmental controls, fire protection systems, and security systems and services.
No later than six months after the effective date of this section, or, for a data center that has been in operation for at least one year as of the effective date of this section, no later than three months after the effective date of this section, and on a semi-annual basis thereafter, the owner or operator of a data center in the State shall prepare and submit a water and energy usage report to the Board of Public Utilities that contains the following information, at a minimum:
(1) basic information relating to the data center, including: (a) the name of the data center; (b) the owner or operator of the data center; (c) the address of the data center; and (d) the month and year that the data center commenced operation; (2) information related to energy and water usage at the data center, including: (a) the total energy consumption in kilowatt hours, including the use of electricity, fuels, and other energy sources used for cooling; (b) the name of the electric 1public1 utility serving the data center and any electric service agreements between the electric 1public1 utility and the data center; (c) all on-site power supplies, including any primary power on site and emergency backup power supply and any permit information such as permit numbers, capacity, tier level, fuel type, total permitted emissions for the data center, and any other relevant information; (d) the total energy consumption of information technology equipment in kilowatt hours measured as the value of the combined annual energy consumption at every uninterruptible power system connected to information technology equipment
This is useless. Totally and completely. The numbers should/must be presented in advance, and reported against projections monthly, made readily available and reviewed, with substantial fines for failure to adhere.
It is clear from this useless legislation that it is but a sop written most likely by those in the pockets of these people. There is clearly no benefit to the rate payers, the citizens and those who have elected these somewhat useless legislators.
I remind the reader that companies like JCP&L have networks which have been failing every week to ten days. Also as a regulated entity their profit is dominate by a return on investment. The new investment is amortized over the existing rate payers rather than the new Data Center players. We subscribers must not in any way subsidize these entities. That can only be assured by a priori certitude and a posteriori penalties!
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